Years 1 and 2

Class teachers:

Mrs Singh and Mrs Davies

Teaching assistants:

Mrs Aiston, Mrs Brindley and Miss Limb

International Adventure

As part of our humanities learning, our topic this term is ‘International Adventure. Your child has brought home a concept organiser with more detail about this topic. The children will be developing their skills as historians and geographers throughout this.

This topic links with our curriculum themes about:

· Human Rights and Responsibilities

· Diversity

· Sustainability

We will update our blog regularly with examples of the work that we are doing. Please find below a copy of our concept organiser

Phonics

Phonic sessions are taught daily as a discrete lesson. Children who are ready to move through our RWI programme will join the appropriate groups to move their learning forward based on regular assessments.

The children in Year 1 and 2 will continue their Read, Write, Inc. lessons, applying their phonic knowledge and skills at various different levels. Children who complete the RWI scheme then go on to participate in reading lessons.

How you can help at home:

Practise pronouncing the pure sounds: Remember no ‘fuh’ and ‘luh’!

Practise saying the set 1, 2 and 3 sounds at speed.

Read favourite stories over and over again

Listen to them read their take home Phonics storybooks (depending on their RWI group)

Have fun with Fred Talk e.g. “what a tidy r-oo-m!”

j-a-m jam, c-a-t cat, p-e-n pen, sh-o-p shop

Useful videos and websites for phonics:

How to pronounce the pure sounds - Watch our sound pronounciation guide 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q

• Read Write Inc. Phonics – Parent/Carer Films
• Free e-books for home reading:
• https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/
• Phonics Play – Phonics Games
• https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources

Reading:

In Year 1/2, the children progress through the Read Write Inc. scheme. This is a daily session with children taught in small groups. Each lesson consists of a speed sound and reading session. Each week, the children read a different RWI book.

Once children have completed all the RWI colours, they will join the Literacy group.

In this group, we will be using various age appropriate texts as a stimulus for developing our skills in retrieval, inference, vocabulary, explanation, predict and summarise.

Writing:

This term, we will be developing our skills as writers by writing for a range of purposes and audiences.

The children will develop their understanding of a wide range of punctuation, including the use of capital letters for the beginning of sentences and names, full stops, exclamation marks, question marks, commas in list and apostrophes for abbreviation and possession.

The children will be developing their letter formation and moving into joined writing when they are able to.

They will also learn how to apply their phonic knowledge and spelling rules to their writing.

Maths:

In Mathematics this term, we will be focusing on:

· Fractions

· Time

· Number, place value and rounding

· Addition

· Measure

· Multiplication and division

· Shape

· Subtraction

· Money

In each area, children will develop fluency and reasoning skills. We revisit termly and prior learning is built upon.

They will develop understanding through the use of concrete apparatus (Dienes, counters, numicon, cubes, etc.), pictorial images (arrays, number lines, place value charts, etc.) and abstract methods (written methods).

In addition to our maths lessons, we will continue to work on developing our arithmetic skills. We do regular arithmetic sessions with the children, where they practise applying strategies and skills that they have learned previously. We also do a number of the day, where children apply their knowledge of place value, rounding and the four operations.

• White Rose Maths – Parents & Pupils https://whiterosemaths.com/
• Top Marks – Interactive maths games https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
• BBC iPlayer – Numberblocks
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks
• Timestables.co.uk https://www.timestables.co.uk/

PE days: 

All children - Tuesday

For each session, children will need to come to school in their PE kit, including trainers, dark tracksuit bottoms or shorts and a white t-shirt.

RE:

In RE, the children will be advancing their understanding of the religions that they have previously learned about on their journey through our school. In addition to this, the children will begin to learn about the practices and beliefs of Muslims. The children will identify similarities and differences between the lifestyles, practices and beliefs of Christians and Muslims. They will also reflect on their own thoughts and beliefs, as well as learning to respect the views of others.

Homework: 

We expect that the children in Years 1 and 2 read five times a week. To help your child to develop their reading, please listen to them read their RWI books. They will also bring home a library book which you can share together.

The children also need to practice their spellings in preparation for their weekly spelling test on a Friday.

For maths, the children will be set weekly homework. The purpose of this is for children to apply skills that they have been working on in school. This homework will usually be set on a Monday and the deadline will be on a Friday.

Home school books:

Your child will have a home/school book in their bags. Please use this to record whenever you hear your child read or when they have completed any other homework. This should be brought to school every day.

Metacognition and Self-regulation:

It is important that children develop their skills of metacognition and self-regulation. Put simply, this means that children can plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning processes and can apply their knowledge of the task, the possible strategies that they could use and their knowledge of their own strengths and areas for development as a learner.

In order to support your child to do this, you could:

• Ask children questions about what they know about the task (what they have to do) and the possible strategies that they could use.
• Encourage them to be independent as much as possible.
• Help them to manage their own time efficiently E.g. planning when to complete their homework and how long they will spend on it.

How you can help your child at home:

• Encourage your child to have a try at fastening their own coats and shoes before doing it for them.
• Teach your child to use a knife and fork so that they can be more independent at dinner times.
• It is important that your child learns how to hold a pencil correctly. Once they have learnt the wrong way to do it, it is really difficult to undo. As soon as they are ready encourage them to use a tripod grip when mark making so that they are comfortable for writing, forming accurately and joining letters.
• Teach your child to use scissors.
• Count at every opportunity.
• Go to the shop and use real money.
• Use environmental print to help them understand the purpose of reading.
• Enjoy a book together – help your child develop a lifelong love of reading.