Year 1

Welcome to Year 1

Mrs Ndisi, Mrs Walker, Mrs Good

Autumn 2

Toys through time

Our theme this half term continues to be “Toys through time”. This half term we’ll be discovering what schools were like in the past and learning about the history of one of our favourite toys, Lego. Through our Art lessons, we will be exploring the style of Andy Warhol as we have a go at paint printing. We will also be thinking carefully about size, shape, form and texture when we use clay to create models of Victorian toys.  

Core Skills

In Core Skills this half term, the whole school will be focussing on ‘Developing independence and responsibility’.

In Year One we will be trying particularly hard to:

1) Identify different ways to care for things in our environment

2) Select from various resources to help ourselves in our learning.

English

In English this half term we will be enjoying lots of different stories based around our theme of toys and our key texts will be ‘Dogger’ and ‘Traction Man’. We will be writing setting and character descriptions, developing our use of adjectives. We will be exploring character feelings and practise sequencing and retelling stories. We will also learn about the features of an advert and a letter before we have a go at using these in our own writing. Throughout all of these, we will continue to practise using our phonics to help us spell and letter formation in our writing. We will be remembering to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops as we say our sentences out loud before writing them down.

Phonics and Spelling

In Phonics and Spelling sessions this half term we will begin exploring the Phase 5 sounds. We will generally cover 3 new sounds per week and will spend lots of time shared reading and writing words with these sounds in. We will then apply our new phonic knowledge into our independent writing. Alongside our new sounds, we will also be learning how to read and spell the Phase 4 and 5 tricky words whilst continuously revising the tricky words of Phases 2 and 3 too.

Maths

In Maths this half term we will be covering three maths units. We will start off by looking at ‘Numbers to 20’ and during this unit we will be counting forwards and backwards to 20 from any given numbers, reading and writing numerals and words to 20, representing numbers in different ways and using the correct language to describe and explain the relationship between numbers. We will then move on to ‘Addition and subtraction within 20’, during which we will be representing and using number bonds within 20, exploring different calculation strategies and solving problems. Our third Maths unit will be ‘Time’ and we will be telling the time to the hour and half past the hour and practising language relating to days of the week and months of the year.

Science

In Science this half term we will be covering the unit “Using our senses”. We will be identifying, naming and comparing parts of the body. We will explore our 5 senses and learn which of our body parts are responsible for each sense and we will investigate how we use our senses to find out about the world around us.

P.E. and Forest School

PE this half term will be on Mondays. 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, their green school jumper or cardigan and trainers.

Forest School will be on Thursdays. Children should come to school dressed in their Forest School kit which consists of – black jogging bottoms (not leggings), a plain white polo top or a plain white round neck t-shirt, their green school jumper or cardigan and trainers. Children should also have their wellies in a named plastic bag in school at all times. Children need to wear a hooded, waterproof, warm coat as they will be going out in all weather. As the weather gets colder children may also require hat, scarf and gloves.

Every item of uniform and kit needs to be named please and all children should have the necessary kit in school on these days to ensure they do not miss out on important learning.

Reading

Reading books will be changed every Monday and children will bring 2 books home at a time. Our expectation is that children read at least 3 times a week with an adult. They should use the reading questions and reading activity grid to develop their comprehension skills and extend their reading experiences. There are copies of these at the top of this class page and also in your child's reading folder. 

Reading records will be checked once a week and those children who have read 3 times that week will receive a special Class Dojo point for reading. Please do jot down any reading at all that children are doing into their reading records so that we can reward their fantastic efforts.

Homework

Weekly letters and any materials needed for home learning will be put onto the class page on a Friday. 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.

Reading – At least 3 times a week with an adult along with discussion using the question bookmark at the top of this class page or in your child's reading folder. An optional extra is the completion of a chosen activity from the reading activities grid also at the top of this class page or in your child's reading folder. Where children are struggling with certain sounds or certain tricky words then please practise these using the sound mat and tricky word mat sent home.

Spelling – It is an expectation that children can not only read but also spell the tricky words and common exception words by the end of Year 1. A list of these words can be found at the top of this class page under ‘Resources for homework’. We will continually work on these as a class in school but as children are all at different levels of confidence with this, please practise spelling the particular words that your child is not yet secure with. We would recommend tackling 3 new words each week but then going back over words from previous week’s to ensure children don’t forget what they’ve learnt. There are lots of ideas of different ways to do this in the ‘Multi-sensory ways to learn spellings’ booklet which is at the top of this class page and in your child's reading folder.

Maths – ‘Maths with Parents’ tasks will be set online on a Friday. The tasks will run over 2 weeks each. This learning will be matched with what we have been doing in our Maths lessons in school and children who complete their Maths homework will receive a special certificate to reward their efforts.

Show and Tell

Show and Tell will be on Monday mornings and the children will take it in turns each week. We will write which group’s turn it is on the weekly letter every week and we ask that you please keep an eye out for this so that your child does not miss the opportunity to have their turn. Due to Covid times, we cannot allow children to bring things in from home but we would welcome a photo sent via message on Class Dojo. We will then display the photo on the screen for the class to see and for your child to tell us about. Please could we remind everyone that Show and Tell is a speaking and listening exercise and if children choose to share something with us then it needs to be linked to an area of our learning and they should be ready to talk about their item and answer one or two questions about it too. Achievements from outside of school, such as dancing, football, gymnastics awards are always welcome too.

Working together with you

To help us maintain a positive home-school partnership, we ask that you please:

-Read all correspondence including the class weekly letter and school newsletter – all available on the class page or on the website

-Ensure that we have up to date contact details and be reachable at all times – phone, email etc

-Promote and encourage the children’s independence and sense of responsibility at home

-Support your child with their homework every week

Thank you for your support

If you have any questions about any of the information above, or about your child’s learning and progress, I am always happy to chat at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to chat at the beginning of the day as I cannot leave the children unsupervised in the classroom. If after school doesn’t work for you then please do make an appointment with the office and I’d be glad to speak with you another time. Please don’t use the reading records to write messages in as we only check these on a Monday and therefore may not see your message for quite some time.

Useful 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

Useful 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

Children's individual log-ins for 'Times Table Rock Stars' were sent home in their home learning packs and they should be able to use these details for 'Numbots' too. 

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

Children's individual log-ins for 'Spelling Shed' have been emailed out to you all and individual log-ins for 'Teach Your Monster to Read' were handed out at TLC meetings. For 'Phonics Play' use Username: march20 and Password: home for free access. 

Other Learning Links:

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

Whole school log-in details for 'Discovery Education - Espresso' were written in the home learning letter from Mrs Davidson. 

Useful 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.'

Useful resources for explaining and discussing Covid-19: