Year 1 Newsletter

September 2014- Autumn 1

Dear Parents/ Carers

We welcome your children into Y1 and look forward to seeing them stride
forward in both confidence and knowledge. The children are settling well into
their new routines and are becoming accustomed to a more formalised working
day. We have three Year One classes, Miss Turner (1LT), Mrs Wilson and Mrs
Dohring (1GWND) and Mrs Lewis (1CL). In addition to this, on a Wednesday
afternoon, Mrs Antonini, Mrs Meynell and Mrs Hood will be teaching R.E and
P.S.H.C.E across the 3 classes and will thus be seeing your child out of school at
the end of that day.

We have lots planned for the term with the introduction of the new National
Curriculum which is being introduced from September 2014. English will include
reinforcement of the alphabet and letter sounds and blends. The children will
be introduced to Big Write which encourages the children to use good sentence
starters, interesting words and punctuation correctly in their writing. We will
be looking at stories with familiar settings and writing labels and captions,
encouraging the children to listen for the sounds in the words they want to
write.

In Maths the children will be working on numbers to 20 and beyond and we will
be covering addition, subtraction and place value. We will be working on mental
recall of number facts including doubles and number bonds to 10. Children are
given Maths homework every week which is usually practising something we have
been working on in class. Maths homework will be sent home on a Friday and we
would be grateful if it could be sent back by the following Tuesday so we can
get the books ready for the end of the week.

Our topic this term is based around George Stephenson and The Rocket. This
will provide a link to Journeys and Trains with our English focus being on the
stories of Thomas the Tank Engine. Each week we will be focusing on a
different theme which we have briefly outlined below:

Week 1- Introduction to Thomas the Tank Engine- where we will be linking the
stories of Thomas to our computing work and we will be comparing audio books
to printed books. We will also be setting up our Science investigation table
which will be linked to the Autumn season. (If you and your child would like to
collect some autumnal pieces for the table e.g. fir cones, leaves to print with
they would be most appreciated)
Week 2- Journeys which will include some comparisons between the different
personalities found in the Thomas the Tank engine stories and those of the
children within our classes!
Week 3- This is where we will begin to explore who George Stephenson was and
his place within a historical timeline.
Week 4- A very exciting week, where we will be looking specifically at the
famous train The Rocket, with some great opportunities for observational
drawings in our Artwork.
Week 5-This week will have a Science focus as we Journey through the
Seasons and identify different ways of measuring the weather.
Week 6- This will hopefully involve a School visit to the Railway museum at
firsthand!
Shildon where we will be given the opportunity to explore steam trains.

Week 7- Our final week of the half term is entitled Lets Build Bridges where we will be using our
designing skills to create some wonderful structures.

In addition to this we will be creating some lively Music as we visit the music studio each week to
compose and create pieces related to rhythms and train journeys.

In Indoor P.E. we will be using the hall floor to move in a variety of ways. The children will be
learning about sequences and making up their own sequence of movements to perform. Our
Outdoor P.E. is based on games. Please ensure that your child has a suitable P.E. Kit, comprising of
a T-shirt, shorts for indoor play and trainers and tracksuits for outdoor games which should be in
school at all times. Please ensure that all PE clothes are NAMED! Your child should not wear
earrings on their P.E. day for health and safety reasons.

Homework:
Reading books will be sent home on a Tuesday and Friday - please return them to school by
Thursday and Monday respectively. These books are home readers as your child will be
reading a variety of books during guided reading in Literacy. Please acknowledge you have
heard your child read by signing and/or commenting in the reading record book. Thank you.
Keywords, which are sent home on a Tuesday, are sight recognition words. They are checked
weekly and are only changed if your child knows the word on sight (ie: they do not build up
the word phonetically).
Big Talk will be sent home on a Tuesday. Discussing the subject they will be writing about,
will help your child with their Big Writing on a Friday.
Maths homework is sent home on a Friday and should be returned to school by the following
Tuesday.

If you have any spare time during the week and would like to help in school please contact your
childs class teacher who can arrange for you to be given the form necessary to obtain police
clearance to enable you to help. If you are already DBS checked and the forms are at the office
then you are able to help immediately. All parents/carers who would like to help on school trips will
need to be DBS checked prior to the trip.

We would also like to request that if you are able to send in any junk modelling pieces in
preparation for some of our designing activities they would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone
has any Thomas the Tank engine books that could be used by the children in school they too would
be gratefully received (please add your childs name to the books and let us know if they are to be
returned home or alternatively donated to the school). Thank you in advance.

Important dates this term:
Consultation evenings 8
th
and 15th October 3.30-5.30

Half term holidays School breaks up Thursday 23
rd
October
Children return to school Monday 3rd November

Teacher Professional Development Day- Friday 24
th
October

We look forward to meeting you all soon.

The Year 1 Team.