Welcome to Year 1 - Ash Class

Teacher - Mrs Griggs

LSA - Miss Hodgson and Miss Kettle

Class Email - ash@inspiresmat.co.uk

Any questions, worries or concerns please feel free to email. Your email will be responded to at the earliest possible convenience.

Ash class is a nurturing and creative year 1 environment which immerses children in their learning and promotes diversity and inclusion. The school rules of 'be safe, be ready, be respectful' are threaded through the school day so that children learn to value each other, help each other to be resilient and become independent in their learning. The children are challenged and supported to develop a growth mindset, with endless opportunities to show off their best selves. Children in year one love to learn, love to read and love to create. Look out for regular photos and updates on Dojo.

Things to remember: 

Spring 1 in Ash Class

We have an exciting start to the year with children investigating a spaceship that has landed on our playground! The children are keen to delve into their learning. Let's take a look at the fun the children will be having this term.

Reading/Phonics/Spellings:

All children will read daily. As part of our reading curriculum we follow 'Little Wandle'. The children have daily phonics session and guided reading sessions every morning. The children are grouped based on their phonic ability.

Spellings are given every Friday for children to practise at home.

You may wish support your child with learning to spell common exception words.

English

Beegu

A friendly alien is on the loose somewhere in the local vicinity and needs our help. Children describe the alien before writing letters of advice. The alien is learning English and speaks in words which are close in sound to the English words. Children have to work out which words the alien could mean and write an alien dictionary. Children make sock puppets of their own alien and write reports on these before writing their own narrative based on the story 

Leo and the Octopus

Children will receive a letter with a cuddly toy octopus from Leo, the main character, asking them for advice. They will explore and discuss how everyone is different and how it is important to be considerate and respectful to how individuals feel. They will celebrate the uniqueness of individuals, discuss the importance of inclusion and indirectly explore some of the considerations around autism. Children will have opportunities to talk about their feelings and what can trigger different feelings in different people. They will explore a range of emotion adjectives and the non-verbal cues that can accompany them. They will then go on a journey with Leo to investigate and learn all they can about octopuses. They will learn a range of skills building towards writing a fact file exhibiting all they have learned. Children will have opportunities to explore writing in simple past and present tense, using plurals and different sentence types.

Dinosaurs and all that rubbish

Children explore the themes and ideas in the story, such as dreams, desires and how to keep the earth a nice place to call home. They create a variety of written outcomes including reports, setting descriptions, letters, instructions, retellings, simile sentences about their dreams, and eventually a class pamphlet about how to look after the planet – all to help the man in the story.

The Sea Saw

Children discover a bear having a picnic. They talk about their own special toy and create labels. But then the bear is left behind and the story, The Sea Saw by Tom Percival is shared. The children give advice in the form of commands to the sea (who plans to help the bear to return to Sofia) before helping Sofia make wanted posters that use statements, questions and commands. To support sequencing of events, the children learn to spell the days of the week and include these in a diary entry. Words prefixed with un- are investigated and the use of ‘and’ is explored so that the children can write a letter in role as Sofia thanking the sea for returning her bear. Then, to plan their extended piece of writing – an own version narrative – the children create titles in the style of Tom Percival’s, make maps as plans and then write their stories in three stages, mainly focusing on the objective ‘To sequence sentences to form short narratives’ before editing, publishing and sharing.

Maths

We will be teaching maths though White Rose. This is a research-based scheme of learning, consistent with the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum, that is designed to support a mastery approach to teaching and learning. We will be covering the following topics this half term:

Place value

Addition and subtraction 0-50

Measurement.

Science

Plant parts.

This project teaches children about wild and garden plants by exploring the local environment. They identify and describe the basic parts of plants and observe how they change over time.

Animal parts

This project teaches children about animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates. They identify and describe their common structures, diets, and how animals should be cared for.

History

School days

This project teaches children about their own school and locality, both today and in the past. They compare schooling in the Victorian era to their experiences today.

Art

Street view

This project teaches children about artwork depicting streets and buildings and focuses on the work of the American pop artist, James Rizzi. They create a 3-D mural based on Rizzi's work.

Computing

This unit introduces learners to on-screen programming through ScratchJr. Learners will explore the way a project looks by investigating sprites and backgrounds. They will use programming blocks to use, modify, and create programs. Learners will also be introduced to the early stages of program design through the introduction of algorithms.

How can I help my child in year 1?

Talking, listening and reading:

We encourage parents to read with their children daily. Local libraries are a fun environment for children to explore books and foster a real love of reading. Comprehension is an important part of reading. This can be developed through asking questions such as 'What do you predict will happen next?' and 'How do you think the character might be feeling?'. This will help bring the book to life!

Please support your children with their homework. Mrs Griggs will be on hand to guide you where necessary.

Writing

Encourage your child to write at home. They may wish to keep a diary, or help with shopping lists. 

You can support you child with games on the Letter-join website.

Letter-join whole school handwriting scheme

Maths:

Please practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. This can be a fun game on the way to school, in the supermarket or wherever you can squeeze it in! 

NumBots is an online game and playing little and often will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts. These are critical foundations in maths so we are excited by the impact NumBots will have.

https://ttrockstars.com/login 

Children will also have fun with music, religious education, PSHE and design technology.

Children in year 1 have a real love for learning. Ask them about some of these projects! Children have bounced into school this term full of enthusiasm for learning and they are very excited to share their learning journeys with you.

KS1 and EYFS children are invited to Festival club with Mrs Griggs on a Thursday after school. This is a fantastic opportunity for children to explore festivals from around the world. Please contact the school office if you wish to sign your child up.