Elm Class
Welcome to Elm Class. The class teacher is Mrs Armitage and the teaching assistants are Mrs McDonald, Miss Carter (Monday afternoons).
Elm Class is a mixed Year 1 and Reception class where lots of fun and exciting learning takes place. We take the children’s interests and link these to lessons and planning.
The children keep their books in the reading packets and coats on their pegs outside the classroom. Books will be changed on a Monday and a Thursday.
Water bottles can be brought in daily. Please can you make sure all school items are clearly labelled.
PE sessions for the year 1 children are on a Tuesday afternoon (Autumn 1) and a Thursday afternoon (swimming session). Reception children will be doing PE on a Wednesday and a Thursday. Children should come to school on these days in their PE kit which is a pair of black jogging pants or shorts, a white t-shirt, a black tracksuit top and trainers. Forest School sessions for the Reception children will be posted on the Ash class dojo page.
Swimming
The Year 1 children will be swimming every Thursday afternoon until the summer term.
They will need their swimming kit, costume or trunks, towel and swim cap in a named bag. Long hair should be tied back as it is easier to put on swimming caps. Earrings must not be worn.
Homework
Homework for the Year 1 children will be given out on a Friday. For the first term this will focus on high frequency word spelling/sentence structure.
Regular reading– we now encourage the children to read their book through on 3 separate occasions- this is to encourage fluency and confidence as well as a good understanding of the phonics and content of the books. We would ask that the children’s Book & Log are in school on a Monday & Thursday for checking and changing.
Supporting phonics & reading– as a class we will be doing Guided Reading using texts that support and consolidate the children’s phonic knowledge. We will upload a book to Bug Club – Active Learn every week and we encourage the children to share this book with you at home and have a go at some phonic spotting.
Spellings/ Sentence structure activities- sent home on Friday.
These could be common exception words, tricky words or words containing the sounds we are working on in phonics. We ask that you spend sometime with you children reading, spelling and writing these words in a sentence to help them learn and retain the spellings. We will do a writing activity in class to see if the children can write the words within a sentence.
Phonics practise and games using Bug Club Phonic- Active Learn. The Reception children will be given a username and password to access books and games to practise new sounds learnt weekly.
Writing is a whole school target this year so the more writing your child can do the better. We just ask for you to mindful of some of the writing skills we expect.
1. The use of finger spaces.
2. Sit their letters on the line making sure the tall and long letters are clearly shown.
3. Full stops and capital letters.
4. Accurate letter formation (cursive handwriting using the correct ‘take off and flick’).
5. Use phonics to help them spell accurately.
Our Maths focus will be Using and Applying Maths skills within the real world. We
want the children to understand how Maths is used in the world around them so any hands on and practical activities can be fun.
Some hands on activity examples:
- Visit a shop and allow your child to buy something using the correct coins
- Find numbers in the supermarket
- Use items from the kitchen to weigh/measure or order in size
Time (reading o’clock and half past), days of the week and months of the year are also very important things for your child to learn.
Number work using Numbots (Reception) and TTRS and Maths passport objectives (these are assessment termly and sent home)
We understand that you have very busy home lives but any home learning you can attempt really does help the progress of your child.
Any other home learning tasks will be sent home via the class dojo age and will differ each week and may be linked to another subject in the curriculum.
Thank you for your support in this.
Handwriting and Spelling
We will be having Spelling/ Phonics everyday which will focus on phonics families and Common Exception Words. We will assess the children as often as is needed so lots of practise using their reading books with the appropriate phonic sounds in is a really helpful.
In Handwriting sessions, we are now encouraging ‘tails & flicks’ throughout the children’s writing but no joining until their letter formation is accurate. We will be practising each of the letters, this can be practised at home if they like.
Reading
The main focuses for reading this year will be:
- Word reading
- Developing pleasure and motivation for reading
- Understanding books which they can read themselves and those which are read to them.
- Participation in discussion.
- Comprehension
The hardest transition for Year 1 children is moving on from just decoding the words on the page to reading with increased fluency to enable them to read, enjoy and understand the content of the story or book. So talking about the vocabulary, characters and events is as important as reading the words. We begin to teach the children comprehension skills which enables them to understand the story and characters better and begin to give their thoughts and ideas about what happens in the stories they read. These skills are:
- literal- pulling facts from the text and using it to answer the question.
- inference- reading between the lines looking and thinking a little bit deeper and adding personal views and ideas when answering the questions. This will be supported by evidence from the text
Your children will bring their reading book every night. Regular reading and discussion about what they are reading is really important. Listening to your child reading and talking to them about stories and books is also extremely beneficial. It is really helpful if you can comment in their reading logs as it is an ideal way of communicating with school about your children’s successes and difficulties with each book.
Please let us know when your child has completed the book and have understood it so it can be changed.
Curriculum overview
Below is the Timetable for the Year 1 children for Autumn 1. The Reception timetable changes weekly and is built around the children’s interests. Keep an eye out for all things happening in Reception on Ash Class page.
The Long Term Plan is what the children will be covering across the year. Below are the long term plans for Ash and Elm Class.
Please note;
All the YR children in both Ash & Elm class follow the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage). Please follow the links to Ash Class to find out more information about the EYFS. Ash class dojo page will be updated each day with photographs and any messages for the Reception children will be posted on there.
