Welcome to the Hedgehogs Class (Year 1)

Teacher:	Mrs Huke
Teaching Assistants:    Learning Support Assistant:	Mrs Nethercoat Mrs Turner Miss Beechey

Welcome to Spring Term in Hedgehogs Class

Year 1 Spring Learning 

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back. We hope you had a restful holiday and are ready for the new term.

As you are all aware we have again found ourselves in a situation where we need to deliver our school curriculum remotely to the majority of our children. Most of you have already managed to log onto Google Classrooms and are accessing the resources and work that is being set by the teachers. We have been absolutely delighted with the work that has already been sent in, and are really enjoying sharing the children's achievements with them.

If you are having any difficulties, please contact the school office (admin@swinggate.herts.sch.uk) as soon as possible, so that we can support you.

We know that 'home-schooling' is difficult, and want you to know that we think you are all doing a wonderful job. Together we will navigate our way through the next few weeks and make sure that the children have an enjoyable and productive half term.

This term our theme is Food and Farming. 

In geography the children will be learning about farming and why it is important. The children will learn about what a farm is and the purposes of different types of farm. They will understand the difference between urban and rural areas and be able to identify towns and farms.

In DT the children will be learning how to follow a recipe and, with your guidance, learn how to chop, peel, thread, spread, thread, measure and grate independently. We have chosen a  variety of healthy recipes that include many of these skills. Please do send in photos of any cooking your child has completed. 

In English, the children will continue to follow the Talk for Writing program where they will start by reciting a story, acting it out and plotting it onto a story map. The key texts will be Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. This half term the children will focus on writing about characters.  

In mathematics, the children will develop their understanding about addition and subtraction up to 20, using equipment to support them. This follows our concrete, pictorial and abstract approach (CPA). CPA is when the children use concrete equipment, followed by pictorial representation and then finally abstract number sentences. They will then be exploring numbers up to 50.  

In science, the children will be learning about the weather. They will discuss what they already know about weather and explore how the weather changes across the seasons. They will also look at how trees change across the year. There will be an opportunity to explore how rainfall and wind direction is measured. Finally, they will examine hibernation. 

As well as this, it is important that your child reads regularly, with an adult, while they are learning from home. Remember that your child has access to Bug Club, our online reading programme, and their log in details can be found in the front of their reading records. Please contact the school office, as soon as possible, if you are unable to log on. This programme runs better through the Chrome web browser.

Finally, we have produced a grid of activities that would usually be the children's weekly homework. If your child completes all the scheduled learning for the day on Google Classroom and is looking for another activity they might want to try some of these. We would love to see what they do.

Please follow the link below to see our Year 1 Homework Grid for this half term.

Year 1 Homework Grid Spring 1

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 

Thank you for your continued support in these strange times. We hope that you and your families stay healthy and well over the following weeks, and look forward to welcoming you all back to school soon.

Best wishes,

The Year 1 Team

While your child is learning from home, you might find it useful to follow a timetable similar to our school timetable. Click here for a suggested timetable that you might like to use or adapt. This is of course only a suggestion and we appreciate that this won’t work for all families. It is also important to schedule regular ‘brain breaks’. These can be as simple as doing 5 jumping jacks, or running up and down the stairs a couple of times! It is important for everyone to have a break from the screen for at least 10 minutes after each lesson.