Year 1
Welcome to Year 1!
We are so happy that you are here and hope that you enjoy finding out about our learning journey along with being kept up to date with important events. Please follow us on 'X' @LeasowesPrimary for more updates on our learning.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell
Week Beginning 28th April 2025
Hello and welcome back Year 1! We are in our final term...can you believe it? The year seems to be whizzing by. This term is extremely exciting because we begin our Explorers and Journeys Unit. This is a History and Geography combined unit of learning and over the weeks we will be learning about significant explorers through History and the journeys they went on through Geography. We will be learning about Christopher Columbus and his voyage to America, Robert Scott and his travels to Antarctica, Neil Armstrong and his discovery of the moon, and Helan Thayer and her journey across the Sahara Desert. In Science we will be learning about Humans and Animals. This covers the senses, the parts of the human body and we learn about the different categories of animals and how to classify them. PSHE and RE links to friendships. In Art we will be exploring the work of David McEwon. He travels to remote areas in the world and captures them through his paintings.
This Half Term will also see the Year 1 children complete their Phonics Screening Check. They have been working so hard on preparing for this and we have been blown away with how they have come on in their Reading. In English we will be exploring a variety of texts linked to exploring, adventures, Antarctica and the Sahara Desert. Below you will find the timetable for the Summer Term.
As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
Key Information:
Phonics books will be given out every Tuesday and are due back every Friday.
Reading Diaries are collected and checked every Monday and Thursday. The children's book will be changed on these days so please could you sign the diary so that we know the book has been read. Please try to read for at least 10 minutes everyday. It makes such a difference!
PE: Monday and Wednesday
Coming Up This Term: Important dates for your diary:
Phonics Screening Check: Week beginning 9th June 2025 (everyday that week)
KS1 Sports Day: Wednesday 25th June 9:15 - 10:45
Here are some of our recent tweets!
Week beginning March 17th 2025
Wow! The children have come back after Half Term and have absolutely blown us away with their outstanding attitude to learning. We can't believe we are already half way through this half term. They have risen to all of the challenges we have set them and have been showing our school value of 'aspiration' in action. In English, they have been writing some descriptions for an eerie forest setting. The inspiration for this was the forest in the story 'Into the Forest' by Anthony Browne. We have been lucky enough to get in touch with Anthony Browne and he has said we can send him some of our descriptions. We cannot wait to hear what he thinks of them! In Maths, the children have been collaborating to find different fractions of amounts and have also been learning about commutative law. This half term has seen us begin the Geography unit 'Comparing Forests'. The children have thought about the physical and human features that we would find on Cannock Chase and have discussed the animals that live there. This week we have begun to compare Cannock Chase to the Amazon Rainforest. The children realised that whilst they are both still forests, the location in the world dictates the different climates and therefore the different plant and wildlife there. They couldn't believe that there were pink river dolphins living there! The children have also been learning about the impacts of deforestation and wildfires on the Amazon. They showed such maturity when reflecting on this.
In Design and Technology, the children have begun to practise different joining methods in preparation for creating their own fabric woodland themed hand puppet. They are very excited to create this during the Family Learning afternoon.
As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
Key Information:
Phonics books will be given out every Tuesday and are due back every Friday.
Reading Diaries are collected and checked every Monday and Thursday. The children's book will be changed on these days so please could you sign the diary so that we know the book has been read. Please try to read for at least 10 minutes everyday. It makes such a difference!
PE and Forest School: Monday (PE) and Thursday (Forest School).
Coming Up This Term: Important dates for your diary:
Family Learning: Tuesday 1st April 1:30 - 3:00
Phonics Screening Check: Week beginning 9th June 2025 (everyday that week)
KS1 Sports Day: Wednesday 25th June 9:15 - 10:45
Here are some of our recent tweets!
February 2025 End of Spring 1
Wow! Can you believe we have nearly completed the first half of the Spring Term? The children have been working so hard and it was wonderful to share all of their learning with all of the parents at Parents Evening. The amount of knowledge that they now have about Mary Seacole, Florence Nightingale and Alice Hawkins is incredible. They have also been working hard to understand more about plants. This half term has focussed on trees. They can now name all of the different parts of a tree, can recognise evergreen and deciduous trees and have begun to recognise different types of trees. Next half term we will be focussing on plants and the structure of flowering plants in particular as well as plants we might find in the garden. We will also be learning about Beatrix Potter. The children have been creating some wonderful pieces of art based on Vashti Harrison and have used collage to create these. Next half term we will be focussing on our Design and Technology sewing unit. There will be a Family Learning planned that links to this so a confirmation letter will be sent home within the first week of Spring 2. We will be moving on to our new Geography unit during Spring Term 2 which will compare Cannock Chase to the Amazon Rainforest.
The children will also begin their Forest School unit. A letter will be sent home in the last week of Spring Term 1. Below we have attached the new timetables for Spring Term 2 and there is a list of key dates for the diary too. We also regularly update our learning through tweets that we will share on X.
As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
Key Information:
Phonics books will be given out every Tuesday and are due back every Friday.
Reading Diaries are collected and checked every Monday and Thursday. The children's book will be changed on these days so please could you sign the diary so that we know the book has been read. Please try to read for at least 10 minutes everyday. It makes such a difference!
PE and Forest School: Monday (PE) and Thursday (Forest School).
Coming Up This Term: Important dates for your diary:
Friday 28th February - Aspire to be Future Me Day
Thursday 6th March - World Book Day
Family Learning - Date to be confirmed.
Here are some of our recent tweets!
January 2025 Spring Term 1
Welcome back everyone! We hope that you all have had a wonderful Christmas break and are ready to learn even more knowledge this Half Term. We have such a fantastic and exciting half term coming up. In History we will be learning about Mary Seacole, Florence Nightingale and Alice Hawkins. This is for our 'Fantastic Females' unit. We will also be using this as inspiration for our writing. Our Science unit for the whole of the Spring term is focussed on Plants. We will be learning about different plants and trees, their structure, common plants and trees found in gardens and forests and we will also be dissecting a plant to take a closer look at the individual parts. In Maths we will begin the term with refreshing our understanding of addition and subtraction and will be learning how to add and subtract larger numbers using a 100 square. In Art we will be learning about a lady called Vashti Harrison and creating self portraits through collage.
PE this half term will be on a Monday afternoon and a Wednesday morning and our new class timetables are attached at the bottom of the page. Below you will also find some of the key dates for the diary. Under the Curriculum section for History you will also find the Knowledge Organiser for each History unit covered. We will also regularly update our learning through tweets that we will share on X.
As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
Key Information:
Phonics books will be given out every Tuesday and are due back every Friday.
Reading Diaries are collected and checked every Monday and Thursday. The children's book will be changed on these days so please could you sign the diary so that we know the book has been read. Please try to read for at least 10 minutes everyday. It makes such a difference!
PE: Monday and Wednesday.
Coming Up This Term: Important dates for your diary:
Tuesday 15th January - Phonics Parent Information Evening 5:00 - 6:45pm.
Wednesday 5th January - Parents Evening
Thursday 6th January - Parents Evening
Friday 28th February - Aspire to be Future Me Day
Thursday 6th March - World Book Day
November 2024 Autumn Term 2
Welcome back everyone! Can you believe we are in the second half of Autumn Term already? Time clearly flies when you are learning hard and having fun! The Year 1 children have come back ready to learn and eager to challenge themselves this half term. Our value for this half term is 'courage' and the children have already shown that they are pushing themselves in their work and having the courage to challenge themselves further.
Coming up over the next few weeks, we will be writing letters in English. This is linked to the story of Paddington. We will also be learning about money in Maths. If there are any opportunities outside of school for the children to use money in real contexts, that would really help them to secure their recognition of coins and understand their value. In Science we will continue our unit on Materials. This half term we focus more on enquiry and investigation, after spending last half term recognising materials and their properties. This begins with investigating waterproof materials, and then progresses to the 'Egg Drop' enquiry and the 'Save the Superhero' enquiry. We will be starting our first Geography unit of the year too. This is based upon our local area and the children will be learning about what an address is and what amenities there are in the local area for the community that lives here.
Christmas will also be fast approaching, so over the next few weeks we will be sending out Christmas song words for the children to rehearse at home.
Below you will find some of the tweets we have shared on X, the new knowlege organiser for our Geography unit and the new timetable for this half term.
As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
October 2024
Wow! What a fantastic few weeks we have had in Year 1. The children have amazed us with how well they have settled into Year 1 life. They have been showing 'active listening and active learning' all of the time and we have seen more children on the Golden Star than ever before! All of the children have been producing work to be proud of and they cannot wait for you to see it on Parent's Evening.
Coming up over the next few weeks, the children will be learning about 2D shapes and their properties in Maths. In English they will be carrying on with their descriptive writing and then moving on to writing letters from Paddington. In Science they will be continuing to focus on their materials unit and will begin to look at applying their knowledge to answer questions and carry out their own enquiries...one will be linked to fixing an umbrella for Paddington so that he doesn't get wet in the rain. In History they will be learning more about old toys from the past and will learn about the History of the teddy bear. They will also be performing their Harvest songs in the Harvest festival to parents.
Below you will find some of the tweets we have shared on X.
As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
Autumn Term 2024
Welcome back everyone! We hope you have all had a fantastic Summer break and are excited for the year ahead. We cannot wait to welcome you all into Year 1 life.
Please find attached the Autumn timetable for both classes. We cannot wait to share some of their learning with you on here and on Twitter! As always, we are available each morning and evening at the door if you need to speak to us.
Mrs Dodd and Miss Thelwell :)
The staff for each class this year are:
1D
Mrs Dodd (class teacher)
Miss Harrison (Teaching Assistant)
Miss Bromley (1:1 Teaching Assistant)
1T
Miss Thelwell (class teacher)
Miss Hodgens (Teaching Assistant)
Key Information:
Phonics books will be given out every Tuesday and are due back every Friday.
Reading Diaries are collected and checked every Monday and Thursday. The children's book will be changed on these days so please could you sign the diary so that we know the book has been read. Please try to read for at least 10 minutes everyday. It makes such a difference!
PE: Monday and Wednesday
Coming Up This Term: Important dates for your diary:
Tuesday 12th November - Anti-bullying week (Odd socks)
Monday 18th November - Educational Visit to Cannock Chase Toy Museum
Wednesday 11th December - Christmas Jumper Day & Christmas Dinner Day
Thursday 12th December - KS1 Production