Spring 1

Lost and Found

We will start the new term by looking at the book 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers. The children will make predictions about the text, retell the story using different drama techniques, create story maps and innovate new versions of the story to include a different animal. 

When we arrived in the classroom on the first day back we found some mysterious, snowy footprints. We also found a penguin, a suitcase and a rowing boat. Together we thought of some questions to ask the penguin. 

Next we looked at the front cover of the book. The children made predictions to say what they thought the book would be about. After reading the story the children answered some questions by writing in full sentences. 

We thought carefully about the characters and the children completed a role on the wall activity so that we could write character profiles.

The children than made a checklist of the features of the story. They then used a story map to orally retell the story to a partner, making sure that they told the events in the right order and used key vocabulary.

The children then made some changes to the original story and created a new story map to show this innovation. They then shared their new story with a partner. 

Non-chronological reports

We watched a David Attenborough film all about penguins to start our next topic. The children answered reading comprehension questions about a penguin text and identified the features of a non-chronological report.

Next the children chose an animal that they wanted to research. We used iPads, fact cards and the Internet to find out information about these animals. The children made a spider diagram of facts. We then worked over several days to put this information into a non-chronological report.

Spring 2

Instructions

To start this half term Year 1 have been learning all about 'Instructions'. The children began their new unit by listening to and following verbal instructions carefully to make a pirate hat.

Peter Rabbit

One morning the children arrived in the classroom to find some mysterious footprints and half-eaten carrots! They made some interesting predictions as to who might have left them...

The next day we found a lovely blue jacket on a scarecrow frame - who does it belong to? 

Eventually we discovered that it was Peter Rabbit who had visited our classroom! The children were very excited. We made predictions about the story and wrote down our ideas about what we wanted to find out about the characters.

The children have read extracts from the what we have read of the story so far. They then participated in 'book talk' activities with a partner or in small groups. Everybody shared lots of ideas and used evidence from the text to support them! 

We have also started looking at dictionaries and how they can help us learn about new words. The children picked words out of vocabulary jars and talked about what they mean with a partner.

The children changed the main character to another animal such as a badger, mouse, fox and made a new story map to show this. The children worked with a partner to verbally rehearse their new story. You can see these photographs and videos on Tapestry!  The children then used their story maps to write their new stories.