Year 1

In English, we will continue to concentrate on writing sentences using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. The children will also be practising writing questions and exclamations. In our SPAG sessions the children will be learning about prefixes (un) and suffixes (s, es, er, est and ed). We will also be focusing on writing on the line with our letters the right way round. We will have a 'Big Write' every Friday morning where children can apply these skills writing at length. 

In addition we will be continuing to develop joining letters using our cursive script. This is something we will concentrate on all year and lots of support will be given to both children and parents to help with this process. Year 1 will practise handwriting every morning for 10 minutes during registration to help them become familiar with the strokes of the letters 

In phonics, we will continue learning the set 3 sounds. The sounds are: a-e (make a cake), i-e (nice smile), o-e (phone home), u-e (huge brute), are (care and share), ear (hear with your ear), ire (fire, fire), ure (sure its pure), au (haunted house), ie (pie in the sky), ue (blue statue), ea (bread for breakfast), ey (wonkey donkey), e-e (Steve centipede), wh (white whale), ph (dolphin on the phone) as well as revisiting previously taught sounds. 

We will have a phonics lesson 4 days a week as well as short recap sessions. Within these sessions we will also look at the Year 1 high frequency and common exception words. On a Friday morning we do our Big Write and on a Friday afternoon we will have a grammar session. We will be reading lots of traditional tales and alternative versions of tradition tales during story time. 

In Spring during our grammar lessons we will be learning: 

• What is an adjective?
• When and how to use an exclamation mark
• How to add the prefix un to change the meaning of a word
• Adding plurals s and es, est and er and ed

Children learn lots by having stories read to them and we will have class story time regularly. The more children read or/and are being read to, the greater their vocabulary and imagination becomes. This really helps with their creativity when it comes to their own writing. Now children are becoming more confident with their reading it is important they have the opportunity to choose their own books. The school reading books are brilliant at helping children develop and embed their phonic skills/recognise tricky words but they might not necessarily be about a topic which is interesting for your child. I really want to encourage a love for reading and hopefully children having more ownership of what they are reading will promote this.

Some ideas of authors to look at are:

Julia Donaldson

Anthony Browne 

Oliver Jeffers

Francesca Simons

Dav Pilkey

Roald Dahl

Jacquline Wilson

David Walliams 

There are links at the bottom of the page to any English support I think could be helpful. If you require any more information/support please do not hesitate to ask a member of the Year One Team.

Maths

In Maths, we will recap and continue our place value learning, practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and practise addition and subtraction skills.

During Spring term Year 1 will be learning to:

-Count, read and write numbers to 100 in numerals

-Identify and represent numbers using objects and pictorial representations including the number line, and use the language of: -equal to, more than, less than (fewer), most, least

-Recognise, find and name a quarter as one of four equal parts.

- Recognise, find and name a half as one of two equal parts.

- Know doubles and halves to twenty.

- To solve one step problems involving multiplication and division using objects, pictorial representations and arrays.

-Read, write and interpret mathematical statements involving +  - and = signs 

Science

Our main focus in science this half term will be plants as well as continuing our learning about the seasons. We will also be taking part in some science experiments as children begin to understand the importance of a fair test. Some areas which we will look at are asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways, observing closely, using simple equipment, using observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions as well as gathering and recording data to help in answering questions.

Computing

In Computing we will continue to learn how to use technology safely and respectfully, keep personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about material on the internet or other online technologies. Year 1 will learn about Algorithms and how to code. We will be using Purple Mash to help with his objective which the children will remember from Reception. 

R.E.

During R.E. in Spring 2 our theme will be 'Salvation'. Our key question will be 'Why does Easter matter to Christians?'.  At the end of the unit children will be able to 

P.E.

Our P.E. days for Spring 2 will be Monday (Yoga indoors) and Tuesday (multi-skills outdoors).

Please ensure that children are wearing their School PE kit - plain white t-shirt, black shorts, trainers (which children can fasten/tie themselves), tracksuit bottoms and top. Please can long hair be tied up and earrings either removed or covered with a plaster. 

PHSE/British Values

Our RESPECT code, as ever, will underpin all our learning, and the children will be encouraged to continue to add to a RESPECT code display and write a post-it when they see a child portraying aspects of our RESPECT code and help to choose the children who will be selected for our leaf assembly. We will be discussing lots about our locality and discussing what it means to be British, recapping our British values.

Our PHSE focus will be 'Drugs, alcohol and tobacco education'. Pupils will learn about what can go into bodies and how it can make people feel. The children will identify whether a substance might be harmful and know how to ask for help if they are unsure.