Welcome to Elm class
Year 1
Your teachers are Mrs Montgomery and Mrs Hopkins
Welcome Back – Spring Term Update
We hope you all had a wonderful break and enjoyed spending time together over the holidays. It has been lovely welcoming the children back to school and seeing how settled and enthusiastic they are as we begin the Spring Term. We are looking forward to another busy and exciting term, filled with opportunities for the children to develop their confidence, deepen their learning, and continue to enjoy school life.
Our Spring Term theme is Bright Lights, Big City, which has a Geography focus. Through this project, the children will learn about the physical and human characteristics of the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on our capital city, London. They will explore key landmarks, features, and what makes cities special and unique.
Literacy
Our key text this term is Beegu by Alexis Deacon. This thoughtful and engaging story will inspire a wide range of writing opportunities. The children will be developing their skills through:
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Writing a setting description
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Creating and writing character descriptions
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Writing in role as a character
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Creating a newspaper report
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Writing an alternative ending to the story
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Writing a letter using the correct features
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Writing free verse poetry
We are excited to see the creativity and imagination the children bring to their writing this term.
Maths
In Maths, the children will be continuing to develop their number knowledge and calculation skills. They will be learning to:
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Count, compare, and order numbers to 50
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Find and make number bonds to 20
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Add and subtract numbers within 20
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Find half and a quarter of numbers to 20
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Double numbers to 20
The children will use practical resources and hands-on activities to support their understanding and build confidence.
Science
Our Science topic this term is Seasonal Changes. The children will:
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Identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants
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Learn about deciduous and evergreen trees
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Observe the weather and explore how it changes across the four seasons
This topic encourages curiosity and careful observation of the world around us.
Please see the attached Spring Term Newsletter for more information
Phonics Screening Check – Year 1
We would like to let you know that the Phonics Screening Check for children in Year 1 will take place in June. This is a statutory assessment that helps us understand how well your child is progressing with their phonics knowledge and early reading skills.
To help your child prepare, we encourage you to read frequently at home. This term, we’ll begin by revising Phase 3 sounds and then start introducing Phase 5. To support this learning, please go over these sounds regularly with your child.
Each Friday, your child will bring home their phonics book, which will include the new sound we’ve focused on that week. Please take some time to go through this with your child, and practise reading and writing the words included.
If you would like any additional support or ideas for how to help your child at home, please don’t hesitate to speak to us – we’re always happy to help.
Some fanastic sites for phonics practise are:
https://www.youtube.com/@MrTsPhonics
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks
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Key Messages
PE - Mondays
This term we are lucky to have Onside delivering PE sessions on a Monday every 2 weeks. Mrs Montgomery will teach PE on the alternate weeks. Year 1 pupils need to wear their PE Kits to school every Monday.
Water Bottles -
Please remember to ensure your child brings in their water bottle daily. (no squash please)
Reading and Phonics in Year 1
At our school, we believe that developing a love of reading from an early age is key to a child’s learning journey. To support this, each child will bring home a reading book and reading diary to enjoy and explore with you. Please use the diary to record any reading you do together – this helps us track progress and celebrate your child’s efforts.
In Year 1, we deliver daily phonics lessons, where children are introduced to new sounds and High Frequency Words to support both their reading and writing skills. To reinforce this learning at home, we kindly ask that you practise these sounds and words regularly with your child and encourage them to use them in their writing.
Each week, your child’s homework will be linked to the phonics sound we are learning in class, giving you further opportunities to consolidate their understanding at home.
Thank you for your continued support in helping your child become a confident and enthusiastic reader!
It is essential for your child's reading and writing that both you and they are pronouncing the phonics sounds correctly. Please click and follow the links below to watch videos to hear how to correctly pronounce each sound:
Phonics Level 2 Pronunciation
Phonics Level 3 Pronunciation
Phonics Level 5 Pronunciation
Maths
This half term we will be focusing on addition and subtraction within 10. We will be using part whole models, writing number sentences and learning about fact families, along with focusing on number bonds to 10.
Topic
If you would like to support your child with our learning related to 'Childhood' then you could do the following:
Use magazines, books and family photographs to find out how humans change asthey grow. Look for people at different stages of life, including baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult and elderly. Draw a picture and write a sentence about each stage of human life.
Ask someone in your family what you were like as a baby and look at your baby photographs. Make a list of things that can you do now that you couldn’t do then.
Speak to older members of your family to find out how their childhoods were similar to or different from yours. Ask them about a range of topics, such as toys, food, home and school. Draw pictures or write some sentences to record what they say.
Write a list of the people in your family. How many people are there? Can you remember all their names? How are they related to you?
Make an information poster about your family. Share your poster with someone in your family for feedback.
Think of a special event from your family’s history. It could be a birthday or nother special celebration. Draw a picture to show what happened and write a sentence about it.
Each week we will send home English or Maths Home Learning. This Home Learning will be based on learning throughout the week.
Homework will go out on a Thursday and will be due in the following Tuesday.
Our Learning Through Pictures
Our Classroom Environment
Budbrooke Primary School
