Ferney Lee Primary School

Year 1

Year 1 Overview

Autumn Term

In the first half term our topic is Memory Box where we will learn all about ourselves and our memories. We will start the term by having a teddy bears picnic, to make some fun memories together as new Year 1’s! We will also meet our very own class Teddy who will name together. We will draw and paint family portraits and complete some fieldwork in our local area, linking this to memories we have of growing up in Todmorden. In RE we will discuss celebrations: birthdays, weddings and the Christian Harvest festival. We will be reading Dogger by Shirley Hughes and Nothing by Mick Inkpen as our class texts and we will learn how to write character descriptions and diary entries. In Art and D.T., we will be making a special memory box to put away items that hold special memories for us. In years to come, we can revisit them and remember how we looked when we were young! Calderdale Music Trust will be providing the children with some fun recorder lessons. In Science we will start the unit Animals including Humans, where we will think about our pets and which animal groups they belong to! In Computing we will learn how to use a Chromebook to make our very own celebration cards. The maths focus this half term will be on sorting, grouping and comparing objects and place value.

Watch out everyone – the dinosaurs are on the prowl in Autumn 2! They’re rampaging across the dusty earth, swishing their enormous tails and baring their fearsome teeth… Let’s explore the Dinosaur Planet! We'll imagine we're palaeontologists and we'll be digging deep to discover dazzling dinosaur facts. We'll create some fact files of our very own along with some non-chronological reports following on from a dinosaur visiting Ferney Lee!  We will learn all about Mary Anning – an amazing woman who discovered many dinosaur fossils and became very well-known in her time. We will go on some adventures around the globe to find out which continents and seas our dinosaurs were found and in Science we will continue learning about different types of animals which we can use to help us understand how dinosaurs lived. In Maths we will continue our number and place value, look at addition and subtraction and properties of shapes.

Spring Term

Our first topic - Moon Zoom - will start with a CRASH! A UFO has crash-landed in our playground! We will find out who might have landed by exploring the craft and investigating scattered scientific materials and specimens. We’ll help our alien visitors to settle into life on earth by making posters about all the things they’ll need to know. After learning about some famous astronauts we’ll have a go at being astronauts ourselves! We’ll figure out how we can make sturdy space crafts by making our very own air-propelled rocket! WHOOSH! How far can we make it travel? We will learn all about the names of our planets and make some models of the solar system. We’ll travel the world looking through the eyes of a satellite and create some music using space themed sounds. We’ll think about our own aspirations and dreams and reach for the stars! In Maths we will continue with addition, subtraction and place value. 

In Spring 2 we’ll head to the Enchanted Woodland where the wild animals live. What will we find? Beneath the leaves are tiny footprints… animal or elf? We will decide! We’ll be learning all about plants in Science and will use our knowledge in our explorations. Are the trees and plants deciduous or evergreen? Can you match a leaf to its tree? Can you match a petal to its flower? We’ll be building dens and making homes for tiny woodland fairies or elves! Then let’s party down in the woods with Mr Fox and all his woodland friends. We’ll make a map so we don’t get lost – maybe we’ll leave a trail so we know how to get back to class! We’ll be using natural materials to make artwork and learning all about how we can care for our environment in PSHE. In Maths we will be learning about measurement.

Summer Term

Oi! Hot, hot, hot! Dancing feet, step to the samba beat!
Shake it, shimmy, hands in the air, wave your flags in the cool night air.

Our first topic is Rio de Vida and we'll be having our very own class carnival! We’ll make and decorate our own shakers to keep the rhythm going as well as creating and making our own head dresses or masks for the parade! We will meet many magical creatures from Brazil’s myths and legends and learn all about the amazon rainforest.  We’ll be looking more closely at seasonal change and the similarities and differences between Brazil and the UK. In PSHE we will focus on understanding differences and in Maths we will be developing our skills in multiplication, division and fractions.

KERPOW! Summer 2 is all about superheroes and saving the world! We will make our very own superhero capes to wear whilst we save the world (to our own digitally created soundtracks)! We'll design, create and draw our own comics all about our adventures! We'll delve into the lives of ordinary people who have become real-life heroes and achieved great things. We’ll have discussions all about positive and poor choices, keeping safe online and offline and making a positive contribution. In maths our focus will be position and direction, number and place value and measurement.

What are Year 1 learning about this half term?