Welcome to year 1 with Ms Czuprynska, Miss Shah and Mrs Kotwani
Our topics this term are Moon Zoom and School Days.
Subject Area | Learning | How you can help at home |
English |
We will do most of our writing through our topics, Moon Zoom and School Days. The children will be writing in a variety of genres with the main focus on the writing of simple sensible sentences. The children will be expected to use a capital letter to start and finish their sentence with a full stop. Each sentence should have clear finger spaces to denote each individual word. |
It is important to talk about our topic. Look at and discuss books from your local library or from TV programmes and other media. Any additional research will make your child more knowledgeable, confident and better writers! When writing at home, encourage your child to use the Monkfrith script. It would be wonderful if they could read what they have written back to you to ensure it makes sense and includes a capital letter and full stop. Please remind children to write on the line. Encourage children to bring in and share their home learning with the teacher and hopefully the class. End of Year 1 Writing Targets |
Reading |
Children will participate in a ‘guided reading’ session each week with the class teacher. They will be heard reading individually and in a group by the class teacher and by another adult. Discuss vocabulary – even if your child has read it fluently, they do not necessarily understand what it means. |
Reading for at least 5 – 10 minutes each day makes a huge difference! Reading material can take the form of packets, magazines, signs and of course fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. READ pictures too! Remember to keep reading to your child, as it should be an enjoyable experience – get cosy with a nice blanket! Talk about new and interesting vocabulary that they come across and make sure they understand the meaning. |
Phonics and Spelling |
We follow the Supersonic Phonic Friends phonics scheme. There will be daily phonics lessons with the inclusion of handwriting. |
Find sounds that we have learnt in words in books, praise when they see sounds in menus and in signs. Encourage your child to point use their robot arms or sound buttons when thinking about words. When spelling – always encourage your child to break down words and listen out for the sounds in the words – especially the end sounds. There is a spelling list of words that your child should be familiar with by the end of year 1 on the school website. It is located under ‘parent zone’-> ‘home learning’. |
We begin the year by revisiting and revising all of the Supersonic Phonic Friends Basics 3 sounds and tricky words that have taught in Reception. Then we will move onto Basics 4 which teaches children to be able to hear more than 3 sounds in a word. They will continue to embed their mastery of the Basics 1 and 2 spellings for sounds in words and progress to 4, 5 and 6 sounds in a word. They will be supported by Magic Mack and Jazzy Jack who will help them hear the tricky adjacent consonants that are challenging to hear in words of more than 3 sounds. Children will also learn new tricky words with Tess and read nonsense words with Nan. After half term we begin to teach ‘The Higher Levels of Phonics – Choose to Use Spellings’ which teaches children the concept that there are more than one spelling for a sound that they can hear in a word. With the help of Choose to Use Suze, they will find out all about ‘sounds the same but looks different’ and cool and not so cool choose to use spelling rules for up to 85 spellings for the 44 sounds of the English Language. Here is a link to the sounds taught Basics 2 and 3 Alliteration and Actions | ||
Creative Curriculum |
We start the year with an exciting topic called Moon Zoom in which we will be learning about the planets and the solar system, as well as learning about space exploration. We will read an exciting book called ‘Beegu’ and learn about the yellow alien. We will create a lost alien poster after we witness the aftermath of an incident. |
Please talk about the topics and encourage your child to do additional research to help improve their knowledge and contribute more in class.
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After half term our next topic is called School Days in which the children will learn about Monkfrith school and locality, both today and in the past. They compare schooling in the Victorian era to their experiences today. |
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Maths |
We follow the White Rose maths scheme. We begin the term by looking at place value within 10 which involves finding one more and one less, introducing the tens frame concept and comparing groups using the inequality symbols (<, > and =). Next, we move onto securing addition and subtracting within 10, including number bonds to 10 and comparing addition and subtraction statements using the inequality symbols. Finally, we move onto geometry – recognising the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. |
Encourage your child to read the door numbers on your walk home – can they identify odd and even? On the walk home count a specific car type/colour. When shopping, encourage your child to look at the weights and prices of items. Go to the park. Collect and count and sort natural items. Can you sort the items you found in more than 1 way ? What 2D shapes can you spot all around you? How many sides does it have? How many vertices does it have? Create models with junk modelling discussing the 3D shapes they’ve chosen using the language faces, vertices and edges. Some helpful & fun websites you can use: http://www.topmarks.co.uk End of Year 1 Maths Targets. |
RE | We follow the Barnet Syllabus for Religious Education (RE). Our topic this term is ‘Stories and Special Books’. We will be looking at stories from books from some of the main religions of the world as well as books and stories that are special to them. | |
PE |
Our PE lessons are currently integrated into our daily activities in the form of yoga, gross motor and movement breaks. The children will also be participating in weekly PE lessons in the hall. | Please make sure that all kits are in school every day and that each item is clearly labelled. PE kits will be sent home at half term and at the end of term for washing. Please check labels are clearly marked before returning to school. Please check plimsoles still fit. |
Boxes of tissues would be greatly appreciated!
More ways to help:
- Take your child to the park and encourage them to explore the larger play equipment.
- Make salt dough and get creative, it’s great to keep the fingers moving!
- Setting up and playing games like ‘Kerplunk’ and ‘Operation’.
- Stretching and twisting elastic bands.
- Hama bead work.
- Careful colouring.
- Sorting objects according to different criteria (colour/size), using tweezers to move the objects.
- Talking on the walk home about the numbers on the houses (are they odd or even?).
If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to write an email or make a telephone appointment via the office.
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs Kotwani, Ms Czuprynska and Miss Shah.