Year 1 | Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings' Church of England Primary School

Year 1 are absolutely flying at the moment. The Year 1 team could not be any prouder of their positive attitude towards all their recent learning (including the phonics screen and assessments). I cannot believe I only have another few weeks with them but I know how ready they are for Year 2 and how much they will continue to thrive.

During the second week back children completed the phonics screen with me and Mrs Naylor produced some fantastic art with them in the classroom. Each child produced two pieces of art demonstrating the Mesozoic and modern era using water colours and then added black silhouettes of dinosaurs/buildings to the relevant picture. During the previous week the class had done some work with me comparing the two eras saying how they were similar and different. The children, as always, were fantastic and came up with ideas that I had not even thought of!

In English, we had a real push on phonics for a week and since then we have been focusing on the book Supertato. Children have completed several tasks about the book to make sure they are fully prepped for their writing assessment. In maths, we revisited fractions, multiplication and division and we were really impressed how independent the children were and how they used their knowledge to tackle various problems.

Next week, we will be learning about Nelson Mandela and Lady Elizabeth Hastings. We will also continue to practice our song for the charity event about Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell.

We are committed to safeguarding; if you have any concerns about the well being of a child in school please contact a member of staff.

Welcome to Year One

A very, very warm welcome to Key Stage One! I hope you enjoy reading our class page, where topic information will be updated ready for the start of each half-term and latest news will be updated fortnightly on a Wednesday. As always, there will be lots of photographs uploaded after all the exciting activities and events we get up to!

The Year One staff team consists of Miss Thackray, Mrs Naylor, Mrs Shaw and Mrs Meek. Mrs Naylor will support the class every morning and Mrs Shaw will support Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons. Mrs Meek will teach Year 1 on a Wednesday afternoon.

We are really looking forward to our time in year 1 this year, and hope that you are too!

Miss Thackray and the Year 1 Team

Upcoming Events

08-12.07.19 - Transition Week

10.07.19 - Sports Day

12.07.19 - Reports handed out

15.07.19 - Show and Tell (group 2)

17.07.19 - School Trip (details to be shared shortly)

19.07.19 - Y1 Charity Event (Whole class 14.30 - 15.10)

22.07.19 - Show and Tell (group 1)

Latest News

Well done Year 1 on another amazing start to a half term. We have been very busy already and I cannot believe how quick the first 3 weeks have gone. We have managed to fit in a school trip and a parent event. Thank you to parents/grandparents who were able to attend the event and I hope your plants are growing.

Year 1 represented the school fantastically at the Rainbow Factory and numerous adults commented on their exemplary behaviour. It was an action packed day and Year 1 had to solve a crime! A lady called Paige Turner had gone missing and we had to interview the suspects to see who had committed the time. The suspects were an alien, a fairy Godmother, the big bad wolf and a smelly witch! The class learned about handwriting analysis, the importance of fingerprints, lie detecting and face portraits. There were really engaged in all the activities and they managed to solve the crime! I think their beautiful writing during big write the next day shows what a good time they had.

In topic the children have been introduced to their new topic 'Dinosaur Planet' and we have been comparing the human body to that of a dinosaur. We have also looked at our 5 senses and why they are important. Children had to decide what they thought was the most important body part and why. There were lots of very thoughtful and interesting answers. Year 1 have also been looking a bit closer at spring and the signs of the season. They had lots of ideas and we have managed to write a poem and a big write on the area! This week we have concentrated on history and looked at Mary Anning. The children have loved learning about her and have managed to remember lots of information. We have completed three activities on Mary Anning. One was sequencing her life, then children wrote about her life and finally they wrote a piece pretending they were Mary Anning!

Important Information

Reading books will be changed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please can you write the name of the new book in the reading record and sign when they have read the book. It is always helpful to leave a comment and it is something that the Year 1 team really appreciate.
Show and Tell will be on a Monday afternoon. I have split the class into 2 groups meaning children will be able to show something every other week. Children with a surname beginning with A-H will be in group 1 and children with a surname beginning with I-Z will be in group 2. Please look at upcoming events to keep up to date with the rota.

Homework Expectations

Learning Logs will be given out on Friday indicating skills to be practised. Learning logs need to be back in school the following Wednesday. Some homework will be over longer periods to enable research and the date for completion will be indicated on the log. In Year 1 the children have a session to share homework with classmates and staff. Pupils get the opportunity to see each other’s learning and discuss findings. This enables the children to really engage with homework by sharing good ideas and information. All homework is related to what’s going on in the current curriculum and supports their classroom learning. All homework is read by Miss Thackray and initialled.

Children need to read daily and discuss their reading. At the bottom of the page I have added a document with a list of possible questions you can ask your child when you are reading with them. Your support with reading is greatly appreciated and really enhances learning.

Curriculum this half term

Topic

For our last topic 'Superheroes' we will be looking at real life superheroes and how their jobs help us. For example, we will study police officers, fire fighters, doctors and nurses etc. We will also be learning about Nelson Mandela and why he can be considered a 'superhero'. Year 1 will be learning a song about the positive work of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell. We will perform the song to parents at the Year 1 charity event. Year 1 will also be learning about Lady Elizabeth Hastings and why she is so important to our school. In art, children will be looking at the artist Andy Warhol and in particular what pop art is. In DT, children will be making their own Supertato.

A big focus this half term will be the Year 1 charity event on Friday 19th July. Children will be running the event themselves, including advertising, designing and making things to sell. This will be the focus for the last 2 weeks of learning.

English

In English, we will be concentrating on writing sentences using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We will also be focusing on writing on the line with our letters the right way round. Children will continuing to practice the cursive script and in Spring we will be concentrating on how to join letters. We will have a 'Big Write' every Thursday morning where we will look a bit closer at these areas.

In addition, we will begin to look at how we can make our work more interesting. For example, we will begin to use adjectives in our work as well as conjunctions such as because. We will even begin to use sequence words such as first, then, after and finally to structure our work! Year 1 will continue to use and apply question and exclamation marks.

In phonics, we will begin to look at spelling patterns. For example, to make the 'ay' sound we have also learned 'ai' and 'a_e'. We will look at where particular spellings of sounds come in words to help us generate 'spelling rules'. So, we will identify that the 'ay' spelling only comes at the end of words and the 'ai' spelling comes in the middle of words.

We will have a phonics lesson 3 days a week and within this session we will also look at the Year 1 high frequency and common exception words. On a Thursday we will do our Big Write and on a Friday we will have a grammar lesson. In Summer, during our grammar lessons we will be learning:

What is a noun?
What is a verb?
Adding the prefix 'un'
Making words plural using 's' and 'es'
Using the suffixes 'er' and 'est'
Adding -ed

I think children learn a lot by having stories read to them and I will try and read a story every day. The more children read or/and are 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/embed their phonic skills and 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 by children having more ownership of what they are reading will only promote this love.

Some ideas of authors to look at are:

Roald Dahl

Jacqueline Wilson

David Walliams

J.K Rowling

Julia Donaldson

Anthony Browne

Dav Pilkey

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 have a particular focus for each week starting from April 15th:

Week 1 - Revision of multiplication, division and fractions

Week 2 - Revision of multiplication, division and fractions

Week 3 - Assessment Week

Week 4 - Weight and Volume

Week 5 - Length and Height

Week 6 - Transition Week

Week 7 - Focus on specifics from assessment week

Science

Year 1 will look at summer in closer detail and produce a poem. We will also look at all 4 seasons by matching pictures.

Computing

In Computing we will look in more detail at coding. Children will revisit what an algorithm is and begin to create simple programs on the iPad/computer. We will also revisit internet safety and keeping personal information private.

R.E.

During R.E. in Summer 2 our theme will be thematic. Our key question will be 'What makes some places sacred to believers?'.

P.E.

Our P.E. days for Summer 2 will be Tuesday and Thursday. 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.

Summer 1 - Athletics/Invasion games (Tuesday - Outdoor).
Summer 1- Athletics/Invasion games (Tuesday - Outdoor).

Spanish

Year 1 will be introduced to Spanish this half term on a Tuesday afternoon.

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 'careers, financial capability and economic well-being'. Specifically children will learn about where money comes from and making good choices when spending money, how to save money and how to keep it safe and some of the jobs people do in the financial/economic sector.