Our Planet!

Welcome back and a Happy new Year to you all! Our amazing topic for this half term is called ‘Our Planet’. We will be thinking all about our world and caring for our planet. In Science we will be learning about animal classifications. We will learn the key features of the different animal groups; like birds, reptiles and mammals and which animals are in each category. We will also be continuing to identify seasonal changes with a focus on winter.

In Geography, we are building on our learning about the UK from last term and we will be learning all about our planet Earth: naming the continents, different countries and how the climate changes in different parts of the globe. We will also look at hot and cold climates and where on our Earth these are located, learning all about the poles and the equator. In Music the children will be learning to listen with concentration and understanding to a range of music, finding the pulse, learning a new song and exploring a range of percussion instruments and making music together. We will also learn new songs as we love singing them together.

In Art we will be finding out all about the Artist Freidensreich Hundertwasser and use a range of media to recreate some of these landscapes, alongside observational drawings.

 In PSHE we are learning all about rules and why we need them. This includes caring for others and looking after our planet. It links well with our RE topic on Creation and also our Christian Value of compassion that we are focusing on this term.

We also have many carefully selected high quality texts for story time that link to Our Planet, we cannot wait to start reading them. These include The Odd Fish, Lost and Found, The Snail and the Whale, The way back home, Free-Range Fredie and Where the Wild things are.

We will also be doing two PE sessions per week and continuing our Forest School journey.

English

In English our Talk for Writing focus story is ‘Beegu’. We will learn how to retell the story, describe Beegu and write different reports. We will also learn all about suffixes and use these in our writing. We also have an alien who has joined our class! Can he stay or should he go home?

Maths

In Year One we follow a maths scheme called White Rose Maths. This term, we will cover:

Place Value within 20 and Addition and Subtraction within 20. This will extend our knowledge, enable us to recall and use number bonds and build on the learning we did in the Autumn term.

We will also continue our “Mastering Number” programme, using short, practical activities to develop pupils’ confidence, and understanding of number. These are 10 minute daily sessions and are in additional to our maths lessons.  

Phonics information and reading

As always, we place huge emphasis on the importance of regular reading practice both in and out of school. Every child will be allocated a Reading Practice group and will read three times with their group each week. Books will be changed each Monday.

Please ensure that your child brings their reading practice book and reading record to school each day so that we can assess and record their progress appropriately. Hearing your child read at least 3x a week is very valuable in developing their reading skills and their love of reading! We cannot emphasise this enough!!

Our daily lessons will take the same format and build on the phonics teaching from last term. This progresses quickly and so practicing new sounds and spellings is vital.  Please practise reading both tricky words, words with our new sounds in and also spellings at home. If you have any questions, please just ask your child’s class teacher.

Extra helpful info

Children will be doing PE on different days throughout the term, so it is important that your child has their PE kit in school every week so that they can fully engage in activities. Long hair must be in a ponytail and earrings covered with micropore tape for safety.

All children will be taking part in Forest school again this term. We will inform you when it is your child’s turn through a separate letter, along with any clothing they may need, so please keep an eye out for this!

Homework Challenges

These can be handed in at any point up until half term and be done in any format – photos, videos, writing, drawings, or any other type of artwork. Please choose from the following:

• You could research and find out all about a continent or country that you have never visited, maybe using an atlas or the internet and can be presented a s a report or a poster.
• Design clothes for a hot and a cold country, what would be the best things to wear?
• Create a poster to explain important facts about an animal classification – birds or mammals or reptiles. Remember to include examples of different animals that are included in the classification.
• Find out more about the animals that live in a hot climate or a cold climate and how they have adjusted to this.
• Create a story board to retell the Creation Story.

For further homework activities please see the half termly newsletter.