In Geography this term, we will be looking at our planet. We will be exploring the 5 oceans, the sea life within them and how we can help to make our ocean a better place to live. As a hook into our topic, we have visited  Hastings Aquarium, the RLNI and the beach.

We will be learning the following key vocabulary:

• Ocean
• Climate
• Sea life
• Pollution
• Recycling

This term we will be administering the phonics screening. The children have been so focused on their phonics and have been enjoying phonics games to support their learning. We have started this term revisiting some sounds and we will now be learning:

• /l/ - with these spellings l, ll, al, el, le, ol, il
• /o/- with these spellings o,  and a
• /s/ - revisiting and  learning more spellings s, ss, st, c, ce, se, sc
• /or/  - revisiting and learning more spellings or, aw, a, ar, au, al
• /air/ - revisiting and learning more spellings air, are, ear, ere, eir, ayer, ayor

Please continue to listen to your child read as often as possible, it has a big impact on their learning across the whole of the curriculum.

For our English learning Year 1 will step into the magical world of Fairy Tales with our enchanting narrative writing topic exploring their learning through beloved stories of princes, princesses, dragons, and talking animals and much more. This term, our little storytellers will explore classic Fairy Tales, understand story structure and its features, create magical and mythical creatures culminating in them writing their own Fairy Tale which they will present to you later in the term!

In Art we will be drawing on the theme of Oceans and Seas. We will be looking at the movement of water and using media to re-create waterscapes. The children will experience how to print with paint and ink, blow art to show the movement of water and layer their art to create a final piece.

In Maths, we will be focusing on place value with numbers to 50 before moving onto weight and height, mass and volume. When exploring numbers to 50, the children will be learning to count and group in 10s as well as identify how many tens and ones make up a number. In addition to this, the children will be finding more than and less than with numbers within 50.

In RE, we will be looking at faith communities. We will be exploring celebrations in faith, comparing wedding ceremonies in Christianity and Islam, as well as thinking about how we feel we belong in a group. We will also be discussing how religious symbols represent different faiths.

In PSHE, we have started the term thinking about ways we can be kind and will be working towards answering the question ‘how can we look after each other and the world?’ The children will be learning about what can harm our local and global environments and understand how people grow and change. This includes what babies need and how we can help older people. We will be finishing the term, considering ways in which we can manage the change moving up into year two.

In Science, we will be continuing our focus on plants. The children will be exploring the parts of a tree and collecting parts of a tree to make a collage as well as collecting bark rubbing from the trees in our school grounds. We will be identifying these trees and deciding if they are deciduous or evergreen. In addition to this, we will be learning about wild and garden plants and going on a plant hunt to see what we can find around the school.