Summer Term 2024

Welcome to Y1. Our teacher's are Mrs Lock who will be teaching on Monday to Wednesday and Mrs Marshall who will teach Wednesday to Friday. Our teaching partner in year 1 is Mrs Chilton. We also have some other familiar faces; our three LSPs, Mrs Chan, Mrs Dumont and Mrs Thurman.

Throughout the academic year new information, key dates and resources to support your child's learning journey are added to our class page so please visit us regularly, and follow our Twitter feed to see what we are up to. 

• In the Summer term we have lots of lovely learning to engage with.
• In our English lessons we will continue to embed a love of reading and literature throughout the curriculum and to build on our phonics knowledge through daily phonics lessons and activities. Comprehension skills including developing and widening vocabulary, retrieval, sequencing and inference are taught through class guided reading lessons twice weekly and each child will also be heard read in a smaller focused reading group.
• We will begin the term with the return of our naughty little pixie, Pippety Skycap. We will be learning word class and grammar skills through his adventures and then will create some stories of our own featuring this mischievous little character.
• Our second text will focus on the traditional tale, 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. We will learn how to add prefix and suffix to root words and will look at story structure, sequencing and character descriptions.
• Following on from the traditional story, we will study an alternative version; 'Jim and the Beanstalk'. Using all our skills we will aim to impress with our own interpretations of this wonderful book.

• Reading:

  We would ask that all children read to an adult at home at least three times at week and to record this in their reading diaries. Once an adult at school has seen three signatures, the children will move along our reading reward board to reach the treasure chest, allowing them to choose a reward for their efforts. To maximise the benefits of reading at home we recommend that you ask your child to tell you about the book and to re tell the story in their own words. This is often a skill that children of this age find difficult but it is vital to their progress and development as a reader. It is important to check they are understanding what they are reading not just decoding words. If you are able to do this every day just for a few minutes you will be amazed how much your children will benefit from this. At school, in addition to daily phonics sessions, we immerse the class in reading and listening to texts daily across the whole curriculum. Throughout year 1 we teach the children strategies and techniques to develop their reading skills so they are able to develop their comprehension skills through class and small group discussions and also differentiated guided reading sessions. We also wish to foster a genuine love of reading and regularly change the selection of books the children can choose to read in school.

   

  As well as a school de-codable reading book, and a reading for pleasure book, we may be sending home some individual words for your child to practise which will aid their sight vocabulary when they come across these words in their books.

   

  Once your child has read and is secure in their understanding of their reading book new books will be issued by school staff. Once they become more fluent in reading, children will be benchmarked; this is the tool we use to assess reading and comprehension and will determine a book band colour for your child. Once children have been allocated a band, a message will be sent home in their reading record diary, so it is important that they bring these, along with their books, to school every day. They will also be given a bookmark with further tips on how to support your child with their reading skills.

• Differentiated spellings linked to phonics will be sent home after the first term once we have assessed your child individually on their phonics knowledge. A reading for pleasure book and phonics phase book will be sent home with your child each week.
• In Maths we will begin with a unit on mass and volume. We will them focus on multiplication and division, fractions and money before returning to time and position and direction. Working on the 2x, 5x and 10x tables at home will help give your child a head start.
• In Science lessons we will be learning about plants and trees. We will be taking out learning outside to explore local plants that grow in our gardens. We will also learn about the basic parts of a plant and their functions as well as learning how to identify deciduous and evergreen trees.
• This learning will compliment our DT unit of learning, in which we will find out about the plants we eat. We will learn how to spot a fruit from a vegetable, which parts grow above and below the ground, and will find out the names of a range fruit and vegetables, before tasting these and creating recipes for our own smoothie designs. As we create our taste sensations, we will also practise food preparation skills such as cutting, juicing and blending.
• In Geography we will be exploring what it is like to live in Shanghai, we will be locating which continent Shanghai is located in and will be learning how to compare and contrast Shanghai with where we live by identifying physical and human features.
• In History we will be learning how Explorers have changed the world by finding out about ancient Explorers such as Christopher Columbus and also modern day explorers such a Dame Ellen MacArthur, We will learn about what equipment they needed and also the impact their discoveries have made.
• In Computing we will be learning how can use programming to order instructions and commands to achieve tasks and learning how to debug. In addition we will be learning how to manipulate 3D designs using blue prints and continuing to learn the importance of Esafety through activities and stories.
• In Art and Design Year 1 will explore colour mixing. We will learn about primary and secondary colours as well as learning about patterns. Our skills will culminate in the creation of a wonderful plate, painted in the style of Clarice Cliff.
• In Music this term, we will be identifying and describing pitch in Y1. We will explore the sounds created by a variety of different instruments and voices, describing their pitch and timbre. Through simple listening games we'll identify simple pitch patterns. We will also use a variety of tuned and untuned percussion instruments to compose simple sound effects to accompany sections of a story representing our compositions using creative graphic notation tools such as pipe cleaners and coloured cubes! . 
• In PE we will be learning the fundamental skills of throwing and catching as we complete a unit focused on ball skills using our feet as well as practising and applying the core skills we have learnt in our preparations for sports day.
• In RE we will be learning about the stories that Jesus told and the lessons he wanted to teach us and about the good news that Jesus brings. Summer Term also brings the opportunity for all pupils to create their ideas and reflections through the medium of Art through the National Spirited Arts competition. We will also be remembering to apply our Christian Values of Thankfulness and Responsibility in our every day lives and in how we take care of ourselves and each other. We will also be time travelling on our trip to Southwell Minster on  21 June.
• In PSHE/RSE: Year 1 will be getting Heartsmart by learning that being yourself is the best that you can be and knowing who we can talk to when we are feeling sad or angry. We will be recognising  the potential in all of us by learning the power of resilience and the importance of aiming high and capturing our hopes and dreams. We will be learning how families across the world may look different but how they are all characterised by love and how we respect differences. We will continue to learn about how to save money and to make the right choices. 
• 30 Days Wild: As part of our outdoor learning we will be taking part in the World Wildlife Fund's 30 Day's Wild Challenge which we hope you will join in with at home too. This year the challenge not only has weekly themes, but also activity suggestions for each day, offering a more mindful approach to nature and all its glory.  Resources will be posted on here as they appear.

   

   .Useful information:
• Our PE lessons will continue to be on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We would ask that all pupils come to school in their P.E. kits on these days. Our PE will take place outside whenever possible so please ensure that your child has suitable clothing for the changing weather. We also want to utilise our wonderful outdoor area as much as possible so if you are able to make sure your child has a pair of wellingtons and a waterproof coat and/ trousers so that we can go outside all year round. You may wish to include some warmer clothing for our outdoor sessions until the weather gets warmer. Please ensure all clothing and footwear is clearly named. 
• Please may we remind parents to discourage children from bringing toys or personal belongings into class - they can get lost or broken and act as a distraction during valuable learning time.
• Chance to Shine: we love to celebrate your child's talents and achievements by giving them the opportunity to talk about what they have been up to in class. Please refer to the Chance to Shine Timetable to see which dates have been allocated to your child. Please feel free to email photographs or video clips of your child's latest achievements, new skills, sporting prowess or hobbies so we can showcase and celebrate with them.

Click below to see our Twitter feed! Keep an eye on Twitter to see our progress.

Phonics terminology and definitions:

Pure Sounds – pronouncing the sounds of letters and combinations of letters correctly, for example not saying ‘muh’ but ‘mmmmm’. Avoid trying to say an ‘uh’ at the end of the sound. I uploaded a video to the Facebook page showing how to pronounce the sounds in Phase 2 and Phase 3.

Oral blending – hearing a series of sounds and merging them together to say the word, for example an adult says ‘b-u-s’ and the child says ‘bus’.

Blending – children see a word, say those individual sounds in the word and then merges those sounds together to hear the whole words like
c-a-t makes ‘cat’. This is vital for reading.

Segmenting – the opposite to blending. Children break up the word into its component sounds. This is vital for spelling and writing words.

Phoneme – The smallest unit of sound. There are approximately 44 in the English language to learn.

Grapheme – the written form of a phoneme. They can be made up of different numbers of letters for example 1 letter – s, 2 letters – ai, 3 letters – igh.

Digraph – two letters that make one phoneme, for example oo, oa, ee

Trigraph – three letters that make one phoneme, for example ear, igh, air

Split digraph – perhaps you know this as the’magic e’? It is when a digraph (ie) has been split and a consonant has been placed in the middle. The ‘ie’ is still making the sound despite a letter in the middle. There are five split digraphs to learn
i_e like in time
a_e like in cake
o_e like in joke
e_e like in theme
u_e like in tube

Decoding/decodable – being able to ‘sound out’ the word into its componant phonemes.

Polysyllabic – a word that is made up of more that one syllable.

Tricky words – there are words within each of the phonics phases that cannot be decoded and sounded out. These words just need to be learnt by sight. Sometimes a tricky word taught within a phase can become a decodable word once your child moves up the phases, for example ‘out’ and ‘like’

High Frequency words – these are words that occur most often in books and stories. They can be both decodable or tricky words.

Non-words/Alien Words – Words that can be decoded but are made up and do not make sense. These words really test phonics skills. If a child has good phonic knowledge they will be able to decode both real and alien words.

Sound buttons – a button drawn or placed under each individual grapheme. Every time the button is pressed your child makes the sound and then blends all the sounds together to read the words. The word ‘cat’ would have three dot sounds buttons and ‘moon’ would also have three but the ‘oo’ would have a longer line button underneath.

CVC – Consonant, vowel, consonant. These can be simple three letter words like ‘mat’ but also the word ‘rain’ is a CVC word as the ‘ai’ is a vowel digraph in the middle. This is the same for words like moon, chain, sheet. The ‘ch’ and ‘sh’ are a consonant digraph and one sound. The word ‘boy’, for example, even though has 3 letters is not a CVC word as it only has two phonemes b-oy. This is the same for words like cow, tie, say.

Alliteration – words that begin with the same phoneme (snake, sock, scissors, star)

Letter formation – the way each individual letter is formed. Children will need to learn where they need to start for each letter.

Recommended reading lists for Year 1

Best Books for Year 1 | Ages 5-6 Recommended Reads | BooksForTopics

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks1-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-year-1-pupils-ks1-age-5-6/

Diary Dates 2023-24

May 6 -10 Hedgehog Awareness Week

May 27-31 Half Term

June 1 World Wildlife Fund's 30 Days Wild challenge begins

June 10-14 Phonics Screening Check

June 14 Little City Role Play

June 18 Potted Sports

June 19 Sports Day

June 21 Time Travelling Trip to Southwell Minster

July 23 Pupils break up for Summer

July 24 Inset Day