Year 1
Welcome to Year 1!
Autumn 1, 2019
Welcome back! We hope that you all enjoyed the summer break and are ready to begin your learning with an exciting topic in year 1.
Our theme this half term is ‘How can we recycle?’
What can you recycle at home?
Why is recycling important?
How can we encourage people to recycle more?
Parents Information & Meeting Information
Thursday 12th September – Reading information meeting @3:45pm – KS1 Reading Workshop Presentation
Tuesday 17th September – Maths information meeting @3:45pm – KS1 Maths Workshop Presentation
Friday 20th September – Individual school photos
Tuesday 24th September – M&M Productions – Jungle Book
Wednesday 2nd October – Writing information meeting @3:45pm – KS1 Writing Workshop Presentation
Friday 4th October – Harvest Festival @11:00am
Thursday 17th October – Parents evenings (by appointment)
Monday 21st October – Parents evenings (by appointment)
Thursday 24th October – Parent Pride and break up for half term
Friday 25th October – Training Day
Children need to bring their P.E. kits on Monday to be kept in school until Friday. Year 1 will have their P.E. session on Fridays.
On this days can you please ensure that long hair is tied back and that earrings are not worn.
It would also be helpful to label your child’s PE kit with their name.
Reading books will be changed on Mondays & Thursdays.
Please make a record of every time your child reads because if they read 20 times within a month, they will receive a golden ticket.
Key Stage 1 parents who help their child to read 20 times a month will be entered into a monthly prize draw.
Oxford Owl Library (The library is a fantastic e-book resource, you just need to register your e-mail on the site to access a range of books for free)
Phonics
In year 1 we continue to build on the phonics sessions that have taken place throughout your child’s time in the reception class.
We follow the Read, Write Inc scheme for the teaching and learning of phonics.
At the end of Year 1, all children have to undertake the Year 1 Phonics Screening. Working 1:1 with the teacher, children will read 40 words, some of which are real and some of which are pseudo (made up/’alien’) words containing the 40+ phonemes they have learned during their first two years in school.
EGPS
Spellings
Weekly spellings will be given out on Mondays. Your child will be tested on a selection of these the following Friday.
Also during the week, your child will complete a short dictation exercise containing the weekly spellings.
Please support your child at home by helping your child learn their weekly spellings.
Below are some games to help your child develop their phonic skills.
| Deep Sea Phonics | Dragons Den | Buried Treasure | Obb & Bob |
| Learn to Read | Spelling | BBC Words and Pictures |
Grammar and Punctuation
Below are links to some of the sites which the children enjoy learning from.
| Sentence building | Past tense | Nouns | Spelling |
| Contractions | Conjunctions | Spelling | Punctuation |
| Sentences | Prefixes and Suffixes | Word types |
The Canon Popham Times Table Challenge
We are continuing with the school ‘Times Tables Challenge’ award system to encourage the children to learn their times tables.
In Year 1, children need to learn to count forwards/ backwards in steps of 2, 5 and 10 in order to achieve the award.
Try it!!! Can you do it? You can practise as many times as you like by following the links
English
This half term we will be reading fiction and non-fiction linked to our topic such as Michael Recycle, Litterbug Doug, I can save the Earth and Rubbish and Recycling.
We will write character descriptions, create story maps, retell stories and create persuasive posters. As well as this, we will be reading and performing recycling poems.
In phonics we will revisit set 2 phonemes, consolidate blending and segmenting using these and begin to learn set 3 phonemes. Our spelling homework will be linked to our phonics learning
Take a look at the BBC Bitesize Literacy for KS1 website for some fun things to do.
We use a cursive style handwriting in our school, please try to encourage your child to use this when they are writing at home. A good resource for this is on YouTube to see how we do this. This can be found here.
Maths
This half term we will revisit numbers to 10 where we will count, read, write, identify, represent, double, half and use comparative language.
We will also explore addition and subtraction within 10 applying a range of strategies including the ten frame and part, part, whole models to combine and partition numbers.
We will represent and use number bonds to solve calculations. Finally we will learn about shape and patterns recognising common 2-D and 3-D shapes, describing position, direction and movement.
If you have any questions about these areas of Maths please come and speak to me.
Make maths fun by having a go at some Maths games by clicking here.
Topic
Our topic title this half term is ‘How can we recycle?‘
This topic has been chosen to provide the children with opportunities to develop a wide range of geography, art, history and science skills, whilst also caring for the environment in which they live. We will be thinking about what waste is, what happens to all our rubbish and how we can reduce the amount of waste we create, also how we can reduce litter, reuse and recycle. Children will learn about the variety of recycling symbols and explore materials which can and cannot be recycled; we will also use recyclable materials to create artwork. A copy of the grid can be found here.
Topic Homework
We are continuing with our topic approach to homework this year and in addition to their reading book, weekly spellings and maths homework, children must also complete at least 1 homework project based upon our topic. Your child will receive their homework sheet on the first week back this half term.
Topic homework will be shared during our Pride In Our Learning session on Thursday 24th October @ 3pm.
Each of the projects have been designed to allow children to develop their creative and critical thinking skills.
Remember that you can work with your child on homework and it’s a fun activity to do with your child.
We hope you enjoy completing some of these homework projects with your children.
Other information
Our curriculum page for Year 1 can be found here.
Please provide your child with a labelled water bottle to take outside during playtimes.
We also advise that you ensure all your child’s school clothing is clearly labelled too as well as making sure that your child does not bring toys from home into school. This would be greatly appreciated.
As always thank you for your continued support. It really makes a difference to your child’s learning and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to speak to us at any time.
Mrs Rowe (Class Teacher)
Mrs Drake (Learning Support Assistant)
Mrs Houlihan (Learning Support Assistant)
Mrs Johnson (Trainee Teacher)