Year OneAutumn 1 Curriculum Overview

Our second topic this half term is:‘To Infinity and Beyond’

We hope this letter gives you an overview of what we will be covering, so that you can continue any learning at home if you wish to.

RememberOur ‘Break the Rules’ day is happening on Monday 21st October. This is to raise money to enhance the provision in our outside area and your support would be greatly received. We aim to make this a fun experience for the children and they will be reminded that all other school rules still apply! If you have lost the sponsorship letter, please see your child’s class teacher.

ReadingWe will read with your child on a 1:1 basis every week and write a comment in the reading diary. Please write in it whenever you read with your child and don’t forget to tick off the Reading Challenge when it starts. Please remember that your child’s reading folder needs to be in school every day.

PhonicsWe have phonics sessions every day, whereby we recap a sound from phase three, previously learnt in Year R. There are lots of opportunities for active learning and the children can participate in lots of different ways. We encourage the children to use the sounds they have learnt in both their reading and writing.

WritingWe will be practising writing simple sentences focusing on using capital letters, word spaces and full stops. We will be continuing to focus on using adjectives to describe as well as challenging children to use a conjunction, for example ‘and’, ‘because’ or ‘so’. We will be writing for different purposes including: a space crash recount, using story language

and sequencing of Whatever Next and information writing about space and astronauts.

HandwritingWe will be practising forming our lower case letter shapes, which look like this: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w

x y zWe have learnt and continuing to practise the ‘long ladder’ family and the letters are:

i j l t u yWe will be learning the ‘one armed robot’ family and the letters are:

b h k m n p rWe will continue to learn the different families the letters belong to as it helps to remember how to correctly form each letter shape.

Dory Wavy Words Every week, your child will receive a set of three ‘Dory Wavy Words’ to learn to spell. If your child can spell these three words correctly throughout their work, they will be able to move onto the next set. If your child comes home with the same words as the previous week, they need more practise spelling those words correctly and consistently. Please support your child spelling these words at home.

Word AwareThroughout the topic we will be teaching the below space related vocabulary in an interactive way. ‘Anchor Words’ being the easiest through to ‘Rigging Words’ being the most challenging. Please discuss the meanings of these words with your children and how you might use them verbally.

Anchor Words Sailing Words Rigging Wordsspacerocket

galaxysolar system

MercuryVenus

planetstar

moon Earthsunalien

comet astronautsatellite

black holegravityNASA

MarsJupiterSaturnUranus

NeptunePluto

MathsWe will be learning about place value and partitioning numbers up to 50 and beyond. We will be learning what each digit represents in a two digit number as well as the place value of tens and ones. We will be representing partitioning of two digit numbers using a range of resources including: numicon, arrow cards and diennes. We will also be counting in 10s as well as using number lines to support the understanding of the position of numbers.

P.E.We will be listening to space themed music and creating our own space dance. We will be creating a sequence of movements being an astronaut going to space in a rocket. We will also be working with Mr Cousins, an external P.E. specialist on Tuesday. We will be continuing to develop our gymnastic skills by travelling and moving on different body parts.

Design and TechnologyWe will be creating our own diorama based on Whatever Next by Jill Murphy. We will learning the importance of designing our diorama by adding labels. We will then learn the skill of using templates to draw around and cut out carefully. We will then learn how to fold and create tabs so a picture can stand up. We will also evaluate our final diorama and reflect upon our first design.

ComputingWe will be learning how to use a laptop and begin to develop an understanding of how to keep safe when using technology. We will learn some basic skills using a laptop including: turning on, logging on, logging off and shutting down.

Crew ChallengesDuring the children’s independent learning Discovery Time, Crew Challenges are set each week to be completed. These challenges consolidate previous learning and are differentiated to your child’s ability. These will be explained on a Monday and the children have to show their completed challenges by Friday. Please encourage your children to complete a Crew Challenge every day and the challenge posters are displayed on each classroom window.

Water Bottles and Healthy SnacksPlease make sure that your child brings in a water bottle every day to school, ensuring that this is clearly named. We provide a healthy snack every day for your child which is either a piece of fruit or vegetable.Home LearningHome learning will focus on activities linked to our topic for you and your child to enjoy together throughout the half term. The pink home learning book will go out on a Thursday and should be returned the following Tuesday. We make sure that we mark and celebrate your child’s work.

Please come and speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any queries or questions.

Thank you,The Year One Team