What a Wonderful Start to Year 1!

We have had a fantastic first two days in Year 1 and we could not be prouder of the children!

Everyone has come into school brilliantly, finding their pegs and drawers independently and settling straight into classroom activities. It has been lovely to see how excited they are to be back at school and ready for a new year of learning.

Over the last couple of days, we have spent time getting to know one another, exploring our new classroom and talking about what Year 1 will be like. Together, we created our own class rules and discussed our expectations for Year 1. The children had so many thoughtful and insightful questions and were eager to find out about all the exciting things we will be learning this year. They are particularly excited about some of the new subjects and experiences that Year 1 brings!

A Magical Writing Challenge

We set the children a special writing challenge this week. First, they used their imaginations to draw what they thought might be hidden inside a magical egg. Once they had designed their creature, they wrote a sentence or two to explain what was living inside.

The ideas were incredibly creative and certainly made us chuckle! We saw everything from magical dragons and rainbow creatures to mysterious aliens and eggs inside of eggs! It was wonderful to see the children using their imaginations so confidently.

A big focus in English during the first part of Year 1 is helping children to:

  • Say out loud what they want to write before they write it.
  • Begin sentences with a capital letter.
  • End sentences with a full stop.
  • Re-read their writing to check that it makes sense.

We will continue practising these important skills throughout the term.

Next week in English, we will be reading Jasper's Beanstalk and learning how to write our own instructions for growing a plant.

To get ourselves ready, we followed instructions together today and made our very own cress heads! They are now sitting happily on our classroom windowsill and we are looking forward to watching them grow over the weekend and over the coming weeks.

Maths

Next week we begin our work on place value within 10.

The children will be learning to:

  • Count forwards and backwards to 10.
  • Recognise and write numbers to 10.
  • Match numbers to quantities.
  • Compare groups using language such as more, fewer and the same.
  • Order numbers from smallest to largest.
  • Understand that numbers are made up of different amounts (for example, 5 can be made using 3 and 2, or 4 and 1).

Being secure with numbers to 10 is extremely important before we begin introducing addition and subtraction, so any support with counting, number recognition and number games at home would be greatly appreciated.

📌 Important Information

PE Days

Our PE days will be:

  • Monday
  • Wednesday

Children should come to school wearing their PE kit on these days, just as they did last year. Please see the uniform information on the school website if you need any further guidance.

Outdoor Learning

Please ensure your child has:

  • A pair of wellington boots in school.
  • Appropriate outdoor clothing for the weather.

This helps the children make the most of our OPAL provision and enjoy outdoor play in all weathers.

Spare Clothes

Please can all children have a spare change of clothes in school. These are useful not only for toileting accidents but also for those occasions when outdoor adventures become a little wetter or muddier than expected! We have a very limited supply of school spare clothing.

Reading Books

Reading practice books have not yet been sent home. Before doing so, we need to reassess all children to ensure they are reading at the correct level.

We will be carrying out these assessments next week and will send books home as soon as possible afterwards. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

😊 Thank You

Finally, thank you all for the warm greetings, friendly introductions and support at the classroom door this week. We really appreciate it.

We are a small Year 1 team and are very much looking forward to working together with you over the coming year.

Have a wonderful weekend, and we can't wait to see everyone again next week for another exciting week of learning!

The Year 1 Team 🌟