Year 1
Autumn Term
Y1 Newsletter Autumn October 2024
Wow, where has this half term gone? It has flown by! It was lovely to meet you all at parents evening and we’d like to thank you for your continued support. We are super proud of the children and how hard they have worked over the past 8 weeks. They have adapted brilliantly to their new year group and all the changes that come with moving classes.
English: The children have explored many texts this half term, including The Little Red Hen, Monstersaurus and The Gingerbread Man. They have produced some lovely character descriptions, written some brilliant stories and even a set of instructions about how to make a monster. We have focused on the four finger check (capital letters, full stops, checking sense and finger spaces) and encouraged using adjectives for description. The children have also had daily handwriting sessions this half term and have worked hard to improve letter size and formation.
We have attached the phonics sound mats we are currently using in class for writing, so you can practise using them at home if you wish. We suggest asking your child to keep a diary over the holidays (one sentence a day) and would love to see examples of this writing when we return.
Maths: This half term we have focused on place value within 10 and also addition and subtraction. The children have had plenty of opportunities to add and subtract using practical equipment and we will be continuing this next half term too. The children are getting very good at writing 4 addition calculations for a fact family of numbers and we will be introducing the subtraction calculations for this next half term too. There have also been many opportunities to practise problem solving and reasoning within our maths lessons too.
Science: We have identified different materials in our environment and discussed their properties. The children have been great at finding different materials in the classroom and explaining why they have been chosen for that particular item. At the end of the term we found some animals in our community that were stuck in ice! We did an experiment to try to free them! The children were great at explaining their hypotheses. Has your child told you how we freed the animals?
Geography: The children have loved learning about maps this half term. We created our own map of the community, ensuring it had a key with symbols on it. Many have been inspired in ILT or even at home to create their own maps. This is fantastic!
PE: The children have really enjoyed using the netballs to learn attacking and defending skills. They have practised chest pass, bounce pass, rolling, dribbling and lots of catching. They have loved playing a mini 4v4 game where they had to make a series of passes to score a goal, whilst the other team defended.
Art: Many of you will have seen our wonderful art displays in the piazza when you came in for parents evening! Many children were in the rough red whilst creating self-portraits out of charcoal and it was lovely to see them all enter brilliant blue when their work was finished. We also had lots of fun learning about the primary and secondary colours, exploring colour mixing in our sketch book and creating colour wheels during ILT.
RE: This half term our RE topic has been ‘Community and Belonging’. It has been linked to our school drivers of community and diversity. The children have been thoughtful and we have seen many of the ideas from this unit being used by the children to be inclusive and kind to each other. It has also been a lovely way to get to know the children within our first term together.
Coming Up Next Half Term
In English, we will be continuing to build on our story writing skills we have developed and having a go at writing our version of The Three Little Pigs. We’ll also be writing a non-chronological report all about hibernation and hedgehogs! We will be continuing with our addition and subtraction learning in maths, as well as looking at shape. In history, we will be learning about some significant individuals from the past who helped to shape hospitals today. In science, we will be rounding up all of our learning about everyday materials and we will be thinking about the seasons and conducting some weather experiments. We are also very excited to get started on our Christmas production which we’re sure you’ll all be excited to see too!
Important Reminders
Readers: The best way to support your child in their learning journey is to spend time hearing them read and reading to them. This requires a minimum of just 10 minutes a day to have a great impact and support your child to make more rapid progress. Thank you for your support.
Things you can do at home to support learning:
- 10 minutes daily reading
- ‘One sentence a day’ diary, ensuring the four finger check and correctly formed letters
- Quick fire number bonds eg 4+2=6
- Common Exception Word spelling (in back of homework books). We will assess these every term.
- White Rose maths app
- Phonics Play website- username Forest01, password Newlaithes01
- PE days are Mondays and Fridays- please come in PE kit.
- Homework will be given out on a Friday.
- Please label all jumpers, cardigans and water bottles.
Key Dates
Friday 22nd Nov PTA disco
Wed 4th Dec Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Dinner Day
Fri 6th Dec PTA Christmas Fair 3.30 - 5.30
Thurs 12th Dec Y1 performances 2.30 and 6.00
Wed 18th Dec Reception and KS1 parties in the afternoon
Fri 20th Dec Rec, KS1 and Y3 Enrichment Morning
If you have any queries or things to celebrate then please do not hesitate to email us. You can reach us at the following email address: year1@newlaithes.co.uk
If you need to email about a collection change, please email the office as we will not be able to check emails during the school day.
Thank you,
The Year 1 team
Additional Information