Year 1 Autumn 2023

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• In English, our Year 1 and Y1/2 classes start the term with a focus purely on letter formation and sentence construction. Once they are ready, the texts, ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and ‘Handa’s Hen’ are taught in Miss Cespedes’ and Miss Booles’ classes respectively. Handa’s Surprise is about a girl living in an African village, struggling to try and deliver fresh fruit to her friend in a neighbouring village and Handa’s Hen is the sequel. Pupils will write a list of their own fruits or animals linked to the texts and will write a new version of the story using different fruits or animals. We then study ‘Peace at Last’ and ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy. We use her exceptional story writing techniques to write a retell of the story and write a setting description based on one of the story locations. Reading teaching and learning centres around the Read Write Inc phonics programme and is tailored to meet the phonetical needs of your child. This term, our handwriting lessons and daily handwriting starters focus on printing letters using the correct formation, orientation and sizing. Finally, SPaG is a key focus within English lessons, focusing on moving away from sentence-like structures to forming basic but grammatically accurate sentences that make sense and include a noun and a verb. Punctuation lessons focus on full stops, capital letters, question marks and exclamation marks

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• In Year 1 Maths, we explore place value as well as addition and subtraction within 10. This is to secure understanding of amounts and number work, including ordering and comparing (e.g. more and less) before moving onto numbers within 20 and then 50 later in the year. Autumn term has a focus on number bonds to 10 (both parts and whole) as well as exploring and sorting 2D and 3D shapes.

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• In Science, the topics of everyday materials and animals/plants are studied. Furthermore, pupils explore through practical investigations, making predictions, selecting materials, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on their enquiries.

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• Through the topic of “Toy Story”, Year 1 and 2 undertake historical and geographical learning. In history, pupils will find out about changes within living memory, covering aspects such as toys and music, whilst in geography, in the build up to Christmas, children spend time mapping Santa’s routes around the world, learning about the different continents, oceans and countries in the process.

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• In PE this term, pupils will be receiving lessons on team building and target games through the support of Soccer 2000 and fundamental sporting techniques and ball skills from their teacher.

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• In Art, we will be sculpting toys, drawing toys using charcoal, completing observational pencil drawings and we will also be painting seaside landscapes.

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• Computing focuses on the basic skills needed to access our technology, such as logging on and using a mouse before moving on to writing digitally.

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• In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic “Being Me in My World” where pupils learn about feeling special, safe and part of a class. They consider rights, responsibilities, choices and consequences. We then move on to “Celebrating Differences” where pupils identify how people are similar in some ways and different in others; they think about what bullying is, how to deal with it and celebrate differences in everyone. We use Project Evolve to link this learning to online safety, focusing on self-identity and self-image and how to manage online information.

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• DT this term has a focus on mechanisms. Pupils will create a moving storybook with a slider mechanism and will create a moving toy monster using levers, linkages and pivots. DT explores the design, plan, make and evaluate model.  

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• In Music, Year 1’s learning focuses around a unit called ‘Hey You!’ in the first half term and two half-units titled ‘Rhythm in the Way We Walk’ and ‘Rap’ in the second half term. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise the songs, considering their own likes and preferences as well as comparing music to other, similar songs with a focus on not only the melody and instruments but also the lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing the songs and play instruments, including untuned percussion instruments.

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• In RE, Year 1 and 2 study a unit called, ‘How can we find out about Christianity today in Wolverhampton?’ plus a unit in the second half term called, ‘Beginning to learn about Sikhs.’

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• Reading a variety of genres regularly at home as well as keeping up-to-date with homework (which will provide opportunities to share and practise what has been taught in class) will further support pupils’ development and we thank you for your support with this.

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Year 1 Spring 2024

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• In English, the texts, ‘Ruby’s Worry’ and ‘Ravi’s Roar’ are taught in Miss Cespedes’ class and ‘Perfectly Norman’ and ‘Meesha Makes New Friends’ are taught in Miss Booles’ class, which are all by Tom Percival and about children who struggle to express their feelings. During the first block of writing, pupils will focus on retelling one of these stories and, during the second block, they will write a basic letter from the perspective of one of the lead characters. We then study the author Julia Donalson, reading ‘The Gruffalo’ in Miss Cespedes’ class and ‘Room on the Broom’. Firstly, we write a character description of the lead character and then we practise recalling the events from the story in detail and in chronological order. Reading continues to centre around the Read Write Inc phonics programme for all Year 1 pupils and is tailored to meet the phonetical needs of your child. This term, our handwriting lessons and daily handwriting starters focus on printing letters using the correct formation, orientation and sizing, with a focus on some of the tricky formations such as k and f. Finally, SPaG is a key focus within English lessons, with pupils continuing to produce grammatically accurate sentences that make sense and include a noun and a verb, and perhaps now an adjective or simple conjunction like ‘and’, to add some very basic descriptions and cohesive techniques. Punctuation lessons focus on full stops, capital letters, question marks and exclamation marks.
   

• In Year 1 Maths, we explore place value within 50 as well as addition and subtraction within 20. We explore these concepts in different ways, using concrete resources, visual models and diagrams to support us. In the second half of the term, we start learning about the measures of length and height, beginning with non-standard units like cubes and moving on to centimetres. We then learn about weight and volume, using units such as cubes and cups to measure and compare.
   

• In Science, we have now moved onto the White Rose science scheme of work. There is a focus of biology throughout the term, with the topics of animals and plants, plus seasonal changes and caring for the planet being studied. Furthermore, pupils explore through practical investigations, making predictions, selecting materials, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on these enquiries.
   

• Through the topic of “Splish, Splash, Splosh”, Year 1 and 2 undertake historical and geographical learning. In history, pupils will find out about seaside holidays in the past whilst, in geography, we study the oceans.  
   

• In PE this term, pupils will be receiving Soccer 2000 lessons on net and wall games, as well as working on sending and receiving techniques. With their class teacher, they will be learning invasion games and focusing upon the skills of striking and fielding. 
   

• In Art, we will be completing two projects across the term. The first is a drawing unit called “Make Your Mark” where we will learn how to draw lines to represent movement, fill shapes, make outlines and add detail or pattern and learn how to use different marks to represent the textures of objects. After half term, we will be cutting and layering shapes and using watercolours and paints to create a landscape of a seaside.
   

• Computing includes the themes of programming, where we use programmable devices, such as beebots and floorbots, and creating media where we learn how to paint digitally.
   

• In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic “Dreams and Goals” where pupils learn about setting targets to achieve and be successful. We then move on to “Healthy Me” where pupils consider how to lead a healthy life, including food choices, road safety, using medicines safely and linking health and happiness. Our Project Evolve Online Safety lessons for the term concentrate on privacy and security, health, wellbeing and lifestyle.
   

• Design Technology this term has a focus on making a textile puppet and making a windmill structure that can turn. DT explores the design, plan, make and evaluate model.  
   

• In Music, Year 1’s learning is based on a unit called ‘In The Groove’ in the first half term and a unit titled ‘Round and Round’ in the second half term. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise the songs, considering own likes and preferences as well as compare to other similar songs with a focus on not only the music and instruments but also the lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing the songs and play instruments, including untuned percussion instruments.
   

• In RE, Year 1 and 2 finish the Autumn Term unit called, ‘Beginning to learn about Sikhs’ plus, in the second half term study, ‘How and why some books are holy.’
   

• Reading a variety of genres regularly at home as well as keeping up-to-date with homework (which will provide opportunities to share and practise what has been taught in class) will support pupils’ development.

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