Welcome to Year 1

Mrs Clarke, Mrs Walker and Mrs Wareham.

Spring 1

Wonderful Warwick!

This half term we will have a History focus as we look at the history on our doorstep with our theme 'Wonderful Warwick'. We will start off our learning by considering the different sources of information historians have to use to find out about the past, including photos, artefacts, written accounts and more. We will then become historians ourselves as we focus on our county town of Warwick and use different sources to find out about its history. We will use our historical enquiry skills of asking and answering questions and making comparisons between the past and present day. We will also practise ordering chronologically and create our own timelines too.  We will enrich our learning with a trip to Warwick Castle to find out how people lived in the past. 

English 

In English this half term we will be reading a variety of texts including 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' by Judith Kerr and 'The Fox and the Star' by Coralie Bickford-Smith. We will also be exploring some non-fiction texts to support our History and Science themes. We will immerse the children in lots of book talk where we discuss the texts. We will notice features of the text, discuss the types of language used, make predictions, write descriptions, discuss the characters' feelings and more. The children will complete both guided and independent writing tasks linked to the texts we read. We will continue to work on letter formation and core sentence writing skills e.g. using a capital letter, finger space, full stop and our phonics to help us spell.

Our daily Little Wandle phonics sessions and 3 reading sessions a week continue to underpin all of our English learning.

Maths

In Maths this half term we will be covering two different Maths units. We will start off with a unit about Time where we will look at the months of the year and the days of the week.  We will be reading a clock using o clock and half past.   After this we will cover ‘Numbers to 50’ as we represent, sequence and compare 2-digit numbers within 50, practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and investigate number patterns.

Science

In Science this half term our focus unit will be 'Looking at animals'. We will learn about a variety of familiar and less familiar animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. We will identify and name them, describe their physical features, find out what they eat and explore how they move before making comparisons between them. We will be using our scientific enquiry skills of grouping and classifying.

RE

In RE this half term children will explore the question “Where do people turn for guidance in life?” They learn that people are guided in different ways, including through thinking carefully about right and wrong, shared values such as kindness and fairness, and religious beliefs. Children are introduced to non‑religious worldviews like Humanism, as well as religious traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism, learning about sacred texts such as the Bible, Qur’an, Torah and Guru Granth Sahib. The unit also explores shared ideas like the Golden Rule and beliefs about angels as guides or messengers.

Art

In art this half term our focus will be on ‘Sculpture’ and ‘Collage’.   Our focus artist will be Darrell Wakelam and we will be exploring key characteristics of his work before trying to replicate his style in our very own pieces.

PE

PE this half term will be on Wednesday and Friday. The focus of these lessons will be on Dance and Netball. On both Wednesday and Friday, children should come to school dressed in their PE kit which consists of – plain black bottoms, a plain white polo top or a plain white round neck t-shirt, their green school jumper or cardigan and trainers. 

Computing

In Computing this half term we will start with a Pictograms unit in which the children will understand that data can be represented in the form of a picture and they will contribute to make a class pictogram. We will then move onto a Lego Builders unit and the children will follow and create simple instructions on the computer.

PSHE

In PSHE this half term our unit will be 'Dreams and Goals’. We will begin by identifying our own strengths and setting ourselves goals to work on. We will then identify the steps we need to take to achieve our goals and reflect on how we each work best. After this, we will focus on ways to work well with a partner and celebrate our joint achievements. Next, we will reflect on how we feel when faced with a new challenge and find ways to tackle any obstacles we come across. Towards the end of the unit we will focus on the importance of celebrating all successes, big or small.

Reading

Reading books need to be brought to school to be changed on Thursday please. Children will bring home their Little Wandle book, a phonics reading book and a library sharing book.

Our expectation is that children read at least 3 times a week with an adult. Reading records will be checked every week. Please do jot down any reading at all that children are doing into their reading records so that we can reward their fantastic efforts.

Home learning

Home learning books will be sent home on Friday to be returned to school on Wednesday and will have a focus on Maths, handwriting and spellings.

Websites to practise key skills at home:

Maths Links:

Use the following links to practise these key Year 1 number skills:

- Counting in 2s, 5s and 10s up to 100

- Recognising odd and even numbers

- Finding 1 more and 1 less than a given number

- Partitioning 2 digit numbers into tens and ones

- Number bonds and facts to 10 and 20

- Finding doubles up to 10 and finding halves from 20

English Links:

Use the following links to practise these key Year 1 reading and writing skills:

- Segmenting and blending all sounds

- Breaking longer words into syllables to read them

- Reading contracted words (I'm, don't, can't etc)

- Reading and spelling tricky words and common exception words

- Forming capital and lowercase letters correctly

- Writing sentences with capital letters, finger spaces and full stops

- Extending sentences using 'and' and other conjunctions (but, so, because, then, with)

- Developing sentences by adding adjectives and using different sentence openers

Other Learning Links:

Use the following links to practise knowledge and skills from other areas of the curriculum:

Activities to practise key skills at home:

                     Representing Numbers                 Maths                        Quick Maths

                                              Phonics              Common Exception Words               SPaG

                     Daily Online Activities         Maths and English Ideas          Practical Ideas

                                   KS1 Maths Games                     Year 1 Number Games

Resources from SEND Supported:

We work with a company called SEND Supported at school and they are releasing newsletters each week offering support and guidance to parents of children who many have additional needs in school. Please find below a link to these newsletters:

There are also lots of other resources and information available on their website. The 'Things to do Issue 2 - Resources' file has some lovely activities for all children regardless of whether they have additional needs or not. There are lots of great visual puzzles and games for children to play so please have a look if you can. There are also resources available now to support with developing children's memory skills in 'Thing to do Issue 3 - Resources.'