Year 1 Term 1 Overviews

Dear Year 1 Families,

Welcome back to school for 2026! This year we have seven Year 1 classes and the teachers are: 

The Year 1 teachers are extremely proud of the Year 1 students’ return to school and are looking forward to watching them grow as learners. 

Phonics

All Year 2 students will have dedicated time (25 minutes) to engage in Phonics each school day. This will include the learning of letter combinations and the common sounds they make (e.g. <sh> shows the /shhhhhh/ sound). Students will blend these sounds together to read decodable words and segment these sounds to write words. Students will further explore how the same sounds can be represented with different spelling patterns. Students will be introduced to morphology, the smaller parts of words such as prefixes and suffixes that change the meaning of words e.g. walk to walked or walking. This learning of Phonics will support students’ fluency and automaticity.

Literacy

Reading will be a priority for all Year 1 students with a larger emphasis on comprehension of texts (understanding) and text features. As your child begins to develop their reading skills through decoding (solving the words) and fluency (noticing and using punctuation to make meaning), they will encounter a larger variety of Fiction and Non-Fiction texts which will further develop their love for reading. This term in reading, students will focus on identifying the purpose, genre and features of a text (Fiction and Nonfiction), developing their ability to infer, making text to self connections and summarising the important parts of a text. To support the development of reading, students will engage in daily guided reading sessions, reading conferences, buddy reading, independent reading and serial class reading. 

This term in writing, Year 1  students will engage in phonics as well as handwriting practice to understand that letters and sounds can be combined to make words. They will learn how writers develop their ideas and use this as inspiration to create their own poetry and personal recounts. Using their knowledge of letter sounds, High-Frequency-Words, syllables and regular spelling patterns, students will write sentences that include one or more ideas and draw a picture to add detail. As authors, they will form upper- and lower-case letters to present their writing, experiment with adding and deleting sounds to create new words, and read back their writing to ensure that it makes sense. 

Numeracy

This term in Numeracy, Year 1 students will begin the term by learning about representing and interpreting data as well as drawing strong connections to maths in their lives through a focus on location. Students will practise giving and following directions using specific vocabulary to successfully reach a destination. Students will explore fractions (identifying half) through paper folding of different shapes and exploring terms such as ‘equal, whole, same, part’. Place value will be a core focus area throughout the whole year, especially in Term 1, where the students will be investigating counting efficiency (ones, twos, fives and tens) and describing counting patterns. Further, students will solve simple addition and subtraction problems using a range of strategies, such as counting on and partitioning. Throughout the term, students will continue to be exposed to different mathematical situations where they will be required to problem solve using the skills of modelling, diagrams and equations. The term will conclude with students learning 2D shapes and 3D objects. To complement this unit, students will be using informal units to measure and order objects based on length, mass and capacity.

Unit of Inquiry - Identity, Creativity and WellbeingIn the classroom, students will learn about how they grow and change as they get older, including changes in their bodies, friendships, and independence. They will explore different emotions and how their feelings and actions can affect others, practising respectful ways to express themselves. Students will also learn why health information is important. Students will use this information to help them make healthy choices.

Students will also practise solving problems by thinking of different ideas, choosing a solution, and explaining why they think it is the best choice. They are encouraged to share their thoughts and reflect on how their own experiences and feelings influence their thinking. 

Ways to Help Your Child At Home:

Home Reading - We have started our Home Reading program. The expectation is for your child to read their take home book 5 nights a week, answer some comprehension questions that an older family member asks them and record the title, date and a comment in their yellow reading journal. Take home books are for enjoyment and for your child to practise their reading strategies, and are not meant to be a challenging task for your child. Here are some questions you can ask your child as you read together:

• What do you think this book might be about from the cover and title?
• What do you already know about this topic or these characters?
• How do you think the character is feeling right now? What makes you think that?
• What do you think might happen next? Why?
• Can you retell the story in order (beginning, middle, end)?
• What did you learn from this book?
• What was your favourite part and why?
• Did this book remind you of something in your life or another book?

• What message or lesson do you think the author is trying to teach?

   

Learning Apps - This year at DCC we will be using Wushka to support your child's reading at home. To support numeracy at home students will have access to IXL. Log in details for both of these are pasted in their yellow reading journal or have been emailed to you. 

Kind regards,

Year 1 Team