Spring 1

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Year One!

This half term our new topic  is called 'Poles Apart'. We are learning all about our world and will explore the exciting events of Arctic exploration!

. We have just split off into new Phonics groups and the children have thrived under the approach. Each week the children learn 3 new sounds which they revisit at the end of the week, in addition to practicing their reading skills. Here they learn to decode words, both aloud and in their head, learn 'red' (non-decodable words), which help build their fluency, develop their comprehension skills and become story tellers by reading aloud with expression and sometimes actions!

We are so incredibly proud of the children and their hard work so far and cannot wait to watch them grow and share in their achievements. We are very grateful for all of the support and help you have been giving your child. It is so lovely to see how enthusiastic and proud of their learning your children are and we can't wait to keep sharing our learning with you!

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Miss Wilby and the Year 1 Team

Homework

This year your child will receive weekly Maths and SPAG homework through the CGP books. We are working hard to develop our fluency alongside reasoning and problem solving. Please encourage your child to discuss their reasoning with you and to use concrete resources to support and deepen their understanding.

Both Maths and SPAG homework books are due back in on Wednesdays.

Weekly spellings will be sent home for the term for a test on Fridays. All spellings are partnered with our weekly phonics lessons. The spellings are also available to download below and to practice on Spelling Shed. If you do not have access to Spelling Shed, please let a member of the Year 1 team know.

Reading books

Children will be able to change reading books every Friday. Please use the reading bookmarks (linking to your child's phonics group) to support your child and their comprehension of the text that they are reading. Each week your child will come home with:-

• A Book bag book - which links to their phonics grouping and is set for your child to develop their decoding and comprehension skills.
• An Early reader book - A book to enjoy together 
• An online Phonics book - The book your child has been reading in school that past week so that they can practice their storyteller voices and to continue to revisit red words.

Please can you record all your child’s reading at home in their Reading diary, including the name of the book and the pages read. This is really important and allows us to get the full picture of your child's immersion to books and helps us to understand and support your child's reading progress effectively. 

PE

Children will have PE lessons every Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure that they bring their PE kit into school at the start of the term ready.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Miss Wilby and the Year 1 team

In addition to our Read Write Inc Speed Sounds lessons, we also teach the using the Story Books. Please see the videos below for elements of the lessons.