Dear Parent/Carer

Welcome back! We hope you have enjoyed fun and restful Easter. This term, our History-based topic will be ‘How Have Explorers Changed The World?’ We will be finding out about events and people beyond living memory, particularly thinking about explorers and what makes them significant. They will create a timeline and investigate which parts of the world different explorers discovered, before comparing explorers and discussing ways in which these significant people could be remembered.

In English will be focusing on setting descriptions within a fictional narrative. We will study, amongst others, the book ‘Beegu’ by Alexis Deacon, which links to our PSHE unit ‘We all have feelings.’ Our non-fiction unit will be focussing on postcard and letter writing. In Science, we will be making connections and developing our scientific skills by observing, measuring and comparing aspects of animal and plant habitats in our environment.  Please look out for the project map, which will give detail on all subjects studied, as well as further information regarding the foundation subjects.

Reading
We really celebrate reading at Stoke Climsland and the children in Year one have all made fantastic progress this year so far! Every child will continue to 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.

 

Phonics
This term, in June, your child will take part in the phonics screening test.
Phonics is a very important part of the Year 1 curriculum and the children will have a daily morning speed sounds and story book lesson as well as an afternoon speed sounds lesson, which is consolidating and gradually increasing 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 their phonics speed sounds at least 5 times per week. Links have been sent previously 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
This term we will be consolidating and deepening the children’s understanding of:

• Position and Direction
• Doubles and Halves
• Numbers to 100
• Money

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 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, 5s and 10s). Also please encourage your child to continue to use Numbots as a fun way to practise working with numbers.

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 – drinks bottles sometimes leak and sticky drinks are much trickier for the team to clear up - and should be in a named water bottle. PE with Mr Bain will be on Wednesday afternoons. 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, and ensure you have applied sun cream to your child on sunny days. If you send your child into school with sun cream, please ensure it is named, as we are unable to allow children to share creams due to potential allergy concerns. As always, we are available via Class Dojo or email, so please do not hesitate get in touch: becky@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk or gmachray@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk

 

Key dates: June 25th: Sports day July 2nd: Reserve sports day 22nd: Last day of term

Thank you for your continued support.

 

Yours sincerely,

Becky Thomsett and Georgina Machray