Year 1 - Butterfly Class - Mr Hancox and Mrs Slusarczyk

Friday 26^th September 2025

 

P.E. Days:

P.E. days will be Monday and Wednesday this term; can children please come in wearing their P.E. kits on these days.  Long hair must be tied up and any watches, earrings or other jewellery removed.  Children should have shorts for P.E. sessions; for safety reasons, only children wearing shorts can be allowed to use the P.E. apparatus.  Children should also wear a hoodie and jogging bottoms in case of cooler weather.

 

Forest School

Forest School sessions have now finished for Year 1.  There will be further Forest School sessions in the Spring Term.

 

Meet the Teacher

Thanks to everybody who was able to attend this year's Meet the Teacher event.  If you weren't able to come along, the slides containing all the relevant information are attached to the bottom of this page.

 

Snacks and Water Bottles

Children should bring a clear, plastic water bottle to school every day containing only water – no squash or juice please.  A daily snack of fresh fruit or vegetables is provided for all the children.  Your child is welcome to bring in their own snack for Snack Time if they prefer, however it must also be some form of fresh fruit or vegetables – nothing from a packet please (unless it's a box of raisins).

 

Home Learning

English:  Make time to read with your child for approximately 5-10 minutes every day.  Children are encouraged to change their reading books regularly, however you can find extra reading material on the Oxford Owl website.  Our Library Day is every Tuesday, so children can also bring their library books back and exchange them for new ones then.

You don't need to record each daily reading session in your child's Reading Diary, but do make an entry at least two or three times a week; whenever they finish a book; or just to say that they enjoyed a particular story you've shared. 

​The Reading Diary also contains lists of our Phonics sounds, along with Learning Tools to compliment your child's reading, and get them thinking, talking and sharing their opinions about the books they've read.

At the front of the Reading Diary is a list of Non-Negotiables for Year 1 - these are learning targets we are hoping to achieve by the end of the year.  From time to time, specific targets will be selected that you can focus on at home, so please check the Non-Negotiables list for any notes or annotations that will help to focus your home learning.

Phonics:  Following the Smart Kids: The Code Phonics scheme, this week we've been recapping our Phase 3 sounds including oa (goat), oo (zoo), oo (look), ar (car) and or (for).  Look out for words containing these sounds in your daily reading and when you're out and about.  The Phonics Play website has some excellent free resources and games for extra practise, and there are some "Alien" word flashcards attached to the bottom of this page.  We also sing along to the Alphabet Song on the Super Movers website.

Handwriting:  We're teaching the children cursive letter formation, using the Teach Handwriting scheme of work.  The website, which includes animations featuring correct letter formation along with worksheets, can be accessed by clicking here.

Maths:  (20-30 minutes per week)  Following the White Rose Maths scheme, we're looking at number and place value to 10.  Can your child count to 10 forwards, backwards or from any given number?

Number recognition is also important in Year 1, and the children frequently struggle to recognise the tricky teen numbers between 10 and 20.  I've attached some number recognition flashcards to the bottom of this page if you'd like to practise at home.  The 'Out and About' cards on our maths page also have some great ideas for exploring numbers in everyday situations.

Science:  This term, we are learning all about everyday materials.  What everyday materials can you spot around the home?  Can your child identify which materials different objects are made from?  Why do they think this was the best material for the job?

 

Primary Picture News

Primary Picture News is a child-friendly look at some of the events going on around the world.  This week, the children heard about the Guinness Book fo World Records celebrating its 70th birthday.  Ask your child about this week's story using some of the questions in the slide above.

 

Our Class Reader

We read a range of books in our daily story time.  This week, one of the was 'Dogs Don't Do Ballet' by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie.

It tells the story of Biff, a dog who loves ballet and wants to be a ballerina, but - as everybody keeps telling him - "Dogs don't do ballet!"  Will he still be able to follow his dream?

Ask your child about the story and which of our Langrish Learning Behaviours Biff represents.  Maybe they could even design a new ballet outfit for Biff.

 

A Taste of Our Learning

Week 4 - Fabulous Forest school, knowing our numbers and studying structures

Undaunted by the wet and cold, Year 1 have been loving their Forest School sessions over the past three weeks.

They've been exploring which bugs and plants are around at this time of year (including in our new pond), making crafty creations using natural objects found in the copse, and whipping up some "delicious" looking creations in the mud kitchen.  It's been wonderful to see the children exploring nature and having a fabulous time getting their hands dirty!

Ask your child about their favourite Forest School activities.

In Maths, we've been working on number and place value by sorting and counting groups of objects.  We talked about the different ways we could sort objects (by shape or colour for instance) and the children then had a number of challenges to complete using different objects around the classroom.

They've also been honing their number skills in other ways, from jigsaws and dot-to-dot puzzles to matching activities and cut-and-stick games.

Ask your child about their favourite maths activities this week?

We continued our look at playgrounds in Design and Technology by experimenting with different structures.

We looked at the strongest structural shapes that are used to build playground equipment (triangles, tubes and arches), then made some of our own using a range of materials and joining methods.  The children could use card, paper or lollipop sticks as well as glue, tape and Blu-Tac in order to find the best combinations they could through experimentation, trial and error.

Which materials did your child think produced the best results?

Week 3 - Colourful Christmas Cards, Amazing Algorithms and Perfect Playgrounds

No, that wasn't a mistake in the heading!  Despite it still being September, we've been fabulously festive in Year 1 this week by creating some eye-catching Christmas cards.  With a backdrop of Christmas music to get us in the festive mood, the children finger-painted around stencils to create colourful relief images of Christmas trees.

The children's Christmas cards will be coming home this week, giving you plenty of time to order cards, tags and other goodies featuring your child's design in time for Christmas.  Click here for more details from the Cauliflower Cards website.

In Computing, the children programmed each other to create LEGO models this week.  Using only a few LEGO bricks, the children made a simple model, taking a clear photo at each step using the iPad.  This created a picture algorithm, and they then challenged a friend to follow the algorithm - one step at a time in the correct sequence - in order to create the same LEGO model they had made.  It was a great way of demonstrating what an algorithm is, and why it needs to include clear instructions in a specific sequence.

Maybe you could try this activity at home.  Can your child create a picture algorithm for you to follow?

In Design & Technology, we began our look at playgrounds by exploring different types of playground equipment.

We talked about our favourite things to play on and discussed how they were made, including what shapes we could see and which materials were the most common and why.  The children then drew and labelled their favourite pieces of play equipment, including the materials used in their construction.

What does your child like to play on at the playground?  Can they describe what it's made from and why those are the best materials for the job?

Weeks 1 and 2 - Welcome Back!

We've had a busy first week and a half back!  First, we created our Year 1 Class Charter based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).  After going through the Articles that were most appropriate for Year 1, the children chose the Rights they felt were most important to them and included them in our Class Charter.  These included the Right to be heard (Article 12), the Right to an education (Article 28), the Right to play and rest (Article 31), and the Right to nutritious food and clean water (Article 24).

Ask your child about the UNCRC.  Which Rights did they think were most important, and which Right did they draw a picture to illustrate?

As this week was all about settling in and setting expectations for the coming year, that also included learning about how to keep ourselves safe online.  The children heard the story of Smartie the Penguin and we talked about what to do if we ever see something online that makes us feel sad, scared or worried.  This message was backed up by a video featuring Jessie and Friends, and enabled us to create and sign our own Year 1 E-Safety Charter, which you can find alongside the Class Charter at the bottom of this page.

Can your child tell you how they can keep themselves safe online? 

We also started talking about our Langrish Learning Behaviours, all of which are linked to characters from different children's stories and which we refer back to at the end of the day when our two Learning Detectives talk about the day's learning.

This week we read 'Supertato' (Bravery), 'Amazing Grace' (Positivity), 'Oh No, George!' (Self Control), 'Giraffe's Can't Dance' (Self Confidence) and 'Elmer' (Good Listening).

Ask your child about these stories and characters; why do they think they personify our Langrish Learning Behaviours?

 

Phonics Word Wall

We go through all the words on our Word Wall every day as part of our Phonics lesson.  The tricky words are organised and labelled to indicate which Phonics Phase and book bands the words will appear in (Pink, Red, Yellow/Blue, Green/Orange), mirroring the order in which the different Phonics sounds and phases are taught.  The words in yellow at the bottom are the Year 1 and Year 2 High Frequency Words.

Age-related expectation is that children should be reading Orange books by the end of Year 1, and should therefore be able to read, recognise and understand all the words down to the bottom of the board when they appear in a text.  They should also be able to start using them in their own writing, utilising the Word Wall in order to help them with their spellings.

You can watch a video of Mr Hancox guiding you through the Word Wall by clicking here.

 

Internet Safety and Parental Controls

There have been instances of children across a number of year groups discussing inappropriate Internet content they have viewed at home.  Please ensure that your Internet-linked devices at home are suitably supervised and protected using the parental controls available.  For advice on how to keep your child safe online, including the use of parental controls, click this link to the NSPCC website.  If you'd like to know how to set up parental controls specific to gaming - limiting game time, in-game communication or setting spending limits for instance - click on this link to the EA Games website.

​Extreme Reading Challenge

For our reading wall display, we want to prove that Langrish children love to read anywhere and everywhere!  

What's the most unusual place your child has read a book.  Up a tree?  In a hammock?  On the beach?  Bouncing on a trampoline?  Email us a photograph of your child reading a book in an unusual place (nothing dangerous of course!) and we'll put it up in the 'Extreme Reading' display within our book corner.

I look forward to seeing the unusual places you've been reading your books!

Our Learning Behaviours