Welcome back to Spring term! The children had an excellent first term in year one and we did lots of lovely learning across the curriculum as well as the children settling in to a new way of learning. We have been really proud of them all and what they have achieved and we are really looking forward to all the exciting things we have coming up this term. As always if you would like to discuss anything about your child’s learning journey then please do not hesitate to speak with either Mrs Prosser or Miss Watson after school or you can arrange a phone call or meeting via the info@belle-vue.dudley.sch.uk

Mrs Prosser

1P Teacher

Art Lead

Miss Watson

1W Teacher

Mrs Harris

Year One Teaching Assistant

Mrs Malpass

Year One Teaching Assistant

Important messages

PE

1P - Tuesdays and Thursdays

1W - Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Please make sure children have PE kits in school and come to school with plasters already over earing or earings are taken out.

Reading books changed

Thursdays for both classes

Please make sure children bring both monster phonics and book to share books into school to be changed we can not sent new books home unless old ones are returned.

Safety

Please can we ask that parents not come into the clockroom for morning drop off and make sure that the door way is kept clear for children to come into school safely. 

At the end of the day when picking up please can you wait on the year 1/2 playground not at the top of the steps so that we can see each adult clearly before letting the children go. 

Thank you for your continued support

Dates for your diary!

Monday 6th January - Inset day

Tuesday 7th January -Term starts for pupils

W/C Monday 13th January - SEND Parent Communication week

Wednesday 12th February - Curriculum showcase evening

Thursday 13th February - Valentine's Film Night

Friday 14th February - Last day of term

Monday 17th February - Friday 21st February Half Term

Monday 24th February - Term starts

Thursday 6th March World book day

W/C Monday 24th March - KS1 KS2 Mother's Day breakfast

W/C Monday 31st March - Assessment week and DT week

Thursday 10th April - Belle Vue Spring Fayre

Friday 11th April- Last day of term

Monday 14th April - Friday 25th April- Easter Holidays

Science:

In the first half of Spring term children will learn to recognise seasonal and daily changes in the weather. They will learn that our seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth. They will learn that weather forecasts help people to prepare for different kinds of weather. They will study clouds and will find out about three different types of cloud and the weather they bring Children will look at weather forecasts and the symbols used to indicate different types of weather.

In the second half of the term pupils will learn about the Earth’s natural resources and how people harvest and use them. They will be introduced to the concept of renewable and non-renewable resources. Logging is introduced and pupils will learn about the negative environmental impact this process can have. Pupils will also think about ways in which we can reduce our impact on the environment, from planting trees to recycling paper.

Geography:

In the first half of spring term, Year One will be introduced to the name, location and characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom. They will look at the formation of the Union Jack and identify it as the flag of the United Kingdom. They will look at physical and human features of the countries within the UK and will use maps to identify coastlines, hills, rivers, lakes, towns and cities. They will identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the UK. 

Children will use maps and atlases to locate the United Kingdom and will recognise the location of the countries within the UK. As children move through
the curriculum, they will have frequent opportunity to use atlases and will become more confident at navigating to find the information they need. 

Children will build on their understanding of place as they identify locations around the UK. They will also begin to understand how places are connected.

Art: 

In the first half of Spring term children will understanding that architecture is the art of designing buildings; design is planning and
drawing how something is going to look; buildings are built for a purpose and have features which serve a particular purpose; architects consider
the purpose of building when they are designing it; artists evaluate their own work. Children will be making a line drawing of an important building, a rose window using collage, designing a penguin house and making a clay Gargoyle. 

In the second half of Spring term children will be looking at style in art and narrative art. Style is introduced at this early stage in the curriculum as it is a central concept in art. It is defined as ‘how a piece of art looks’ and this is explored by reference to particular paintings techniques: pointillism used by Seurat and short brushstrokes used by Van Gogh. Narrative art is introduced for children to learn that art can tell a story by representing characters and settings.

History

In the second half of spring term, Year 1 will develop a foundational understanding of the changing power of the monarchy in Britain. It will explore how the power that Kings and Queens hold has changed over time.

This unit supports children’s understanding of the past, focusing first on changes within living memory with the present-day monarch before exploring the lives of other kings and leaders chronologically.

Physically sequencing events or narratives on a timeline will help to develop our children’s chronological understanding.

Computing

During spring term, Year One will be learning all about coding. They will explore the following objectives:

•To understand what instructions are and predict what might happen when they are followed.
• To use code to make a computer program.
• To understand what object and actions are.
• To understand what an event is.
• To use an event to control an object.
• To begin to understand how code executes when a program is run.
• To understand what backgrounds and objects are.
• To plan and make a computer program.

PE

During spring term, Year One will be developing basic gymnastic actions on the floor and using low apparatus. 

Children will explore basic skills of jumping, rolling, balancing and travelling.

Children will create sequences through combining these movements and skills.

Children will begin to understand the use of levels, directions and shapes when travelling and balancing. 

Music

During spring term, Year One will learn that music is made up of long and short sounds called ‘rhythm’ and high and low sounds that we call ‘pitch’.

As children dance, sing, and play instruments with the music in this unit, they will explore these sounds and how they work together.

Children will learn a variety of songs throughout this term, including:

- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

- In the Orchestra

- Daisy Bell

- Dancing Dinosaurs

- Rock-a-bye-Baby

Religious Education

In the first half of spring term, Year One will be introduced to the subject of Religious Education (RE). It has been designed to teach children that when we study RE we are learning about different aspects of religion and we are also relating what we’ve learned to our own experiences. Children will understand that during
RE lessons, they might be asked to reflect, to think about what they’ve learned and will have opportunities to share their thoughts. This unit, and the
approach with the rest of the curriculum, identifies things that religions have in common. Children will explore special places, books, times and people within
Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are also invited to reflect on those things that might be special in their own lives.

PHSE

In the first half of spring term, Year One will be focusing on health and wellbeing. Children will explore the following learning:

- What being healthy means and who helps help them to stay healthy (e.g. parent, dentist, doctor)
- That things people put into or onto their bodies can affect how they feel
- How medicines (including vaccinations and immunisations) can help people stay healthy and that some people need to take medicines every day to stay healthy

- Why hygiene is important and how simple hygiene routines can stop germs from being passed on
- What they can do to take care of themselves on a daily basis, e.g. brushing teeth and hair, hand washing

In the second half of spring term, Year One will be focusing on living in the wider world. Children will explore the following learning:

- What money is - that money comes in different forms
- How money is obtained (e.g. earned, won, borrowed, presents)
- How people make choices about what to do with money, including spending and saving
- The difference between needs and wants - that people may not always be able to have the things they want
- How to keep money safe and the different ways of doing this

Homework

In Year One, children should be reading to an adult a minimum of 3 times a week. We will be sending home a Monster phonics book home and a book to share. These will be swopped on a Thursday each week.

We will be learning the Year 1 High Frequency Words and Common exception words so learning these at home as well will be a huge advantage.

We will also send home an activity sheet for phonics that will focus on what they have learnt that week. Please can these be completed in pencil and handed in to the class teacher when completed.

Practising number and letter formation on letterjoin (log on code below) https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/index.html 

Regular visits to numbots (passwords can be retrieved from teachers) https://play.numbots.com/?#/account/school-login/3596  to increase fluency in maths