Welcome back! I hope you have had a lovely Easter break. The children have already settled back into school brilliantly and I hope they are ready for another busy term!

Please see below an outline of what we will cover during our last term in Year 1!

English

In English, we will continue to work on developing confident independent reading, correct letter formation and simple sentence structure. We will be studying the books The Storm Whale, Grandad’s Island and looking at Traditional Tales.

Through their English lessons children will continue to develop their use of capital letters, full stops, question and exclamation marks, use simple conjunctions as well as learning spelling rules relating to adding plurals ‘s’ and ‘es’ adding the prefix -un and other suffixes.

Phonics

In phonics, we will be consolidating all Phase 3, 4 and 5 sounds in preparation for the phonics screening check after half term. We will then continue to cover alternative pronunciations for sounds.

Maths

In maths we will learn about multiplication and division which will include counting in 2s 5s and 10s, making arrays, sharing into groups and doubling. We will also learn about fractions including halves and doubles and compare and order numbers to 100. We will also learn to tell the time to the half hour and to recognise coins and notes in our money topic.

Science

In science we will be learning about plants. We will learn to identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees, and identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees. We will also continue our work on seasons.

History

We will be learning about castles including looking at the purpose of castles, the features, exploring castles from around the world culminating in a visit to Hedingham Castle in the second half term (details to follow).

Geography

We will be learning about Australia which will include exploring both human and physical features of the country, different cities, animals, and weather. We will compare life in Australia with how we live in the UK.

Art

In art we will learn about aboriginal art and explore different techniques involved.

DT

In DT we will be looking at different Mechanisms using sliders and levers.

Computing

In computing we will use Book Creator software to create a multimedia eBook about what the children enjoy and have achieved.   We will also use GarageBand to create sound patterns.

PSHE

This term we will continue to learn about inclusion and belonging, sameness and difference and challenging gender stereotypes. We will also learn about staying healthy including the importance of sleep, dental health, sun safety and looking after our mental health and wellbeing.

Music

We will be looking at a variety of songs around the theme of imagination including Your Imagination by Joanna Mangona and Pete Readman, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins, Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory soundtrack, Daydream Believer by The Monkees, Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie and A Whole New World from Aladdin. We shall continue to develop our understanding of pulse, rhythm, and pitch and play instruments including the glockenspiel.

RE

In RE we will be learning about the Hindu and Christian creation stories making comparisons between the two, linking both to the environment, thinking about how we can look after our planet.

PE

For the first half term, PE will be on a Wednesday (with swimming on a Monday).  During the second half term, PE will continue to be on a Wednesday and on non-forest school Fridays. In PE we will be covering athletics, net and wall games, striking and fielding and team building skills.

Spellings

Differentiated spellings will continue to be sent home with the children weekly. New spellings are set on a Friday and will be tested the following Friday. Please encourage your child to sound out but also use the letter name, where possible. There are lots of ways you can help your child to learn their spellings (little and often is the best method, especially for those who may find writing and spelling challenging). Here are a few ideas:

Look, say, cover, write, check – look at the correctly written spelling. Say the sounds out loud, cover the original spelling, make their own attempt and check the accuracy, repeat 3 times. Do this several times a week, if possible.

Rainbow writing – write each spelling in different colours.

Mnemonics – make up a sentence to help remember the spelling.

Big/small/speed writing – write enormous/tiny/at speed in two minutes.

Chalk spelling – write spellings on a chalkboard/outside on the ground

Water and paintbrush – write your spellings outside using a paintbrush and water (watch it disappear).

Reading

Please continue to encourage your child to develop a love of reading by providing as many opportunities as possible for your child to read to you, ideally this should be daily.  When reading talk about the pictures, the characters and make predictions. Reading books from home is always beneficial. Please encourage the reading of both fiction and non-fiction and use their reading diaries to record their reading at home and provide a comment/initial where relevant as this helps us to support them further during school time.

Homework

One piece of homework will continue to be set on a Friday and will be due in the following Wednesday. Homework is set to provide further practice and to consolidate learning from the week.

Thank you for your continued support.  Please do not hesitate to contact use via the school office or over the fence at the end of the day should you have any queries.

Best Wishes,

Mrs Camp and Miss Battrick