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Year 1
Miss Pirie teaches Year 1 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs Eeley teaches Year 1 on Thursday and Friday.
Until the end of June we also have Mr Creed joining us from the University of Gloucestershire. He is in class everyday.
To contact either Miss Pirie or Mrs Eeley, please email apirie@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk or
seeley@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk
Please contact us if you have any questions or worries. We will do our best to answer them as soon as possible.
CLASS NOTICES
- We go outside to play whatever the weather so please bring in waterproofs and wellies.
- PE changes about this term - so please wear PE kit on a Monday and a Wednesday.
- We are swimming Monday 2nd June, 16th June and 23rd June.
- Don’t forget to bring in your reading records every day. On Thursdays we count your reading signatures.
6th May 2025
We've had a lovely start to the term and the children have settled back into class routines beautifully. In Maths, we've been busy exploring multiplication and division, with a focus on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. The children have been working hard to recognise patterns and build confidence with these skills. We've also been continuing our learning about time, practicing how to read clocks and understand different times of the day. In English, we've started our exciting new book- 'The Egg'. The children were full of curiosity, making fantastic predictions about what might be inside the mysterious egg. To their delight, we discovered it was a dragon! This has led to some wonderfully imaginative work as the children are now creating their very own dragons and describing them using a wide range of adjectives. In Art, we've begun exploring lines, shapes and patterns. The children have enjoyed experimenting with different drawing techniques and show their creativity in their sketchbooks.
It's been a fantastic start, and we're looking forward to the rest of the term.
10th April 2025
The end of term is finally here. The children are tired and in need of a rest. We have worked hard right up to the end. We used our DT skills to make our Easter cards and also our chick pegs. The children enjoyed making the peg monsters and asked if they could make another one.
In maths we have continued looking at place value of numbers to 50. We spent a lot of time counting backwards and forwards so that we know what numbers are next to each other. We have also been looking at O’clock.
Our English has tided in with our science learning and we created our own “That’s not my” books where we used the properties of materials to write our descriptions.
Thank you so much to everyone for their kind wishes, cards and gifts. You have been so generous and it meant a lot to me. Leaving wasn’t an easy decision to make but at this moment in time my family’s needs must come first.
I will be keeping in touch with Cashes and look forward to hearing about the children’s successes. Thank you once again.
31st March
The children have been working hard over the last two weeks.
In maths we have been working with numbers up to 50. The children have found this a bit tricky but have tried really hard. We have looked at how in 13, 23, 33,43 just the tens change. We have been looking at numbers before and after a given number.
They have also been learning about time focusing on o'clock. Get them to show you how clever they are at telling the time now.
Our art was creating our Mother's Day cards - we were so proud of their masterpieces, we hope you loved them too.
Our English writing has been focusing on writing sentences using nouns and adjectives and was linked to our history. We wrote descriptions explaining how we know toys are new or old.
Once again they have detectives searching for different mechanisms in the classroom and near by outside. A road sweeper and a a dumper truck happened to drive by to add to their work! They found a wide range of different ones, see if they can find find any around your home.
17th March
We have been busier than ever over the last two weeks. The children have been amazing historians using various historical sources to investigate the differences and similarities between toys they love and toys from the past, including a 90-year-old teddy bear which belongs to Mrs Marsh’s father! The children will share more of their findings in our assembly on Friday – we hope you will be able to join us.
In maths we have continued to work with teen numbers and various ways to subtract these numbers. Get them to show you several methods which we have been using.
In PSHE we have been once again thinking about friendships and how we don’t have to constantly be playing together but will still be friends. We have also looked taking care of things and how we all have responsibilities to help and look after things both at school and at home.
Spring is finally here it seems and in science we have been looking for signs that it has arrived. We looked at bulbs such as snowdrops which have flowered already and daffodils and tulips which have yet to blossom. We looked at primroses which are in bud too.
In English we have been using and adjectives and nouns to describe a setting so we can innovate a new part for our own version of “Lost in the Toy Museum”. We have worked hard to create our own adventure. You will be able to see our finished story on Friday.
We have also been toy makers! In DT we have been looking at mechanisms. We investigated gears, levers, pulleys and linkages. Gears can be found in many places including bicycles, cars and watches. Linkages are the rigid bar between steam engine wheels. We found out how pulleys can help us lift very heavy weights and cranes are a great example of this. Finally we looked at levers which can be found in objects such as wheelbarrows and seesaws.
We used this knowledge of levers to create a greedy peg monster toy. The spring in the peg is the lever point and when you open and close it the monster appears to eat some food. The children worked really hard on their monsters and are looking forward to sharing them.
3 March
Welcome back to the Spring term and hopefully we will continue to have some of this wonderful sunshine!
The children came back last week excited to tackle their new theme. Our book this term is Lost in the Toy Museum. During this we will be looking at toys through the different ages and the history of Steiff bears.
The children painted some amazing pictures of their own favourite toys. They looked really carefully at the details and tried to use our colour mixing skills to create the colours needed for their picture.
Below you will find our theme web which will give you an overview of our learning this term.
14th February
And just like that we have reached the end of term. Time certainly does fly by!
The children have worked really hard and have had great fun.
In science we have been looking at our five senses and carried out experiments linked to each of them. One those involved us tasting some fruit to find out our favourite in preparation for creating a fruit kebab in DT.
We had great fun in geography where we followed a map to walk around Cashes Green. We didn't get lost and saw lots of landmarks which were marked on the key.
In art we continued to look at colour mixing involving the three primary colours. We painted a portrait in the style of Picasso - half of the face was happy and the other half sad. We used colours to emphasis this difference too.
We enjoyed making our fruit kebabs as part of our healthy eating theme. The children loved practising their cooking skills of peeling and chopping. We were able to choose fruit which we liked. We also reminded ourselves of the importance of hand washing and keeping germs away from the food preparation!
We had our last dance session in PE this week. The children have really enjoyed these lessons and have demonstrated a great deal of rhythm when moving.
They have also had their last forest school session for a while and have create lots of wonderful models using clay and natural objects.
Have a lovely half term and we look forward to seeing you back again on Wednesday 26th February.
January 27th
Can you believe we are half way through the term already! Time is whizzing past.
The children have been working really hard in all subjects and having great fun with their learning – especially forest school!
In English we have continued to write sentences linked to Funnybones as well as creating our sentences. We have been looking at plurals and using these in our writing. We read Snowball by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet and used plurals to write our own objects which the snowball collected when it was rolling. We have also been using the computers to draw pictures of the skeletons and to write sentences about our picture.
We have also been using the beebot app and using our computer skills to control the beebots around tracks.
We have continued looking at teen numbers in maths using a number line to help us order numbers. We looked really carefully at the teen numbers and tried to understand that each number has one 10 and a given number of ones. EG 12 has one 10 and 2 ones. Understanding this helps the children see the place value of each number.
We have also been investigating shapes and had great excitement when Mr Barnard also taught a session.
What fun we have had in art, colour mixing using just the primary colours! First of all we created a colour wheel by mixing yellow with blue, yellow with red and blue with red. Secondly we started with one of the primary colours and then created a picture by painting a stripe after adding a small bit of secondary colour, then repeating. This can be seen in the picture below.
In geography we have continued to look at maps and keys. We used the story Funnybones to create our own maps of the story.
In science we have been naming body parts. We also carried out an investigation to see who in the class has the biggest feet. Ask your child to see if they can remember!
We are now moving on to investigating our five senses.
We've been playing lots of listening games in our PE basic skills lessons and have been throwing lots of moves in our dance sessions - both of which we have really enjoyed.
In phonics we have been consolidating our digraphs, in spellings we have looked at past tense and plurals and in maths mastery we have been looking at number bonds.
As you can see we have been really busy!
Happy New Year to you all. We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and are excited, like us, for the new year. Can we also take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for all your cards and presents. It was very kind of you.
Our theme of The Three Little Pigs ended with the children making houses in DT which we then tried to blow down like the Big Bad Wolf. The children wrote their own version of the story of Dear Santa. They did this completely independently using the writing skills they had learnt during the year. We hope you enjoyed their performances in the nativity. The children all tried so hard and looked beautiful.
Our theme this term is based around the book “Funnybones” and ties in to the whole school focus of health and wellbeing. You can find our theme web here.
In maths we have been looking at teen numbers and ensuring that we understand the place value of these numbers. On a Friday we will be looking at shape, space and measure.
In English we have been writing past tense sentences about the characters in the book, focussing especially on verbs. We have continued to try and remember to use our phonic knowledge, capital letters, fingers spaces and full stops.
We had fun in art with primary colours and as a warm up painted a picture in the style of Mondrian.
We also painted a few pictures of the skeletons from our story.
This term we are enjoying dance lessons in PE. We are all very impressive movers!
Science and DT are closely linked this term and we will be looking at the five senses and creating a healthy smoothie.
We have been looking at maps once again in geography and how important a key is. This is leading to us creating a map of the town in our book. We will make up our own key for the features we add to the map.
25th November
Thank you to all of you who came and supported our assembly. It was wonderful to see so many of you. We were so proud of the children. They all tried so hard. It really is an achievement standing up in front of so many people and saying your lines.
In English we have continued to use our knowledge of sentence construction to write sentences connected to the story of the Three Little Pigs. We have been working hard at making our handwriting neater too and forming our letters correctly.
In maths we have once again been using the whole part model to demonstrate our understanding of number bonds. This week we have been rearranging the sentence to have the answer first. Their home work should have demonstrated this for you.
Last week was anti- bullying week and the theme was “Choose Respect”. We thought about all of the different ways in which we could demonstrate respect to people around us.
In history we have been looking once again at a variety of different types of houses and discussed what they might be made from.
In science we have been looking at everyday materials.
In DT we used the knowledge we have of freestanding structures to build walls. We looked at different layouts of bricks to create the strongest wall. We used these walls to protect Humpty Dumpty and we then tested the strength of them by rolling balls to see if we could knock our walls down.
11th November
Welcome back to our new term. We hope you all had a wonderful break; the children have been telling us all about the amazing things they got up to. It was lovely to see you all at parent's evening and to be able to share your child's journey with you.
This term our new book is The Three Little Pigs.
We have immersed ourselves in the story already and the children have enjoyed telling the story using various props within the classroom. Our role play area has been transformed into a construction site and the children look very efficient with their safety glasses and clipboards!
It is our assembly on Friday 15th November and we have been working hard learning songs about the story to sing to you.
In maths we have been looking at the whole part model. This is a way of introducing number bonds and using those facts later for addition and subtraction.
In English we have been orally retelling the story and writing sentences linked to this. The children have been using dictation to work on their skills for sentence construction – capital letter, writing on the line, leaving finger spaces, using their phonic knowledge to have a go at spelling and finally putting a small full stop at the end of their sentence which sits on the line.
During cool time the children have been using their art skills and have produced an Andrew Goldsworthy style mandala using items found in the classroom.
21st October
Can you believe we are almost at the end of our first term? Time is passing so quickly.
We had such a lot of fun at Westonbirt. To practice the skills we have learned in geography the children were given maps of the Gruffalo orienteering trail and really tried hard to use them correctly. They turned the map so they were facing the correct way and then looked for features marked on the map with symbols. For example “X” indicated a bench. We all managed to find The Gruffalo and saw his friends – mouse, snake, owl and fox. The children also had spotter charts to find signs of Autumn and we found almost every item. Ask them and see if they can remember any of the items which we had to find. In science we have been looking at specific deciduous trees and also evergreens. The children were really good at spotting all of these trees.
We have continued working very hard learning our phonics; the last two weeks we have focused on split digraphs. In their lessons the children alternatively squash or stretch the sounds to help them read or spell words. The children then complete a task based on these sounds. Ask them to share their new knowledge.
We have been using our art skills to continue our drawing skills. We observed leaves very carefully and then drew exactly what we could see. The children worked so hard and then end results were shown to Mrs Dawson as they were so impressive.
We also have been looking at the work of Andrew Goldsworthy. He uses a lot of natural objects to create art. We collected many objects at Westonbirt and used them to create our own artwork.
We have also used the natural objects to create animals, trees and also faces showing how we were feeling at that moment in time. This tied in nicely with our PSHE when we have been looking at our feelings and how we can deal with our emotions. We have also been talking about who we can talk to if we are feeling sad, anxious, worried, afraid or just want to share our happiness.
7th October
The weeks are flying past and we are having lots of fun in Year 1. Even the wet weather hasn’t stopped us working both inside and out.
We have been working very hard learning our phonics; it is tricky when we have to decide which sound the digraph might make. The only way, if we are unsure, is to say the word both ways. Ask your child to show you using the digraph ie. The magpie says “igh” where as Albie the Cookie says “ee”. If they are reading words such as lie or cookie they can say the word each way to check the best fit.
In geography we have started looking at maps. The children have learnt that a map looks down upon an area so you would see buildings or trees from up above them. They drew their own maps of the deep, dark woods where the Gruffalo and friends live. Perhaps they could show you by drawing a map of where you live.
In science we used observable features, just like scientists, to group animals. We had to look really closely and identify the differences between them. We then grouped them based on the number of legs they have. We have also looked at how weather affects what we can do. We talked about different activities we can do in the snow, when it’s raining and when the sun is shining.
We have written dictated sentences in English using all our knowledge about what a sentence needs. See if your child can tell you and perhaps even demonstrate these skills. We then wrote our own sentences about the Gruffalo. The children really tried hard to choose the correct sounds to use and thought about the presentation of their work, the size of their letters, correctly formed and if they were sat on the line.
Look at these amazing works of art! We have carried on with our learning to draw journey. We looked at how colours or hues can represent emotions. For example, a beautiful sunset can make you feel happy with the warm red, yellow and orange colours. A grey sea might make you feel sad. We then drew a self portrait in the style of Picasso using colours which expressed our emotions at that particular time.
We have been working on our friendship skills as being part of a team supporting each other is very important. We worked collaboratively to make models. Look at this beautiful garden made by two of the children.
Welcome to Year One
We are delighted to welcome both you and your children to an exciting new year in Year One. This term, we will go on a story adventure with the book "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson. We will listen to fun stories, orally story tell The Gruffalo and do exciting activities. This will help the children get better at reading, encourage them to use their imaginations, and hopefully love books even more. "The Gruffalo" is all about friendship, being brave, and being creative, all important life skills.
Below you can see the theme web which will give you an overview of the learning which the children will undertake over the next few weeks.
The children have made a great start with their learning. In maths we have been looking at place value. The children have been matching numerals to objects as well as number names. They have carried on with this learning during any non directed time. The pictures below show some of the children enjoying their maths.
In English we have been working hard on our phonics and our handwriting. We have written sentences about what creatures we have seen in the books and labelled the parts of the Gruffalo.
We have have been investigating the weather and have started a weather diary. This links to our science work when we have been talking about the seasons. We went for a walk around the school grounds to look at the trees and discover which ones have started changing colour as we enter autumn.
In PSHE we have been thinking about what we would like our learning environment to be like and how we can work together to achieve this, such as listening to our friends when they are talking and looking after all the equipment. We have been thinking about what qualities a good friend has