Year 1
Spring 1, 2025
Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely Christmas 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: History - What was the race across Antarctica?
Our theme this half term will focus on developing our historical knowledge, skills, and vocabulary. Through our study, we will learn that an explorer is someone who travels to new places to find out about them. We will extend our learning by looking at Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen as well as finding out who won the race to be the first to reach the South Pole.
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 Lion Inside
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 Lion Inside by Rachel Bright and Tim Field.
A mouse feels small and insecure and determines that what he needs to do is learn how to roar like a lion. He knows he has to act brave when he approaches a lion to learn how. In a hilarious turn of events, the lion is afraid of mice!
We will engage in a variety of writing opportunities, including writing a story about a small animal who befriends a large animal in the African savannah.
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 time, exploring calculation strategies within 20 and numbers to 50.
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 1. By the end of this half term, children should know doubles and halves of numbers 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 doubling and halving instant recall facts.
R.E. – Chritianity - Jesus as a friend - Was it always easy for Jesus to show friendship?
In RE, we will study Christianity and explore the question 'Was it always easy for Jesus to show friendship?' We will look at bible stories and remember a story about Jesus showing friendship. We will talk about the stories we remember and discuss our own friendships explaining why we like them. We will also think about how Jesus tried to be a good friend.
Science – Naming and describing materials
In our learning we will learn to:
- identify what material is
- experiment with different paper and fabric to find out if it is all the same
- groups objects made of different materials
Seasonal Changes
In our learning we will learn to:
- observe if all flowers are the same in spring
Art– Painting - Claude Monet
In our lessons, our learning will focus on how to mix primary and secondary colours. We will learn that tone is how light or dark a colour is and that a tint can make a colour lighter or darker. We will look at the artist Claude Monet and develop an understanding that impressionism is not like a photo but is just an impression of what we see, or the colours or shapes of things we see.
Computing – Improving mouse skills
In our computing lessons this half term, we will learn to develop our mouse skills by learning how to log in and navigate around a computer while creating digital artwork.
P.E. – Mulitskills
In PE, our focus is Multi-skills. In our learning, we will explore a variety of movement, thinking and communicating skills that are the foundation of different sports or physical activities as well as develop our agility and coordination.
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. - Appreciate/ Community - Online Safety
In our myHappymind module we will continue to learn more about our brain. We will discover the value of appreciation and how being grateful or, being thankful make us feel. We will recognise the different ways to show gratitude or to express our thanks and the importance of taking time out to stop and be grateful or thankful.
We will also focus on the theme of Community and Online Safety. We will develop an understand of why we shouldn’t share personal information and how to keep our personal information private and safe when we are online.
Music - My musical heartbeat
Our music theme is Exploring sounds. We will learn that music is made up of high and low sounds, long and short sounds, and loud and quiet sounds. We will explore these sounds and create our own very simple melodies.
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 Friday.
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