Welcome to Year 1!
Rainforest to Buckingham
During the Autumn Term our topic is 'Rainforest to Buckingham'.
We launched the topic with a Super Start: a treasure hunt to discover animals and living things hiding from the rainforest which were hiding in our school grounds. The children found all sorts of creatures including parrots, snakes, frogs, monkeys and even a toucan along with bright, colourful plants.
We will looking at different types of maps to locate rainforests and comparing the weather there with that here in Buckingham. As part of our topic lessons we will be finding out about the different layers in the rainforest, how they are similar and different and which animals live there. To end the half term we will be identifying the importance of the rainforest and holding our very own Amazon Day on Friday 19th October.
In English, our writing will be inspired by the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle. We will describe characters, create story maps and write our own story based upon this book. Daily phonics and reading sessions will take place to support the development of these essential skills.
In Maths, we will begin by reinforcing our sorting and place value skills, before moving on to consolidate and extending addition and subtraction skills. We will use concrete (real) objects and pictures to support children to develop a solid understanding of abstract aspects of maths, including activities both inside and outside the classroom.
In Science, we will be weather and plant detectives. Initially we will consider how the weather changes as we move from summer into autumn. We will explore different parts of the school grounds and identify plants that we find, describing how they are similar and different to each other.
In Art, we will be developing our mark making skills, studying the work of Andy Goldsworthy, William Morris and Henri Rousseau, using these as inspiration as we produce our own repeating patterns and pastel sketches.
We are will also be following the 'Journey of a Cocoa Bean' as we design and produce our own chocolate bars.
Farah Class (with Mrs Lake): PE is usually on a Tuesday and a Friday.
Peacock Class (Mrs Milne and Mrs Baxter): PE is usually on a Wednesday and a Friday.
Please can all PE kits be named.
Please send water bottles and book bags into school every day.
Helping at Home
Accurate recall of number bonds to and within 20 is key, the children will continue to consolidate these through our weekly arithmetic sessions.
Please support your child in learning their sounds (phonics) and read at least three times a week (5 would be even better!) and record these in your child's reading record.