Time Travellers is our exciting whole‑school History adventure for the term, where children journey into a brand‑new period in time and build on the skills they developed in Autumn 2. Using our core concepts of chronology and significance, pupils explore fascinating people, events and eras, comparing them with what they already know and making meaningful links across different periods of history. From hands‑on investigations to creative, practical activities that bring the past vividly to life, children learn to think and work just like real historians—asking questions, piecing together clues and uncovering stories from long ago. It’s a lively, imaginative and memorable learning experience that sparks curiosity and deepens historical understanding for every child.
Significant People
Key Question
What makes someone significant and who is worth remembering?
History
The children will help our fictional character Dr K.A. Pow, who will regularly send us clues in a time capsule. We will develop our historical understanding by learning more about each person. We will be considering historical significance.
To do this, the children will explore people whose inventions or actions have changed our lives. This will be explored both locally and worldwide. At the end of this topic, the children will decide who they feel has caused the most significant change.
Key Vocabulary:
- Evidence
- Achievement
- Significance
- Invention
English
Literacy this half term will build on our work in history about significant people. We will use our knowledge of people in the past to support longer pieces of writing including diary entries, recounts in the first person and letters.
We will have a big focus this half term on correct use of capital letters and full stops. We will look carefully at sentence structure and where a full stop is accurately place in a sentence. We will be encouraging them to re-read their work to check for any mistakes and then edit accordingly.
Please continue to read daily. We encourage the reading of any books at home, as well as our Little Wandle books. When reading with your child, please try to discuss what has happened and how characters are feeling. It would be great if you could predict what may happen and encourage expression.
The children have worked very hard to become brave writers and use their ever expanding phonics knowledge to support their spelling. This is something we will continue to encourage this half term. We will also have a big push on letter formation and presentation of work.
Key Vocabulary:
- Full Stop
- Capital Letter
- Finger space
- Adjective
Phonics
Phonics continues to be taught daily in Year 1. At school we use the Little Wandle program and there is a great part of the website just for parents/carers: https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ Take a look at the following resources:
Maths
This half term the children will continue to focus on place value, however we will be exploring numbers from 20 to 50. This will involve making numbers with equipment, partitioning numbers into tens and ones and saying 1 more/ 1 less than a number to 50. The children will spend time exploring number lines to 50 and will estimate where numbers should be placed on number line.
During weekly Shape, Space and Measure lessons the children will focus on measuring length and height. They will be exposed to the vocabulary centimetres and shown how to accurately use a ruler to measure objects within 20cm. We will also explore capacity and mass by filling containers and weighing objects e.g. it weighs the same as 6 cubes.
Children will develop their knowledge of doubling and number bonds to 10. What creative ways can you do this at home?
Websites:
- Log onto Numberbots - your log in has been sent home
Key Vocabulary:
- Tens and ones
- Centimeters
- Heavier/Lighter
- Full/empty
Science
We will work scientifically this half term to complete a variety of fun and exciting experiments. We will use our observational skills to notice patterns and look at the importance of fair testing. Together, we will make predictions about what we think will happen and draw simple conclusions based on what we have observed. As the seasons change, we will begin to make observations over time and seek for patterns in day length changing.
Key Vocabulary:
- Observation over time
- Identifying and classifying
- Researching
- Fair Testing
- Pattern Seeking
Computing
We will learn what an algorithm is and understand that computers need simple sets of instructions to run smoothly. We will use and explore the programs on Scratch Junior to create simple codes for characters to follow.
Art and Design Technology
Each half term the children will have a week dedicated to art and/or DT. During art week, we will collapse the curriculum and deliver a full arts week.
Art: Art and DT Week We will begin this half term with art week and we will be learning to collage in school. If you have any spare holiday magazines, please could you bring them in? We will think about different techniques and skills that we can use, look at arranging the paper and how we can make images and colours stand out. We will create a final piece linked to our previous topic of the UK and collage a famous landmark.
Within DT we will be exploring structures and how to ensure these are stable. The children will design and create a pencil pot structure that is fit for purpose and will evaluate the success of their structure.
PE
This half term, the children will take part in invasion games. They will master basic movements including throwing and catching, participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending. They will also be given opportunities to work with a range of balls to develop their ability to throw, catch, roll, kick, track and stop.
Class 3 - PE is Tuesday and Friday Class 4 - PE is Monday and Wednesday
PSHE and Religious Education
PSHE
Our big question this half term is:
- What jobs do people do?
We will look at our No Outsiders text, Errols Garden, discussing the different families and people who live in her block of flats. We will think about our strengths and weaknesses. We will build on previous learning about our community and start to look at different jobs in our community. We will consider what strengths you need to have certain jobs. We will also be using the my path resources to find out about jobs which may interest us in life.
Religious Education
The children will think about why Easter is so important for Christians. We will discuss lent and different Easter traditions.
We will be carrying out some drama sessions and using our oracy skills to retell the Easter story and talk about Easter beliefs and practices.
Our Values
Please Instagram us @archibald_1st if you see your child being #AFSCurious #AFSCaring #AFSCreative or #AFSCourageous
If you would like any further details about this half term's curriculum, please speak to your child's teacher.