Hello and welcome to the Year 1 class page!

It has been wonderful to welcome everyone back for the start of a new half term. I am excited to continue supporting your child as they progress on their learning journey. I hope you all enjoyed a restful break and are feeling refreshed and ready to embrace new learning opportunities, explore fresh ideas and enjoy a range of exciting experiences. Year 1 have returned with a brilliant attitude, settling back into routines quickly and continuing to work hard. They have already shown how well they understand our values by being Kind, Respectful, Safe and Ready.

To begin this half term in English, we will be focusing on the book Billy and the Beast. The children will take part in a range of fun writing activities linked to the story, including creating a Wanted poster, writing a short summary, composing simple emails, describing characters and writing their own recipes. Later in the term, we will move on to another exciting book, Dadaji’s Paintbrush. The children will complete a variety of writing activities linked to the story, including writing labels and captions, comparing characters, creating thought and speech bubbles and producing a simple fact file. In Maths this half term, we will be focusing on place value within 20. We will then move on to addition and subtraction within 20, where the children will practise solving number sentences and simple problems using a range of visual and hands-on methods to support their understanding.

In Geography this half term, our topic is ‘How does the weather affect our lives?’ The children will learn about different types of weather, such as rain, wind, sunshine and snow and how these can change each day and across the seasons. They will observe and record the weather and talk about how it affects what we wear, what we do and how places look. We will also learn about hot and cold places around the world, including the Equator, the North Pole and the South Pole. The children will begin to explore and compare places such as Antarctica, the Sahara Desert and the Amazon rainforest, helping them to understand how weather can be very different in different parts of the world. In Science our topic is ‘Materials’ where we will identify, name and sort materials and learn about their properties.  Throughout the term, we will conduct simple experiments to test the different properties of these materials

We will also take part in our wonderful Music lessons with Mrs Higson on a Friday and heart pumping PE sessions with Coach Nathan on a Monday.

Please continue to listen to your child read at least three times a week. This regular practice helps them become more confident, fluent readers and strengthens their understanding of new words.

Miss Bolton, Mrs Ryder and Miss Whitbread