St Joseph'sCatholic Primary & Nursery School
Year 1 / Year 2
Welcome to Year 1/2
Mr Fisher
Welcome to Mr Fisher's Class!
This Year we will be supported by Mrs Cook and Miss Cooper.
Below is some key information that you might find useful.
Our Summer Term Topics are
'What is a monarch?'
and
'What is it like to live in Shanghai?'
In our Humanities lessons the children will learn to…
- Recall that a monarch is a king or queen.
- Identify some of the monarch’s roles.
- Explain that a king or queen is crowned in a special ceremony called a coronation.
- Name some of the main steps in the coronation ceremony.
- Use sources to explain how William the Conqueror became King of England.
- Explain how William the Conqueror kept order and conquered England.
- Explain how castles have changed over time.
- Identify that the power of monarchs has changed over time.
- Make comparisons between past and present monarchies.
- Give examples of human and physical features.
- Identify features they see on a walk.
- Explain the location of features using some directional language.
- Use an aerial photograph to locate physical and human features.
- Draw simple pictures or symbols on a sketch map.
- Draw compass points.
- Name the continent they live in.
- Use an atlas to locate the UK and China on a world map.
- Use an atlas to locate Europe and Asia on a world map.
- Identify China’s physical and human geography.
- Sort physical and human features using photographs.
- Identify physical and human features in images of Shanghai.
- Compare Shanghai to their locality.
- Identify similarities and differences between human and physical features.
Our science work will focus on :
Year 1
(Plants)
The children will learn to:
- Identify and name common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees. - Identify the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees.
Year 2
(Plants)
The children will learn to:
- Observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants.
- Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy
Homework
Weekly Homework Choice Grid
Children to complete 1 activity from the Homework Choice Grid below.
Homework can be recorded using writing, pictures, drawings etc. appropriate to the task.
Each task can only be completed once.
Books will be collected in on a Friday.
Spellings
WE ARE CURRENTLY NOT SENDING SPELLINGS HOME FOR THE CHILDREN TO LEARN.
Share a story journal
Every week on a Friday, one child from the class will bring home the 'Share a story journal'. This is a further opportunity for you to read with your child while enjoying a nice cup of 'hot chocolate' (provided by the school). If it is your turn to complete the journal, we ask that it is returned on the Monday so that teachers have a chance to look over any work that has been completed.
PE
PE will be on a Wednesday (Tennis) and a Friday (Games). Please ensure your child has the correct kit (including daps or trainers that fit) as we will be going outside.
Reading Books
We are continuing to improve children's reading fluency and comprehension. Please continue to hear your child read as often as possible and use the question based bookmarks to support this process. We encourage children to change reading books as regularly as possible. Please ensure you record any reading that takes place at home with a simple comment inside the small blue book (Reading Record). Finished books can be placed inside the classroom crate on a daily basis but they will not be changed unless the reading record has been written in.
Over the course of the term I will continue to update this class page with all the different things that are going on in Year 1/2.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me on the contact details below:
mfisher@sjbos.thedcet.com
Best wishes
Mr Fisher 
HOMEWORK CHOICE GRID
SPELLINGS (No new spellings for Year 1 and 2 until after Christmas)
BRILLIANT BOOK LISTS
Science - After a few weeks of watching our caterpillars eat, grow and spin a chrysalis. This week there was great excitement in the classroom as the butterflies emerged. Today it was time to release them into the wild!
DT - Today the children had fun testing structures and their stability.
DT - In DT we have been building towers and looking at stability.
DT - In DT we have been looking at structures and how they balance. We had fun performing some balances of our own!
EASTER BONNET PARADE 2026
Geography - Sorting pictures to compare the UK with Kenya.
RE - The children have been thinking about how Good Friday is celebrated across the World. In Antigua and El Salvador on Good Friday many people decorate the streets of the city with ‘Alfombras’ which are carpets made from coloured sawdust, sand or salt in patterns or pictures. We worked in pairs to create some ‘Alfombras’ of our own.
WORLD BOOK DAY FUN! We started the day with a World Book Day Assembly lead by Mrs Lamb before heading to hear our secret story read by different members of staff in the school. Back in the classroom we drew a front cover of our favourite book, drew book character selfies, made bookmarks and decorated gingerbread men! In the afternoon we were visited by Mr Franklin's class where we had the chance to share a book we had brought in from home. What a busy day!
Celebrating Children's Mental Health Week! The children took part in some mindful colouring this afternoon while listening to some peaceful music! Great for the mind and a super way to end the term!
Computing - Safer Internet Day - Today the children have been looking at AI and the use of voice assistance (what it can do and what it can't do)
Art - In Art over the last couple of weeks we have been creating a collage. Today we used the felt tip pens and pastel crayons to add some final detail to our work.
National Story Telling Week - Today all the Key Stage 1 children participated in an interactive workshop with author, musician, actress and former primary school teacher Annemarie Anang.
Music - Today the children had great fun using the glockenspiels to play the chorus of 'The Rainbow Song.'
CHRISTMAS 2025 - Today the children made some fabulous Christmas cards!
CHRISTMAS 2025 - A few pictures of the Children's Christmas Dinner and some of the Nativity.
Geography - The children have been using directional language to follow instructions and move a beanbag around their bodies. They used an Atlas and a map of the UK (along with directional language) to describe the position of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in relation to each other.
RE - Today the Year 1 children have been using stick puppets to retell the Christmas story.
RE - We made a class Advent Wreath by drawing around our hands and cutting out the hand shape!
Art - We continued our 3D work this week and made some amazing 3D spiders. Now you wouldn't want to meet one of them on a dark night!
PSHE (JIGSAW) - Over the last couple of weeks in JIGSAW we have been thinking about how we are all different. We have been celebrating the fact that no two of us are the same! We created characters, adding a new item of clothing each week. The characters were an illustration that no two of us are the same and that it's ok to be different and unique.
English - The children imagined they were 'Jack' from the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. They wrote letters to the Giant to say sorry for stealing his hen and today we walked to the post box to post our letters home!
Geography - Today we have been looking at what a 'feature' is. As a 'warm-up' activity we looked at the different features that we might find around our classroom (the doors, the windows, the tables, the cupboard and shelves etc.). We thought about what a map of our classroom would look like and drew it on a small white board, making sure we included all the different features around us.
Science - The children have been looking at materials (tin foil, cling film, cloth, newspaper) that would be good for mending the hole in an umbrella! Today we had some practical fun handling the materials and testing them in a bowl of water before completing the investigation next week!
Maths - This week the children have been enjoying participating in Maths Week. Each day the children completed a daily Maths puzzle that tested out their mathematical skills!
Science - The children have been looking at a range of objects and predicting whether they will be magnetic or not. They tested each object with a magnet before recording their results in a table.
RE - To celebrate our Jubilee Year entitled 'Pilgrims of Hope,' the children have been creating 'bunting' to use as part of a display.
Art - In Art the children have been learning to shape paper to make a 3D drawing. There objective was to create a 'Tree of Life' and the whole class did not disappoint with some brilliant creations.
Computing - This morning we used the Chrome Books. For the Year 1 children this was the first time they have used this resource and they had to log on with their own' Username' and 'Password' before accessing the site we were using for the lesson. Needless to say, the Year 2 children did not disappoint and had remembered the logging on process and were off and running with the task almost immediately! Great job everyone!!
PSHE - Anti-Bullying Week - This week we have thinking about the topic of 'bullying'. We ended the week listening to an assembly delivered by Mr Fisher all about what bullying is and ways that we can combat it! The theme of the assembly was 'Power for Good' and it was all about using the power of kindness as apposed to being unkind to others! Back in the classroom we thought about our own super powers and designed super heroes! We gave them names and wrote about their super powers!
Pantomime Fun!
Science - Before Half Term in Science the children were incredibly animated using the magnets! For our lesson this week, I decided that rather than asking the class to complete a structured Science lesson, I would let them have some more time exploring how magnets work. For the majority of the children, they have never seen or used one before and there is still a huge amount of curiosity surrounding them. With this in mind, I filled the centre of each table with magnetic material and the children spent the lesson exploring the materials using the magnets. Sometimes you just have to let the children learn through exploration!
RE - In Class this week the Year 1 children have been acting out 'The Annunciation' where we remember the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she was going to have a baby.
Science - In Science the Year 1 children have been looking at the properties of everyday materials and the Year 2 children have been looking at the suitability of everyday materials. Today we watched a Science video all about magnetic metal. We went outside with the magnets and tested different objects in the playground to find out if they were magnetic or not. The year 2 children discussed why the objects were made out of metal.
Art - Some Rangoli art work using the ipads and the Paintz program.
Maths - Today the children have been using the counters to help them write down some fact families using number sentences.
History - We thought about our holiday memories and made a scrapbook to illustrate them.
Art - Copying the design of Clarice Cliff!
Mastery of Number - Using the ten frames to help with our understanding of 'doubles'.
PSHE - To celebrate World Mental Health Day the children have been thinking about what makes them feel happy. They drew pictures to illustrate their ideas.
Computing - Today the childen have been using the ipads and the painting program PaintZ to create their own picture using the 'paint brush' tool and 'flood fill' tool to help with colouring.
Maths - Using the numicon to practice ordering numbers biggest to smallest and vice versa!
PE - Year 1 Multi-Skills fun!
Year 1 Mastery of Number - Today we were using the rekenreks to help with our understanding of 1 more and 1 less than a number.
English - Today the children followed instructions and made jam sandwiches with the Year 2 children also writing key notes to help them remember the key parts of each instruction. Messy but fun!
Science - Squashy, bendy, stretchy stuff!! The children had an opportunity to handle a range of objects (paper clips, sponge balls, envelopes, old socks and rulers). They have been learning about the properties of materials and whether they can be changed in shape by processes such as squashing, bending or stretching. This was a practical activity with the children recording their findings on a worksheet.
National Poetry Day 2025
RE - The Year 1 children created a zig zag book illustrating 'The Creed'.
History - We interviewed Mrs Cook asking her questions about what her holidays were like.
Art - Colour printing!
English - Live Stream of Julia Donaldson sharing her new book 'Paper Chase'. The children listened to her reading the story before being talked through how to draw characters from the book using the small white boards.
RE - The Year 1 children went on a walk around the school looking at all of God's wonderful creations. We found conkers!!
History - We have been sequencing and discussing the varying events that take place in a day!
Art - Colour mixing when painting!
NEW YEAR 2025-26