Welcome to Year 1

                        Mr. Wright - Class Teacher                         Mrs. Smith - Teaching Assistant

Mrs. Smith and I are very pleased to welcome you to our Year 1 homepage.  We hope that this is a very enjoyable and exciting year for your child. On this page you will be able to find out about all of the different and exciting things that we are doing in our classroom.

If you wish to contact me you can either do so by sending me a message on Class Dojo or emailing me at s.wright@stpetersprimary.org

What We Learn In Year 1

Year 1 is when your child starts to follow the National Curriculum. All of our learning activities and lessons are based around the objectives set out in the curriculum, whilst still taking into account your child's individual  interests, skills and stages of development. Although the learning may seem more formal compared to that of the Early Years Foundation Stage, we are still very keen to ensure that your child has the opportunity to learn and develop through hands-on, practical style activities alongside more traditional activities. Therefore, although you will find that there is more table time and less 'Cool Time' in Year 1, many lessons may take a practical approach through activities such as drama, hands-on experiments in Science, exploring different art mediums and visits around the local area to name but a few. You can click on the link below to see our yearly overview of the curriculum for Year 1. I have also included a copy of the Year 1 National Curriculum objectives so that you can see the aims of the curriculum in Year 1.

Year 1 in Action

In this section of our webpage you can see photos and videos of some of our different lessons in actions. Simply click on the subject that you wish to see in action. As the year progresses you will be able to view a wide range of lessons in action so make sure that you check back regularly. Parents remember that you can also see our lessons in action on our Class Dojo page.

Our Topic for Advent 2

The Big Question:  Why Do We Make Journeys?

For our second topic of Year 1 we shall be thinking about why we make journeys. In this topic children will have the opportunity to explore the way that people make different journeys. Through our Literacy we shall look at the journey of Little Charlie as he made a journey to visit his grandmother and contemplate what might have happened if he had made a different journey or travelled by a different method. Our Art will lend itself to the topic as we exploring making spirals and lines, as we can explore the marks that the children make as representations of journeys and simple maps. ​

Through Science the children will be exploring Seasonal Change, and alongside examining how the seasons and weather change, we will also explore how the weather might affect the way we make a journey, or even be a factor in determining whether we make a journey or not. Our Geography, is all about Our School and the local area, and the children will undertake fieldwork travelling around the environment and local area, whilst starting to explore how maps can help people make their journeys easier around places. We will also undertake some research on how we individually make the journey to school each day.​

​Our RE topic on Waiting will also link to our over-arching class topic on 'why do we make journeys' as we contemplate the journeys made by Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the 3 Wise Men on the first Christmas

At the end of the topic we shall draw together all of the strands that we have explored and celebrate what the children have discovered, whilst finding out what they think the answer to our Big Question is. There is no right or wrong answer to the Big Question it is personal to each and every child and will be based on what they have discovered throughout the half term.

Phonics

We continue to work through the Read Write Inc. phonics programme in Year 1. This works in exactly the same way as it did in Reception with the children grouped according to their needs and level of development. In Year 1 we learn some of the more tricky diagraph (e.g. "ay", "ee", "ow" etc.), split diagraph (e.g. "a-e", "o-e", "u-"e etc.) and trigraph (e.g. "igh", "ure", "ear" etc.)sounds, and also some of the alternative way of writing the sounds.

Each Friday your child will bring home a reading book that is linked to the learning that they have been doing in Phonics that week.

Literacy (Talk for Writing):

Our second 'Talk 4 Writing' story of the year is 'Little Charlie'. In this story Charlie makes a journey to visit his grandmother, and he meets some interesting characters along the way. This story links with our over-arching topic of why do we make journeys. Through our Literacy the children will explore writing their own journey tales based on Little Charlie, whilst focusing on how to describe the settings.

For our non-fiction strand of Literacy, the children will be exploring writing a diary or recount of the journey to Earl Shilton that we shall be making later this half term. This links to our Geography topic on 'Our School' this half term, which also covers the local area.

Maths:

We are following the 'White Rose' Maths scheme. Through 'White Rose' the children have lots of opportunities to delve deeper into problem solving and reasoning using a range of different methods and techniques, which enables them to develop a real mastery of Maths.

During this second half term of Year 1 we shall start by continuing to look at mathematical concepts such as addition and subtraction whilst using numbers from 0 to 10. The children will be focusing on learning their number bonds to 10, and looking at how these can help them solve simple number problems. During the first week the children will get logins to the Numbots app, which is a specially designed online game all around helping the children develop and consolidate their knowledge and understanding of number bonds to 10, and of solving simple addition and subtraction problems. Their login details will be sent home so that the children can access the app at home.

Towards the end of this half term we shall also be taking a look at the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. We shall be exploring similarities and differences between shapes, and also how these shapes can be found all around us in every day life.

RE:

Our second topic of the Year 1 is 'Belonging'. Our lives are marked by many different experiences of being welcomed into new situations and groups. We recognise the importance of welcome, of feeling comfortable with new situations and belonging to new groups. We belong to families, to work places and to social groupings. Christians believe that everyone is invited to share in the life and work of God through Baptism. The children will have the opportunity to talk about their own experiences of belonging to different groups (school, Beavers, Rainbows, sports clubs etc.), whilst also exploring how through the Sacrament of Baptism we are welcomed into and belong to the family of God and the church family.

Word of God 

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

(Matthew 28:19) 

Science:

In Science this half term we shall be looking at Seasonal Changes. Through this topic we shall be naming and exploring the 4 seasons of the year. We shall closely look at how the seasons affect the weather that we experience here in the UK. The children will have the opportunity to experiment with different ways of measuring and recording the weather, and they will be able to keep their own weather diaries to look at how weather and temperature can change from day to day.

Geography

For the second half term of Class 1 we shall be looking at our first Geography topic which is 'Our School'. This topic will introduce the children to a range of geographical skills including:

• fieldwork where we go and explore the layout of the school and the surrounding local area,
• basic map reading skills, such as the use of a key and symbols,
• the use of aerial views in identifying an area,
• research through carrying out a study on how they get to school, and plotting these journeys on a simple map

As well as exploring the school and its grounds, we shall also venture further afield to explore the route to Earl Shilton centre, and to Hall Field park.

Weekly Newsletters

Each week your child will bring home a newsletter which will keep you up to date with what we have been doing that week, and also informing you of any important dates or information that you may need. You can find a digital copy of the newsletters here. Just click on the star for the month that you require to access any past newsletters.

Previous Newsletters

Important and Useful Information

• PE-  PE will take place on Fridays. Please make sure your child is wearing appropriate school PE kit as specified here PE Uniform 
• Reading - we would expect children to be reading with an adult at home at least 5 times each week.  Please record this in their reading record.  Children will receive awards upon reaching certain milestones
• Book  Bags - must be sent in every day.  Please keep your child's reading books and reading record in their book bag as an adult will read with them in school each week. We shall record this in the reading record
• Spellings - each Friday we will have a spelling check on the spelling words that your children have been practicing. A new set of words will be sent out on Friday afternoon and we will check those on the following Friday
• School Uniform - we expect children to be wearing the correct uniform at all times (except on certain days such as special events or fundraisers which we shall let you know of in advance). A full list of the correct uniform can be found by following this link School Uniform

Useful Links