Welcome to Year 1!

Elephant Class is taught by Mrs Gardner (Monday-Thursday) and Mrs Bland (Thursday and Friday) with Mrs Bruckin as TA.

 Mr Dickinson teaches PE on a Monday in terms 1,3 and 5.

Year 1 introduces Class Dojo to both parents and students, which focusses on rewarding students for following our three main school rules:

• Be Safe
• Be Ready
• Be Respectful

Mrs Gardner and Mrs Bland are contactable through Class Dojo or contact can be made through the school office.

General Elephant Class Notices –

• Homework will begin in Term 1 after the Meet the Teacher meeting and will be sent home on a Friday to be returned the following Thursday, please. This will consist of one piece of Maths, one piece of handwriting and a Phonics revision sheet. If you or your child is unsure about any aspect of the homework, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
• Students will also be issued a weekly levelled reading book based on ability and these will be changed every Friday. Reading is extremely important for many areas within child development and should be completed daily. As well as a banded reading book, the students are also welcome to choose and borrow a book from our class reading for pleasure boxes and from the School Library to take home and read with their adults. Children will be encouraged to use these sources as giving them the option to choose their own reading material promotes reading for pleasure and a love for learning, which we value so deeply at Lunsford Primary School.
• PE will be on Mondays and Tuesdays. Please ensure that children come into school wearing their PE kits on these days. Earrings should be removed unless your child can remove them independently in school. All PE kits must be named and should be appropriate for the weather conditions. An extra pair of socks may be useful on rainy days!
• There will be two Forest School sessions a term and these will be posted on Class Dojo and can be found on the class Newsletter.

Autumn Term One

English

We are presently trialling the Literacy Tree scheme. The rationale behind this scheme is that children write for real-life situations. The books for this term have the theme of Journeys and Exploration. The first book we will be sharing is called, Naughty Bus by Jan Oke and Jerry Oke. The children will be writing letters, diary extracts, labels, captions, fact files and descriptions and ultimately, their own adventure story. Our second core test this term will be, Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max. We will be compiling fact files about astronauts, writing in role, writing commands and 'how-to' guides.

Maths

This term Elephant Class will be learning place value (within 10) and will include sorting, counting and representing objects (as well as lots more). They will then move on to addition and subtraction (within 10) towards the end of the term where they will be introduced to parts and wholes, as well as writing number sentences.

We will also be using NumBots this year so that students can practice their maths learning at home and in the classroom. Your child will be provided with an account login which can be found in the front of their reading record. In school we will have lots of practice using this website as part of our computing time!

Phonics

This term in phonics we will continue to use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised scheme to practice blending phonemes and digraphs to develop fluency in our reading. We will be revisiting Phase 2 and 3 sounds, reviewing Phase 3/4 and learning Phase 5 GPCs.  

Science: Seasonal Changes (Autumn)

Topic – History: Changes in our Living Memory

Computing: Technology Around Us

Art: Drawing: make your mark 

RE: What does it mean to belong to a Faith Community? 1.7

PSHE: Being Me In My World

Music:  Rhyming in Time

PE: Travelling and Moving With Equipment

Autumn Term Two

English

This term the stories share the theme of Helpful Heroes. We will begin by reading, 'Dragon Post' by Emma Yarlett. We will finish the exploration of this story with the children writing their own guide to looking after a dragon. They will have written letters asking for help, a note of advice, instructions, a menu, some speech bubbles, a journey map and some thought bubbles before getting to this point. Our second text will be, Leo and the Octopus by Isabelle Marinov. The children will be designing posters, writing letters of advice, factual descriptions, logbooks, scripts and speech bubbles and our lessons will culminate in the children compiling a fact file.

Maths

Maths this term will continue on from our addition and subtraction (within 10) topic and will involve learning about fact families, number bonds (within and to 10) and adding numbers together. We will continue to use NumBots as a resource in school and encourage the use of this at home too.

Phonics

Following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised scheme we move on to learning Phase 5 graphemes and continue to develop our fluency in reading and writing.

Science: Seasonal Changes (Winter)

Topic – History: The Victorians

Computing: Creating Media- Digital Painting

DT: Constructing Windmills

RE: Who is a Christian and what do they believe?

PSHE: Celebrating Differences

Music: Let's start singing!

PE: Sending and Receiving with Hands

Spring Term One

English

Our books this term share the theme of Similarities and Differences. Firstly, we will be reading, 'The Odd Egg' by Emily Gravett. The children will be exploring speech bubbles, writing short guides, letters of advice, labels, congratulations cards and commands. Finally, they will write their own non-fiction report entitled, The Egg-spotter's Guide. Secondly, we will be sharing 'The Comet' by Joe Todd-Stanton. During our lessons we will be creating posters, poems and recipes, writing letters of advice and writing in role. We will end with our own version of the story. 

Maths

In Maths we will continue to learn more about place value. However, we will move on to exploring place value within 20. We will also be moving on to addition and subtraction of larger numbers (within 20).

Phonics

Phonics will continue to look at the Phase 5 graphemes, with new tricky words introduced, as well as exploring what makes them tricky. We will continue to apply our phonics learning to our reading and writing to continue developing fluency.

Science: Everyday Materials

Topic – History: Changes in Our Living Memory

Computing: Programming- Moving a Robot

Art:  Painting and mixed media: colour splash

RE: Who is a Christian and what do they believe?

PSHE: Dreams and Goals

Music: Music Inspired by the World Around Us

PE: Gymnastics

Spring Term Two

English

The theme for the Spring Terms is Imagination and Creativity. In the first term, the first book we will share is, 'Dadaji's Paintbrush' by Rashmi Sirdeshpande. The children will be composing labels, captions, character comparisons, thought and speech bubbles. They will then write their own guide. The second book this term is 'Julian is a Mermaid' by Jessica Love. At the end of this section, the children will be composing a three-verse poem.

Maths

In Maths, we will move on to place values of even larger numbers (within 50), explore length and height and the appropriate measurements for these, and finish off the term by looking at mass and volume.

Phonics

Phonics will continue to look at the Phase 5 graphemes, with new tricky words introduced, as well as exploring what makes them tricky. We will continue to apply our phonics learning to our reading and writing to continue developing fluency.

Science: Animals Including Humans 

Topic – Geography:  Daily Weather Patterns

Computing: Data and Information- Grouping Data

DT: Textiles- Puppets

RE: How and why do we celebrate special and sacred times?

PSHE: Healthy Me

Music: Exploring Rhythm Patterns

PE: Sending and Receiving with Feet and Stick

Summer Term One

English

The theme of the two books in Summer 1 is Friendship and Kindness. The first book in this duo is called 'Beegu' by Alexis Deacon. The children will end this section by writing their own 'alien' narrative. Before this, they will have written descriptions, commands, a nonsense word dictionary, poems, non-fiction reports, retellings, speech bubbles and labels. The second book is called 'Lubna and Pebble' by Wendy Meddour. The activities such as labels and writing advice postcards will help the children to write their own version of the gifting narrative. 

Maths

This term is a busy term for us in maths! We will be learning about multiplication and division, fractions, and our geometry unit which looks at position and direction.

Phonics

Phonics will continue to look at the Phase 5 graphemes, with new tricky words introduced, as well as exploring what makes them tricky. We will continue to apply our phonics learning to our reading and writing to continue developing fluency.

Science: Seasonal Changes (Spring and Summer)

Topic – History: Inspirational People- Neil Armstrong

Computing: Creating Media- Digital Writing

Art: Sculpture and 3D: Paper play

RE: What makes some places sacred?

PSHE: Relationships

Music: Sounds and Pictures

PE: Sending and Receiving with Hands

Summer Term Two

English

Our final theme this year is Nature and Environment. The two books in this section are 'Stella and the Seagull' by Georgina Stevens and 'The Sea Saw' by Tom Percival. At the end of each section, the children will be writing their own version of the story. Before that, they will be composing lists, thought bubbles, guides and notes of advice. They will be designing posters and postcards.

Maths

For our final term of Maths in Year 1 we will be focusing on place value (within 100), looking at money and its value, as well as starting to learn to tell the time!

Phonics

Phonics will continue to look at the Phase 5 graphemes, with new tricky words introduced, as well as exploring what makes them tricky. We will continue to apply our phonics learning to our reading and writing to continue developing fluency.

Science: Plants

Topic – Geography: 4 Countries of the UK- Capital Cities and Seas

Computing: Programming- Animations

DT: Cooking and nutrition: smoothies

RE: What makes some places sacred?

PSHE: Changing Me

Music:  Highs and Lows

PE: Athletics