Year 1 - Cedar & Willow Class
Year 1
Class information
Welcome to Cedar Class.
Miss Blance is the teacher for Cedar Class and Mrs Ingle is the Teaching Assistant.
Welcome to Willow Class.
Mrs Keate and Mrs Shopland are the class teachers for Willow class and Mrs Van De Velde is the Teaching Assistant.
Mrs Keate teaches Monday - Wednesday.
Mrs Matyjasik teaches Thursday and Friday.
Year 1 teachers are available to talk to about any issue or concern that you may have throughout the year.
If you wish to contact us via email please use:
Mrs Blance - cedar@stnicholaschantryschool.org.uk
Mrs Keate and Mrs Shopland - willow@stnicholaschantryschool.org.uk
The School Day
The school day starts at 8.40am. As your child arrives on the school site they will come through the gate to the top playground where they will be greeted by a member of the Year 1 team. They will then enter the school through the doors to the old hall as they would normally do. Another member of the Year 1 team will greet them as they arrive at their classrooms.
The school day finishes at 3.15pm. Year 1 classes will be led out onto the playground by their class teacher who will then hand each child over to the adult collecting them. The children will be dismissed via the steps that lead down from the Old Hall.
Please give us 24 hours notice if your child is to be collected by someone who does not normally collect them. This information can be e mailed to class teachers via the school office.
Learning Focus for the Term
Term 3:
English - 'Lila and the Secret of the Rain' by David Conway
Geography - Contrasting locality: Australia
Science - Weather
DT - Making a hand puppet: joining techniques
PSHE - Dreama and Goals
Computing: Creating media
RE - Is Shabbat important to Jewish children?
PE: Tag rugby (outdoor) Gymnastics (indoor)
Knowledge Organisers and Helpful Websites
Math: Place Value to 20
Addition and Subtraction to 20
Geography: Australian adventure
Websites:
Science: Weather
Websites: BBC Bitesize: Weather
Websites:
PSHE : Dreams and Goals
Computing: Creating digital media
Year Group Newsletters
Year One information letterEnd of Term 2
Book Bags
Children need to have their book bags with them every day, which includes their reading book and reading record book.
On a Tuesday children will change their reading books with the class teacher along with Library books.
Parent Helpers
We welcome the help of parents across KS1 so please let us know if you are interested in helping in KS1. Most parents come in to hear children read across KS1 and parent helpers are not attached to their child's class. You will need to go through a safeguarding process before you would be able to start with us but this is usually a fairly quick process and our office team can get this started for you.
Reading and Phonics
Reading is one of the most important things we can teach our children. We want all our children to be avid readers with a love for all different types of literature.
As children start their school life they will very much focus on learning to read. As they move higher up the school and into secondary education and beyond they will be reading to learn. So it is vitally important that we support our youngest pupils to quickly learn to read. We want every child to love reading and to do this we must make sure that it is a pleasurable experience and that they can read with accuracy and fluency so they can access as many opportunities as possible.
We follow the Unlocking Letters and Sounds (ULS) scheme. Your child will take part in daily whole class phonics lessons.
We use ULS assessment tracker to monitor your child's progress with phonics and your child will be given reading books at the correct level for their phonic knowledge. The children should be able to read these books with at least 90% accuracy. Your child's reading books will be changed in school every Tuesday - please record their reading at home in the Reading Log.
We can't stress enough the importance of children practicing their reading with an adult at least 3 times a week. If your child finishes a book, please encourage your child to re-read the book to help increase their fluency and comprehension. Please log all reads in your child's reading record for a chance of winning a Recommended read during Celebration assembly.
Phonics workshop with voice over
As well as your child reading to you, it is important you also take time to read to your child. Please see the recommended reads below as a guide to books a Y1 child will enjoy having shared with them.
Please click on the link below to visit the Books for Topics Y1 Recommended Reads webpage:
Termly Phonics Overviews
This overview will show you what your child will be learning in their phonics lessons each week. This overview is useful to refer to when practicing the spellings as you will be able to see which graphemes have been the new learning for your child.
Optional Spelling Home Learning
Across the school, children will be provided with a list of spellings that link to the spelling work they are doing within their year group. We have used the first few weeks of Term 2 to focus on Phase 4 Common Exception Words. The final couple of weeks include some of the new graphemes your child will be learning in phonics this term. You can choose to practise some or all of the words with your child each week at home.
Term 3When supporting your child please encourage your child to use their phonic knowledge e.g. play contains the phonemes p l ay. The Common Exception Words will contain exceptions to the current phonic rules your child knows e.g. in "said" they will know the phonemes for the graphemes "s" and "d" but the exception will be the grapheme "ai" making the phoneme "e".
Here is a "look, cover, write, check" template that you might like to use at home look say cover write check template
ULS Phonics Resources
Letters and Sounds have produced this short video to help parents and carers know how to pronounce the phonemes.
Phoneme video guide
Common Exception Words
These are the Common Exception Words (CEWs) that children are expected to be able to read and spell by the end of Year 1. A Common Exception Word is a word which does not follow the common phonetic spelling rules of the language, or where the usual rules act in an unusual way.
Handwriting
Good handwriting is critical to children’s writing progress so alongside the learning children take part in in phonics children will also practice letter formation in short handwriting sessions. We are using the ULS handwriting scheme to deliver our handwriting sessions which take place twice a week for roughly 10 minutes. They have produced a guide to the way in which letters should be formed and this includes a patter to help children remember how to correctly form each letter.
Lower Case letter pattersDuring our handwriting sessions and every time we write we are also helping the children to sit correctly at the table and hold their pencil in the correct way.
ULS have also produced patters to help children form their numbers correctly, which we use in school with your children too.
Maths Home Learning
Our class based maths learning follows the White Rose scheme. White Rose have also produced home learning videos that run alongside the work we cover in class. By using some of these videos at home with your child you can help to reinforce the learning they are experiencing in class.
Where possible we encourage you to use practical resources with your child, e.g. buttons, leaves, conkers as counters.
Homework in KS1 is non-statutory and so we do not need you to provide evidence of any work completed at home. If you have any queries around the home learning though please e mail us and we will be happy to help.
Here are a few activities you can do with your child which reflect the learning in class this term.
White Rose have produced a useful app that can help to support your child at home with their key maths facts.
Please use the link below to access the White Rose Home Learning page and then click on the Year 1 box to access the weekly videos.
Many of you will already be familiar with the CBeebies show "Numberblocks" this is a high quality program that is in allingment with the way in which children learn about number in school. This link will take you directly to the Numberblocks page which includes activities that complement the TV program.
PE
Children have 2 PE lessons a week. These lessons give them the opportunity to develop a range of skills across the year. All lessons will in some way help children to develop their gross motor skills. The development of these skills enables children to improve their balance and coordination and use their larger muscles. These skills will help them learn to run, jump, throw, climb, crawl, and perform many other actions and movements. Gross motor skills also play an important role in fine motor skill development.
Outdoor PE:
Cedar Class: Wednesday afternoon
Willow Class: Thursday afternoon
Indoor PE:
Cedar Class: Tuesday afternoon
Willow Class: Tuesday afternoon
Please ensure your child has a PE kit in school each week and that they have joggers for colder weather. If your child wears tights to school please also ensure they have a pair of socks to change into.