Welcome to our Year 1 Class at St James’
Welcome to Year 1, my name is Mrs Gofton and I am the Class Teacher. We have various Teaching Assistants in Year 1 who the children will already know from their time in St James. In Year 1, we aim to have fun whilst learning. Our main rule within class is that we always try our best
Year 1 Noticeboard
- Children will read with an adult in school throughout the week. Reading books and reading journals should be in school daily.
- Spellings are handed out on a Friday and will be tested the following Friday. Should the children misplace their spellings, spares are readily available.
- Homework will be given out every Friday and it is expected that they return their homework no later than the following Wednesday. Homework will consist of either Maths, English, Topic or Phonics work. It is encouraged that you sit and work with your child to complete their homework and should you have any issues please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
- PE in Year 1 is on Wednesdays. Please make sure you have your full St James PE kit.
- Please bring fresh water daily.
- Please ensure your child brings their book in every day as we may read with them but we will especially read with them on a Wednesday.
- We pray every day in school. Please help your child to become familiar with our prayers here Little Book of Prayers EYFS and KS1
Summer Term in Year 1
This term will be another busy term in Year 1. We have a lot to do before we leave Year 1 and can not wait to have some fun in the sun!
In English we will be continuing looking at London but this time writing an informative poster about London landmarks and writing a newspaper report about the Royal Family. In the second part of our Summer Term, we will be looking at the book Look Up by Nathan Bryon and thinking about inspirational people as well as inventing a story based on this book.
In Science we are looking at Forces and Magnets and will be investigating which materials are magnetic and why as well as learning all about Plants and how they grow.
In D and T we will be making a moving toy after looking at mechanisms and how they can move items.
In Geography we will be looking at our local area, learning how to read maps and describing the houses that people live in.
We also have our wonderful Summer Trip to look forward to and can not wait to go and have fun with our friends.
A gentle reminder that all children should have a water bottle in school and wear Sun Cream Factor 30+ as now the weather is beginning to heat up we will be doing lessons outside as well as playing outside during our lunch and break times.
Tips on how to help your child’s learning during the Summer Term:
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- encourage your child to read every night
- encourage your child to practise their phonics https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
- research an influential person such as Marcus Rashford
- practise writing and reading numerals up to 50
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Spring Term in Year 1
We hope you’ve all had a lovely festive Christmas time with your family and friends. We are so excited to see everyone again.
We are very busy in Year 1 this term.
Our English work will be related to dinosaurs. We will be reading Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs and creating our own diary as though we are Harry, creating some wonderful dinosaur poems and writing letters as though we are the famous palaeontologist, Mary Anning.
In Science, we will be learning all about Space, the planets, astronauts and their important roles in space.
In History we will be learning all about Florence Nightingale and why she was such an influential woman in History and how her work has shaped nursing today.
In DT we will be making our smoothies, tasting them and evaluating them. We can’t wait!
Tips on how to help your child’s learning during the Spring Term:
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- encourage your child to read every night
- encourage your child to practise their phonics
- research Florence Nightingale and why she was so influential to modern day nursing
- practise writing and reading numerals and words up to 20
- ensure your child is forming their letters and numbers correctly
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Year 1 made Healthy Smoothies
As part of our D & T topic, Food, we created our own smoothie for children. During our lessons we have looked at where our food comes from, the packaging they come in and why packaging is designed in a certain way to entice people to buy the product.
The children loved making the smoothie and tasting it. After tasting our smoothies we then evaluated them saying what we liked and what we would change next time.
Its the end of the Spring Term
We took part in the Cafod Big Walk for Lent and helped to raise money for such a wonderful cause. We have also had our parents and carers join us for Stay and Pray which was very special as we started our Lenten journey of ‘Change’.
Our English focus this term has been Paddington Bear. We have created a story based on Paddington and how his clumsiness made him a hero and have written a fantastic recount of his first day in London after we put his day in chronological order. Our writing has really improved this term and we are very proud of our work.
In Art, we have learned how to mix primary colours to create secondary colours using paint. We are having lots of fun exploring the styles and colours used by Kadinsky to create our own artwork using Kadinsky’s artistic style.
After creating our smoothies in D and T, we were able to taste and evaluate the smoothie and the packaging we created. We had great fun putting our ingredients into the blender and watching the fruit blend together.
In Science we have loved learning about Space, Astronauts and their important jobs in space and the constellations. We are now looking at materials and using scientific language to explain how materials look and feel, comparing materials and doing lots of investigative work.
Our History topic has been very interesting and great fun. We have loved learning about Florence Nightingale and Mary Anning and how these two women were influential and have allowed women to have more important roles within Science.
We all deserve a very well deserved break and can’t wait to see everyone in the Summer Term!
Autumn Term in Year 1
We have had a very busy term settling in to our new classroom and our new routines. The children have been truly amazing and a credit to their families and our St James family.
In RE we have been looking at Families, Baptism and now we are looking at this wonderful season of Advent.
In Science the children have been looking at seasons how weather changes and how plants and animals adapt to this. We went on an Autumn walk in the park which was lovely as the weather was a lovely autumn day and the leaves looked beautiful in the sunshine.
The children have been looking at some wonderful texts in English including SuperWorm, Funny Bones, Winnie the Witch and Halloween Poetry.
Later this term we will be reading The Gruffalo and making some tasty Gruffalo Crumble.
In Art, we have been looking at the artist Vincent Van Gogh and using his Landscape work to create our own using his mark making techniques and looking at his work to understand how he created his masterpieces for us to recreate one of his famous paintings.
Although we have had a busy start to Year 1, we managed to have lots of fun in our Balance Bikes session. We learned how to ride the bikes sensibly and manoeuvre ourselves carefully around objects to help our balance and coordination.
We also had our class Stay and Pray, where many parents and carers joined us to listen to God’s Word and Year 1 led us in prayer.
Tips on how to help your child’s learning during the autumn term:
- Read with your child as often as possible ideally their school book or a book of their choice and talk about the book they are reading. Eg what they llike/dislike about the text how the characters is feeling, their opinion of the character, phonics being used within the text etc
- In preparation for our Gruffalo topic read through recipes talking about how they need to be in the correct order and the words that are used (imperative verbs/bossy verbs eg Mix together, Stir the mixture, Get a spoon, Put it in the oven etc)
- Read rhyming stories or poems identifying the rhyming words asking your child to think of another word that rhymes with the word Eg Cat – Bat – Flat
- Count everyday objects using the words addition and subtraction (also plus, take away, one more, one less) as this is our topic in Maths this term as well as identifying numbers such as the number of a bus, numbers in a supermarket etc.
It’s the end of our Autumn Term
What a busy term we have had in Year 1. The children have made Gruffalo Crumble, learned all about Animals and their diets, learned about Mary Anning and her contribution to Palaeontology and in the midst of all this preparing for their Nativity.
The children shone like stars and sang like heavenly angels in their nativity performance ‘Wriggly Nativity’ we are so proud of them all.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and we can’t wait to see you all in the New Year.
