Year One Newsletter Autumn Two

Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn term in Year One. We hope that you all had an enjoyable and restful half term holiday. Last term, we were both impressed and delighted with how well everyone has settled in to Year One. We have a fantastic group of children, who are happy and making good progress. We are looking forward to another half term packed with learning opportunities.

This next term, the run up to Christmas is always a busy time. We will soon be beginning to learn some of the songs for our Year One Christmas performance "The Night Before Christmas" and we look forward to performing for you all on Wednesday 10th December.

Outdoor Learning

Our outdoor learning day last half term was a great success. The children loved using the natural materials they’d collected to make leaf people and they were skilled in taking leaf rubbings and making leaf prints. They also made autumn pictures which they labelled using their scientific knowledge and they got creative with clay to make some snails using conkers for the snail's shell.

History

We have an exciting new question in History this half term:“How were our Grandparents toys different to ours? “ We will be finding out about how toys and schools were different in the past. If there are any Grandparents who would like to come in and talk to the children about the toys they played with and their time at school, we would be delighted to welcome them in. Any old photographs or toys for us to look at would also be greatly appreciated.

English

Non-Fiction: Instructions

Children will learn to write lists and simple instructions using ‘bossy’ verbs. We will start to recognise the features of instructions and have fun following instructions, too.

Key Stories

We will use the Talk4Writing approach to learn our own version of Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson before innovating the story and writing our own story sentences.

Poetry

We will explore pattern and rhyme in poems. Children will be able to perform a poem keeping time and to recite some poems by heart.

Maths

This half term, we will be learning about addition and subtraction as well as continuing our work in geometry. Children will learn to:

• Use part-whole models
• Write number sentences
• Find fact families using addition facts
• Find number bonds within 10
• Add together and add more
• Find a part
• Subtract by taking away/crossing out
• Add and subtract on a number line
• Recognise, name, sort and make patterns with 2D and 3D shapes

Science

In Science lessons, we will investigate, ‘How well do I know myself?’ by exploring our five senses, naming our body parts and thinking about how we use our bodies.

We will then move on to a ‘Materials’ topic; naming everyday materials, exploring the properties of these materials and investigating what our favourite toys are made from.

RE

In RE lessons, we will explore the festivals of Christmas and Hanukkah.

Design Technology

In D&T lessons, we will learn about mechanisms and make a moving picture. We will learn to make sliders and design colourful story book pages.

Music

We will develop our skills in listening and appraising and be learning lots of new songs for our Christmas performance!

PSHE

Health and Well being

The children will be learning about their emotions and different strategies for handling them. We will be learning about physical health, including sleep patterns, relaxation, hygiene and people who help to keep us healthy.

PE

In PE this term we continue to work on our fundamental movement and how we can use attacking and defending in simple games. We will also begin a new unit in Dance, to create our own firework dance.

Computing

This half term we will focus on e-safety in our computing lessons. We will learn through stories and activities about why it is important to be safe online and how to be a safe digital citizen.