YEAR 1

Hello Year 1 Parents,

A massive WELCOME BACK! We truly hope you had a wonderful, restful half term. We have absolutely welcomed the children back with a bang, and the classroom is already buzzing with energy and brilliant learning!

Literacy: Fairy Tale Fun! ✨

We've jumped straight into the world of magic with 'Jack and the Beanstalk'! The children are loving this classic Fairytale and have been busy:

• Discussing what makes a story a Fairytale.

• Acting out the story—we have some very dramatic giants and brave Jacks!

• Joining in with all those catchy repeated phrases.

• Learning about the exciting world of exclamation marks! We’ve enjoyed sorting sentences that need an enthusiastic "!" from those that just need a calm full stop. What an amazing job!

🎧 Immersive Storytelling

A highlight of our literacy this week was using the fantastic Now Press Play headphones! The children absolutely loved listening to an immersive version of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. They were totally transported right into the action—climbing the beanstalk and hearing the giant's footsteps!

Marvellous Maths: Number Bonds! ➕

In Maths, we are building those essential number skills by focusing on number bonds to 5. We've been looking at 5 as the whole and finding all the ways we can partition it (break it up) into two parts!

The children have been using lots of different, practical ways to explore this:

• Cubes (getting hands-on with counting).

• Part-Part-Whole diagrams.

• Bar Models (a great visual way to understand numbers!).

Phonics Power-Up & Reading Reminder! 📚

We have had a huge, focused push with Phonics since coming back! We're ensuring that every child is recapping the phases they need extra support in to build confident reading skills.

Please remember: We ask you to read at least 3 times at home with your child and write it in their reading diary. This partnership makes such a difference!

Exciting Discoveries! 🌍🔬

• Science: We've started our exciting new topic on Materials! We’ve been exploring and classifying objects made from wood, plastic, glass, and metal. They are turning into little scientists!

• Geography: We're getting to know our place in the world! We've been looking at where we live and proudly identifying the countries that make up the United Kingdom.

• Design & Technology (D&T): We are beginning our exciting new topic on Puppets! We have explored different types of puppets and had so much fun playing with them, making them talk, and acting out stories. We have some brilliant puppeteers in the making!

Best wishes,

The Enthusiastic Year 1 Team!