5th January 2017

Dear Parents of Year 1 children,

CURRICULUM LETTER- SPRING TERM 2017

Welcome back, I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Over the next half term, Year 1 will be focusing on an exciting topic all about Space. Our learning will be centred on the book ‘Whatever Next’ By Gill Murphy and ‘Toys in Space’ by Mini Grey. We will begin the topic, watching the Apollo 11 take off and will be exploring the idea of travelling to the moon in a historical context as well as using this theme to inspire writing.

English

English continues to be taught daily, working towards a ‘Big Write’ on a Friday. Alongside our main texts, we will be reading and sharing both fiction and non-fiction books about Space. The children will continue to practise the skills of segmenting and blending when reading and writing, which we will be encouraging them to do more independently and to apply their tricky word knowledge to both reading and writing. They will be reminded to use finger spaces, to form letters correctly when writing simple sentences and to use simple punctuation. Throughout the half term the children will have weekly handwriting sessions.

The children will have a chance on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to complete their quizzes, please ensure your child understands the text they are reading by asking questions about the book.

Reading Challenge

We will be continuing with the successful reading challenge. A separate letter informing you of the spring term book list will be issued next week. Please may we remind you the reading challenge is intended to supplement a child’s daily phonics reading and not replace it.

Maths

This term, our daily maths lessons will focus on fractions, multiplication, division and time. The children will begin to recognise and name half as one of two equal parts of an object, shape or quantity as well as recognise and name a quarter as one of four equal parts. Also they will be recalling and using multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times table. The children will begin to tell the time to the hour and half past the hour. We will continue Big Maths and BAM investigations which will take place on Fridays.

Music

This term the children will be learning how to play an ocarina (small wood wind instrument) in weekly music lessons every Tuesday afternoon. Parents will be invited to an assembly at the end of term to see how the class has progressed.

Topic

We are will be investigating the lives of different explorers such as Neil Armstrong and most recently Tim Peake. Through this we will investigate exploration such as space exploration.

Science

We will be looking at a range of scientific activities linked to space, For example:

  • To know that the push to make their rocket fly is a force.
  • To recognise that when their rocket slows down and stops there is a cause.
  • To identify different light sources, including the sun.
  • To know that darkness is the absence of light – investigate the best material for blackout glasses.
  • The Planets – know simple facts about each planet
  • Astronaut food – changes by removing and adding water
  • Food groups – healthy eating

PE

PE will be on Wednesday afternoons this term. Please ensure full PE kits are always in on this day (as well as any day they are doing after school clubs).

Homework

Homework will be sent home each Friday and needs to be handed in on a Wednesday. Please remember to practise your maths in order to improve weekly. It is also important that the children continue to read on a regular basis as this will help them in all areas of the curriculum. If you have any queries about the homework then please feel free to ask me any questions.

I will add the Big Maths sheets on the website so you can access them.

Please don’t hesitate to ask if you would like to know how you can help your child at home or if you have any questions about this half term's learning.

Thank you for your support,

Miss O’Leary and Mrs Cooke.