Year 1

Central idea: The weather can affect how people live. 

It has been an exciting start to Module 3! This module we are exploring how the weather can affect how people live. We have begun Line of Inquiry 1, exploring different types of weather.

This week, we put on our meteorologist hats and became weather experts. We kept a weather record, carefully observing changes in the weather and recording our findings. We also explored a variety of objects on our tables, using our detective skills to decide what type of weather we might see each object in.
“We wear sunglasses in the sun to protect our eyes.”
“We wear a scarf in the snow to keep us warm. It is cold when it snows.”
“We hear thunder when it is stormy and it does lightning in the sky too.”

We have been creating season wheels, exploring which seasons we might see particular types of weather.
“It snows in winter because it gets cold and it has to be cold to snow.”
“It is hot in summer and it is so sunny.”

In writing, we have been using our knowledge of adjectives and nouns to describe the journey that The Snail and the Whale went on, experiencing many types of weather and climates along the way.
“I can say that they went through the rough sea. It was rough because there was a storm.”
“I will say they saw beautiful soft sand when they went past the beach.”
“We use adjectives because it tells us what the thing is like, it describes it!”

We also reflected on how the characters might be feeling in the story and created our own freeze frames to show a particular scene. We thought carefully about how to use our bodies, as we cannot use our voices in a freeze frame.
“I will be the bird, you can be the snail. I will point to the sky to tell you to go higher.”
“I will be the whale and I will put my legs out so they look like a tail.”

In maths, we have continued to explore our number bonds to 10. Using this knowledge, we have begun learning about part–whole models and identifying missing parts. We used counters to help us.
“The whole is 5. The part is 3. The missing part is 2!”
We then explored this further by writing number sentences.
“We start with the whole. 5 subtract 3 equals 2.”

We are all very excited to continue our learning, and many of us are especially keen to begin creating our climates in a shoebox. Please ensure your child brings a shoebox into school ready for this exciting project.