Year 1

Teacher Miss R Saunders

Teaching Assistants Mrs W Clark

Current Topic - Great Britain - Spring Term 4

Welcome to the Spring 4 term in Year 1. We are excited to kick-start our new topic: Paddington Bear.

In English lessons, we will be using Paddington’s travels to inspire writing in a range of different contexts. The children will be learning about different cities in the UK and creating fact files to share what they have found out. We will also be writing postcards to/from Paddington Bear in Peru.

Our topic lessons will also be inspired by Paddington Bear. We will be using atlases to identify Peru on the map, and learning more about the country before going on to make comparisons between there and the UK.

In Maths lessons we will be learning more about the place value of numbers 20-50, before going on to begin to measure length, height, mass and volume. This will include lots of practical activities, measuring in standard and non-standard units.

This term, our key question in RE lessons is, ‘Why was Jesus welcomed like a king by the crowds on Palm Sunday?’ This theme will involve us learning more about the Easter story and then thinking about people who are special to us and people who are important / treated extra specially in our country.

In PE lessons we will be participating in net and wall games, as well as doing weekly yoga sessions.

News - 30th January 2024
The Reception children have come home with a NumbBots letter. This letter contains your child(rens) log in details and picture pin. NumBots is an interactive online maths game (currently only playable at play.numbots.com or through the numbots app) playing little and often will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts.

Game Types

1. Story Mode – the emphasis is on learning the ideas and concepts behind addition and subtraction so it features more diagrams, shapes and question styles.

2. Challenge Mode – the emphasis is more on speed of recall of key facts, like number bonds to 10, doubling small numbers or adding & taking away in your head.

Please let your child’s teacher know if you have any questions or comments.

Reminders And Routines

Healthy named snack (please no glass containers)
Named uniform and belongings - this will help us to reunite your child with any misplaced items!
Water in a named bottle to drink throughout the day
Appropriate clothing for the weather
Your child(s) phonics book will be changed every Monday. Please make sure your child(ren) brings in their bookbag on this day.

If you need to speak to a member of the Year 1 Teaching Team, please email the school office at office@gloryfarmschool.co.uk. We will endeavour to get back to you within 48 hours.

PE Days

Children should come to school dressed in their PE kit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Learning and Home Expectations

Phonics will be taught everyday at 9am using our Supersonic Phonics Friends scheme, so look out for our fun actions and phrases. If you have any questions about this, please contact your child's teacher via the office.

Your child will be given a reading book linked to the sounds they are learning in phonics. Please record each time you read with your child in their yellow reading diary. Remember, you do not have to read the whole book. The expectation is that you read with your child for at least 5 minutes, 3 times a week. We understand that life is busy sometimes and at school we promote reading for pleasure. We value reading a bedtime story, recipe, shopping list, children's magazine as they all count towards reading and expanding your child's vocabulary and exposure to new sounds and words.

Reading In Year 1

Reading underpins all learning in Year 1 and is a running thread through all our lessons, including our continuous provision activities. It is a daily part of our phonics sessions where children read sentences matched to their current phonics stage.

Below is an overview of ways in which reading is taught more explicitly throughout our curriculum.

Whole Class Reading

We read a range of vocabulary rich text types all linked to our current term’s learning, and we focus our learning on:

Retrieval- the skill of finding the answer to a question within a text.

Predicting- making sensible and clear predictions about a character of a story based on what we already know about the book.

Clarifying- defining and understanding new, unfamiliar vocabulary.

Individual Reading

In Year 1, we aim to hear each child read at least once a week which will be recorded in their yellow reading diary. Please ensure your child brings their reading book and their yellow diary to school every day, regardless of whether they have read or not. In Year 1, we change all reading books on a Monday. If they do not have their book in school however, we will select another appropriately matched book for them to read to us in the meantime. Their books have been chosen according to the children’s fluency, comprehension and word recognition skills. We ask that you support us with this by aiming to read with your child 5 times per week at home, and recording it in their yellow diaries.

Continuous Provision

In each area of our continuous provision children have access to a range of books linked to that specific area of learning. There is a cosy reading area where children either read with a member of staff or can share a book with a friend. During the week there are adult planned reading activities aimed at developing the children’s independence and comprehension skills.

Library

All children visit the library once a week and are able to select a library book of their choice to bring home and share with their family. It is also a lovely opportunity for the children to find a cosy spot to share and enjoy a book with their friends.

Story time

Story time is an integral part of developing a child's enjoyment and love of reading. At Glory Farm Primary School, we have daily story time where we can introduce children to vocabulary rich texts as well as re-reading some of our favourites too.

Reading Vending Machine

Each week children have the opportunity to gain a raffle ticket for reading 5 times at home. Once a week, we draw a raffle ticket and the lucky winner gets to visit the reading vending machine and choose a book to keep. Please ensure you write in your child’s reading diary when they read at home - it doesn’t have to be their school reading book.