Chestnut Class
Welcome to Chestnut Class' information and blog page. Here you will find general class information and see what we have been up to in our learning
Class teacher | Mrs Kerry |
Support staff | Phase TAs will support in the class throughout the week |
PE days | PE will be on a Monday and a Thursday. Please make sure your child has a PE Kit in school. This needs to simply be a pair of black or navy shorts, a plain white t-shirt and a pair of pumps or trainers for going outside. Black or navy zipped hoodies can also be worn in cold weather.
Children can wear their school kit all day on PE days if they wish - please note they are not permitted to wear other sports clothes. |
Homework | Homework will be set on Google Classrooms. Your child will be sent a homework grid via the school app that has a variety of English, Maths and Topic activities on it for them to complete. They choose to do at least one activity each week (although they can do more!) Your child's username and password will be stuck in their Reading Record Book. Their homework needs to be submitted by Thursday, as I will look at it before Friday and send a certificate home to those children who have completed homework. |
Reading and Times Tables | Our school expectation is that your child reads at least three times a week at home to an adult. This needs to be recorded in your child's reading record and signed by an adult. This record needs to be brought into school every day. We will check this on a Friday and children achieve a reading sticker on their bookmark. Once their bookmark is full they will receive a brand new book to keep as a prize :) If your child needs to change their reading book, they can change it on any day when they go to their Read Write Inc group. Your child will also have access and passwords to Times Table Rockstars and Purple Mash. Their usernames and passwords will be put in their Reading Record Books as soon as we have them all. |
Contact us | If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to speak to us. You can catch us most mornings before school or wait to speak to us after the children have been released to parents/carers at home time.
Or you can contact us via our class email address: chestnut@newmoston.manchester.sch.uk |
We look forward to welcoming the children to Chestnut Class and working together to ensure they are happy and successful in Year 1.
Chestnut Class Information
Art
In art we are exploring sculpture. We have experimented with different techniques to join clay, as well as using natural objects to imprint designs onto clay.
This week we have been concentrating on our mental health.
We have been acting out how we feel with big emotions like anxiety, fear, anger and joy. We have also been using yoga to help our mental health.
Winter to Spring
We went for a walk to the local park to look at the changes that take place as winter becomes spring.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
In English we have been reading the book ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr. We have been having a carpet tea party and using prepositions and conjunctions to tell our partner about what we see and what we are doing. It was lots of fun.
Design and Technology: mechanisms
In DT this half term we are exploring wheels and axels and designing, making and evaluating a toy car that can move across the floor and has bright colours, to fulfil a request from children in reception. To start the process we evaluated existing toy vehicles that have 4 wheels. We evaluated the material they are made of, their function, the intended user, whether they are appealing and their ease of movement.
Easter Disco
We all had fun, dancing away at the Easter Disco.
Design Technology
This term Miss Maynard tasked us with designing an appealing box to hold a special egg in her office. We made prototypes of the box, evaluating it to make sure it was strong, stiff and stable.
World Maths Day
To celebrate World Maths Day and to look at real world applications for maths we painted water colour pictures in the style of Paul Klee, using shapes to draw the buildings.
PSHE
In PSHE we have been learning about people whose job it is to help us in the community. We discussed different types of jobs and with our partners we talked about the people who helped us.
We love books
In Chestnut our reading area is growing. We have small books written by children in the class on our reading tree.
Yoga
In Chestnut we have been enjoying doing some yoga to start our day.
Design Technology
In DT this half term, Miss Maynard has requested we design and make a box to hold her special painted egg that will sit in her office. This week we learnt about reinforcing a butt joint with triangular supports as well as safety with saws, before using a saw to practice our safe sawing skills.
World Book Day
we had lots of fun celebrating World Book Day. We wrote our own stories, decorated book marks and talked about our favourite authors.
Where would you rather be-Blackpool or Rio?
We have a focus on Geography this half term and are learning about two places Rio de Janeiro in South America and Blackpool which is in Europe and in the country we live in.
We will learn lots of facts about these places, compare them and ultimately decide where we would rather be!
The knowledge organiser below will tell you more about our learning.
Where would you rather be -Blackpool or Rio?
In geography we have started answering the question about whether we would prefer to be in Blackpool or Rio. To learn more about the areas, we have looked at atlases and Google Earth and learnt that Blackpool is a town in England, in Europe. It is next to the Irish Sea. Pounds and pence is the currency used.
What do we know about our school?
We have a focus on History this half term and are learning about the history of our school-the buildings, what it was like to be a pupil here in the past and how things have changed compared to today.
The knowledge organiser below will tell you more about our learning.
Music
In music we have been playing glockenspiels and learning about the notes C, D and E.
New Moston Acrostic Poem
Together the children in Chestnut class wrote an amazing poem about our school.
Christmas Party Day
We had lots of fun crafting, dancing, playing games, eating party food and even meeting Santa.
Design and Technology
In design and technology we have been designing and making sandwiches. The children drew a cross-sectional diagram following design criteria of a sandwich to share with friends that had a mixed filling and salad ingredients. The children all cut the ingredients, then mixed and spooned them onto their sandwich. They tasted yummy.
Science
We used glitter to conduct an experiment to show how germs are spread. We also tried different things to remove them and found the best thing to wash your hands with is soap and water.
Well done to our wonderful certificate winners for this week.
Attendance Heroes
Well done our attendance heroes
Friendship Week
This week we have been discussing what bullying is and what to do if it happens.
Children in Need
We dressed in our pyjamas to raise money and awareness about Children in Need.
What do we know about our school?
We have a focus on Geography this half term and are learning about our school-it's location, where things are in our school and using maps, compasses and other sources.
The knowledge organiser will tell you more about our learning.
Who is your hero?
We had some heroes talk to us about what they do. We had Miss Maynard discuss how she is not only a headteacher, but also founded a charity that supports homeless people. Firefighter Pete also spoke to us about what he does to help people.
Poetry
We wrote some amazing acrostic poems about crocodiles and performed them to the class.
Addition and Subtraction
In maths we are learning about addition and subtraction. We have been using concrete resources to support our understanding alongside writing addition sentences.
Amazing certificate winners
Plants
In science we have been designing an experiment to explore what plants need to grow. We discussed how to ensure our experiment is fair. We have put planted some cress seeds and put them on the window sill with water, on the window sill without water, in the fridge and in the cupboard as well as placing some seeds on paper towel. Which do you think will grow?
The amazing certificate winners this week.
One more and one less
This week in maths we are looking at one more and one less for numbers within 10. The children have been using concrete resources to help their understanding.
Maths
In maths we have been learning about place value within 10. We have been learning how to sort objects by colour, shape and size.
Welcome Back
We have had lots of fun settling into Year 1 and discovering all the things in our new classroom.
Archive 2022-23
It’s been a pleasure to teach Chestnut class this year. We will miss you all. Have a lovely well deserved break before your exciting adventures in Year 2. Thank you for being amazing.
Mrs Kerry and Miss McKenna
Our fantastic fun day. We had lots of fun getting tattoos, bouncing on inflatables, having a disco, meeting some awesome creatures and eating ice cream!
Amazing certificate winners
Pride Month June 2023
The children have learnt about what the Pride flag represents and why we have Pride month. They then discussed why Pride month is important and the importance of equality and tolerance in today’s society.
Super certificate winners
Our wonderful certificate winners
Today we had a lovely adventure, exploring the different habitats around school and at Moston Brook.
The wonderful certificate winners this week.
Today we all dressed in green for Environment Day. We learnt about different wildlife and how some are vulnerable and others at risk of extinction. The children made little habitat areas for different animals.
This week in DT we have been exploring a range of construction materials to see how bridges are designed.
Our brilliant certificate winners this week. Well done.
We have a new amazing area in our classroom called Writing Island. Children have been using it to make super sentences before writing them in their books. It’s been lots of fun.
In geography we have been learning about compass directions. The children took compasses into the playground and investigated where each of the compass directions (North, East, South and West) are.
Another fun activity we did for National Numeracy Day was making the numbers 1 to 10 with our bodies. Some were a bit tricky but I think they did very well.
For National Numeracy Day we had lots of fun doing some dances and drawing pictures of the jobs we would like or the hobbies we do and how they involve numeracy.
Our amazing certificate winners
Today we had lots of fun celebrating the upcoming coronation of King Charles III. The children enjoyed dressing up and crafting lots of items like bookmarks, collages, coronation plates and coin designs. In the afternoon we got to enjoy jam, sandwiches, cucumber and scones. What an amazing day!
Well done to the certificate winners this week
Today we had an exciting visit from Charlie Conlon who told us all about all the dangers on construction sites.
Well done to our wonderful certificate winners this week.
In maths we have started our new topic on multiplication and division. We have done lots of counting in multiples of 2, 5 and 10.
In science we are learning about animals including humans. We have learnt about what they need to survive and the different life cycles.
Our fantastic certificate winners
We have been learning about measuring mass using balancing scales and comparing objects using the terms heavier, lighter or the same mass. We’ve had lots of fun picking different items to put on the balancing scales.
Well done to the children who got certificates this week
We had lots of fun visiting some recently hatched ducklings. They had been hatched in reception class and seeing them waddle about made us all smile.
This week we had an exciting visit from Miss Maynard and Pippa. We learnt all about caring for pets and the things that animals need. This links to our work in science this term which is all about animals including humans.
We had a brilliant time on World Book Day with some grown ups coming in to read with us. Everyone looked amazing in their outfits,
We have been talking about our favourite books and authors. What’s yours?
We are on our way to filling our pom-pom jar. When we get to 100 we get to come in our pyjamas.
We now have an investigation station in class to help develop our scientific skills.
In maths we are exploring measurement. In class children have been using maths links to measure the length and height of different items.
Our fantastic certificate winners this week. Well done.
Knowledge Organiser Spring 2
This knowledge organiser will give you information on what your child will be learning in their next History based block of learning which is titled: "How have Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela helped to make the world a better place?"
You can also see the books they will be reading linked to this and may want to read these with your child at home.
Spring 2 Homework Grid
Below is the Homework Grid for Spring 2 for your child.
All the instructions and expectations are on the grid.
I can't wait to see what everyone does :)
Well done to our fantastic certificate winners
Our amazing certificate winners
In geography we are learning about the different continents. We have been comparing the continent of Antarctica with our town of New Moston using a venn diagram.
In science we are learning about the features of the different seasons.
In maths we are learning about place value (within 20). In this lesson we are using concrete resources to build stem sentences about which is greater, less than or equal to.
Our amazing certificate winners. Well done.
This half term in science we have been learning about plants, their life cycle and what they need to be healthy and grow,
In English this half term we have been learning about the features of instructions and letters. We wrote instructions about how to plant a bulb and a letter to Santa.
In topic this term we have been learning all about old and new toys. Which do you prefer?
Maths
Congratulations to our wonderful certificate winners
Massive well done to our fantastic certificate winners
Lest we forget
Our topic work for this term on the Great Fire of London.
This weeks brilliant certificate winners. Well done.
Our amazing certificate winners
This week in maths we are starting our addition and subtraction topic. Today we looked at parts and whole using concrete resources.
Our maths and writing superstars. Well done.
We have been learning about place value in maths. We have been matching resources with numerals to deepen learning. We have also been looking at which is greater than, less than or equal to another group.
Well done to our certificate winners this week
Welcome to Chestnut Class
Archive 2021-2022
Disco fever!
This week we had a school disco and danced our hearts out. The children enjoyed dancing the night away and showing off their best dance moves.
Carnival day!
This week we celebrated with ice-cream, popcorn, tattoos and endless amounts of entertainment. The children enjoyed bouncing on the inflatables and laughing along with the entertainer who came to visit.
I hope you all enjoyed celebrating everything that you have achieved this year.
Sports Day!
Here are some photos of the children enjoying sports day!
It was lovely too see everyone getting involved and cheering each other on. Thank you to everyone who came along and we hope that you enjoyed the day as much as we did.
World Maths Day 23/3/22
Today is World Maths Day.
Below are some ideas of activities you can do at home with your child.
We hope you enjoy doing some of them.
Hi Chestnut Class,
Here is your homework grid for Spring 1!
2D Shape Digging
In Chestnut class, we have been learning about 2d shapes. We have been naming them and describing their properties. Today, we did a shape dig where we looked at large shapes, described and named them, then found as many matching shapes as we could in 30 seconds!
What shape names can you remember?
How many sides/vertices does it have?
Are the sides curved or straight?
2D shape digging!
Florence Nightingale
We have begun to learn all about Florence Nightingale. We passed around lots of medical items and a nurse outfit to allow the children to deduce more about who Florence Nightingale was. We had lots of fun using the equipment.
Everyday heroes
We have been learning all about everyday heroes; people who work in jobs that help others. We had some heroes come in and speak to us. We held a Q and A session with Vicky (a paralympian with her guide dog), Craig (a police officer) and John (a local PCSO). We generated thoughtful questions and learned a lot about their jobs.
Google Classroom
We are now putting homework on Google Classroom for the children to complete.
There would also be learning put onto Google Classroom if the school had to shut due to unforeseen circumstances.
There has been an invitation sent for them to accept and join the classroom.
Every child has their e mail address and password which they will need to access the classroom in their reading record book.
I am also attaching a guide to using Google Classroom which will hopefully help you if you are new to this!
If you need any support with this, please contact your child's teacher or me (Mrs Waddell) and one of us can go through this with you.
There are also useful Read, Write, Inc videos for the children to watch to support their learning in school.
Remember: we are here to help!
Mrs Waddell
A helpful guide to Google Classroom!
Biscuit decorating!
Today in Chestnut class, we decorated biscuits using our superhero designs. We incorporated a variety of colours and followed our designs carefully.