To Year 1

with Mrs Faulkner, Mrs Long and Mrs Walker

Summer Term

Who lives in the hot and cold parts of our world?

During this Geography based theme, we will spend our Geography lessons naming and locating the seven continents of the world. We will also name and locate the north pole, south pole and equator on a map and globe before discovering some key differences in the human and physical features of the environment in each. We will identify some of the animals that live in each environment and discover how they’re adapted to survive there. This links into our science learning about animals in a woodland or garden habitat in the UK. We will discuss the positive and negative effects of warmer climates and think about how climate impacts our life choices.

English

In English this term we will be enjoying lots of different stories and some of our key texts will be ‘Lost and found, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ and we will look at a range of non-fiction texts about animals. We will look at The Three Billy Goats Gruff as a traditional tale and notice the key features of this type of texts; particularly the types of characters, settings and story language. The children will continue to build their confidence with writing at length and for different purposes, while mastering the key skills involved in writing sentences. The children will also learn the features of non-fiction (information) texts which will result in them creating a non-fiction book.

Phonics

Please see the weekly letter for the phonics we have been learning. We have the phonics screening check in June which contains alien words. This screening check enables the children to show their phonic ability so regularly listening to your child read and practising the phonemes will support them greatly. It isn’t anything for your child to worry about, it’s undertaken individually in the same way we assess their phonics except that alien words are involved.

Maths

In Maths this term the children will practise skills across these areas:

Numbers 50 to 100 and beyond

Addition and subtraction (Applying strategies and structures)

Money

Multiplication and division

Measures (2): Capacity and volume

Science

In Science we will finish our plants unit and begin a unit focussing on animals. We will be identifying and naming the different animal groups including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish and birds. We will explore key characteristics of each animal group and learn about how they’re adapted to their habitat. We will also be having a trip to Twycross Zoo to further develop and consolidate our learning.

In addition, during the summer term, we will continue to investigate the seasons like we have done through the year. At the beginning of the term we will notice spring changes and then later on in the July we will investigate what summer looks like. During this learning we will be focussing on how the changing seasons affect us and observe and compare the changing seasons by thinking about what we clues we can see and hear that show us the seasons are changing.

PE

PE this half term will be on Wednesdays and Woodland Adventures on Fridays. Children should come to school dressed in their PE kit, which consists of – black jogging bottoms (not leggings), a plain white polo top or a plain white round neck t-shirt, a green school jumper or cardigan and trainers.

Reading

Reading books need to be brought to school every Wednesday please. Reading books will be changed then and children will bring their Little Wandle book and a phonics reading book and a sharing book which they have chosen themselves.

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

Weekly letters and any materials needed for home learning will be sent via email and Learning with Parents. The weekly letter will outline learning for the week ahead, suggest ways to help at home and also give you any messages for that week so please do go online and read it.

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.'