Welcome to Year 1 Curriculum page

I am Miss Murray, the class teacher.  The children work wonderfully in Year 1 and are becoming independent learners. Year 1 is a very exciting year, as we become more independent and develop our reading and writing skills as the year progresses. 

Home Reading

Reading is a very important aspect of learning, so we actively encourage children to read every evening. It is vital that your child has a book bag, so they are able to bring home their reading record and reading books. Book bags can be purchased from the main office. Book bags are to be brought to school each day. In Year 1 your child shall be given a book each week alongside their reading record for home reading.  Please comment in the reading record every time you listen to your child read.

We shall listen to your child read once a week in school through their home readers, as well as this we will have a guided reading lessons to assess their progress. The children will also have lots of opportunities independently to read and enjoy books throughout the week in school. Reading is essential to progress so please try and listen to your child read as often as possible.

Children will also be sent home some spelling to practise reading and writing these. These will be checked in school on a Monday and your child will receive a new set for the following week.

Your child will learn to read following the Read Write Inc scheme. We will hold a phonics session at the start of the year and again before the Phonics Screening. This will go through how your child learns and answer any questions that you may have about phonics. If you need any further assistance please let me know.

Below are some useful documentations to help you get a further understanding.

PE

The children shall be doing PE on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Please ensure that your child's clothing is clearly labelled to avoid any lost items. It is vital for health and safety reasons that your child has the correct PE kit. 

Homework

Homework will be set using Mathletics and Purple Mash. Homework will usually focus on work covered during the school week and shall include a set of spellings for the children to practise reading and spelling . Homework will be set of a Thursday.

Mathletics

http://www.mathletics.co.uk/ 

This website can be accessed from home and encourages children to practise their maths skills. Each child has also been provided with their individual log in details for ‘Mathletics’, this can be found in their reading record. We actively encourage the children to access Mathletics at home to practise their maths skills.

Support

A positive work ethos makes all the difference to you child’s learning, so your support from home is kindly welcomed and encouraged throughout the year. If you have any specific questions about your child please do not hesitate to arrange an appointment with the office.

We look forward to working with you all throughout the year.

Year 1 Curriculum

Literacy
The children shall be learning:

• Lists, labels and captions- the children will create lists, labels and captions to go alongside our science work on Animals and humans.
• Stories with familiar settings- the children will be learning 'Float' by Daniel Miyares. We shall be having lots of fun exploring the characters and settings, as well as creating stories maps and using actions to retell the stories.
• Senses poetry-  We shall use adjectives to describe what we can feel, smell, hear, see and taste.
• Instruction texts- we shall be creating a set of instructions. As part of instructions texts the children shall be creating information text maps and will then go on to use Talk for Write actions to retell the instructions.
• Information texts- we shall be creating information leaflets all about Liverpool. We shall be looking at the different features of information texts to help us create our own.
• Fantasy story settings- we  shall be reading the story of 'Where the Wild Things are' and will then go on to create our very own story settings.

Guided Reading

We encourage you to read at home with your child whenever you can. Every morning the children will have a Guided Reading session. Each reading group shall have a focused session once a week. Whilst we are working with a focus group, the other children shall work on a range of activities based on reading, comprehension and writing which will help them to develop the text focus for that week. Every Friday, the children will have 20 minutes of Reading for Pleasure- where they can read any book they like. We are very lucky to have Year Five children come and listen to the children each week. The children have great enjoyment reading and exploring different books.  

Maths

During Year 1, we shall be learning to count forwards and backwards, as well as recognise numbers to 100.  The children shall be working hard to order numbers; sequence numbers; find missing numbers and create their own number patterns. We shall also be learning  addition and subtraction; particularly recalling number bonds to 20. As the year progresses, we will go on to learn how to tell the time, recognise and identify 2D and 3D shapes, as well as measure length and capacity. We shall also be looking at sharing and multiplication. Throughout the year  we shall continue to tackle word problems related to each area of Maths and become super problem solving mathematicians!

RE

The children shall be following the school’s ‘Come and See’ curriculum.  In RE we shall be learning about;

• Domestic Church - Families and the love and care shown both in families and God’s love and care for families.
• Belonging - Baptism
• Advent - Waiting 
• Local Church - Special People 
• Eucharist - Special Meals
• Lent - Change
• Pentecost - Holidays
• Reconciliation - Being sorry
• Universal Church - Neighbours

History

Throughout the year, we shall be learning about a range of topics through different learning challenges, which will help us to develop our skills and knowledge. 

We shall  be focusing on our History skills by looking at the following topics; 

• Kitty Wilkinson - Our first topic looks at the life of a local famous person. We will explore who Kitty Wilkinson was and how she helped our world today. 
• The Great fire of London - We will look at how life was and how the fire spread from the bakery. We will learn about the effect it had on the people in London
• How technology has changed  - We will explore how technology has changed and progressed in the last 100 years.

Geography

In Year 1 we look at our local geography. Developing our skills by looking at atlases and maps.

We shall  be focusing on our Geography skills by looking at the following topics;

• Seasons - Throughout the year we will be learning about the seasons and why the weather changes. We will be looking at the length of day light, rain fall and how the leaves fall.
• Liverpool- We shall use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries. We shall look at our school area and the city of Liverpool and explore why it is so special.
• UK - We will also share our experiences of the different places we have travelled to around the United Kingdom and compare them to another place around the world.

Science

Throughout the year as part of the curriculum in science we shall be studying four areas; 

Seasonal change

• Naming and recognising the four seasons.
• Observing and recognising the changes across the different seasons.
• Identifying different types of weather.
• Using a weather chart to record the daily weather and present a weather forecast.
• Identifying and describing how the length of daylight changes across the seasons.

Everyday Materials

• Distinguish between an object and material which it is made from.
• Identify and name a variety of everyday materials such as; glass, paper, metal, plastic and rock.
• Identify and describe the physical properties of some everyday materials.
• Compare and group together a range of everyday materials based on their physical properties. 
• Carry out the simple tests to observe what happens to different materials when they are heated and cooled.
• Identifying which material is best  to make an umbrella for a Minion - exploring different materials to see which are waterproof. 

Plants

• Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of plants.
• Identify and name a variety of plants. 
• Identify and classify trees as deciduous and evergreen.
• Identify and describe different trunks of trees and their leaves.
• Observe different types of plants over a period of time.

Animals including Humans-

• Identify, name draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which parts of the body is associated with each sense.
• Identify and name a variety of common animals that are birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals
• Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
• Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, and including pets).

Art/ Design Technology

This will be linked to the children's history and geography topics or the time of year. The children shall participate in a range of art and design activities to create pieces relevant to their topic work. They shall get to use paint, pastels, chalk as part of their art lessons. Children shall be given the opportunity to develop their creative skills. 

Computing

The children will be focusing on basic computer programming. During the Computing sessions, we shall focus on E-safety and its importance. Just as we want to keep our child safe in the real world, we will want to do the same in the virtual world. It is important that we understand enough about the Internet to keep our children safe from harm but is equally important that we equip our children with the skills they need to keep themselves safe so they can experience the Internet positively and responsibly.

British Values

Throughout the school year the children will be taught about 'British Values', which they will practise this in all subjects across the curriculum. It is an important aspect of their learning, and will include focus on; democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. The class have taken part in the election of school councillors that will represent Year 1 on the school council. This will expose the children to democratic practice; the children who wished to be elected presented a speech to the rest of the class. The class  then voted for the person they wished to elect.