Year 1
History - Remembrance Workshop with the RAF Museum
We were so lucky to take part in an online workshop with staff from the RAF Museum. It was a fantastic way to start our new history topic. The children were able to answer and ask questions over our video call where we learnt lots about what the word ‘remembrance’ means.
Culture and Heritage Week - Sharing Our Own Cultural Heritage
What a fabulous day we have had celebrating our home cultures! All of the children came dressed in clothes celebrating their own cultural heritage and were so proud to share this with their classmates. We used objects from home to create a suitcase of belonging depicting every culture within our classroom, and even tried some food kindly donated by our families. We made flags of nations within our cultural heritage and some of us also shared our home learning projects that we had brought into school.
Culture and Heritage Week - Exploring England and the King
As part of our learning about England, the country where we all live now, we focussed upon King Charles and his coronation. We watched a video of the coronation and talked about the meaning of the word. The children were all amazed that King Charles was 73 when he became King! Afterwards we worked as a class to re-enact this special occasion. We held a ceremony where the archbishop crowned the new King and Queen, had a parade using flags we had made, performed a traditional country dance and had a tea party with red, white and blue biscuits we had decorated and scones with jam and cream. What a super morning!
Culture and Heritage Week - Exploring Diwali
As our heritage and culture week came to a close, Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed learning about the festival of Diwali. After learning about how Hindus celebrate this festival, they took part in lots of fun activities to extend their learning. This included painting Henna patterns on their arms using facepaint, beautifully colouring rangoli patterns and trying on some special clothes that Hindus might wear when they celebrate Diwali. They then worked as a class to prepare their own presentation to tell Reception what they had found out. Year 1 all thoroughly enjoyed sharing their learning with them using loud, clear voices.
Culture and Heritage Week - Traditional Music and Country Dancing
As part of our week exploring our culture and heritage we explored some of the amazing musical traditions associated with England. We watched extracts from The Last Night of the Proms, clapping in time to the pulse of different pieces of music. We then extended this by listening to 'Pomp and Circumstance' whilst waving union jack flags we had made and bouncing balloons on a large sheet of lycra allowing us to feel the pulse in a different way. We also explored some traditional English songs that we are familiar with, learning this amazing country dance to 'The Grand Old Duke of York'.
English - Exploring the Life Cycle of an Owl
As a stimulus for our writing we worked together as a class to recreate the life cycle of an owl outdoors. The children pretended to be owls, first using their calls to find a mate. We then used sticks and branches to build a giant nest - what amazing team work! The Mummy Owl then laid some eggs inside the nest. We were so excited when some baby owlets emerged from the eggs. We worked together to help the Mummy and Daddy Owl take care of their young. The children were so amazing at feeding and looking after them that they soon grew bigger and became fledglings. We watched carefully as the Mummy and Daddy owls taught them how to fly so they could leave the nest and start the cycle again. Back in the classroom, we used the photographs we had taken to create our own diagram of the life cycle of an owl producing some super writing from this first-hand experience. What superstars you are Year 1!
Geography - Exploring Our Local Area
Year 1 have been amazing geographers this half term whilst exploring our topic about our local area. We went on a walk around Beeston, spotting key features and following a route on a map. On our way we visited the postbox to post a letter to our own house to further our learning around addresses. We created some brilliant line maps back at school depicting some of the features of our local area. The children then thought about features of Beeston that are further away from our school, using Google Earth and OS maps to help us. We used this information to plan our own 3D messy map of Beeston which we constructed in our classroom using junk modelling resources. I have been so impressed with the knowledge and skills displayed by all of our amazing geographers this half term. Well done Year 1!
A Gruffalo Wonder Day at Skelton Grange - 24.09.2025
Comparing Numbers
In our maths lessons we have been developing our skills to compare numbers using the mathematical symbols <, > and =. We played a game where we spun a spinner and built a tower using that many cubes. We then compared our towers with a partner and use lollypop sticks to make the correct symbol.
Exploring the Geography of our School
Year 1 have been working so hard in their Geography lessons exploring the Geography of our school. We have practised using directional language such as forwards, backwards, left and right to plan routes for our 'mini mes' to walk to different features of the KS1 playground. We then applied these skills to follow clues to go on a Gruffalo treasure hunt around our school. This involved following a route on a map to find the different characters before plotting their locations on our map of school. What fantastic geographers you are Year 1!
The Gruffalo's Birthday Party
Wow, what a super day we had celebrating the Gruffalo's Birthday. We began the day by reading 'Happy Birthday, Gruffalo' and felt inspired. We decided that every birthday needs a party and thought carefully about how we could prepare. Over the course of the morning, the children wrote some amazing invitations for the special guests, they wrote tags to add to the Gruffalo's gifts, helped to wrap presents, and made 'owl nests'. In provision, some children also chose to make cards, medals and cake sculptures for the Gruffalo. During the party, we gave the Gruffalo his gifts and added our tags, we played party games whilst listening to the Gruffalo song, sang Happy Birthday to the Gruffalo and enjoyed a Gruffalo feast. What a lovely way to end our Gruffalo topic. I was so impressed by your hard work and independence in creating some wonderful Gruffalo work. Well done, Year 1!
The Gruffalo's Birthday Party
Clay Sculptures
In our RE lessons, we have been learning about God's creation. We have heard the story and we know what happens on each day, as well as how God said "It is good." We know that God made everything and that our beautiful world is a special gift from God. In today's lesson the children were asked to reflect on one thing in the world that makes them say "wow". Then, we used coloured pencils to draw our design before making our clay sculpture. The children have worked really hard on these and had lots of fun too! Well done, Year 1!
Clay Sculptures
Gruffalo Crumble
After spending time reading our focus text, The Gruffalo, we decided to make some Gruffalo crumble. We had a think about what could go in our crumble and had some great ideas - orange eyes, poisonous warts, purple prickles, terrible tusks and black tongues. We wrote some superb lists and Mrs Coldman tried her best to buy the ingredients at Asda! We then made our Gruffalo crumble and enjoyed eating it together whilst watching The Gruffalo - What a treat!
Gruffalo Crumble
Labelling the Body
Following our first science lesson where the children worked together as a class to identify different parts of their bodies using given labels, today they drew and labelled their own bodies. Mrs Coldman modelled how to draw around a friend, then the children all helped by adding their own labels to the body. After, the children used mirrors to draw and label their faces. For their challenge, the children worked in pairs independently to draw around each other and add labels to the body parts they know. A super science lesson, well done everyone!
Labelling the Body
Our first day in Year 1
Year 1 - Wow! What a super day we have had together. You all came into school with happy faces, lots of enthusiasm and a brilliant attitude. You all listened so carefully and followed each of our class rules beautifully. It was lovely to observe you spending time with your friends and exploring your new classroom. You have all worked so hard today and settled in incredibly well. We are so proud of you all. What a wonderful start to the year.
Parents, we hope enjoy sharing these photographs with your children and finding out all about their routines and activities in Year 1. Thank you for sending them to school so prepared. They are a set of stars who are definitely ready for Year 1.
Our first day in Year 1
Our Wonderful Year 1 Classroom
Welcome to Year 1
A huge welcome back to a new school year. We hope you have had a wonderful summer holiday and we are really looking forward to getting to know your children and working in partnership with you. We know that we will have a year filled with fun, creativity and adventure. This year, each child will develop their independence and imagination through the exciting discovery of knowledge across the curriculum. We know that you are an outgoing, energetic class who are so eager to develop your knowledge further. We have already planned so many exciting opportunities for our first half-term, including a school trip and a special visitor! We love bringing learning alive through as many first hand experiences as possible in Year 1.
A few things to note:
- PE will be on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please come in PE kits on these days. Please make sure your uniforms and PE kits are labelled, so you don’t lose them.
- Reading books will be changed each Thursday.
- Please send your child's reading book in to school every day as we have volunteers who listen to the children read.
- Our Meet the Teacher meeting will be on Wednesday, 3rd September at 3:15pm.
- Check our half-termly newsletters (with key dates) in the Year 1 class page.
To help your child get off to the best start in Year 1, please make sure you:
- Listen to your child read their school reading book every night. Please record this in your child’s diary.
- Share lots of stories together.
- Arrive at school on time, ready for the school day.
Mrs Coldman & Mrs Capaldi