Park Mead Primary

Welcome to Year 1

Welcome to the Autumn term 2020.

The children have all settled well and we have had a chance to get to know your children to ensure they are happy and that we understand each of the learning journeys during the period of school closure. Within the classroom, to ensure effective transition, we have adapted the learning environment to allow children the chance to meet EYFS learning goals through play, while having access to the Year 1 learning objectives. This will become increasingly more adult led as the year progresses and the children show readiness for a more formal curriculum.

At present we understand that settling into school, new routines and the 'new normal' can be tiring for everyone. We want the children to focus on working hard within the school day and at present we are delaying formal spelling and math homework to allow for this period of transition. At present our main focus is that you read daily with your child. We will reassess formal homework at half term. Please see below for key days that you need to be aware of throughout the week to ensure your child has everything they need in school.

Mrs Fisher

1FR

(Mon-Tues)

Mrs Richardson

1FR

(Wed-Fri)

Mrs Bellman

1BP

(Mon-Tues)

Mrs Perry

1BP

(Wed-Fri)

Mrs Horler

1FR

Teaching Assistant

Mrs Harris

1BP

Teaching Assistant

Key Days for your diary:

PE Days

On these days your child must attend school in their PE kit. The correct colour t-shirt for their house and either shorts or jogging bottoms depending on the weather. They may wear either their school jumper/cardigan or dark jumper on these days. Your child will need either trainers or plimsolls but they must be comfortable to wear for the duration of the day and to run around in.

Please ensure they are warm enough to take part in outdoor PE as where possible we will be outside.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Library

If you have any school library books at home these will need to be returned before issuing any new books to your child. If you are unsure of the books you have at home please let us know with a note in their reading record.

Each fortnight we will visit the library as a class, allowing your child the opportunity to choose their own book to share with you. This book is for enjoyment and may not match your child's reading ability. Use these books to feed their imagination ready for story writing in Year 1.

Monday (every 2 weeks)

Starting Monday 21st September

5/10, 19/10

Homework - Reading

We would ask the read with your child as often as possible. The children have been assessed and are reading books that match their phonic and decoding levels. Reading regularly is the most effective way to support your child's progress.

Change Books on:

Monday and Thursday

English

Our English unit of work this half term is based on Rapunzel. We will look at story settings as our focus.

Year 1 Non negotiables

Please reinforce our Year 1 non-negotiables for writing at home. These are:

Using our cursive handwriting, forming our letters correctly.
Sitting our letters on the line and ensuring ascending (tall) and descending (long) letters reach high/low enough.
Putting finger spaces in between words.
Using capital letters at the beginning of each sentence and for proper nouns.
Using full stops at the end of sentences.

Phonics

Your child will take part in phonics lessons daily which will support their reading and writing. The reading scheme is in line with the phonics phases to give your child practise of the sounds they are learning and linked tricky words. To support your child's phonic development please refer to the back on the Songbirds book for the focus sounds. The books have prompts to support parents in their child's phonic and reading development (they can be found on the reserve of the cover).

Reading

Please continue to read with your child as often as possible. Books will be changed Monday and Thursday which will allow us to put books into quarantine for 48 hours (in line with government guidelines). We will assess your child's reading termly throughout the year to ensure they are progressing as we would expect.

When reading with your child please refer to the prompt sheets in your child's reading record. Spend time looking at the pictures in the book with your child, can they predict the story? Depending on your child's enjoyment of reading you may wish to read the book to them first, share the book page by page or let your child read the whole book to you. You will have the book at home for several evenings, please read the book at least twice with your child. Reading the same book several times allows work on fluency and expression alongside the skills of decoding and comprehension.

Mathematics

We use White Rose Maths as the basis of all our Maths planning at Park Mead.

This term our unit focus is 'Place Value to 10' moving on to 'Addition and Subtraction within 10'. The ethos of White Rose is to ensure your child has a secure understanding of the basic number system, that can then be transferred to larger numbers.

Topic:

Our topic this term is 'Once Upon a Time..' We will be looking at life within a castle, the process of becoming a knight, the features of a castle and the chance to make their own castle.

Later on in the term we will hold a medieval day for the children within the year group where they will come to school dressed in period costume (knights, kings queens, dragons, princes and princesses). We will send out more information nearer the time.

Websites and Activities:

Maths Websites:

https://whiterosemaths.com

https://ttrockstars.com/ - Your child will have brought home a log in for this website - it is learning times tables so please use with caution as it will be tricky.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/kids-activities/fun-maths-games-and-activities/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/

Phonics Websites:

https://www.youtube.com/user/breakthruchris - Mr Thorne Network - Mr Thorne teaches the sounds with the help of Geraldine the Giraffe.

https://www.readwithphonics.com/ - Interactive games for all phases of phonics.

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/ - Phonic games linked to all phases to reinforce learning.

http://www.ictgames.com/ - Interactive games for phonics and reading.

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/ - Link the children's learning to the correct phase and play the games to reinforce the sounds.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/kids-activities/ - Various games and activities.

Reading Websites:

www.oxfordowl.co.uk - Free eBook library when you create a username and password.

Please do try to read with your child as much as possible - sharing stories is equally as important as accessing school reading scheme texts.

To access Reading Cloud, click here.

Pie Corbett is the creator of the Talk4Writing scheme of work we follow in English. Here you will find suggestions for key books for each year group and activities linked to them:

Pie Corbett's Reading Spine

Transition Video 1FR:

Transition Videos 1BP: