Our Christian value for this term is 'Compassion'.

 

Compassion and ‘sympathy’ have much in common and both are stronger in meaning than simply ‘feeling sorry for’ someone.

The words have their roots in the idea of ‘suffering with’ someone, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and experiencing what they experience.

To show compassion, you are also demonstrating love and kindness.

“I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.”

Mother Teresa

‘Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.’ Colossians 3:12

*Our Learning for this term*

Spring Term 1 2025 

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; birds, reptiles and mammals and which animals are in each category. We will also continue to identify seasonal changes with a focus on winter.

In Geography, we will build on last term’s learning about the UK, and we will be learning all about our planet Earth. We will name and locate the continents, different countries and consider their differing climates. We will learn about the poles and the equator and use this to discover hot and cold climates and their locations.

In Art our focus artist will be Freidensreich Hundertwasser. We will be looking at his work and appreciating it, as well as using a range of media to recreate some of these landscapes, alongside observational drawings.

In our music sessions, we will be listening and responding carefully to different pieces of music, finding the pulse and keeping in time to the music using various instruments and body movements. We will also be creating our own march based on Colonel Hathi’s march, before experimenting and composing music with a water theme. We will also learn new songs as we love singing!

In PSHE we will find out all about rules and why we need them. This includes caring for others and looking after our planet, which links to our Christian value for the term Compassion. We will also be thinking and sharing ways to keep safe online, managing our screen time and reiterating who our trusted adults are.

In RE, we will be looking at the story of creation, once again focusing on the religions of Christianity and Judaism.

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.

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!! Often short bursts of reading are more beneficial than a long time once a week.

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.

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 use an atlas or the internet. Can you create a fact file or poster?
• Design clothes for a hot and a cold country, what would be the best things to wear and why? Could you make them for a teddy?
• Create a poster to explain important facts about an animal classification – birds, 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.
• Think about the climate that we have in England, what is it like? What do we need to remember in Summer or Winter? Could you write a little postcard to a friend?
• Create a story board to retell the Creation Story or use some small world to re-enact it. You could bring these in and share them or take a video.