Welcome to Year 1

Teacher: Mrs Dunn/Miss Kozij

Teaching assistant - Miss Moran

Autumn 2:

Welcome to Year 1 class page! Please read below to find out information about important dates and what you will be learning about this term!  

English

Our literacy focus for the start of the Autumn 2 half term will be based on the book 'The lighthouse keepers lunch'. We will be focusing on the following steps to success during this unit and starting to form simple sentences using these key skills: 

- Capital letters

- Finger spaces

- Phonics

- Full stops

-Tall letters

During our Literacy lessons this half term, we will be focusing on using tall letters, full stops, capital letters and correct spacing between words. We will be retelling the story through drama and freeze frames and orally retelling the story. Throughout the unit we will then move onto writing our sentences independently by thinking of our sentence first, saying it out loud, writing it and then checking it. We will also begin to answer some retrieval questions by reading short sentences from the story and answering questions about it.

After 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch'', we will be exploring 'How to catch a star', exploring how to write a diary using the skills we have already learnt.

Maths

Our first unit in the Autumn 2 half term is addition and subtraction within 10. Pupils will learn to confidently add and subtract to 10, recognise and recall number bonds to ten, be able to use part whole models and number lines to support them with their addition and subtraction.

Topic

This half terms unit in topic is called 'Titanic - are ships unsinkable now?'. We will be focusing on the following skills in History over the Autumn 2 term...

History – Changes within living memory

National Curriculum Links:

• Use appropriate terminology e.g. past, then and now 
• Describe what happened in important events in the past
• Understand simple chronology and use words relating to the passing of time
• Talk about memories of key events in their life 
• Recognise and explain why people did things and what happened because of it.
• ·Pupils can give a simple explanation of a consequence to an action specifically a result of an event or action of an individual
• Distinguish between fact and fiction in a story.
•  Begin to find out about life in the past by looking at: stories/information books /pictures or photographs /the internet /artefacts /museum displays /old buildings and heritage sites.
• Pupils begin to understand the different sources used in finding out about the past eg artefacts, pictures, stories.
• ·Pupils ask questions about the past eg What was life like for people? What happened? How long ago?

Science

This terms units in Science will be all about 'Everyday Materials'. Pupils will learn to:

-  distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made

-identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, and rock 

-describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials

- compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties.

Religion

This half term in Year 1 we will be learning all about the Christmas story, the story of the  birth of Jesus. Through stories, songs and even performing our very own Nativity play we will explore and learn about the events of the nativity and learn why Christmas is such a special time. We will learn about the journey Mary and Joseph took, the visit of the Shepards and the three wise mean and the message of love and joy that Jesus' birth brings. The children will have opportunities to retell the story then in their own words, take part in our Nativity play and reflect on h9ow we can share God's love with others during this special season.

As part of our Catholic ethos. we love to involve family life within our school life and may ask you for photos of special events or people, such as baptism, Christmas and other important celebrations to reflect upon in our weekly Collective Worship sessions. 

PE

This half term you will need to come into school wearing your PE kit on our PE day which is a Monday. In PE you will be learning about invasion and team games skills with Mr Casey outside and circuits skills in the hall. 

Homework

Reading – 10 minutes a night

Listening to your child read for 10 minutes a night makes a significant difference in their progress and attainment. It helps them practice key reading strategies and skills, develop their comprehension skills and supports their overall fluency and accuracy, which are vital skills they need for the future. Every Friday an eBook will be assigned to your child’s online account based upon the sounds they have learnt in phonics that week. The children will have practiced this book in their guided reading sessions so will be familiar with the text. The purpose of them practicing it again at home is to become more familiar with these sounds and fluent when reading them.

Your child will also choose a reading for pleasure book. This is a book that you can both read and enjoy together and encourage reading for pleasure. This will be a physical book that your child takes home and they will be given the opportunity to choose and change every Friday. As it is a reading for pleasure book, it is not necessarily aimed at your child’s reading level, therefore can be challenging, which is why we are asking for an adult to read this and your child to join in where possible. The reading for pleasure book is important as it is how we will help build a love of reading together.   Please ensure your child brings this back to school every Friday ready to change in our school Library.

Reading eggs – once a week      https://readingeggs.co.uk

Reading eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning.

My Maths and Mathseeds – once a week       https://mathseeds.co.uk/

Every Friday, your class teacher will set home learning for your child on MyMaths.co.uk. This will be based upon what they have learnt that week so your child can practice the skills taught at home to reinforce key strategies.  

Mathseeds is an online website that your child can use to develop pupils’ confidence and fluency in Maths and the interactive lessons provide step-by-step examples to break down learning into manageable chunks. The log in for this is the same one you use for reading eggs.

Phonics home learning – once a week

Every Friday, we will send home a phonics learning log in your child’s book bag for them to practice over the next week. The sheet in their book each week will have the list of sounds your child has learnt that week, words and sentences for them to read and write with these sounds in and then a list of tricky words that the children need to know. These words will be familiar to them and ones they have practiced in phonics sessions.

You can then practice these sounds further on fastphonics (www.readingeggs.co.uk/fast-phonics-games), which is the same log in as reading eggs.

Learning logs – Autumn  2, Spring 2 and Summer 2

Last year we introduced our project-based home learning to replace the homework board we previously used. Pupil, parent and teacher voice all showed that project based home learning was the preferred style of home learning as it gave children more freedom to learn about real life world events, share personal experiences and it has helped motivate them to engage in home learning as it is child managed. It encourages the children to be more independent, inquisitive and provides more opportunities for outdoor learning together. This can be completed in your learning log, a scrap book of your choice or it can be uploaded onto Seesaw.

Instead of completing these every half term, we have reduced this to three half terms a year to make it more manageable. They will therefore be given out on the first Monday of Autumn 2, Spring 2 and Summer 2.  We ask that their project is brought into school on the last week of that half term to share and celebrate with their peers. You will be given a sheet of paper that will be stuck in your child’s learning log that will outline what the project is and ideas of activities you can do.