Welcome to Year 1 - Willow

 

Mrs Andreas and Mrs Morgan

Literacy
It was an exciting start to the Spring Term when the children discovered a spaceship that had crash-landed outside the Year One classroom! They suspected it belonged to an alien. Luckily, Mr Hassan knew the alien’s name was Beegu, which reminded Mrs Andreas of a familiar story with the same title. Our new class text is Beegu by Alexis Deacon. The story follows a small alien who crash-lands on Earth and struggles to find friendship. The children have been very busy creating posters to advise people on what to do if they meet Beegu, using adjectives to describe Beegu’s feelings, and even writing thoughtful letters to Beegu herself.

Maths
In Maths, Year One are developing their understanding of place value within 20. The children have been exploring the structure of numbers from 10 to 19. They have learnt to recognise these numbers as words and have been representing them in different ways, including ten frames, Dienes, towers of cubes, Numicon, Rekenreks, and bead strings. They have also begun using the online platform Numbots to practise their mental maths and improve their fluency.

Phonics
Year One have been learning:

• Some new Phase 5 sounds, including y (funny), wh (whale), ea (head), oe (toe), ou (boulder), y (fly), g (gem), ow (snow), and ph (phone).
• Some new tricky words: any, many, again, who, whole, where, and two.

Topic – Geography
Our new topic this term is Bright Lights, Big City, which has a geography focus. The children have learned the vocabulary ‘landmark’ and explored a range of man-made and physical landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, the Giant’s Causeway, and Blackpool Tower. They worked collaboratively to sort and classify landmarks and also researched some local landmarks including Oaklands Primary School, Ebenezer Howard’s statue, and the Lamex Stadium. Some children also enjoyed sharing their experiences and knowledge of landmarks around the world, including the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the O2 Arena, and Wembley Stadium.

Art
In Art, we have been exploring transient art using loose parts, based on the theme Rain and Sunrays. The children created beautiful rainbows, thunderclouds, snowflakes, and sunshine pictures using natural materials and loose parts.

PE
Year One thoroughly enjoyed their curling session on Tuesday with Mr O'Neil from Monks Walk School. They learnt how to hold the 'stone' before aiming it at a target. They also learnt how to 'knock' and 'block' other stones. This linked well with their PE lesson last week, where they were focusing on accuracy when using underarm throws.

Computing
In computing, we have begun our new unit, ‘Creating and Following Instructions’. We learnt that the word ‘algorithm’ means a set of instructions for a device to follow, and we started the first lesson exploring how important it is that the instructions are given in the correct order.

Coming up

In Phonics, we will continue to Grow the Code by learning new graphemes, decodable words and Tricky Words. We will recap all Phase 5 Tricky Words taught so far and, as always, will continue to regularly revisit Phase 5 sounds and Tricky Words to support fluency and confidence.

In Literacy, the children will create their own alien character before planning and writing a short story about their alien’s adventure as they search for friends.

In Maths, we will continue to develop a secure understanding of numbers 11–20, focusing on finding one more and one less, and using a number line up to 20 to support our learning.

 Spring Term 2025

Click on the links below to see what the children in Year 1 will be learning in the Spring Term.