We are very excited about our trip to Sherwood Forest where we will find out all about Robin Hood and his merry men. Please dress for the weather on the day. No uniform required, We don’t usually visit the gift shop so no need to send any money. Photos will follow!
Mrs Moore
Year 1 Teacher
I have taught year 1 children for 11 years now and enjoy helping the children to grasp this early stage of their education.
I am the SENDCo at St Albans school so I also work closely with children and their families to support their additional needs.
In my spare time, I like to travel and be active. Most weekends you can find me walking with my dogs in the Peak District.
In year one we have a broad and balanced curriculum, which is covered over a range of interesting and exciting topics. Children are engaged and keen to learn because the teaching and learning is exciting and closely linked to topics and to the children’s personal interests.
We have 6 terms over the year and children engage in a range of learning experiences, which are tailored to the content of our topic.
We have three school trips over the year to support the learning we do in school. These trips are a valuable part of the children’s learning and help to bring the topics to life.
In year 1, the children continue to be independent and autonomous learners who can think of ways to support their learning. They develop learning skills such as how to be resilient, critical and creative thinkers, reflective learners, problem solvers and team workers.
The curriculum in Key Stage one (infants) covers:
Numeracy, Literacy, Science, Information and Communication, Technology, Design Technology, History, Geography, Art, Music, R.E, P.E. and PSHE & Citizenship.
Reading Books
At school, your child reads individually with the teacher, TA or trained parent helper 2 or more times a week depending on their level of need. Children will be encouraged to change their reading book as often as they like as all their books are a free choice within their banded colour.
If your child needs extra support then this will be given too. Please could you make a comment and indicate where your child read to and how they did in the blue book just to help us when changing books.
Free choice books
In our classroom, we have free choice books that are labelled with stickers according to their colour band. If your child is a blue level reader, for example they can take a book from the blue book basket every day if they wish.
These are new books and nice books that I hope your child will be engaged to read at home. They can return them the next day and swap them over, as they like. They have been levelled to give just the right amount of challenge.
Reading Morning
Our reading morning is Wednesday as usual, so please come along at 08:30 if you wish to sit and read with your child. It is a great opportunity to support them.
Spellings
Spellings are set on a Friday and will link closely to the sounds we have been learning that week as part of the Read, Write Inc. program (RWI) that we follow. The children have a spelling book that comes home on a Friday so you can see how they have done. Please do not use this book for practise and ensure it is in your child’s bag on a Friday.
Phonics
Phonics is taught daily as part of RWI and will help your child read and spell all the tricky sounds within words. In year 1 we focus on reading and writing the sounds in words to help with spelling.
As you will know we have a phonics screening test now in June so we prepare the children as best we can by teaching what we call ‘real and alien’ words as a way of identifying whether they can read any word by using the sounds they have learnt .
For example, this last week we have been looking at the sounds ‘ai’ and ‘a-e’ in words such as:
Real -Rain, pain, main
Alien – maip, pait, laig
Real -Plane, same, bake, take
Alien – rafe, nake, sate
Spellings should closely match the sound focus so you can see what your child has been doing and build on it. We practise reading and spelling these words in a range of ways and through games.
Try the website ‘letters and sounds’ you will find some great games that your child will enjoy playing and you will see they are split into phases. Phase 3 is the longer phase and the one that links closely to the sounds we will be covering.
Handwriting
We are having a real push on handwriting this year and thought it best to mention to you how we teach the handwriting so you can support your child at home.
The most important thing at this stage is that your child is forming their letters the correct way round as this will help them when they are ready to join.
I always give lines to encourage them to sit the letters on the line. We do handwriting practise regularly and hopefully this will help them to get a grasp early on this year. We have handwriting certificates to encourage the children to practise; these are awarded in assembly time.
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Water Bottle
This is essential; please ensure your child has a labelled bottle in school every day.
PE days
Wednesday and Thursday in the summer term. Please provide pumps, as we will be going outdoors.
Clothing and coats
Please can you ensure your child’s clothing, PE kit and coat are all labelled.
Phonic games to play at home:-
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/
http://www.galacticphonics.com/
Abacus homework:-
https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0
Reading
Helping your child with reading
Helping your child with reading
Reading with your child is vital. Research shows that it is the single most important thing you can do to help your child’s education. It is best to read little and often, so try to put aside some time for it every day.
Think of ways to make reading fun – you want your child to learn how pleasurable books can be. If you are both enjoying talking about the content of a particular page, linger over it for as long as you like.
Books are not just about reading the words on the page; they can also present new ideas and topics for you and your child to discuss.
Tips for helping your child to enjoy books:
Make sure that children’s books are easily accessible in different rooms around your house.
As well as working with objectives from the year 1 maths curriculum, here are some tips for helping at home…
Helping your child with maths
As with reading, try to make maths as much fun as possible – games, puzzles and jigsaws are a great way to start. It is also important to show how we use maths skills in our everyday lives and to involve your child in this.
Identifying problems and solving them can also help your child develop maths skills. If you see him or her puzzling over something, talk about the problem and try to work out the solution together.
Do not shy away from maths if you did not like it at school. Try to find new ways to enjoy the subject with your child.
Tips for helping your child to enjoy maths:
Helping your child with Literacy
In Year 1 everything starts to become a little more formal, as the freedom and play of Reception are replaced with more organised activities. Here are the topics your child will learn in their more structured English lessons.
Literacy is a daily lesson, made up of three aspects:
Children should be allowed to choose a book at school to take home with them to read. You may be given an exercise book to write your comments in when you read with them. Children will also read with their teacher in groups once a week (this is called guided reading).
Try this at home:
Visit your local library and let your child choose their own books
Writing in Year 1
Try this at home
There are lots of tips on transition into year 1 and the year 1 curriculum on the following websites:
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