Year 1
The Year One team:
Miss Chatterton - Class Teacher 1-3
Miss Cuddy - Class Teacher 1-4
Mrs Khan - Cover Supervisor
Mrs Newton - Learning Support Assistant
Mrs Lee - Learning Support Assistant
Using provision to Challenge the National Curriculum in Year One
In Year One we have continued to use areas of continuous provision to enhance the strategies and skills that the children will have developed from their time in Foundation Stage. We focus on building the children’s independence and their application of knowledge and skills throughout the different areas of provision. We focus on extending the children’s learning through weekly challenges across a creative and cross curricular curriculum.
Our Creative Area
In our creative area of provision, we have a construction area, a creative themed table and a malleable area. In this area we focus on improving fine motor, creative, planning, designing, making and evaluating skills. For example, when we were learning about ‘The British Isles’ we used construction tools to create structures for our class teddy to travel from one country to the other within the British Isles. We used our reasoning skills to design, build and evaluate our structures. We thought carefully about how the teddy might have to pass across the Irish sea to travel to Northern Ireland. We had lots of fun!
Our Maths Areas
Year One’s Maths enhanced provision area is designed to enhance child initiated learning. Our maths areas are set to develop the children’s skills with respect to the national curriculum. There is a general maths area for number and geometry as well as a separate measures area focussing on measurement. The areas are equipped with the essential tools the children use freely to complete a variety of tasks. Each week the learning objectives differ to enhance skills for problem solving, recording activities, reasoning or a combination.
As the areas are modified and updated weekly, they are inviting and stimulating through engaging and challenging activities. The resources available allow the children to build their independent learning skills whilst challenging children of different abilities in different ways. The resources available cater a range of learning styles and encourage practical activities to consolidate our pupils learning. We have found this regularly allows children to apply, explore and share the strategies they are taught in their focus groups independently.
Our Reading Area
Our reading area of provision is set up to encourage the children to enjoy reading a variety of books and texts aimed at the suitable and accessible level for the children. We have a variety of fiction, non - fiction, comics, atlases and dictionaries that are readily available for the children to freely access and share together. Included in the reading area is a selection of levelled reading books so the children are able to choose a book that is at an accessible and appropriate level for their development. Within the reading area of provision is a weekly challenge for the children to enjoy. The challenge has ranged from completing a book review to finding and reading clues to help to design a poster. In Year One we love to read and we proudly display a selection of our favourite authors ranging from teachers favourite authour’s to the children’s favourite authors. We have included a selection of books that we have read from our favourite authors and why they are our favourite.
Topic - All About Me
What Makes Us Us?
Literacy
In Literacy this half term we have been look at the stories Avocado Baby by John Burningham, Funny Bones by Allan Alhberg and Gorilla by Anthony Browne to support the topic. Year one have been concentrating on the basics of literacy which include; capital letters, fingers spaces and full stops in 'perfect' sentences. The children will be introduced to the suffixes 'ed', 'ing' and 'er'. Year one are enjoying spotting these suffixes across all areas of the curriculum. The children have also begin guided reading sessions and also spelling sessions, with a weekly spelling test on Fridays.
Numeracy
Numeracy this half term is all about place value and within 10. The children have been practicing skills learnt in reception; how to subitise, count using one to one correspondence and greater than and less than. The children have been introduced the greater than and less than signs, through the aid of the number gator, who likes to chomp numbers that are greater. The children have also been introduced the KIRFS which are key mathematical concepts the children need to learn by heart by the end of year one.
Topic
Year one have been learning about ourselves through the following areas of the curriculum Science, History, Art and Design Technology. The children have been look at parts of the body and also their skeletons labelling diagrams and learning the 'Dem Bones' song. They have been looking at pictures of themselves when they were younger and have created their own family trees. The children have painted their own self-portraits whilst looking towards Frida Kahlo for inspiration. The children have also been thinking about their five senses, exploring them inside and outside the classroom. They have also been thinking about their well-being thinking about good mental health and healthy living. The children have also been thinking about autumnal changes and the season autumn, the children will be tasked for homework to go on an autumn walk and bring some autumnal treasures into school.
Our half termly information sheets give parents a guide as to what we are working on each half term. This will enable you to help at home by discussing the different topics with your child or perhaps extending their learning by incorporating a particular subject into your family's weekend activities.
Things you can do at home to help children to learn.
Raving Readers
Reading at home is a major factor in developing children's reading and comprehension skills. 10 minutes a day is far more powerful than half an hour once a week; little and often is the key.
Every time your child your reads at home, please complete a quick note in their reading record and sign it (it doesn't matter who reads with your child, any ear will do!) The number of days your child has read at home is counted and recorded on our Raving Readers chart. The more times they read, the more prizes they get! It's that simple.
KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts)
Some maths is about just knowing it by heart. It makes for mentally fluent children, who can calculate quickly without having to work things out each time. Some examples are times tables, number bonds, number sequences, and addition and subtraction facts. One way to see what your child needs to know by the end of Year One is to look in their KIRFs books. This gives you a handy guide as to which skills your child should learn in each Year. As with their Reading Record (see above) please comment in their KIRFs book each time they practise a skill. Teachers will then tick the skills they feel your child has successfully achieved.
Ways to help:
- Practise letter formation and encourage your child to write their full name.
- Practise number formation.
- Count in multiples of 2s, 5s and 10s.
- Practise counting forwards and backwards from 0-100.
- Identify 2D and 3D shapes around the home and in the local environment.
- Listen to your child read every day.
- Encourage your child to learn to read and write the 'High Frequency' and 'Tricky' words For Year One - these can be found in the back of your child's reading record and on the rainbow sheet given at the start of the school year.
Here are some useful websites to help with homework, learning or just fun. (Just hit the link).
- Doodle Maths (follows what's happening in class)
- Purple Mash
- Phonics Play
- Times Tables Rockstars
- Busy Things
In order to support our children become confident language users, we have introduced some strategies within the Year One Classroom Environment.
Keeping it Visual
Visual Timetables
In order to help the children to sequence their day and particular routines, we have simple visual timetables that allow a 'first, then, next, finally' sequence to take place.
The children have been introduced to 'This is what tidy looks like...' photographs in every area of provision to enable them to be independent when tidying away the resources.
We have introduced visual task plans with the children and parents to enable them to sequence an activity that initially would require adult support with the intention that the more familiar they are with the plans, the more independent they become. Task Plans also utilise the 'first, then, next, finally' language.
Vocabulary Building
Word Wise Whizz
In order to build vocabulary, we have introduced our Word Wise Whizz. The children will work through developmentally appropriate vocabulary and be scaffolded to understand and use each term correctly. The children are encouraged to use the vocabulary within their daily play and learning and we record how the children use this vocabulary in their speech.
Examples of Work
Phonics Websites
Has and Letters and Sounds section that covers all the phonic phases and the tricky words, 100/200 common words.
Lots of letter fans, mats, display ideas and games that follow ideas in Letters and Sounds phases.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/
mix of very good interactive games and worksheets covering most phonic phases. Recommend Sandcastle quiz for phase 3 and 5.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/
a very good selection of interactive games focussing on phonics and sentence construction. Each is split into medium/hard/really hard and are short and fun.
www.ictgames.com/literacy.html
a great selection of games that link well with games in Letters and Sounds.
a selection of interactive games for all phonic phases. Mostly simple games.
Other Useful Websites
There is lots to do at Twinkl
Click here to visit the Uncle Eric's Garden Website
Click here to go to access CBeebies games
Click here to go to Barnaby Bear's Website