Welcome to Elm class

Year 1 

   Your teachers are Mrs Montgomery and Mrs Hopkins

Welcome Back – Autumn Term Update

We hope you all had a fantastic summer and managed to enjoy a restful break (as much as possible!). We’re so excited to welcome the children back to school and can’t wait to hear all about their holiday adventures. We have a jam-packed and exciting term ahead, full of opportunities for the children to grow in confidence, make great progress, and enjoy their learning.

Our Autumn theme learning is called 'Childhood' and has a History focus.

This project teaches pupils about everyday life and families today, including comparisons with childhood in the 1950s, using artefacts and a range of different sources.

Literacy
Our key text this term is Traction Man by Mini Grey. This wonderfully imaginative story will be the stimulus for writing across a wide range of genres. We’re looking forward to seeing how the children respond creatively to the adventures of Traction Man and how they use this inspiration in their own writing.

My Happy Mind
We’ll also be continuing with our My Happy Mind sessions, which support the children’s wellbeing and personal development. This half-term, the focus is on celebrating ourselves—children will be learning to recognise their strengths and how they can grow and build on them.

Science
Our science topic is Everyday Materials. Through this project, the children will learn that objects are made from a variety of materials and begin to explore where these materials come from. They will investigate the properties of different materials and begin to understand how these properties determine their use in everyday life.

We’re really looking forward to the term ahead and all the learning, laughter, and achievements it will bring. As always, thank you for your continued support.

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

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 Place Value. The children will be learning to sort and count objects, recognising numbers as words and counting forwards and back. We will also be comparing numbers and finding 1 more and 1 less.

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