Year 1 Curriculum Newsletter

Here’s a little about what we’ll be learning this term in Year 1!

Reading – Fairy Tales

Phonics learning will play a significant role in reading. We will continue to teach students the relationship between letters and sounds, exploring different phonemes and graphemes. Through interactive and explicit lessons and word-building exercises, students will enhance their phonics knowledge and apply it to their reading.
We will continue to reinforce decoding skills by introducing new phonics patterns, practising blending sounds together, and using strategies like sounding out unfamiliar words. Through guided reading sessions students will gain confidence in decoding words and sentences.
To improve fluency, we will engage in repeated reading exercises, and use modelling and reading buddies to practice reading with texts every day. Students will have opportunities to read independently, with partners, and in small groups, fostering a love for reading and building confidence.
Alongside decoding and fluency, we will also focus on comprehension strategies. Students will learn how to make predictions, identify main ideas, infer meaning, make connections, and summarise texts. We will provide explicit instruction and opportunities for students to practise these strategies during guided reading sessions and independent reading time.

We encourage you to support your child's reading development at home. Please ensure they have regular access to age-appropriate books and provide a quiet and comfortable space for reading. Engage in discussions about the books they are reading, ask questions, and encourage them to read aloud to build fluency. Additionally, you can reinforce phonics learning by practicing letter sounds and sight words together with the weekly spelling words.

Writing – Narratives

We will delve into the world of fairy tales and study their structure. We will learn about character traits, settings, problems, and solutions, and apply this knowledge to writing our own narratives. This will help us develop our storytelling abilities and encourage creativity.
Nouns are an essential part of writing, as they are the words that name people, places, things, and ideas. We will reinforce the concept of nouns, including common nouns (e.g., dog, book, park) and proper nouns (e.g., Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin). Students will learn how to identify and use nouns accurately in their writing.
Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns, adding detail and depth to our writing. We will explore the use of descriptive adjectives to enhance our sentences. Through engaging activities and exercises, students will learn how to choose appropriate adjectives to make their writing more interesting and engaging.
Sentence Structure: Building upon our knowledge of nouns and adjectives, we will focus on expanding our sentence structure. Students will learn to write more complex sentences by adding additional details and information. They will practice using adjectives to describe nouns, creating rich and descriptive sentences.

Throughout the term, we will encourage creativity and storytelling in our writing activities. Students will have opportunities to write their own narratives, incorporating nouns, and adjectives to bring their stories to life. We will celebrate and share our writing accomplishments at the end of the term.

Maths

Time: We will focus on learning how to read and tell time, specifically o'clock and half-past. We will practice using analogue clocks and digital formats to understand the concept of time.
Additive Concepts: Addition and subtraction will be explored as we strengthen our understanding of numbers and their relationships. We will engage in hands-on activities and problem-solving tasks to develop our mathematical thinking.
Counting: We will continue to reinforce counting skills, exploring different strategies and patterns to enhance our number sense.
Geometry: We will explore 2D and 3D shapes, learning their names, properties, and how they relate to the world around us. We will incorporate this with the use of technologies and Minecraft.
Statistics and Probability: We will investigate chance outcomes, discussing the likelihood of events happening or not happening.

Inquiry

Weather Observation: We will learn to observe and record weather patterns and characteristics. By doing so, we will gain a deeper understanding of weather and how it impacts our daily lives.
Seasons: We will study how the seasons change throughout the year, identifying the characteristics and differences between each season.

Visual Arts

This term in Visual Arts, students in Year 1 will continue to explore collage, focusing on creating positive and negative shapes. They will investigate paper construction, creating cylinder shapes, imaginative shapes, animal shapes. Students will begin to explore threads and textiles through paper weaving projects. They will further develop their ability to describe artworks they make and view, including where and why artworks are made and viewed.

Performing Arts

Production! Production! Production! This term all students, in all year levels will be spending Performing Arts classes rehearsing for our upcoming whole school production 'Kismet in Story Land'. Students will be rehearsing two separate dances, as well as the retelling of their cohorts' chosen story. Students will be exploring creative and expressive dramatic skills during their scene, as well as enhancing their co-ordination and gross-motor skills when learning their stage entrances, exits and on-stage rotations. All students are encouraged to participate in rehearsals, regardless of whether they intend to perform on the night, as these are important skills in confidence and teamwork.

Japanese

This term in Japanese we are having a whole school focus on self introductions. The Year 1 students are learning how to say “Nice to meet you”, “My name is…”, “I am … years old”, “I like…”, “I live in…” and “I’m in grade 1”. On Tuesday 1st August, Kismet Park Primary School will be hosting some Japanese students for a day. These students are from Nagano High School, the sister school of Sunbury College. We hope that our students will get the opportunity to introduce themselves in Japanese to our visitors. Students will also continue to develop their understanding of the Japanese writing system through various activities and build their vocabulary through games, songs and crafts.

Physical Education

This term students will be exploring the sport of Gymnastics and Dance. They will be given the opportunity to move their bodies in a variety of ways and begin to sequence movements. The focus is on moving bodies safely and with good control.