What We Will Be Doing

Acorn Class Miss Brockwell

Dear Parent/ Carer,

The theme of our Topic work this term will be Rivers. This is a whole school Topic which Sapling and Oak classes will be exploring too.

What we will be doing

This term we will be focussing on extending the children’s knowledge and understanding of the world around them. We will be focusing specifically on rivers, both small and large, the plants and animals that live in them, the ways people have used rivers and how this has changed over time.

Why we will be doing it

We will begin by helping the children explore the world around school, starting with the stream that runs through The Spinney and following it as it joins larger rivers in the Golden Valley, the Wye and eventually the sea. This will give the children an opportunity to explore their place in the world and to use familiar settings as a base to explore the lives of plants and animals and other people across history.

How you can help

In Literacy this term we will be sharing stories to develop our understanding of features like characters and settings, as well as identifying the events which make up the beginning, middle and end of the story. Increasing their understanding of story components will help your child go on to make predictions about what might happen and better emphasise with the characters. You can support this at home by discussing the events in the stories you read together. How would your child feel if the events from the story happened to them? What would they do? Do they think the characters would do the same thing? You can also draw attention to situations in stories where the reader has been shown something happening which the characters did not see, talk to your child about what the character thinks has happened and why they believe that.

We will then go on to find out how authors choose which punctuation mark to use at the end of their sentence and start to make choices about whether a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark is the most appropriate way to end our own sentences. Towards the end of term we will also be experimenting with using the word ‘and’ to make our sentences longer.

Year 1 Literacy Skills Goals this term:
To identify characters and key events.
To discuss the significance of the title and events.
To predict what will happen next.
To identify when to use full stops, question marks and exclamation marks.
To use ‘and’ to join clauses in their sentences.
To leave spaces between words.
To begin to punctuate using full stops and capital letters.

In Maths we will be exploring place value this term to contribute to our understanding of number. We will be begin by practising reading numbers up to 100 and then up to one thousand and identifying the amounts of hundreds, tens and units in each. We will then use our place value knowledge to compare and order numbers. You can support your child at home by encouraging them to find and read numbers in the environment around them, for example in channel numbers, phone numbers and road signs. Additionally, we will be spending some time reading and recognising numbers to 20 written as words and counting in fives and tens.

Year 1 Maths Skills Goals this term:
To recognise place value including units, tens and hundreds.
To use place value knowledge to order and compare numbers.
To read numbers to 20 in numerals and words.

In Topic we will be focusing on finding out about different aspects of rivers, the animals and plants that live in them, how people use them and the landscape around them We will be spending lots of time outside exploring the stream in The Spinney and following it down to where it joins the river by Elke’s wood. We will be pond dipping, exploring the banks to find signs of other animals, finding out about how people have used rivers and using them as inspiration for our art and music.

At home you can support our topic work by encouraging your child to explore rivers and waterways, you could explore The Warren, take part in a water sport like canoeing, kayaking, or fishing, or even make a river or pond in the garden using a hose and digging troughs and using stones to direct the water. As part of our explorations of how rivers have been used we will be experimenting with floating and sinking, this lends itself well to further testing in the bath or sink!

Towards the end of term we will also be preparing for harvest festival, learning about cooking using seasonal produce and being grateful for the food we can share together.

Year 1 Topic Skills Goals this term:
To identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals found in and around the river.
To identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores found in and around the river.
To experiment to find the best materials for floating.
To explore how different rivers have been used across history.
To use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key physical features including forest, hill, mountain, river, soil, valley, vegetation when recording the area around school.
To use watercolour paints to respond to the river.