Year 1 English
Autumn Term
Term 1 - Into the woods!
The topic this term is Into the Woods. The children will start using the text Little Red Riding Hood followed by Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Both these books, will give them lots of opportunity to tell stories using storytelling language and ‘repeated refrains’. They will explore the character and setting and will be introduced to the use of an adjective to describe the noun. The children will have lots of opportunities to write, both with an adult and also independently through the class provision. They will have a focus upon sentence structure and punctuation, which will help them to use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. They will also focus on the correct formation of the letters of the alphabet (both capital and lowercase). To help with this writing process they will be taught how to orally rehearse their sentences. At the end of this term, they will explore a non-fiction text with facts about autumn. In addition, the children will have daily phonics sessions to build upon their knowledge of phonics and will also have lots of opportunities to explore books in guided reading sessions, 1:1 reading with an adult and during their independent provision.
Term 2 - Space
This term, the children will use the Man on the Moon by Simon Bartram and fact books about Neil Armstrong to inspire their writing. They will be given plenty of practical opportunities to explore the story structure and will be able to use beginning, middle and end when referring to different parts of the story. The children will continue rehearsing the sentence they want to write and use capital letters, full stops, fingers spaces and adjectives to make their sentences more interesting. They will be introduced to ‘and’ to link ideas within a sentence and are looking at increasing the amount they write to form simple stories or a series of facts about a topic. They will continue to build upon their phonics knowledge with daily sessions and will deepen this through independent phonics provision, guided reading sessions and their individual levelled scheme reading books.
Spring Term
Term 3 – Pets!
First, the children will use the book Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr to inspire their writing. They will continue to build on their writing skills from term 1 and 2 (full stops, capital letters to start a sentence and for a name, finger spaces, adjectives, and to join ideas). This will help them write their very own Mog story with a clear beginning, middle and end. They will recap how ‘and’ is used to join ideas and also be introduced to ‘and’ as a conjunction to join two sentences. They will also look at adding -s and -es to make plurals. (cat – cats, fish – fishes, etc) In the second half of the term, the children will look at features of a non- fiction text by reading and writing facts sheets about looking after pets. Daily phonic sessions will continue to build upon the children's knowledge of phonics and children will be given plenty of opportunities to develop this through their reading. The guided reading sessions will focus on developing their language and also help them to explore simple inference. The children will use ‘I think …because… to share their thoughts about a text.
Term 4 – Save the whales!
The term will start by exploring the book, The Storm Whale by Benji Davies. The children will have lots of opportunities to retell the story and be able to use this to inspire writing their own stories with a beginning, middle and end. They will continue to build on their independence and writing skills from the previous terms and will also start to explore present and past tense. This will include adding –ed and –ing to the end of a verbs. In the second half of the term, the children will look at a newspaper report Stranded on the Sand! to explore non-fiction text and language features. Daily phonic sessions will continue to build upon the children's knowledge of phonics and the guided reading sessions will continue to focus on developing their language and also encourage them to use features of the book to help make simple predictions.
Summer Term
Term 5 – Superheroes!
This term the children will be writing a defeating the monster story linked to our class text Supertato. The children will explore the characteristics of superheroes and villains and will have the opportunity create their very own evil villain to write a story about. Their will be a big focus upon the children's understanding of writing beginnings, middles and endings to ensure their stories flow and make sense. They will also continue to build upon their understanding of punctuation e.g. capital letters, full stops, finger spaces, question marks and exclamation marks and there will be a push with joining their handwriting. Halfway through the term, the children will learn about the main features of a set of instructions to make soup and smoothies. They will focus on the importance of the order to follow instructions and also learn about imperative verbs. Daily phonic sessions will continue to build upon the children's knowledge of phonics with a big emphasis on getting them ready for the Y1 phonics checks.
Term 6 – Mrs Armitage on Wheels!
This term, the children will be writing stories linked to our class text Mrs Armitage on Wheels. The children will have the opportunity to bring their bicycles or scooters to school for the day and think about what they might add to make it even better – just like Mrs Armitage! Later on in the term, they will use a ‘Penny Farthing’ fact sheet to inspire them to write about their own bicycle inventions. This will allow them to explore the structure and language features of a non-fiction. i.e. using the past tense and writing in the third person. During guided reading the children will continue to develop their understanding of language, prediction and inference skills. Daily phonic sessions will continue to build upon the children's knowledge and application of phonics as they make their transition to Year 2.
