Year 1
Welcome to Year 1. Mrs Tomb, Miss Bradshaw , Mrs Williamson and Miss Miller are looking forward to working with you this year.
Our themes this year are below. Click on the link for the theme overview:
Below are some knowledge organisers that will help with learning key concepts this term.
History- The Great Fire of London
Science- Materials and their properties
Term 2 : Changes
Term 3 : Crowns and Tiaras
Term 4 : Let's Explore
Term 5 : Mix it Up
Term 6 : Claws and Paws
Home Learning
Your child will be sent home with resources to support reading, writing and maths. Additional support at home is invaluable and has a huge impact on children's progress in school. We expect that children will be doing around 15 minutes of home learning a day but it is up to you how you organise your week. We do, however, recommend that children read for at least 5-10 minutes every day.
Reading
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are minimising risk by avoiding items, including books and resources, going backwards and forwards between home and school. As a result of this we ask that children do not bring a book bag to school and only come with their labelled water bottle, lunch box and coat/ hat.
Adults in school will listen to your child read at least twice a week using our Read Write Inc schemed books as well as other supplementary phonics based books. These will be changed regularly. We ask that you support your child by listening to them read appropriate texts were possible. In September, we will share some suggested titles or websites to access appropriate reading materials.
Spellings
Children will be taught some of the Year 1 key words on a Monday and they will be sent home for them to practise. We will send a spelling book at the beginning of the term and this book is intended to stay at home. Each week, your child will come home with their spellings on a slip of paper to stick in their book. We will also put the weekly spellings on this page of the website. Your child could practise by writing out the words several times and we recommend that they write them in a simple sentence too. Once taught and tested, children will be expected to spell these correctly in their work and will become ‘non-negotiables.’ Therefore, if they are spelled incorrectly in their work, they will be asked to correct them. Some children will receive a couple of extra spellings as a challenge. The picture below shows the Year 1 words as they appear on a classroom display. Once they are moved up to the ‘Words We Know’ section, they become non-negotiable.
Term 1 spellings - Below are the spellings your child will be sent home to learn during Term 1. Please ensure that your child is regularly consolidating these and being able to spell these in their written work when writing sentences as well as an individual word.
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a |
ask |
is |
has |
his |
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he |
be |
me |
she |
we |
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no |
go |
so |
by |
my |
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do |
to |
today |
I |
you |
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your |
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Maths Wallets
Your child will bring home a maths wallet containing their individual target. These wallets are intended to stay at home and we will ask for them back at the end of the term so that we can set a new target. If you would like any ideas for how to practise these targets, then please send us an email. They will be assessed throughout the term but if you feel your child is confident and requires a new target then just let us know.
Phonics Wallets
Towards the end of Year 1 your child will take the phonics check which is a national check of children’s ability to decode real and nonsense words to read. We continue to teach phonics every day and will spend the first part of the year reviewing and embedding the phonics learning of Reception. After that, we will focus on some new phonemes but also some new graphemes to represent sounds already learned. In Year 1, phonetic spelling is expected to be plausible and not necessarily accurate in terms of grapheme choice. In your child’s phonic wallet will be a list of graphemes learned. This wallet is intended to stay at home. We will periodically send home extra resources once we have learned a new set of sounds. There will also be some phoneme frames and a dry wipe pen for your child to practise spelling words. You can also write words for your child to read. Below is the Read Write Inc. Speed Sounds Chart as displayed in the classroom.
Non-Negotiables
Your child may come home and talk about Non-Negotiables. These are aspects of English that all children in Year 1 are expected to achieve by the end of the year. Currently, our Non-Negotiables display is empty but as the year goes on, we will add to the display so that the children clearly know what they need to check for in their independent work. The first non-negotiable in Year 1 is finger spaces between words. Later in the year we will expect all sentences to start with a capital letter and all sentences to end with a full stop.
Handwriting
In Year 1 we introduce a new handwriting scheme to the children in order to improve standards of handwriting across the school and also to make joining letters easier for children. We will introduce a cursive script which involves a lead in to each letter. This can make it easier for children because they know that all letters start on the line. The phrases we use are the same as learned in Reception but with a ‘whoosh!’ at the start. For example, the letter ‘a’ would be; whoosh! Round the apple, down the leaf. We learn and practise these letters in handwriting and there is no expectation that children use these in their independent writing initially although we will recognise and praise those children who are trying to apply their new skills. As the year goes on we will start to expect that some children will be ready to use this script independently. We have included all of the cursive script below so that you can help your child should they want to practise at home.
Year 1 Recommended Reading List
As well as being an enjoyable pastime, reading impacts hugely on children’s writing ability and general learning. Therefore, we encourage children to read as much as possible, both at home and in school. To assist with the difficult task of choosing a new book, we have put together a recommended reading list for each year group. A lot of these books are available within the classroom, or the shared school library; we are gradually stocking up to build on the range of books available to children. Thisis not an exhaustive list, but represents a cross-section of books suitable for your child’s year group. Some of the texts are more difficult to read than others and care should be taken when choosing those which your child might enjoy. Please discuss the books your child reads with him/her and remember that it is also important to continue to read stories to your child as he /she moves through the school.
Please note – some of these books, due to their challenging nature, are also on the Y2 reading list
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen
Peace at Last – Jill Murphy
A First Book of Nature – Nicola Davies
Avocado Baby – John Burningham
Black Dog and The Django – Levi Pinfold
Cops and Robbers, The Jolly Postman and Funnybones – Allan Ahlberg
I Am Henry Finch – Alexis Deacon, Viviane Schwarz
Journey – Aaron Becker
Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion – Alex T Smith
Mister Magnolia – Quentin Blake
My Big Barefoot Book of Wonderful Words - Sophie Fatus
Out for the Count – Anne Fine
See Inside the World of Shakespeare – Rob Lloyd Jones
The Cat in the Hat – Dr Suess
The Dark – Lemony Snicket
Emperor of Absurdia – Chris Riddell
The Girl with the Parrot on Her Head – Daisy Hirst
Man on the Moon – Simon Bartram
The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark – Jill Tomlinson
The Paper Dolls – Julia Donaldson
Three By the Sea – Mini Grey
The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson
Beegu – Alexis Deacon
The Day the Crayons Quit – Drew Daywalt
Tiny Seed and The Bad-Tempered Ladybird – Eric Carle
The Gigantic Turnip – Alexei Tolstoy
The Trouble with Jack – Shirley Hughes
Mister Magnolia – Quentin Blake
Frog and Toad Are Friends – Arnold Lobel
Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Traction Man series – Mini Grey
Dogger – Shirley Hughes
Outdoor Learning
When the children take part in Outdoor Learning they will go out in all weathers so please can you make sure your child has a pair of Wellington Boots in school - Thank you.
Star of the Week and Pride of the week
Our Star of the Week and Pride of the week are two important awards that we give out each week! Each week we look for something different for the Pride of the week which we decide as a class and the star of the week is for a stand-out super star of the week! I know everyone is working hard to win these prestigious awards!
Well done everyone!
Theme - Important People
For the first couple of weeks in September, we will be learning about Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London. The children will create a bank of questions that they would like to find out the answers to throughout our theme.
