Year 1

Summer 2025

This term, our topic is 'We're All Going On a Summer Holiday'! We will be going on a trip around the UK, learning about the four UK countries and the surrounding seas. We will be developing our knowledge of physical and human geographical features and we plan to go on a local walk around Dronfield to see if we can spot any of them. We will learn about where we live in the world and compare Dronfield with the seaside town of Scarborough. Our role play this term is a travel agents. Lots of holidays have already been booked, some of them very cheap, the other day I manged to book ten days in America for just £10. What a steal! 

    

Our maths will cover place value of numbers up to 100 with lots of practice counting forwards and backwards from different numbers. We will be learning about practical multiplication as "groups of" and division as "sharing" and also learning simple fractions. Later in the summer, we will be learning about time and money.

In our English this term we are looking at telling our own stories with a beginning, middle and end. We will be writing our own seaside list poem to link with our topic work and writing instructions about getting ready for bed. Later in the term, we will be writing reports and stories with a bad character in them. We will finish the summer term writing free verse poems. 

Our science this term starts with the unit Animals Including Humans. We are focusing on humans, naming external body parts and exploring the senses. We will be using the opportunity to do some fun investigations to learn how our senses help us to make sense of the world around us. Our second unit is Plants - we will be naming parts of a plant and learning to identify common British plants and trees. We will also, of course, be planting our own plants to see how they grow.

This half term is another busy one with our phonics check in June, which we are busy getting ready for, and we will also be practicing all our skills to prepare us for sports day this term too. Hopefully the sun will shine so we can enjoy our family picnic after all the races.  We will also continue developing our outside area. Lots of changes have already taken place and there are plenty more exciting ones to come. We can't wait to show you all the finished area! 

 

                   

A breakdown of this term's learning can be found here. Our Year 1 homework grid for Summer 2 can be found here.

Spring 2025

This term, our topic is 'Toys' and this will have a history focus. We will be looking into the toys that the children play with now, the toys they played with when they were babies, the toys their grandparents played with and toys from the Victorian Era. We will be introducing the children to the idea of living memory and creating a timeline that stretches back to the Victorian era. We will also be looking at photos of all the children (and Y1 staff!) as babies to see if we can guess who is who. 

 

We will talk about the differences between modern toys and toys from the past; considering the materials they are made from and whether or not they use electricity. This will then link to our Design and Technology project of designing a winding toy. 

In maths, we are working on 2D and 3D shape, place value of numbers, first to 20, then progressing on to 50. We will also be developing our addition and subtraction skills. Later on in the term, we will work on measurement - length, weight, mass and volume.

Our first science topic this term is 'Everyday Materials'. We will be learning to identify and name common materials and conduct some experiments to test their properties, such as waterproof testing. After half term, we will be learning about Seasonal Changes, with a focus on changes as we move into Spring. We will be hoping for some sunny weather to get outside and observe the changes taking place! Let's hope there is less of the white stuff we have been experiencing recently. 

In English, we started the term by writing recounts about our Christmas holidays. We wrote about something we received, someone we saw and somewhere we went. We are then moving onto retelling traditional tales such as The Three Little Pigs and the Hansel and Gretel. To finish the half term, we will do some work on winter shape poems before looking at familiar stories next half term. 

Our music will focus on the interrelated dimensions of music such as pitch, tempo and timbre and we will be creating soundscapes for some characters from our traditional tales!

Over the holidays, we made some changes in the Y1 classroom. We now have a cosy reading area which all the children are loving and and we have a bigger role play and home area. It is so wonderful seeing the children enjoying all the changes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A breakdown of this term's learning can be found here. Our Year 1 homework grid for Spring 1 can be found here.

Autumn 2024

Wow, what a start to Year 1 we have had. I can't believe how well the children have come back in. They are so eager to learn and it has been lovely to hear all about what they have been doing over the holidays. 

We have a new 'Work to Bee Proud of' display in our cloakroom, and even though we are only a few days in we already have pieces of work the children have said they are proud of being put up.  The children have also already shown lots of love for our 'Explorer' role play. It's been lovely to hear about the places they are visiting in their jeep.

                                                                    

Our maths learning will focus on place value of numbers to 20, including lots of ordering, comparing and counting activities. We will move on to addition and subtraction later in the term.

Our English will include using stories with repetition, such as 'Walking through the Jungle' and 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt', as stimuli for developing our descriptive language and practicing our sentence writing. We will also be exploring some acrostic poetry and non-fiction writing. In our reading area we will have resources such as story spoons and puppets so the children can retell the stories to their friends.    

           

 

 

Our science this term begins with Seasonal Changes. We will be observing changes as we head through Autumn, including changes in plant and animal life and the difference in daylight hours and weather patterns. 

After half term, our unit will be Animals. We will be learning about different animal groups and similarities and differences between them. We will be sorting animals in different ways such as their features and what they eat.  

Our RE will investigate the question, Who is a Christian and what do they believe? After half term we are learning about celebrating special and sacred times, focusing on Hanukah and Christmas. In PSHE, we will be learning about Being Healthy and Difference and Diversity. We will also take daily about hoe we feel and how we can deal with different feelings. The children are also encouraged to show us how they feel using our interactive 'Feelings check in' display.

In addition to all of that, we will of course be having fun with music, PE, computing, and art, and learning a variety of different skills and information along the way! A full breakdown of our learning this term can be found here.