Dear lovely Year 1 children and families,

We hope you are all doing well at home, we have been thinking of you all. Thank you for bearing with us while get everything set up in school. As always, the activities are for you to dip in and out of and can be adapted to suit the needs and interests of your child. We have based these on what we are teaching the children who are attending school so that we can help make sure they aren’t missing out on any learning.

Summer 2: Week 2

Phonics:

• Practise writing the tricky words we have learnt so far; I, no, go, to, into, she, we, me, he, be, you, all, are, her, was, they and my.
• If you want a spicy challenge you could also try; have, like, said, so, some, come, do, little, were, one, there, out, what and when.
• Use your flashcards each day to remember each sound you know, we have all the single sounds made by an individual letter and the following digraphs and trigraphs:

Qu, she, ch, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er.

• We have started looking at the new phase 5 graphemes too (there are different ways of writing sounds we have already learnt, like “oi” and “oy”. The “oy” sound usually comes at the end of a word like in “boy”.
• Play boggle! Using the grid below, how many words can you make using the sounds you can see e.g. c-oi-n. Talk about which “oi” sound is used for the words you are making.  

Reading:

• Keep reading!! It doesn’t have to be story books; we know we have a lot of keen scientists and children who are passionate about animals and dinosaurs. Information books are great to read too! You could talk about the features of the information book and how it is different from a fiction story book. You might even want to write down some facts you have learnt in your book.
• When you are reading story books look out for different kinds of punctuation like exclamation marks and question marks. These change the way we read and help us to read with expression. Stop and talk about this as you read, re-reading any bits that change with the punctuation.

English:

• For our new topic, we are learning about Amazing Authors! Our first author is Beatrix Potter and we have been reading the tale of peter rabbit. Read the story together, if you don’t have the book then have a look at this video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuTlQCGxE5Y
• Talk about the idea that a lot of books have “good” and “bad” characters. Say that you think Peter is the “goody” in this story, do they agree or disagree? We are learning about giving and explaining opinions so ask them to use the word “because” to help explain what they think. Peter rabbit did steal vegetables and didn’t do what his mother asked him to! Write an apology letter one of these characters. Encourage your child to say what they are sorry for, and what they should have done instead.
• We are going to write our own story about a cheeky little rabbit who doesn’t follow an instruction! Ask the children to think of a name for their rabbit and ask them to write some adjectives around it to describe what their character is like.
• Plan the story together; what instruction will they disobey and what problem will they have because of this. How will they solve the problem?
• Ask your child to write their new story! Encourage the use of finger spaces, full stops, capital letters, adjectives and joining words and phrases like next, after that, and then. 

Maths:

• Each time we do maths we like to warm our brains up first; see if you can remember all the numbers that add together to make 10 (number bonds). Perhaps you can also remember what double each number to 5 is without suing your fingers!
• In maths this week we are learning about odd and even numbers. Talk about how even numbers can be shared into two equal groups but that with odd numbers there will be one left over. Can you investigate the numbers 1-20 using objects, making a list of the numbers that can be shared out equally (ad are even) and those that can’t (and are odd).
• Can you find these numbers on a hundred square or number line and notice the pattern; odd/ even/ odd/ even.
• If we imagined that those off numbers were apples, and we still wanted to share them equally, we could cut the left over apple in half; so half of 5 would be 2 and a half. Showing this with real apples or similar would be great! Look again at the numbers to ten and see if you can find half of all of those numbers. The even numbers will be whole numbers and the odd numbers will be a number and a half.

• After we have finished this learning we are moving on to some multiplication using grouping. We will be using the language of “lots of” to help us understand this.
• Tell the children that we are going to be fining 3 lots of 2. Make 3 groups of 2 and count how many there are (count in 2s to do this if you can!). 3 lots of 2 make 6! Repeat with different “lots of” 2 using practical objects to make the groups and counting in 2s to find the answer.
• For an extra challenge you could do “lots of” 5, or “lots of” 10.
• Another way of showing multiplication, moving from real life objects (concrete), to diagrams/ pictures (pictorial), how we teach all our maths concepts, is using arrays.
• For example, to find 5 lots of 2, you could colour 5 sets of 2 squares on a grid, colouring each set in a different colour:

• You could practise solving “lots of” questions (2, 5s and 10s) on squared paper, colouring the groups.
• Only if your child has understood the practical grouping, and the pictorial arrays, would we move them onto presenting it In an abstract way, using a “times” sign and writing the calculation they have solved as a number sentence. With the above example it would be 5X2=10. We wouldn’t expect many children to move onto this stage on their first try!

Science:

• This week in science we are thinking about seasons again.  Can you go on a summer seasons walk. You may like to take some photos or collect some of the things you have spotted to make a seasons scrap book or a nature table in your home.
• We will be thinking about how the length of the day changes according to what season we are in. This is something you could talk about together, or even watch (if you are having a particularly late night or early morning..!)

Topic: (Humanities: History)

• As part of our Amazing Authors topic we are learning about Beatrix Potter. Perhaps you can find out about her together and learn some facts? You may even want to make a fact file about her.
• The website https://www.peterrabbit.com/about-beatrix-potter/ has some good facts, and even some photos and examples of her illustrations on.

Music: Login to Charanga (details sent home prior to lockdown)

Art:

• In school we are learning about using watercolour paints, if you have some at home then you might like to try using them, or you could use a different kind of paint or come coloured pencils.
• We have been painting a template of one of the characters in the tale of peter rabbit, but you could paint in any outline of your choice!

PE:

• Join in with the zoom lessons Mr Robert is doing. We wish we could come to these but now that we are in school it is sadly not possible.

PSHCE:

• This is a very strange time for us all and it is good to talk about things we are worrying about. This week in school we have drawn worry jars and put inside the things we are worrying about, talking about them if we feel happy to do so. You might even like to make one using a real jar and write your worries on paper. We aren’t locking away our feelings, because it is important to talk about them and not ignore them, but we are using this as a way to talk about any worries we have.

Most importantly, take care and stay safe! J

Year 1 Team. xxx