Oak Class - Mrs West

Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to the class page for Oak Class!

Over the coming weeks we will be writing to tell you about our class and all the exciting learning opportunities that we will experience. You will be able to see pictures of us participating in lessons and enjoying creative tasks. 

We are a very enthusiastic, hard working and fun loving class! We enjoy each day learning and communicating with our friends. We are lucky to have our Learning Support Assistants called Mrs Page, Mr Thorne and Miss Knowles who help us with so many things!

Oak Class is taught in Classroom 3 where we have our own toilet, handwashing facilities and coat pegs. Sometimes we play on the field and sometimes we play in the playground. We love playing on the pirate ship and the tower with all our friends! 

Resources adorn the display boards which help us with our Maths, English and Phonics. 

PE lessons are on Tuesday and Wednesdays. Please can you help us to make sure that our PE kit is in school on these days. It would be very helpful if all of our PE kit and our school clothes were named as this will help us when we have lost any items of clothing! 

A Day in Oak Class:

08.40am -  09.00am: Early Morning work and Register

09.00am -  09.30am: Phonics

09.30am - 09.45am: Assembly 

09.45am - 10.45am: English (one lesson of Science) 

10.45am - 11.00am: Morning Break

11.00am - 12.00 noon: Maths (one lesson of Computing) 

12.00 noon - 13.00pm: Lunch Time

13.00pm - 15.00pm: RE, History, Geography, PE, Music, French, Art, DT and PSHE 

15.00pm: Home Time

On Thursday afternoon we learn French! This term we are learning the French vocabulary for colours and simple greetings. We will also be learning to count in French up to 100 during Year 1. We enjoy learning through song and we use the online resources of 'Zim, Zam, Zoum' and 2French on Purple Mash.

We are very enthusiastic during Computing lessons on Fridays. We are learning to draw, add text, animate and add sound to our work. We are learning all about simple coding. (algorithms and debugging) and we have started our lessons with E-Safety. This is vital to understand how to keep safe online. Sometimes we use Computing to enhance our learning in a cross curricular way where we may complete English, History or Maths on our learning platform of Purple Mash.

In our English lessons this half-term, we are learning about familiar stories with repeating patterns, poetry, non-fiction books, instructions and recounts. On Thursdays we visit the Library to choose a book to borrow; please help us to remember our book ready to change the following week! In Maths we are learning Place Value which includes knowing number bonds to 10 and beyond, simple addition and subtraction using Part Whole Models and the many different ways that we can represent numbers.We will learn simple grouping and  sorting, 1 more and 1 less than a given number. We will learn how to use a number line effectively and understand new vocabulary: fewer, more, same, greater than, less than, equal to and compare.  We will be working hard and learning lots of new concepts!

In Geography we are looking forward to being 'Street Detectives' by learning about our local area and soon we are going to develop our map reading skills. As we learn to be Scientists, we are learning about 'Animals including Humans'  staring with the human body. After 'Exploring' in Year R, we have much to discover in Art and Design! We are developing the key skills including: Drawing, Painting, Collage, Sculpture, Printing, Textiles and Digital Art whilst linking our ideas to the curriculum and a variety of Artists.

We work so hard all week that Friday afternoon is Golden Time! We all choose an activity and have the chance to play with our friends. 

Soon we will begin our Homework  tasks. On Tuesdays we will bring home Spelling words to learn for a simple Spelling Sentence dictation on the following Monday. On Wednesdays we will bring home our green Phonics Homework book. Phonics activities will enable us to consolidate new Phase 5 GPCS and alternative sounds. Phonics homework should be returned to school on Monday.

On Fridays, we will bring home Little Wandle Phonics and White Rose Maths home learning resources. These will support us at home with our learning from school during the week. These worksheets do not need to be returned to school but if kept safely, they can be a useful reference throughout the year especially as we approach the Phonics Screening Check which takes place in the Summer.

We are hoping that you will enjoy a wonderful Year 1 'journey' with us! À bientôt!

Mrs West, Mrs Page, Mr Thorne, Miss Knowles and the children of Oak Class