Friday 17th October

Dear Parents,

We hope everyone had a lovely end to Succot. 

In Phonics this week, we learnt aw (fawn on the lawn) and we read words such as awful, saw and claw. We also reviewed all the graphemes that we have been learning by reading and writing words and sentences containing these graphemes.

In Maths we have been looking at fact families and finding out how to write different number sentences from a given fact. For example, 4 + 3  = 7. We can also say:

3+ 4 = 7       7= 3 + 4             7 = 4 + 3

We have also been finding bonds to numbers within 10. These are 2 numbers that, when added, equal a given number.  (For example, number bonds to 7  are  0 and 7, 1 and 6,  2 and 5, 3 and 4)

In English, we discussed different emotions that we can have and then linked it to our book. We discussed the different emotions that the bear had throughout the book. 

Our Science for this half term is based on Seasonal Changes and much of this is learnt through the work in Forest School. However, this week, as there was no Forest School, we took the opportunity to discuss some of the changes that we see in Autumn. 

Today we went to the school library for the first time. The children had the opportunity to choose a library book to bring home, if they wanted to. In most cases, these are books that the children will not be able to read themselves. We would encourage you to read the book with your child to share a love for books and reading. Please bring the library books back next Friday. 

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom,

The Year 1 Team

Friday 10th October

Dear Parents,

Chag Sameach to everyone! It has been so lovely celebrating Succot together in school over the past couple of days and we look forward to continuing on Monday. The children had a wonderful time today visiting the Lily’s succah. Thank you to Mr and Mrs Eman for hosting us. We also went to visit the shul succah yesterday. We spoke about our 5 senses and which parts of our body we would use for each of the senses. The children thought about these in relation to the succah. We then wrote sentences, for example, I can see the decorations or I can smell the etrog.

In Maths we have been doing more work on splitting numbers into parts and wholes. The children have learnt how to put this information into a part-whole model and write number sentences.

In Phonics we have learnt ir (a quirky shirt) and ue (true, the sky’s blue). We practised writing words with these graphemes, as well as others that we have learning recently. 

Please can we also remind you that there is no Forest School next Thursday, 16th October.  

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

The Year 1 Team

Friday 3rd October 2025

Dear Parents,

Over the last few weeks the children have learnt some new sounds: ea (each have a treat), ie (pie on your tie), ay (play all day), ou (a proud cloud) and oy (a boy cried ahoy). Feel free to review these with your child at home. 

*New to Year 1* -  Each week the child who is nominated to attend the tea party will be invited to be the line leader the following week. They will also be asked to bring three of their favourite story books from home which will be read aloud to the class by the teacher the following week. We hope this will add some excitement to the tea party invitee and to create some motivation for the children to want to be nominated.

Books we read this week:

• Dino Duckling by Alison Murray
• A Watermelon in the Sukkah by Sylvia Rouss and Shannan Rouss
• Chicken’s can’t see in the dark by Kristyna Litten

In Maths this week we have been comparing numbers and putting numbers in order. We have also begun looking at whole numbers and how we split the number into 2 parts. For example, 5 can be split into 3 and 2. We used the language of parts and whole. 

Please note that there will be no Forest School on Thursday 16th October. 

Shabbat Shalom,

The Year 1 Team

Friday 26th September 2025

Dear Parents,

Wishing you all a Shana Tova! It was a special week for everyone and the children enjoyed the build up at school to Rosh Hashanah.

This week in English the children focused on writing. We wrote a sentence or two related to a picture from Mighty Writer and the the children wrote about their Rosh Hashanah. They were encouraged to use a capital letter to start the sentence and a full stop at the end of their sentences. We also thought about adding adjectives to our writing. These are symobolised by a yellow star on Mighty Writer and it is a visual way for the children to think about this concept.

In Maths this week we have been focusing on comparing numbers, using vocabulary such as more than, greater than, less than, fewer than and equal to. The children were introduced to the signs to show more than and less than and they created their own maths sentences. For example, 4<10 and 12>5. During our computing lesson, the children enjoyed using iPads to play a maths game which helped with number formation practice. We would recommend  using the website Topmarks. The game is called Number of the Day and we have posted the link below. 

In Phonics we have been reviewing the graphemes ‘ay’ as in ‘play’, ‘ou’ as in ‘cloud’ and ‘ie’ as in ‘tie’. We have been practising reading and writing words using these graphemes, as well as reading sentences containing these words. 

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and G’mar Chatima Tova. 

The Year 1 Team.

Friday 19th January 2025

Dear Parents,

It was a wonderful week in Year 1. The children have shown improved listening and instruction following skills. Well done to them!

In English the children discovered that the bear in our book has lost his hat and they worked in groups to think of questions they could ask him about it. The bear came to visit the classroom and the children asked him their questions which included:

• Where did you last see your hat?
• Can I buy or make you a new one?
• What colour is your hat?

The children then wrote a sentence or two about the lost hat and played some drama and role play games pretending to be different animals from the story.

This week in Maths we worked on counting forwards and backwards in ones from numbers between 0 and 20. The children used number fans and one hundred square grids to help them with this. They also spent time practising reading and writing numbers. We looked at finding one more and one less than numbers to 20.

In Jewish Studies, the children enjoyed singing the Aleph Bet song, using flashcards and PowerPoints to practise their letters and they played games to reinforce the letters "hey" and "vav". They were so excited to return their Aleph Champ books and have made a fantastic start. Thank you for supporting their Hebrew Reading. We explored the shofar - where it comes from, how it’s made and the different sounds it makes. The children had lots of fun acting out tekiah, shevarim and teruah. The children also learned about tashlich, thinking carefully about mistakes they want to throw away and good things they will try to do in the new year. They also created their own simanim plates, cutting, sticking and labelling the special Rosh Hashanah foods and explaining why we eat them.

In Geography the children learnt the difference between human and physical features. They were able to identify that trees and the brook in Lyttleton Playing Fields are physical features and that school and the shops in the Market Place are human features.

This week in Art the children reviewed the primary colours and then mixed them to make the secondary colours. They loved guessing what colour they would make and will continue to experiment with these next week.

In Music this week, we once again joined Reception in the EYU for a lovely lesson together. Together with Morah Netta, we sang a Rosh Hashanah song in Hebrew and the Y1 children were able to teach it to Reception!  The children each had instruments and we practised playing them together and then stopping together. The children sang along to the Music Man song with their instruments.

We have started our Computing lessons on a Friday. As we use ipads in school, we began by looking at key apps that are on the ipad e.g. photos, camera and settings. This week, we also talked about different types of technology that we have at home and in school. 

At the Forest School site, the children practised their understanding of how to carry sticks carefully by going on a hunt for short and long sticks and sorting them into different piles. 

Next, the children worked together to find different natural materials to decorate two giant people on the ground. They thought carefully about which objects to use for the eyes, nose, mouth and the rest of the body.

For the rest of the session, children chose activities that interested them. Some children made puppets with sticks and clay. Once they had made them, the children had fun making their puppets talk to each other! Other children took part in a leaf printing activity with Emma. A group of Year 1 children began to make a debris den using fallen wood and it was great to see how their skills have developed since last year. Some children chose to be creative in the mud kitchen and made a charcoal and mud birthday cake for Mr Sumroy. Other children were very curious about a friendly slug and their close observation enabled them to discover its breathing hole! They then decided to build a home for it including a fence of acorns. 

Year 1 finished their session by learning a new movement song which was quite a challenge. There are three levels of difficulty to it and the class managed to get to level 3!

There is no formal homework for the next few weeks due to the chagim. However, we still encourage the children to continue practising their reading. Please note that the children's Google Classroom login details have been stuck into the their yellow reading record books

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova U’metukah. May it be a sweet and healthy year for everyone.

The Year 1 Team

Friday 12th January 2025

Dear Parents,

It was lovely to see so many of you on Tuesday evening.

This week in English we reviewed our letter formation to make our writing neat and clear. We also had fun trying on lots of different hats, thinking about what they are used for, which seasons they might be worn in and how we felt wearing them before writing our own sentences. Finally we looked closely at the front cover of the book we will be reading this half term (without seeing the title) and spotted a bear. We discussed what we could see and imagined what the bear might look like and what kind of personality it might have.

Reminders:

• 50p in bags.
• Reading books should be in bags every day.
• On Wednesdays we are having our music lesson and some free play at the EYU and will be walking there and back. Please ensure children have a coat.

This week in Phonics we reviewed the graphemes taught in Reception. We have attached a document with these graphemes to the blog for your convenience should you wish to review them at home with your child.

This week in Maths we have been practising our counting skills. The children have been representing numbers to 10 in different ways, for example using a ten frame, numcion, their fingers and using number cards. We have also been practising forming our numbers as well as practising reading numbers to ten as words.

In JS this week, we continued learning about Rosh Hashanah and discussed Teshuva and how we want to have more Mitzvot than Aveirot. The children stuck their Mitzvot onto their scales and weighed them down with Mitzvot. In Parasha, we discussed the beautiful mitzvah of Bikurim and the children created lovely baskets of fruit to depict this mitzvah.

This week in Art we learned what the primary colours are and the children enjoyed painting with them to explore how they can be used.
 

In our first Geogroahy lesson this week we discussed the name of the neighbourhood school is in. We reviewed the difference between road names and neighbourhood names and the children shared some landmarks in Hampstead Garden Suburb that they know like Lyttleton Playing Fields, School, the EYU, Bekem’s and the tower of St Jude’s in Central Square. The children then cut and sorted pictures of places in Hampstead Garden Suburb and Central London. While you are out and about this weekend, see if you can point out some local landmarks to your child.

This week Reception Year 1 joined together for Music, which will happening every week at the EYU. The children enjoyed singing call and response songs which focused on their listening and repeating skills. We also sang songs related to Rosh Hashanah. 

Forest School

It was great to see all the Year 1 and Reception children and meet a few new faces. As we sat down a couple of dragonflies flew over to say hello! Emma recapped the Forest School boundaries and the rules we have to keep everybody happy and safe. Then we played the 1,2,3 Where Are You? game to practise the children coming back to our special call to gather everybody together. They had great fun hiding in the woods and running back to find Emma. 

Next the children went on a nature hunt to find and sort different coloured leaves. They were eager to get as many as they could! Some of the children were surprised at the size of some of the lime tree leaves.

The next part of the session was the independent choosing part which we call ‘Forest Fun’ and all the children were very keen to explore and play. The hammocks and slackline were very popular and this provided a good opportunity for children to practise sharing with their peers and taking turns. Some children chose to work with Emma and get creative with clay. Some children manipulated it into a flat circle shape and decorated it with different seeds including acorns and conkers. Some decided to make different creations such as pots. Other children enjoyed sitting in a den with the Forest Friends and looked at some different books about creatures.

Unfortunately, our session was cut short by the weather changing and thunder nearby. The children were excellent at acting quickly to get ready to go back to school with their classes as quickly as possible. 
 

Shabbat Shalom

The Year 1 Team

Dear Parents,

It has been wonderful to welcome all the children back to school this week and into Year 1. They have quickly settled into their new routines, become familiar with their new teachers and are already feeling at home in their classroom environment.

This week, we spent time sharing our holiday news and talking about the ways we are all connected – our likes, our strengths, and what makes each of us special. The children drew pictures of something they like to do and wrote a sentence to go alongside their work. This gave us a lovely insight into their interests.

As part of the schoolwide initiative, we also explored what it means to be a mensch (a good and kind person). In Year 1, we discussed different scenarios and thought carefully about whether the behaviours shown were ‘mensch-like’ or not.

We reviewed our phonic sounds and were very impressed with how much the children remembered! They also enjoyed eating the school lunches, spending time in the playground, and meeting their Year 6 buddies both during playtime and in assembly. Sitting with their buddies in assembly gave them a reassuring start and their buddies were able to show them the place in their siddur during tefillah. The children have also enjoyed singing songs with Mr Sumroy as well as hearing him blow the Shofar everyday.

In our first JS lessons in Year 1, the children looked at all the Aleph Bet letters that they had learned and they then took turns playing Aleph Bet games on the smartboard. The children enjoyed our discussion around the Parasha  (Ki Teitze) where they learned about the Mitzvah of Hashavat Aveidah- returning lost objects. 

To kickstart our English learning, we are going to have a lesson all about HATS. We would love for the children to have the opportunity to try on lots of different hats. Please try to send in a variety of hats (summer, winter, shul, flat caps etc) to school on MONDAY for our English lesson. Please can you ensure that all hats are clearly named so we know who to return them to at the end of the day. Many thanks for your support with this.

We hope the children have been coming home happy and excited and we cannot wait for our first full week together in Year 1.

We look forward to seeing parents at the Meet the Teacher evening on Tuesday. 
 

Shabbat Shalom

The Year 1 Team