Welcome to the Spring Term in Year 1

During the Spring Term, Year 1 will continue to develop their literacy skills by using the school 'Core Knowledge' scheme and through both fiction and non-fiction based extended writing. The children will build on their sound knowledge by working to recognise double letter spellings for consonant sounds. We will also be introducing a greater number of tricky word spellings. Handwriting is an area on which we will pay particular focus this term, in order to ensure individual letters are formed correctly. We will also be learning to write capital letters too.

As reading skills develop, children will start to access 'Accelerated Reader', where they will have weekly individual reading turns and make use of a computer quiz to check their understanding of what has been read.

We will also undertake whole class reading sessions, exploring texts based around our overarching concept. Some of these books include :

• The Water Princess, The Great Water Cycle Adventure, Once Upon a Raindrop, Rhythm of the Rain, Stone Girl Bone Girl and The Mess That We Made as well as a variety of Percy the Park Keeper stories.

In Welsh, we will focus on vocabulary to describe our weather and clothes alongside daily Helpwr Heddiw sessions in class.

This term, through fun practical activities, we will be learning lots of new number skills and reinforcing knowledge of place value, ordering and comparing numbers, addition and subtraction facts and recognising number bonds. We will also start to explore more number patterns such as 2s, 5s and 10s. We will be exploring properties of and beginning to name a variety of 2D and 3D shapes too, as well as investigating making half and full turns.

The skills and resources used doing numeracy sessions will be available throughout the day. This allows the children to transfer the skills learnt in numeracy to other subjects and activities.

This term has a geography focus and we will be exploring both local and global landscapes. We will be finding out about the weather and investigating how this affects us and the lives of others around the World. We will also be learning how we affect our landscapes and surroundings too and how we can make responsible decisions to help look after them.

Digital skills will continue to be developed through the use of Chromebooks, iPads and coding equipment such as Bee Bots. Google Earth will also be helpful when making plans and following directions.

As we learn about the needs of familiar creatures which appear as characters in our class reading books, we will design suitable homes for them and as part of our creative work, we will be cutting, folding and gluing to create collage work inspired by the work of Eric Carle.

We are happy to be learning about celebrations by participating in the School Eisteddfod and will be finding out about celebrations from other cultures by learning about Chinese New Year.

Planned regular visits to the outdoor 'Learning Lodge' will also help enrich our activities (sometimes with help from Barney the dog!)

SeeSaw

As a foundation phase, we will continue to use the platform ‘SeeSaw’ within the classroom. This means the children can save their work privately in their own folder. SeeSaw also allows children to develop their necessary ICT skills independently. The app allows class teachers to have a recording tool which helps create a lovely journal of work, where progress and development can be seen.

Within our classroom, we encourage the children to take age appropriate responsibility, whilst continuing to be clear, firm and compassionate.

Activities will provide opportunities for children to take different levels of responsibility for a range of tasks. We will also be creating situations with different roles, to explore situations from each person's perspective.

• Children should bring a water bottle to school each day.

• P.E. will be on a Thursday. Children should attend school in the agreed P.E. kit on this day.

• We have a number of children in school with a nut allergy. We strive to be a nut free school so please do not send in nut products in packed lunches.

Thank you for your continued help and support,

The Year One Team.

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