Spring Term 2 Topic – ‘Toy Story’
Context
Who doesn't’t love the Disney Pixar Toy Story trilogy? In each cartoon/book, old friends come back to visit, new friends are met, and some nasty villains vanquished. A familiar setting (home) and the characters are the children's own toys! So many possibilities to enhance our learning …
Feedback
‘Toy Story’ was an amazing Topic for Year 1! We enjoyed reading the story, describing characters and comparing settings. We used in our writing ‘wow’ words like ‘majestic’, ‘splendid’ or ‘spectacular’. Learning about the history of toys was an exciting adventure as well. We looked at old and modern toys and we found out interesting facts about teddy bears. But we didn’t stop here! We started to use these history skills to perform interesting Science experiments! Mixing water with oil? What is going to happen? Just ask us and we will be happy to tell you! In the meantime, we are taking Buzz Lightyear’s advice: ‘To infinity... and beyond!’. So, to the next Topic, please!
Summer Term 1 Topic – ‘The Beach’
Context
Every day, Mr Grinling, the lighthouse keeper, cleans and polishes his light to make sure it shines brightly at night. At lunchtime he tucks into a delicious and well-deserved lunch, prepared by his wife. But Mr Grinling isn't the only one who enjoys the tasty food. Will Mrs Grinling think of a way to stop the greedy seagulls from stealing the lighthouse keeper's lunch? – This story is wonderful, funny and heart-warming. It is a suspenseful page-turning book for children of all ages. The language is lovely and descriptive and has lots of exciting opportunities to work on interesting vocabulary! Also, the children will learn to look at a problem as a challenge and then find a variety of possible solutions to solve it.
Feedback
We really enjoyed this Topic! The fun we had impersonating an industrious Mr Grinling, a truly ingenious Mrs Grinling or the three pesky seagulls from “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch” story! We wrote fantastic descriptions using the amazing vocabulary from this excellent story: ‘sound plan’, ‘concocting’, ‘perched’, ‘appetising’, ‘scrumptious’, ‘superb’, ‘expectant’. Reading this book together gave us the opportunity to enjoy exploring the text until all its secrets were unveiled. A delightful trip to the seaside completed our Topic and gave us the opportunity to expand our learning about the environment. We spotted different types of gulls, collected shells and found out useful information about the lifeboat search and rescue service. A great job, Year 1!
Summer Term 2 Topic – ‘Robots’
Context
This Topic teaches the basics of the robot world, offering robot information covering everything from artificial intelligence to robot mechanics and robots in industries such as car manufacturing, medical support, etc. We will also look at algorithms, how they are implemented as programs on different devices and how to create and debug simple programs by following precise and unambiguous instructions. We will find out how important is to follow safety rules and instructions using some Robot Stories. The high-tech tales from the book “Stories of Robots” by Russell Punter will show us how robots can cause mayhem if we do not follow the instructions to use them in a thoughtful way. These stories will help us to understand as well that we need to use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly.
PE
Our PE lessons are on Monday with Mr McCarthy and on Friday with Mrs Orasanu or Mr Prentice. Children are expected to have their PE kits in school at all times. Please ensure that children have an inside and outside kit as the weather is getting colder.
Reading
Please try to hear your children read daily and record it in their reading record book. It is important to check that, as well as becoming more fluent, the children understand what they are reading, especially as they begin to read longer and more complex books. This can be done by discussing the book afterwards, or during reading. Talk about the characters, setting or main events.
It is important that your child has their reading record in school every day as we are encouraging them to talk to us about the reading they do at home. We have reading time every day, and during the course of the week, children will read independently, with a partner or group and with an adult.
Spellings
They are based on spelling patterns that we have investigated in class and a selection of common exception words. The children should be encouraged to look at the way the pattern fits into the word to help them remember it (a table was attached to the first page of the HomeLearning Books).
Spellings are best worked on little and often: 5 or 10 minutes every day is more beneficial than one long session. It is also very helpful if you can encourage your child to apply the spellings in context by writing a few sentences using these words and, of course, using new or unfamiliar words in conversation.
Snacks
Here at St Luke's we encourage all students to make healthy choices, and promote healthy learning and education. As such, students are provided a free healthy school snack every day for play time. Students may bring in their own snacks, so long as it is a healthy substitute (e.g fruit, vegetables, fruit-based granola bars etc.) This also means that fizzy drinks or sugary juices are not permitted. Only water should be brought to school in your child’s bottle.
Our Home Learning activities for this half term reflect our topic and can be found below.