WELCOME TO YEAR 1

 We will be updating our Year 1 page every half-term with updates and regular curriculum information and home learning projects.
We will also update weekly spellings for children to learn at home. 

Important upcoming dates this half term:

Thursday 28th January - Visit from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service

Class Teachers: Miss Perkins (Rabbits)  Miss Wilman (Squirrels) 

Teaching Assistants: Miss Haines (Rabbits) Mrs Morrison (Squirrels)

(Left to right)
Mrs Morrison, Miss Wilman, Miss Perkins, Miss Haines

--------

English:

This half term our book led topics will be 'The Story Tree' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. We will be listening to and exploring Traditional Tales and these texts will link closely to our Spring 2 topic of 'Growing'.

The Story Tree is a collection of traditional tales from across the world. We will be reading all of the stories in guided reading sessions but in English we will be focusing on 'The Sweetest Song', which is an African American folk tale. In the story the Little Daughter is told to stay in the garden by her parents. She is so distracted picking flowers and singing a traditional African-American song, that she ends up far away from home. She meets a wolf along the path and the reader is left to decide whether he is good or bad. The children will be writing letters from the Wolf to the Little Daughter. 

Next, we will be reading the well-known Traditional Tale 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. We will be retelling the story and describing the characters. 

For more information on the Year 1 English curriculum please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study#key-stage-1---year-1

------

Maths:

This half term we will be revisiting and consolidating Number and place value. We will then begin our new topics, Multiplication and Division and Geometry (position and Direction). Children will develop their use of reasoning and problem solving.
We will focus our learning around the following topics:

For more information on the Year 1 Maths curriculum please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study#year-1-programme-of-study

Here are some useful websites for Maths games and resources:

http://www.ictgames.co.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zjxhfg8
https://www.mymaths.co.uk/

------

Reading:

Your child will be read with once a week by a member of staff and they will also join in with small guided reading groups with their teachers weekly. Children will be able to change their spot books daily or when needed. Members of staff will move them onto new spot book bands as they make progress throughout the year. The book bands will link to their phonetic knowledge, the sight reading of tricky words and their ability to understand and answer questions about what they have read. If you would like to discuss ways in which you can support your child's reading further, please speak to your child's class teacher. We will visit the library weekly on a Friday afternoon, where children will be able to return and pick a new library book. 

During weekly whole class guided  reading response tasks, we will explore texts which link to our book led topic. 

Both library and spot books will need to be quarantined for 72 hours once returned, so please do bare with us as we get this system up and running in the first few weeks. 

Reading with your child at home is a fantastic way to support their learning and progress. We suggest that a 'little and often' approach is best, i.e five minutes, five times a week. As well as decoding the words, ask them questions to check their understanding. In addition to listening to your child read, please read to your child as this will support them to behave like a reader, copying what they see and hear. We recommend that you share favourite stories, allowing them to join in with predictable phrases. Also, visiting your local library is a great way to discover new and exciting books. 

 ------

Phonics and Spellings:

Throughout year 1, the children will be revisiting and learning phonics phases 2, 3, 4 and 5. They will have daily phonics sessions, including games and on a Friday children will use the sounds which they have learnt that week to write in their phonics books. They will also learn to read and spell the 'tricky words' and high frequency words. We will be sending out handouts at the beginning of they year to remind you of the phonics phases and tricky words. It would be beneficial to practise reading words containing the sound patterns which we are learning each week, identifying them in books and spelling words containing them. We will attach weekly phonics sounds and spellings at the bottom of our Year 1 web page each week.

The children will use the sounds which they have learnt to carefully segment and blend words. For example:
'chair' ch-air
'shelf' sh-e-l-f 
'home' (children will recognise the split vowel digraph o_e)

We follow the Letters and Sounds phonics programme:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf

Here are some useful websites for phonics games and resources:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm
https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds
Teach your Monster to read app (£0.99)
Jolly Phonics Lessons app (free)
Meet the Alphablocks! app (free)

Here is a useful clip explaining phonics terminology for grownups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh5BYDNUMDk

------

Handwriting:

We will be following a handwriting scheme of work called 'Letterjoin'.
https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/
Children will be learning the leads in, the formation of and the leads out of letters. We call this handwriting 'pre-cursive'. This will prepare them to begin joining up their handwriting when they are in Year 2. Here are the log in details for children to practice pre-cursive handwriting at home:

------

Foundation Subjects:

Science- Plants 
We will be learning about the parts of plants and their jobs, naming a variety of plants, exploring what different plants need in order to grow well and survive. We will also be carrying out a variety of experiments and investigations and improving our working scientifically skills.

Longitudinal Environment Study- Observing and predicting changes in our school environment and identifying flowering plants and animals in different seasons.

Computing- We will be learning about algorithms through jam sandwich instructions and using beebot robots.

P.E- P.E Coach

PSHE- Heartsmart- Don't rub it in, rub it out!

ART- Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, We will be improving our drawing and sketching skills through Daffodil observation drawings and nature drawings. Finally, we will be learning about and creating Art in the style of Kandinsky.  

D&T or  R.E - We will designing and making our own moving pictures using a sliding motion.

Geography or History- We will be learning about coasts around the UK and comparing their physical and human features. 

Music- Jack and the Beanstalk.

--------

The children will be given the opportunity to visit our school library on a Friday afternoon. During this time they will be able to select one free-reading book of their choice.

Our PE day is on a Tuesday; please ensure that your child comes into school that day in a full PE kit (white t-shirt, black leggings/skirt/shorts/jogging bottoms, white socks and plimsoles or trainers). Long hair needs to be tied back and earrings must be removed or covered with tape for PE.

If you have any questions please talk to us in the morning or after school or arrange a meeting through the office. 

Miss Perkins and Miss Wilman 

n.perkins@emsworth.hants.sch.uk
l.wilman@emsworth.hants.sch.uk 

--------

Behaviour Management

Reading Challenge

Each time children read at home and their grown-up records this in their reading record, they get to move their rabbit up the burrow or their squirrel up the tree. Once they have reached the top of the burrow or tree, they get a sticker for their bookmark. When their bookmark has 5 stickers they will receive a reading challenge certificate to take home.

Dojos

Each child has their own dojo monster. Children can be awarded dojo points for a number of positive behaviours such as, having good manners, sitting nicely, putting their hands up and helping others. Children can also have dojos taken away for not making the correct behaviour choices such as, calling out, leaving the classroom and being too noisy. We find dojo points are very effective for awarding positive behaviour and reminding children of our expectations. Children get to change and choose their dojo monster each time they reach a hundred. At the end of a half term, the boy and girl with the most dojos will receive a prize.

Squirrel Learning Rocket

This is our learning rocket! All children have an astronaut which starts the day on the rocket. If a child is seen to be working hard, making the right choices or thinking about our weekly missions and challenges they get to move their astronaut to the star! If they are on the star at the end of the day they get an EPS (5) dojo and a star sticker. If a child receives a warning their learning journey is in peril and they will have to move their astronaut to the moon. On the moon, children are encouraged to think about the good choices they can make to get back onto their learning journey. If a child continues to make bad choices they will be moved to the earth and receive a yellow card. A yellow card means the child will loose one break time. This can be escalated to an orange card (two break times) or a red card (all break times for a day). Luckily, we have fantastic astronauts in Squirrel class who spend far more time shooting for the stars than on the moon or the earth! At the end of every week we choose two children to be our ‘Star of the week’. These children receive a special certificate to tell their grown-ups how amazing they’ve been, 5 extra minutes of golden time and they get to sit on a star cushion for the next week so everyone can know they’re a superstar!

Rabbit Rainbow

This is our learning rainbow! All children have a named peg which starts the day on the sun. If a child is seen to be working hard and making positive choices, they get to move their name to the rainbow! If they are on the rainbow at the end of the day they get an EPS (5 points) dojo and a sticker. If a child receives a warning then they will be asked to move their name to the rain cloud. On the rain cloud, children are encouraged to think about the good choices they can make to get back onto the sun. If a child continues to make bad choices they will be moved to the storm cloud and receive a yellow card. A yellow card means the child will loose one break time. This can be escalated to an orange card (two break times) or a red card (all break times for a day). Luckily, we have fantastic behaviour in Rabbit class and children spend far more time on the rainbow than the rain cloud or the storm cloud! At the end of each day we choose one child to be our ‘star of the day’. This child receives a special certificate to tell their grown-ups how amazing they’ve been, 5 extra minutes of golden time and they get to sit on a special cushion for the school next day.

--------

Home Learning 

The Home Learning Tasks for this half term will be attached below and can be completed any time before February half term. These are by no means compulsory and we do not expect the children to complete every task, unless they would like to. We set these tasks to create and encourage dialogue between home and school. Children can share their work on SeeSaw. Login details to follow.
We will add our weekly phonics sounds and spellings fortnightly for children to practise reading and writing at home. We will however begin to move different ability groups onto new sounds at different speeds so please ask your child or your teacher which phonics group they are in. 

Please see your class teacher if you any questions or queries regarding these tasks.

Topic homework:

Weekly phonics spellings:

These are uploaded fortnightly. Each child is in a different phonics group based on their ability. Your child will know which group they are in, but if not please ask a member of staff.

Pending..

Please view our Year 1 online learning page in the event of school closure, bubble closure or individual self isolation from school time.