Year 1 2024 - 2025

Mrs Marshall

Mrs Bailey

Welcome to the Year 1 Homepage!

The Year 1 team are Mrs Marshall, Mrs Bailey, Miss Franklin and Mrs Davies.

Here you will find out everything you need to know about what Year 1 are getting up to in school.

Spring Term

PE DAY: TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS

Please send your children into school in PE kit on Tuesdays (Pat and Andy - multiskills) and Fridays (Mrs Bailey). It is important that earrings are taken out prior to children coming to school unless they have been recently pierced in which case they should be covered with tape before they come to school. This is for everyone's safety.

Thank you.

The term

In English our new book is all about building confidence and self esteem and is set in the African savanna. During this half term, the children will be continuing to work on joining words to make simple sentences using capital letters and a full stop at the end of each sentence. They will be continuing to use the conjuction 'and' to join words but they will also start to use 'and' to join two simple clauses. As always, there will be a real focus on applying their phonic knowledge to their spellings and working on the Year 1 tricky words. In Year 1, everytime we write, we try our best to correctly form our letters and sit them neatly on the line.

Although the children won't be bringing home spellings, they will continue to develop their spelling knowledge in school.

We would encourage you to read daily with and to your children and to notice rhyme, pattern and spelling whilst you are reading.

In Maths, children will look at numbers up to 20, focusing on numbers between 20 and 20. They will count and write to 20, compare and order numbers and spot patterns. They will then move on to addition and subtraction within 20, learning and exploring dfferent methods to add and subtract wiithin 20. They will use their understanding of addition and subtraction to create fact families. The children will continue to take part in Mastery Maths for 15 minutes, 4 days a week to help build their maths fluency.

In History we will be learning about Intrepid Explorers particularly focusing on Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. We will be considering how explorers have helped us learn about the past and comparing what it was like to be an explorer in the 15^th Century to what it was like to be an explorer in the 20^th Century.

Through our Geography topic 'Around the World' we will be naming and identifying the seven continents of the world and discovering more about a different country in each continent. We will have a particular focus on France, Australia, Kenya, the USA and in the continent of Antarctica.

In Geography we will continue our learning about changing seasons what they are, comparing and contrasting them, observing and noting changes across the seasons describing weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies. We will also be learning about seasons relate to the months of the year.

In Science we will be exploring the properties of materials, getting a greater understanding of the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials. Later in the term, we will be looking at the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees and identifying and naming a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen tree. We will be growing our own seeds and learning more about what they need to help them grow.

In Music this term we will be exploring sounds and learning to listen with our Charanga music programme. Our lessons will focus on improvising as we find the beat and listening and responding. Over the term we will enjoy warming up our face, body and voice ready for singing, develop skills in moving in time with a steady beat, copying back simple long and short rhythms with clapping, copying back singing simple high and low patterns and copying back rhythmic words.

In RE we will be exploring the question: What do we think about how the world was made and how should we look after it? We will be finding out more about the Christian viewpoint on this. We will also be using the following question to develop our understanding of the Islamic faith: How and why are Allah and Muhammed (PBUH) important to Muslims?

In our PSHE lessons we will be learning about the characteristics of friendship including sharing interests and experiences and support with things people are finding difficult, that healthy relationships are positive and welcoming towards others, practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships, that other families can look different from their family and these families are also characterised by love and care.

We will be working through the second and third modules in our myHappymind programme which focus on learning about character strengths, celebrating those strengths in ourselves and in others and also about appreciation and gratitude, developing the skill of noticing what and who is around us. We will be giving time to considering who and what we are thankful for, focusing on how it feels to be grateful and thankful, how to show gratitude and express thanks. Our PSHE and No Outsiders programme supports this work, focusing on developing relationships.

Throughout the term we are developing a class emotional toolkit linked to different Zones of Regulation (Red Zone, Blue Zone, Green Zone and Yellow Zone), increasing our self awareness of emotions and our understanding of how to express these. Each week we choose a different strategy to practice and decide which Zone we might use this strategy in.

We will be revisiting the following strategies: stand up tall,find a quiet space and do stillness (sit with hands on knees or on the table, and count to 10 as you breathe in for 3 seconds and out for 5 seconds), colour counting (choose a colour, and see how many things you can see that have that colour in them), finger breathing, stand up tall, stretch it out, yoga poses.

We will be practicising some new strategies including: wall pushes, have a snack/drink of water, connecting with others (high five/elbows).

Our PE days will be Tuesdays (SR Sports) and Fridays (Mrs Bailey) so please send children into school in PE kits on these days.

For safety reasons please can children with long hair have their hair tied back on PE days and children with earrings take their earrings out at home before they come to school. Anyone with newly pierced ears should come to school with tape over their ear rings.

School uniform - please remember to clearly label clothing (including PE kit, hats, coats etc) so items can easily be returned to the children if they go missing. Please send your child into school every day this half term with a suitable coat for the time of year. We go outside for breaks when it is raining so the coat will need to be waterproof.

Please use the tabs above to find out more about what your child is learning about in English and in Maths and for some educational games. Also, using the links above you will also be able to access key information linked with how to contact us and a reminder of what your child needs to bring in each day.