Year 1

This half term Year 1 will be looking a poetry book called ‘Out and About: a first book of poems’. It is a lovely book bursting with poems about being outside and different weathers.  This will support pupils’ learning with different seasons and months.

Throughout English lessons, pupils will be learning about proper nouns and how different days of the week, people and places all start with capital letters. At the end of the English topic, pupils will be writing their own poem with the support from their learned knowledge. This will include stanzas and rhyming couplets.

Pupils will be finishing up their topic about time and chronological order during their maths lessons where they will further their understanding about the days of the week and months of the year and how they belong in time order. Pupils will then be learn about length and height and how to describe and compare them.

Pupils will be able to link their maths learning into their science topic for the half term by looking at different weather charts and being able to describe the weather changes throughout the year. Using previous knowledge, pupils will learn about how plants can stay healthy and what their basic needs are to survive. They will be performing an experiment using sunflowers to see if the environment a plant is in can affect its growth. Pupils will also be able to identify, classify and group different trees (deciduous and evergreen).

During Design Technology lessons, pupils will be able to finish creating their own houses by following their own designs. They will then be discovering the artist Andy Goldsworthy as part of the Art and Design curriculum and the interesting sculptures he makes using natural materials. Pupils will be using their knowledge of Andy’s techniques to create their own natural sculptures.

PSHE lessons in Year 1 during this half term will be focussed on who helps keep us safe. It will help the pupils become more confident in selecting the correct people to talk to if they need any help.

During RE lessons, pupils will be taking a deeper look into Buddhism. They will be thinking about the changes that will be happening in their life such as moving up to Year 2 next year. There will be ample opportunity for children to discuss their different feelings and using the Zones of Regulation to help with discussion on what to do if they are feeling a particular way.

Music lessons will focus around the composition ‘Your Imagination’ with pupils having the opportunity to perform and consolidate their learning about rhythm in music. As part of their learning in Computing, pupils will be able to learn about animated stories and how these can be created.

Pupils will now have PE lessons on Tuesday afternoons and will be practising their athletic skills and also taking part in lots of net and wall games.

We look forward to having an amazing summer term.

Year 1 Recommended Reading List

1. Julia Donaldson – Stick Man
2. Kes Gray and Jim Field – Oi Frog!
3. Alexis Deacon – Beegu
4. Dr Seuss – Cat in the Hat
5. Allan Ahlberg – Jolly Postman
6. Shirley Hughes – Dogger
7. Martin Jenkins – The Emperor’s Egg
8. Nathan Bryon & Dapo Adeola – Look Up
9. Jill Tomlinson & Paul Howard - The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
10. Joseph Coelho & Daniel Gray-Barnett – Smile Out Loud
11. Kate Pankhurst - Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet
12. Claire Saxby & Jess Racklyeft – Iceberg
13. Benjamin Zephaniah & Nila Aye – People need people
14. Ibtihaj Muhammad, S. K. Ali & Hatem Aly - The Kindest Red: A Story of Hijab and Friendship
15. Alex Milway - Hotel Flamingo