Class 1 - Autumn 2009

Welcome to our new school year.  We are delighted that the new Reception children are settling into class really well, and our Year 1 children all seem to have grown a great deal during the summer break. They have come back to school fired with enthusiasm, and are enjoying showing their new friends our class and our school.

Our theme this term is  “Ourselves, our families and Keeping Safe, Fit and Healthy”.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development, our theme is “New Beginnings” and we will use circle time activities and role play to explore this. We will work on friendships, working and playing together and consideration for others.

Our Indoor Role Play Area is Looking after Babies at home.  Children have made decisions about what we need, how we will organise it and how we will use ICT. We will then change it to “Denton Health Centre” They will carry out sight and hearing checks, measuring height and weight, as well as administering no end of slings, bandages, medicines and prescriptions to each other and to our baby dolls.  

Our Knowledge and Understanding/Science/Humanities work will be finding out about ourselves, our senses and our families, and looking at healthy eating.  We will try various menus, and help to prepare – and taste – food.  We will explore the local area, make our own maps and plans, and carry out traffic surveys.

In our Literacy work, we will introduce Jolly Phonics to Reception children, while Year 1 children will revisit sounds made by 2 letters, e.g. sh, th, ng, ai/ay, oy, ee, etc.  Year 1 will have weekly spellings, based on high frequency words and phonic patterns – please refer to the front of their spelling books.   Children will be encouraged to write on their own, using the sounds they know, and to write for many different purposes, lists, captions, speech bubbles, etc.. We will practice the correct formation of letters. Our story focus is linked to our theme of ourselves andstories in familiar settings, and we will have many play activities, drama and speaking and listening linked to them.

We will link our Creative work to these stories, e.g. making models of Humpty Dumpty, spiders, puppets, as well as encouraging large paintings,   Children will be encouraged to explore their own ideas in 2d and 3d picture making and construction using a variety of materials. We will use musical instruments to retell stories, and make our own sounds.  In the afternoons, Year 1 will look at shading, line and tone, and the work of LS Lowry and Archimboldi.  

In Design/Technology we will investigate fruit and vegetables, how to prepare them.

Our Numeracy work will include many practical activities where children use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting and relate addition to combining two or three groups of objects. Year 1 will count in twos, fives and tens, use doubles of numbers, and work with teen numbers.  We will make comparisons about volume (filling different containers) weight, length and size, and find out more about regular 3D shapes. 

Our PE days are Monday afternoons (dance/movement), Thursday (multi skills) and Friday (gymnastics).  The Reception children will have many opportunities to use PE apparatus in our outdoor play area.

This term, much of our Social Development will revolve around snack time.  We make fruit smoothies, milk shakes, and fruit salads as well as planning and serving drinks.  Children take responsibility for preparing, serving, and organising snacks and drinks, as well as washing up.   

Useful websites for activities at home are www.parentlink.co.uk and www.bbc.co.uk/numberjacks .Please come and chat with us if you have any questions, or if you would like to come and join in with any of our activities.