Grasshopper Class (Year 1) 2024 - 2025

Welcome to the class page for Grasshopper Class.

Here you will find all of the exciting and wonderful things that your child will be learning during their time in Year 1. If you have any questions, please use Class Dojo or speak to a member of our team at drop off/ pick up.

Thank you

Spring Half-Term One

This half-term our class will be looking at the book 'Hermelin - The Detective Mouse' by Mini Grey

Our writing focuses are:

Punctuate sentences using a capital letter and a full stop

Join words and clauses using and

Adding 'es' or 's' to plural nouns

The children will be working on using story language, character and setting description and will be sequence simple sentences to form short narratives.  

Weekly spellings can be found on class dojo

These will be put on class dojo on a Monday and will be tested the following Friday.

This half term in maths we are going to be working on:

Place Value within 20 and addition and subtraction within 20

Place Value withinin 20 small steps

count within 20, understand 10, understand 11, 12 and 13, understand 14, 15 and 16, understand 17, 18 and 19, understand 20, 1 more and 1 less, the number line to 20, compare numbers to 20, order numbers to 20,

Everyday 8.50 - 9.30 am we will have our phonics lesson. Each child will bring home a shiny book and paper book which are matched to the sounds they are learning in their phonics group. Your child will have read the paper copy already in school and will be able to share this with you independently. The shiny book will be new to them and they may require some adult support with this as they decode the words. 

Reading Expectations

Read with your child every day even if it is just 2 minutes- this can make all the difference. 
Please record all home reading in your child’s reading diary so we can ensure that your child is receiving their vending machine book or reading buddy. Frequent reader prizes will be awarded on a Thursday. 

When reading, ask your child about what they think might happen next in the story, how they think the character is feeling, who the author is and what do they do. 

It does not have to be their paper or shiny book they read, it can be any. Remember, you too can read to them - change your voice for expression, bring the characters to life. 
Shiny book bag books MUST be returned to school every day ready to be changed every Monday. 
Paper books ( they are the same as what they are reading within their phonics lesson to promote confidence) should be coming into school every day so that they are ready to be changed every Friday. 
Reading diaries MUST come in every day regardless of whether or not they have been written in - we cannot replace them if they are continuously being lost or not taken care of.  

The children who have progressed off the RWI phonics scheme will be joining the Whole Class Shared Reading Class. During these sessions they will be reading a shared narrative and learning more complex reading skills using VIPERS. To learn and practise these skills we be using the text 'Above and Below'. 

This half-term we will be learning all about animals and humans

By the end of this unit, children should be able to:

Identify and name a variety of common animals

Describe and compare the observable features of animals from a range of groups

Identify and group animals according to what they eat

Name and locate parts of the human body and begin to make suggestions about what some parts of the body do

Name the 5 senses and the part of the body they are related to

Explain how they use each of their senses 

When working scientifically children will be able to:

Suggest ways to test materials for their properties, make predictions and recognise whether they were accurate, use their observations to answer questions, recognise if a test is fair. 

We will be having lots of fun learning through practical experiments and learning all about the famous scientist Charles Darwin

This half-term will be studying Geography and our topic is 'What is it like here?'

Learning Ojectives:

Locate three features on an aerial photograph of the school and know the name of the country and village, town or city in which they live

make a map of the classroom with four key features, using objects to represent the distance and direction of features in the clasroom

Recognise four features in the school grounds using a map

Explain how they feel about three areas of the playground and find out how others feel by looking at the results of a survey

Draw a design to improve three areas of the playground using the results from the survey.

Your child will have a music lesson each week, where they will learn to play instruments and explore their musical abilities. This half term our Year 1 topic is 'Animals' and we will be exploring ourselves and animals with a focus on pitch. This will link in really well with our science topic too!

In PE this term, the children will be practising their Gymnastic and Ball skills. 

Your child will have 2 PE lessons each week. Please ensure they come into school in their PE kit on these days. Grasshopper Class will have PE on a Monday and Thursday afternoon. 

There is one session of Forest School left this half term and that will take place on  Tuesday 11th February. Please send your child to school on this date in their green Forest School uniform. 

Maths Family Home Learning will be handed out in books on a Monday to be completed by the following Monday. Each week children collect a star for their work and prizes will be awarded for the best participants. The standard of home learning in these home learning books has been exceptional so far. So please keep up the hard work and fun learning with your children.

Useful links

Class dojo

ttrockstars 

Rules of spellings
"ee" sound in a "y" sound e.g. smelly, cheeky, belly, sneaky. 
turning the "y" into an "i" for pural use e.g. babys - babies,  cherrys- cherries, berrys- berries. 

Sentences and Writing Expectations 
Is your child consistently using captial letters for the start of their sentence, names of places and people?
Is your child consistently using the correct punctuation to finish a sentence? E.g. The black dragon flew across the dark sky. What would you like for your birthday? Charlie was so exicted! 
Is your child using a range of adjectives to describe? E.g The red, hot fire crackled. 
Is your child using the word 'and' to join two clauses together? E.g. A huge and grumpy orge. 
Is your child using the suffix -ed, -ing, -est, -er? 

Home resource - Youtube 
Simply type in "tricky words set 2 / 3 to support your child's learning of red words they find within their RWI books. 
Question starters - why, who, when, where, how, do...great home resource simply type in "Question Starters"  look for the red background.
Jack Hartman - Multiply by 2,3,5,10 (youtube)
Oxford Owl - phonics 
Learning walks - asking your child what a tree or the clouds look like, how many birds they can see, counting how many cars they saw. 

General Reminders:

Please ensure that your child's belongings are clearly labelled – uniform, water bottles etc.

Water bottles should contain water only.

Most communication will be done via Class Dojo. This is a great way to upload and home learning and WOW moments. You can also use this to contact your child’s class teacher if you have any questions or concerns.