Dinosaur Creations
Thank you for all the creative and imaginative dinosaur creations the children made as part of their home learning. They all look fantastic! The children are very proud of them and they are currently all on display which have brightened up the classrooms! Just a reminder about the 10 minute slot parents evening to speak to your child’s teacher. If you haven’t already done so, please remember to book as there are still places available. Tuesday the 30th January is our face to face one and Wednesday 31st January is our virtual one. We look forward to seeing you all then!
All Year 1 children will be taking part in a phonics check in June 2024 which is set by the Department for Education. In this check there are 40 words for the children to read. 20 words are real words and 20 are not real words. All words will contain phonic sounds that the children have learnt in Year R and Year 1. Children will need to sound the words out loud then blend the sounds together to read the words. We do lots of sounding and blending in school so it is nothing to worry about as children do this everyday already! We have attached an example of a previous phonics check so you can see what type of words there will be and how it is set out. This check is not a reading test, it is a check to see what phonics children know, as this knowledge supports them whilst learning to read. We have also attached a list of all the different phonics into Google Classroom that will be in the check and that we have learnt in school. This will help you to practise phonics at home with your child and to help them to pass the phonics check. If children do not pass the check in Year 1, then they will have to do the check again at the end of Year 2. There are also some links to some phonics games that children can use to support their learning at home. Some of the games are free so you won’t have to subscribe to anything. We would like children to practise their phonics at home regularly. This can be done by using the links in Google Classroom, making phonic games such as snap or pairs, looking for particular sounds in books or writing different sounds. We are not expecting children to do all these activities every day, but some would really support their learning. If you have any questions, please ask us next week at Parent’s evening.
In English this week, we have read the book ‘Dear Dinosaur’ by Chae Strathie and Nicola O’Byrne to explore writing questions. We have been thinking of questions to find out more about different dinosaurs and writing them. Later on in the week, we wrote an email to thank our dinosaurs to further develop our understanding of writing for different purposes. Next week, we will continue to use the book ‘Dear Dinosaur’ to explore writing for different purposes. We will be using everything we have learnt to write a sequence of sentences in the form of a letter.
In maths this week, we have been learning about fractions. We started off the week by learning about halves and quarters, and then used this knowledge to find halves and quarters of shapes. After this, we applied our learning about halves to find a half of different amounts. Next week, we will be learning about addition and how it is the combining of two or more groups. We will start the week with using equations to match addition pictures and representations. After that, we will apply our understanding to create number stories to match addition equations. We will also start to learn how to use numberlines to help us with our addition.
Just a few reminders:
- Please make sure all your child’s belongings are labelled. Things do go missing and I’m convinced there is a black hole somewhere in the school that sucks them in and they never come back.
- Please send your child’s water bottle and book bag into school every day.
- Our Year 1 PE day is on a Monday.
- Reading books in school are changed once a week and this will be every Monday. The books will be collected in in the morning and a new one will be issued that same afternoon.
- Library books are changed on a Friday during our library time. The children are also welcome to change their books during lunchtimes when the library is open.
Dates:
Tuesday 30th January – Face to face 3.30pm-6.30pm
Wednesday 31st January – Virtual 4pm-7pm
Friday 2nd February – TAFF Disco
We like to think of ourselves as a friendly and approachable team and if there is anything you have concerns about, please let us know and we will do our best to help.
Mrs Ford and the Year 1 team.