Year 1
Spring 2, 2025
Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely break! We have lots of exciting learning planned for the next half term and we can't wait to get started.
Start time – 8:40am Pick-up time- 3:15pm
A fruit snack is provided every day for our Year 1 children. Alternatively, children may bring their own fruit (no bananas). Please ensure that your child brings a named water bottle to school each day and that sun cream is applied before coming to school. Also, please ensure all items of uniform are clearly labelled.
If you have any questions, concerns or worries, please contact me at year1@cpa.dsat.education and I will do my best to respond as soon as I can.
Please follow the link below to view information from the Year 1 Beginning of Year Welcome Meeting.
Please follow the link below to view information from the Key Stage 1 Reading Information Meeting.
Please follow the link below to view information from the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) Meeting.
We are continuing to deliver a program to all year groups at school called myHappymind. myHappymind is all based around helping children to understand how their brain works and to support them in developing positive skills and habits to be their very best selves!
Please click on the link below to access an overview of what the program entails.
myHappymind Parent information
At the end of every myHappy mind session, we finish with our Let Your Light Shine prayer which you can find below.
Here is what we will be learning this half term:
Curriculum focus: Geography - Where is it hot or cold?
Our theme this half term will focus on developing our geographical knowledge, skills, and vocabulary. Through our study, we will learn to locate hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles. We will extend our learning by looking at the physical features of hot and cold places and know the effects of hot and cold temperatures on human life.
English – Reading
As a school we follow the Read, Write, Inc programme to deliver our phonics teaching.
Please access the links below to learn how and why we teach phonics in our school.
What is Read, Write Inc Phonics?
We also have lots of information on our schools phonics page which you can access here.
English – Get Writing & The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth
Some of our writing this half term will be based on further developing sentence structure and how to build a successful sentence. We will focus on the use of capital letters, finger spaces and full stops, as well as ensuring sentences make sense to our reader.
Some of our writing this half term will be based on the book The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth by Ellie Hattie and Karl James Mountfield.
As the clock strikes midnight, Oscar is awoken by loud stomping outside his window. Looking out, he finds a huge, hairy, woolly mammoth called Timothy. Timothy recruits Oscar to help him find his baby brother before the clock strikes one and the 'magic hour' is over.
We will engage in a variety of writing opportunities, including writing a story based on the structure of 'The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth' with a change of character.
Spelling
We use our Read Write Inc. phonics knowledge to help us to spell when we are writing. Some words do not follow our spelling rules and we just have to learn them. The link below shows the words which appear frequently in our reading and writing. Year 1 are working towards being able to read and write these words by the end of the year 1.
Maths
This half term we will be developing our knowledge of addition and subtraction within 20, fractions, and length and mass.
We will focus on knowing and remembering our Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs). More information about our school KIRFs can be found here Our Maths Page.
Please click on the link below for Year 1 KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts), we are currently working on Spring 2. By the end of this half term, children should know number bonds for each number up to 10.
Year 1 Spring Key Instant Recall Facts
If you have any questions about these areas of Maths please do not hesitate to come and speak to us.
Please click the link below for a basic PowerPoint to support children with their number bonds to 10 instant recall facts.
Number bonds to 10
R.E. – Christianity - Easter - Why does Easter matter to Christians?
In RE, we will study Christianity and explore the question 'Why does Easter matter to Christians?' We will learn to recognise that Incarnation and Salvation are part of a ‘big story’ of the Bible. We will tell stories of Holy Week and Easter from the Bible and recognise a link with the idea of Salvation (Jesus rescuing people).
Science – Properties and uses of materials
In our learning we will learn to:
● distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made
● describe the 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.
Seasonal Changes
In our learning we will learn to:
- observe if all flowers are the same in spring
D & T – Cooking & nutrition - Smoothies
In our lessons, our learning will learn to describe fruits and vegetables and explain how to identify fruits. We will explore the basic characteristics of fruits and vegetables and name a range of places where fruits and vegetables grow. Finally, we will prepare fruits and vegetables to make a smoothie.
Computing – Programming 2 - Bee-Bots
In our computing lessons this half term, we will learn to recognise cause and effect when pressing buttons on a Bee-Bot and discuss and demonstrate how the Bee-Bot works. We will give several clear instructions in sequence, program a Bee-Bot to reach a destination, and identify and correct mistakes in programming.
P.E. – Health Related Exercise
In PE, our focus is Health Related Exercise. In our learning, we will develop our knowledge of how the body functions and changes during exercise. Furthermore, we will develop the children’s ability to exercise at different intensities.
Our PE day is Tuesday. Please ensure that your child brings their correct (named) P.E. kit to school on that day to change into after lunch. For health and safety reasons, please can children remove jewellery on PE day or provide plasters to cover earrings if this is not possible and ensure long hair is tied back away from the face.
P.S.H.E. - Relate/ Relationships: Friends/ Health & Wellbeing: Physical health
This module is focused on the importance of being able to relate to and get along with others in order to have positive relationships. It uses Character Strengths to illustrate the need to be able to see other perspectives to build relationships. Through lots of examples and discussion, we will develop our Active Listening skills to ensure that we understand other points of view rather than jumping to conclusions.
We will also focus on the themes of Relationships and Health and Well-being. We will recognise how to be a kind friend
and identify the features of being a good friend. We will understand the importance of deciding what to eat to help our body to stay healthy.
Music - Learning to listen
Our music theme is learning to listen. We will learn that listening is very important. We will understand that we can listen with our eyes and ears and we can also feel sound in our body.
NUMBOTs – Every day 10 minutes
NumBots is an on-line programme to boost addition and subtraction skills. It is available on a range of devices, you can play online at Numbots Game or download the Numbots app. Playing little and often will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts. These are critical foundations in maths so we are excited by the impact Numbots will have. In order to get the best out of NumBots children should regularly play for short bursts of time over the week. Children will receive a golden ticket for accessing their Numbots for 15minutes or more each week.
If you have misplaced your log in details or are having trouble accessing the website, please email me to let me know.
READING – Every day 10 minutes
Please continue to enjoy your reading each day. Reading is fun and a great way to spend time together with your family, as well as developing our imaginations. Encourage your child to talk about what they have read and ask them a question or two about the book. This will help consolidate their comprehension work in school. Adults, please remember to record what your child reads at home in their reading record. We will count all entries in the reading diaries and award golden tickets to those who have read 20 times or more in a month.
Please send your child's reading book and reading record to school each day. We love to hear the children read in school and this will support us to promote reading throughout the day.
Our book change day is Thursday.
OXFORD OWL – One book a week
Oxford Owl is an e-book library to boost reading skills. Once your book has been read there is a short fun quiz to complete afterwards. Children will receive a golden ticket for every book they complete. Click on the link below to access Oxford Owl;
Oxford Owl for School and Home.
If you have misplaced your log in details or are having trouble accessing the website, please email me to let me know.
As always, thank you for your continued support with your child’s learning.
Mrs Slack - Teacher
Mrs Jones and Mrs Barnes - LSA's