Year 1

Welcome to Year 1. Mrs Carter, Miss Bradshaw and the Year 1 team are looking forward to working with you this year.

Our themes this year are:                                                         

Term 1: VIPs 

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 bring home two reading books a week, a phonics wallet, a maths wallet and spellings to learn. 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 decide to organise your week. We do, however, recommend that children read for at least 5 minutes every day. 

Reading

Children are heard read by a class teacher each week in guided reading. They are also heard individually by a teaching assistant and a parent helper over the week. They will come home with a levelled reading book as well as a phonic book. They will be changed in school when the child is confident. 

Spellings

Children will be taught some of the Year 1 key words on a Friday and they will be sent home for them to practise. You could do this by your child 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.

Maths Wallets

Your child will bring home a maths wallet containing their individual target. If you would like any ideas for how to practise these targets, then please pop in for a chat. 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. 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 are introducing 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 are starting to 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 the 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 next couple of weeks we will be learning about Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London. The children have created a bank of questions that they would like to find out the answers too throughout our theme. 

The children used their senses to describe fire, what they could hear, smell, see and feel (from afar)! They used the wonderful words they came us with to create fire poems and London skyline silhouettes. The children have been learning about the Tudor houses in 1666. They have designed and made their own house using a cardboard box.