Welcome to Year 1

Home Learning

We would like to share with you some ideas that could be used to support learning at home. Enjoy using the Twinkl link below which has lots of activities for the children to enjoy from home.

Reading

We encourage you to enjoy reading a variety of books for pleasure. After your child has read a book, discuss their understanding of it by asking them questions. Is it fiction or non-fiction? What has happened in the story? Did you enjoy the book? Why did you or why didn’t you enjoy it? Can you retell the story? The children could create puppet characters and use these to retell the story or could create their own story maps.

Children should continue to practice their phonic knowledge. Your child could find previously taught digraphs, trigraphs and split digraphs in a range of texts such as magazines, books, recipes and make their own phonics booklets. Please use the free access to Phonics Play (link below) to help practice through games. Don’t forget to log in to Bug Club where you will find a variety of fiction and non-fiction books linked to your child’s ability.

Writing

Writing is a wonderful activity and the children have been practising using their phonic knowledge to help them spell accurately. The children are encouraged to focus on their handwriting and ensure they are forming their letters neatly and correctly. Your Parent’s Evening pack included a copy of our school letter formation. This is also accessible under the English Curriculum page under Key Information.

A range of home writing activities for your child to enjoy include:

• Encouraging your child to write their own stories. They could read their favourite traditional tale and add a twist to the story by changing the characters or the ending.
• Your child could create and start writing a diary and write up what they have done each day and share these at a later date.
• Letters could be written to keep in touch with friends, family, neighbours and teachers.
• Comics are a fun way of writing stories in a different way using speech bubbles and invented characters.
• Following on from playing a game, your child could write a set of instructions for other family members to follow.
• Book reviews could be written about the books they have enjoyed.
• Shopping lists could be written for adults who will be doing the shopping.
• Your child could write up a recipe or menu for things they have baked.
• They could research a topic and create an information booklet to share some of the facts they have learnt.

Maths

Maths is all around us. Whenever possible try to include maths talk into everyday life. This is easily done when they are playing with physical objects as you can reinforce their counting skills. For example, how many red Lego bricks have you used? Or can you count the number of pieces in this jigsaw in multiples of two, five and ten? Using physical objects such as food are a great way to encourage your child to solve practical problems. It could be as simple as asking your child to count the number of chicken nuggets or peas (or any other food) on their plate at dinner time and asking them if they doubled the amount of peas on their plate how many would they have. Or if they halved the amount of peas how many would they have. If we add all your peas to my peas how many would we have altogether? Simple board games which you could play together such as jigsaws help to develop logical and spatial awareness skills. Games such as snakes and ladders support counting skills.

Other maths opportunities at home include:

• Setting up a tuck shop where your child has to buy treats, helping to recognise coins, pay the right amount and even count out the change.
• When you look around, everything is made out of shapes. Can your child recognise shapes in real life objects? These could be 2D shapes or 3D shapes.
• Your child could make patterns out of everyday objects such as twigs, leaves etc.
• Lego is a wonderful tool to use with maths. Children can build towers and compare which one is taller/shorter/longer. Lego bricks could be used to measure toys in non-standard units. Number bonds can be investigated when combining two different colours to total 10 and 20.
• Correct number formation could be practised in paint, shaving foam, mud, play dough.
• Introduce telling the time to 15 minute intervals and linking the time to activities the children will take part in such as at half past 12 we will eat our lunch.

As well as Reading, Writing and Maths we would normally focus on a range of other lessons such as Science, D&T and RE. In Science the children would be exploring their senses and this links nicely into our D&T and Jigsaw topics of staying healthy and healthy eating. If possible you could use this time to experiment tasting and enjoying different fruits and vegetables. Maybe making vegetable and fruit faces or smoothies. Using an encyclopedia or the internet they could research a famous author or significant person from the past and create an information book about them.

Other things to do together

• You could build Lego models, a tower of playing cards or something else.
• Start a nature diary. Look out the window each day and keep a note of what you see. Birds, flowers, changes in the weather.
• Build a reading den. Find somewhere cosy, snuggle up and read your favourite book together.
• Create and perform a puppet show with old socks.
• Design and make an obstacle course at home or in the garden and time how fast everyone can complete it.
• Collect and recycle materials such as yoghurt pots, toilet rolls and boxes and see what you can create with them.
• Take part in Joe Wicks PE lessons each morning as a family.
• Draw a map of your local area.
• Enjoy developing painting, drawing and colouring skills. Follow step by step guides online.
• Learn to bake favourite cakes.
• Make Easter cards, baskets and cakes and enjoy together.
• Get crafty with natural materials to create a leafy hedgehog of your own.
• Learn a new skill such as making paper aeroplanes, juggling or magic tricks.

Useful websites

Real PE: Over 250 activities and 1000s of challenges to keep the whole family active https://home.jasmineactive.com/login

Bug Club: A range of reading books can be accessed and enjoyed together at https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk

White Rose Maths: Maths teaching videos and associated worksheets can be found at https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-1/

My Maths: A range of Maths games, homework and related lesson activities can be found at https://login.mymaths.co.uk

Topmarks: You can find many interactive learning activities for a range of subjects at https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

Phonics Play: A fantastic resource to keep practising your phonics can be found at https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

Oxford Owl: Free ebooks and activities https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/

Oliver Jeffers World: Activities related to the books about Oliver Jeffers http://www.oliverjeffersworld.com/#home

Joe Wicks Daily PE: On Joe Wicks' YouTube channel he will be live streaming PE lessons aimed at children Monday-Friday starting at 9am https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ

Booktrust: A range of free reading books, games and quizzes https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/#!?q=&sortOption=AtoZ&pageNo=1

The Reading Realm: Free reading and comprehensive activities https://thereadingrealm.co.uk/

Mr T Does History: A history site with activities based around historical enquiry https://www.mrtdoeshistory.com/home-learning-packs

Art and Culture: Lots of virtual museums to look around https://artsandculture.google.com/partner

Drawing with Jarrett Lerner: Lots of comic book and drawing activities from Jarrett Lerner https://jarrettlerner.com/activities/

Drawing with Rob Biddulph: Drawing activities from Rob Biddulph http://www.robbiddulph.com/downloads

Draw along-a-Lenton: YouTube videos giving step-by-step instructions on how to draw characters from Steven Lenton books https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbpwB792UfmrY9JeQ2nk5Iw/featured

Scratch Jr: A free downloadable app to learn and explore making games through coding https://www.scratchjr.org/

World Geography games: Games about continents and countries of the world https://world-geography-games.com/index.html

DK Find out and Explore: A website for children to explore and find out interesting facts https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/

Welcome to Year 1

Mrs Keenan, Mrs Holmes, Mr Fidler, Miss Crawford, Mrs Alexander, Mrs Ambrose and Mrs Wilson would like to welcome you to our new Year 1 web page.

Spring Term 2020

Throughout the year we will keep you up to date with all the amazing learning that is taking place in class.

We have planned lots of exciting learning opportunities throughout this term and can't wait to share these with the children. Please see below to see what we'll be up to over the next term.

English

This term the children will focus their writing on the following areas:

Stories with familiar settings

Poetry - pattern and rhyme

Stories from a range of cultures

Reading books should continue to be brought in each day and children will be listened to read each week either individually or as part of a group. Children should continue to access lots of further reading material using their online "Bug Club" login.

Maths

This term our Maths focus will be on the following areas:

Multiplication and division

Fractions

Measure

Children can use their logins to our online Maths homework "My Maths". Our weekly "Learning Together" sheets will provide details of what we have been learning throughout the week.

Science

In Science our topic is "Animals, including humans". We will be identifying and naming different animals, reptiles, birds and fish. The children will explore their senses and say which sense is associated with which body part. 

Throughout the year we will be observing changes across the four seasons and will be visiting our adopted tree to describe the changes.

Geography & History

During the first half term we will be focusing on Geography and looking at the United Kingdom. The children will learn the four countries, capital cities, characteristics and the surrounding seas. During our 'Around the World' week children will experience learning about another country from around the world.

During the second half term we will be focusing on our History topic. The children will be exploring the life of two significant people, Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale. They will compare and contrast their lives and gain an understanding as to why they are significant.

Computing

 The children will be given the opportunity to use both laptops and Beebots this term. They will be developing the basics of using a laptop by opening software, typing, changing font and saving work.

Through the use of Beebots, the children will be programming a toy to follow a set of instructions (algorithm). They will debug their program and predict how it will work.

Online Safety runs through all of our lessons, focusing on what we do if we see something we don't like when using a range of technologies and who we can talk to about it. Each half term there is a focused Online Safety lesson.

Art & Design Technology

During the first half term we will be focusing on our Art topics of 'Self Portraits' (1K & 1F) and 'Colour Creations' (1B). We will create our own pieces of art in the style of famous artists such as Mondrian and Kandinsky. 

During the second half term, in our Design and Technology lessons our topic will be "Eat more fruit and vegetables". The children will examine, taste and describe a variety of fruits. They will design, prepare and evaluate a recipe that includes fruit or vegetables.

Music

This term we will be using Charanga online program to learn the song Round and Round, a Bossa Nova Latin style song. The children will focus on pulse, rhythm and pitch.

P.E.

The children will enjoy a range of outdoor and indoor sports activities led by our coaches Mr Whelan and Mr Burke, alongside movement and dance. 

P.H.S.E

This term there will be a strong focus on P.H.S.E. Our topics will be "Dreams and Goals" and "Healthy Me". The children will be looking at setting goals for themselves and identifying successes and achievements as well as tackling challenges and identifying and overcoming obstacles. During our "HealthyMe" topic the children will explore how they can keep themselves healthy and safe. 

R.E.

During this term we will cover Prayer, including how people pray, what people use to help them pray and why people pray. We will look at the Easer story and why Palm Sunday is celebrated and what Easter eggs symbolise.

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Things to bring to school every day

School coat

Gilmour school book bag with reading book

Water bottle

Gilmour School P.E. kit in school kit bag with black P.E. pumps and trainers for outdoor lessons

Wellington boots

ALL CLOTHING AND BELONGINGS MUST BE CLEARLY LABELLED

Things to practise every day

Correct letter and number formation

Reading for pleasure (school book, library book or Bug Club)

Answering questions about their book (What might happen next? Why did the character do that?)

Spelling Year 1 tricky words

My Maths homework

Our Classroom doors are always open if you need any help, guidance or support.

Mrs Keenan, Mr Fidler, Mrs Ambrose and the Year 1 Team