Welcome to Year 1

Mrs Clarke, Mrs Cooksley, Mrs Walker, Miss Fallon and Mrs Wareham.

Summer 1

What were holidays like in the past?

This half term we will have a History focus as we ask ‘What were holidays like in the past?’. We will start off by referring back to our learning from Spring 2 and recapping what we already know about seaside holidays in present day before sharing ideas of what we think we know about seaside holidays in the past. We will then use some clues and lots of imagination to take ourselves back to a seaside holiday in the past. We will name and locate the most popular locations for these holidays, discover the method of transport people used to go on these holidays and explore some of the key holiday activities they would take part in. Once we have a sound understanding of seaside holidays in the past we will investigate similarities and differences between the past and the present. We will consolidate our learning by looking at key events in history that changed the way people go on holiday. During this unit we will also continually use and develop our Historical Enquiry Skills of comparing, asking and answering questions, sequencing and using historical vocabulary.

English 

This half term we will be using our class text ‘Clem and Crab’.  We will be writing lots this half term and will be focusing on the key skills to become a confident Year 1 writer.  We will be using adjectives to describe characters and settings, and will be sequencing the events of the book.  We will be writing our own story and we will be learning about crabs.  We will be writing a non chronological report sharing the facts we have found out. 

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 begin with a unit on Fractions.  We will be identifying half of a shape, object or a quantity.   We will continue with identifying a quarter.  We will then continue with learning about length and mass.  We will be comparing lengths and mass of two or more objects and will be learning how to use apparatus to help us.  We will be using standard and non standard units. 

Science

In Science this half term our focus unit will be ‘Plant Detectives. 

In this unit about plants, children will learn to name the basic parts of a plant, including seeds.  They will have the opportunity to plant their own seeds and watch them grow.  Children will also learn to identify, name and describe a variety of garden and evergreen and deciduous trees.  We will also be learning about how fruit and vegetables are grown. 

In addition to the above, we will continue to investigate the seasons and the changes we notice as we move through Spring and into Summer.

RE

In RE this half term our focus religion will be Judaism and our theme will be ‘Shabbat - Sabbath. We will explore the answer to the key question ‘Is Shabbat important to Jewish children?'  The children will be learning about what happens during Shabbat and the special meal they share. 

D&T

In D&T this half term our focus will be on ‘Food’. We will be looking at the different food groups we need for a balanced diet.  We will be tasting some fruits and vegetables.  We will then design a meal and a dessert for a vegetarian.  The children will be taught how to use a range of utensils to make it and then evaluate it against the original criteria.

PE

PE this half term will be on Wednesday and Friday. The focus of these lessons will be on Hockey and Fitness. 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

This half term, we will be supporting the children to be able to log on to Purple Mash independently. 

We will be doing two units this half term.  The first is called Maze Explorers which the children will love!  The second unit will be learning how to animate an e- story book.

PSHE

In PSHE this half term our unit will be ‘Relationships. We will begin by considering families, recognising there are lots of different types of families and identifying members of our own families. We will then move on to thinking about friends, appreciating what it means to be a good friend and explain how we can make new friends. Next, we will explore different types of greetings and decide which ones are appropriate in different situations. After this we will think about who we have in our lives to help us and how we can ask for help when we need it. Finally we will focus on our relationships with ourselves as we identify our individual qualities and find ways to praise ourselves.

Reading

Reading books need to be brought to school to be changed on Wednesday 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 learning.

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.'