Dear Parent/Carer

Welcome back. We hope you have enjoyed a restful Christmas holiday. This half term, our topic will
be: ‘How have toys changed?’ The children will look at similarities and differences in toys over the last
100 years, discuss their favourite toys and sequence toys from different time periods. In English will be
focusing on narrative, character descriptions and news paper reports. In science we will be learning about
animals including humans. Please look out for the project map- which will give detail on all subjects
studied.

Reading

Every child will read aloud to an adult regularly at school. Reading at home is the learning priority for
your child over the course of this year. Children who read at home make noticeably better academic
progress and develop a love of reading for both understanding and pleasure. There will be a variety of
different genres available, including story books, non-fiction and phonic activity books. Reading to your
child is equally an essential part of building on their story knowledge, which improves their
comprehension skills and allows them to become better writers. It also increases their vocabulary,
enhancing their writing and giving them a better understanding of what they read independently. Please
continue to comment in your child’s reading record book. During the week, please work on all your
child's books, reading and re-reading and talking about the story or information. Repeated reading will
increase fluency, comprehension and confidence. If your child is reluctant to read, please talk to us and
we can discuss a range of strategies to support. We will continue to change books on a Tuesday, as this
is working well.

Phonics
Phonics is a very important part of the Year 1 curriculum, as we build towards the phonic screening test
that your child will take in June 2025. The children will have a daily morning speed sounds and story
book lesson as well as an afternoon speed sounds lesson, which will consolidate and gradually increase
their knowledge of the sounds within the English language. The children will bring home a phonics book
as part of their weekly reading so please look at the sounds within these books and help them to spot
other words containing these sounds in the world around them. Please also support your child in
practising there phonics speed sounds at least 5 times per week. New links have been sent for the spring
term via Dojo..If you need any advice or support in helping your child with their phonics please do not
hesitate to see a member of the Year 1 team. We are always happy to help!

Maths practice
The key areas we will be focusing on this half term are:

• Number to 20 and 50
• Addition and Subtraction with 20
• Length and height

As well as helping your child with their number facts, any ‘real life’ experience will really help. Cooking
and shopping are particularly valuable. Your child will benefit from counting up their own coins and
using them to pay at the shop. They may not yet be able to work out the total price or the change, but
they will benefit enormously from the experience of needing enough money to pay and getting change
when they give too much. Other (less stressful!) activities include, checking the time (o’clock and half
past); ‘helping’ with measuring tasks; spotting and reading numbers in different contexts (door numbers,
road signs, etc.); counting anything including money (counting in 2s and 10s). Also please encourage
your child to use Numbots as a fun way to practise working with numbers. We will be in traducing
your children to this at the beginning of term.

Other information
The class will continue to have daily fruit provided in the morning. You may wish to supplement this
with an additional healthy snack, for example, bread and butter. Your child will be able to drink
during lessons but this should be water only and should be in a non-leaky, named water bottle. PE with
Mr Bain will be on Wednesday afternoons, along with outdoor learning. Please do ensure that your
child’s jumper and PE kit is clearly named. We aim to learn outdoors as much as possible so, named,
waterproof clothing and shoes are essential at all times please. As well as hats, gloves and an extra layer
for colder days. As always, we are available via Class Dojo or email, so please do not hesitate to ever get
in touch: becky@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk or gmachray@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely

Becky Thomsett and Georgina Machray