Autumn 1 - God

What do Christians believe God is Like?

By the end of this unit, children will be able to:

• Identify what a parable is.
• Tell the story of the Lost Son from the Bible and recognise a link with the concept of God as a forgiving Father.
• Understand what this story means to Christians.
• Give examples of ways that Christians show their belief in God as loving and forgiving; for example, by saying sorry; by seeing God as welcoming them back; by forgiving others.
• Give an example of how Christians put their beliefs into practice in worship; by saying sorry to God, for example.
• Think, talk and ask questions about whether they can learn anything from the story for themselves, exploring different ideas.

Autumn 2 - Incarnation

Why is Christmas so important to Christians? How does our background influence who we are?

By the end of this unit, children will be able to:

• Retell the story of Jesus’ birth and explain why Jesus is important for Christians.
• Recognise that stories of Jesus’ life come from the Gospels.
• Give examples of ways in which Christians use the story of the nativity to guide their beliefs and actions at Christmas.
• Decide what they personally have to be thankful for at Christmas time.
• Know that Advent for Christians is a time of getting ready for Jesus’ coming.

Writing

In English we will be starting the year by looking at labels and captions, followed by sentence writing and high frequency words. We will be building up to writing a basic diary entry and practise using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces.

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught daily as part of our phonics writing and through our English lessons.

Reading

Throughout the week we hear readers individually and in group reading sessions. We have book talk sessions once a week and guided reading sessions twice a week.

Phonics

Phonics is taught daily and follows the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme. See the phonics section below for supporting with phonics at home. 

Spelling and Grammar

Through our spelling list, you will see which phonics sounds we have been working on.  Please encourage your child to become familiar with these sounds in their reading and writing.  Phonicsplay.co.uk has some fun games for child to play that will reinforce the sounds covered. 

Geometry

• Positional Language Including Ordinal Numbers

Numbers to Ten

• Finding Patterns in Numbers (including subitising)
• Counting and Comparison (more, less, fewer)
• Estimating and Ordering
• Regrouping the Whole
• Part Whole Addition and Subtraction
• Solving Problems Using Part or Whole Unknown
• Comparison
• Equality and Balance

Numbers to Twenty

• Making 10 and Some More
• Estimating and Ordering, 1 More and 1 Less
• Doubling and Halving
• Odd and Even Numbers

Geometry

• Names and Properties of 2-D and 3-D Shape
  
  Maths Games

Practise key maths skills using the link above to Top Marks. 

Please use the link button below to log in to Numbots - login details can be found in children's reading record. Please ask if you need reminding of these. 

Autumn 1 - Forces and Space: Seasonal Changes

This unit focuses on exploring how seasonal changes affect trees, weather patterns and daylight hours.

Children will be able to:

• Name the four seasons in order and describe the typical weather in each.
• Name some activities and events in the four seasons.
• Describe the appearance of a tree’s leaves in each season.
• Recall that summer has the most daylight hours and winter has the least daylight hours.
• Record data about the temperature across the four seasons.
• Label a map of the UK with capital cities and seasonal weather symbols.
• Complete a pictogram and use it to answer simple questions.
• Record data about the temperature across the four seasons

Autumn 2 - Animals: Sensitive Changes

This unit focuses on identifying and naming body parts and conducting practical activities with the senses to spot patterns and answer questions.

• Draw and label human body parts.
• Identify the body parts associated with each sense.
• Compare and group body parts.
• Begin to recognise patterns in data and use these to answer questions.
• Record data in a table.
• Measure using non-standard units. 

As we reach the end of the Autumn Term, Year 1 have now learnt all their phase 
5 sounds and we are focusing on reviewing these to ensure children are secure. 

We are using the skills we have acquired to read and write simple sentences.  We are building a large bank of "harder to read and spell" words, and these words lay a firm foundation in our sentence reading and creating.  These words are sent home in children's packs each week, for them to practise at home. 

We have many things that can help us in our classroom, including sound boards, sound mats and a display board.  The children are encouraged to access these resources independently to support them in their learning journey.  

Reading

We are very lucky to have a new set of ELS decodable reading books that we will be sending home in the Spring term to support us in our reading.  Please remember to read with your child daily.  It is so important that your child feels the success of reading their book with fluency.  

At the start of each week, your child will bring home a book that is entirely decodable for them.  This may link to the grapheme taught this week, or it may be from one of the previous weeks, depending on how well your child is keeping up with the programme.  These books have been carefully matched to the scheme to ensure success.

We want children to only have success when learning to read.  The book being sent home are being sent home at the ability of your child and often parents will question that they are too easy.  This is not the case.  The books allow the children to apply the reading skills taught and to show off their reading skills – after reading the books three times we call this a ‘performance read’.  This is vital for their reading journey and their self esteem.

We would like the children to reread the book daily.  5 minutes per day is a perfect length of time to keep the learning alive and exciting.  5 minutes is fine, even if your child does not manage to complete the book during this time.  If your child does not complete the book, it is a good opportunity the following day to ask them to recall what has previously happened in the book before moving on to the next pages.

It cannot be stressed enough that these books are read more than once and quality time is spent on them.  By moving through carefully designed stages of books which consolidate the sounds learned at the right time, children will gain speed and confidence in their reading ability.  There is no benefit to racing through books or being given a different book every night.

First reads Decoding – Focus on sounding out, point to the graphemes being read and use swiping finger underneath to blend.  Review any “harder to read and spell words”.  These can be tricky to recognise for children if they have a capital letter. 

After each page ask – can you point to the letter or letters that make the “-” sound. 

Play I Spy sounds, point to as many things as they can see in the pictures beginning with the “-“ sound.  This read may feel robotic and, in this phase, very little comprehension of the story is likely.

Second reads: Vocabulary and Prosody –  In the second phase, word recognition will become quicker, allowing a faster pace and better understanding of the story. 

Work together to expand vocabulary by naming objects and suggesting any words that mean the same (synonyms).  Reread the same passages, modelling expression and intonation, taking into consideration punctuation. For example, if someone is asking a question, let’s get the children to make their voices sound like they are asking a question.

Third read: Comprehension – In the third read, the speed should be much quicker and therefore, the child is using more brain power to understand the story rather than reading each word in isolation.  This is the point when the story becomes meaningful and pleasurable, and they can answer questions based on the content.  Discuss the pictures and ask questions.  Eg: what can you see?  What is __ doing/why? This is also the stage where children should practice building expression known as their ‘storyteller voice’.

Please also keep a look out for our online reading books that can be accessed via the Oxford Owl website.

Please follow the link to find information on the phonics scheme and how to support with phonics at home:  

Supporting with Phonics at Home