Year 1

Autumn 2025

We have had an absolutely brilliant first couple of weeks in Year 1. The children are arriving every morning with a smile, a story and an eagerness to learn. We are really enjoying starting each day with a boogie and the Year 1s definitely have the moves! 

Over the holidays, we have been very lucky to have our toilets completely refurbished and we have all been very excited about the changes. We have also been enjoying having time in our outside area and using the new and improved area.

 

 

In the classroom we have a display showing our families and who we live with using work we completed during our transition days.

In Make and do we have been busy using our artistic skills to create owls to brighten up the area. 

                                                                 

Our maths learning this term 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. 

For English during the first half term we will be continuing some of our work in 'drawing club' from Foundation stage. We will use books such as, We're going on a bear hunt, Walking through the Jungle and One day in the eucalyptus eucalyptus tree. We will listen to and act out the story then will draw characters, settings and adventures before writing 'codes' to go with our pictures. In our cosy reading area we have resources such as story spoons and puppets so the children can retell the stories to their friends. We also have our daily story vote where the children can use Lego to vote for the story of their choice.

          

 

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. Our learning will be taking us outdoors to observe the changes in our school environment. 

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 talk daily about how 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. PSHE will also include some e-safety lessons. 

In music this term, we are learning about pulse and rhythm. We will be learning to keep the pulse at different speeds and copy and create rhythm patterns. Later in the term, our music will of course be getting Christmassy! 

 

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.

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.