Year 1 Newsletter

January 2017
Welcome back after Christmas! We hope that you all had a very special time over the break. Thank you very
much for the generous cards and gifts. As you know, the New Year brings new staffing arrangements in year
1. Miss Rigby will be teaching the class for the remainder of the school year alongside Miss Wilkinson and
Mrs Williams, and we are going to have a very exciting term ahead! Reading books will continue to be
changed weekly. Remember your child will also be reading daily during their phonics session. Please make
sure that your child brings his/her book bag and reading packs to school every day. It is vital that you also
read with your child for 5-10 minutes every day and record this in their reading records. In addition, if your
child has read all their books, before they get changed, why not attempt one of the targets on our class blog
reading page to extend their reading skills.
English
This half term in English we will be starting to look at non-chorological reports; reading
and researching polar or desert animals linked to our science topic and whole school Our
Wonderful World theme. The children will plan and write their own fact page to add to
our class animal encyclopaedia. We will then be reading a story from a different culture
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. Alongside this we will continue to ensure that we are
consistently leaving clear finger spaces between words, starting sentences with a capital
letters, checking our sentences make sense and ending with the correct punctuation mark.
We will continue with our handwriting sessions recapping on forming capital letters correctly
and start to learn to letter families.

Ways to help Continue to reinforce starting each sentence, names and places with a
capital letter and end each sentence with a full stop. Encourage your child to read their
writing back to you to check it makes sense. Practise going online and researching an
animal, encouraging your child to type into a search engine and read text. National
Geographic Kids is a good place to start.
Mathematics
In Maths we will be learning about number and place value recognising numbers to 100,
identifying tens and units using apparatus, 1 more and less/10 more and 10 less and
ordering numbers. Further on in the half term we will move onto units covering mass
and weight, 2D and 3D shapes, counting money and multiplication.

Ways to help- Counting forwards and backwards from any given number including across
10s e.g. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52. and 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28. Continue to play
suggested games with your child involving mental maths. Count in 2s, 5s and 10s when
going up stairs or walking along the path. Any opportunity for children to handle and
recognise coins and notes will help them when we move onto counting coins in 2s, 5s
and 10s.
Science
This half term in science we will continue learning about seasons (with a focus on
Winter) and Animals. We will be naming and identifying different of animals and ways in
which scientists group animals based on their features e.g. birds- wings, feathers, 2 feet.

We will learn about omnivores, carnivores and herbivores and naming animals for each
category.

Ways to help- Continue to discuss the weather, daylight hours and temperature during the
winter months.

Homework
Homework will continue to be given out every Friday and should be returned to the box in class the following
Wednesday. Please ensure your child completes their homework in pencil. It is also helpful if you indicate how
much help your child has had with their homework. You can write an i- independent or s-support.
Blog
The Year 1 blog page is regularly updated with what we are learning each week, important messages and
videos of what we have been learning in class. There are additional pages located at the top of the home
page. You will find extra information and activities for Phonics and Reading to challenge your child. Homework
is also posted on there (just in case your childs book hasnt quite made it to the homework box). If you
think of anything else you would like to see on there or think would be useful, feel free to come and speak
to me at the end of the school day. Finally, please leave us a comment. The children really do love seeing
who has visited our blog page.
Whole School Theme for this half term is
Our Wonderful World
Year 1s Creative Curriculum Overview
Geography
Equator
Hot & Cold Places
7 Continents
Contrasting Locality
Music
Feel the Pulse: Exploring pulse and
rhythm

R.E
Christianity: The creation story

Computing
Control
Data Handling

French
Animals

PHSE
Relationships:
SRE
Living in the wider world: Economy

Art & Design Technology

Painting hot & cold colours
Sketching African Landscapes
Designing & building an animal
using a range of materials
P.E
Dance
(Thursday- Please ensure that
your childs P.E kits are in school
and named)
Role Play & Experiences
Travel Agents
Winter Walk

REMINDERS
Spellings are given out on FRIDAY for a test the following FRIDAY. (The number of spellings varies across
each phonics group).

 Reading books should be in school every day. Please record any reading done at home in the reading
record.
Library day is on a WEDNESDAY where your child has the opportunity to borrow a book to read.
Please ensure your child is coming to school every day with a coat (preferably with a hood). They will be
expected to be wearing a coat every playtime as it continues to be cold and wet.
As usual, if you have any concerns or queries please feel free to contact me at the end of the day or by
email l.rigby@harris.lancs.sch.uk.
Kind Regards
Miss Rigby