Croeso I’r Blwyddyn Un!

Welcome to Year 1!

Mrs. Wiersma-Jones and Mrs. Vanstone are very happy to welcome the children into our new Class Family. We look forward to an exciting new year of learning, playing, praying and growing together!

This half term our topic is ‘What Makes Me Happy?’ as we explore our emotions, our relationships, and the wonderful world around us. In Science, we will be focusing on our bodies and thinking about what happens when we grow, investigating how we change from babies into independent Year 1 learners.

Through all of our adventures, we will be supporting your children to become ambitious, capable learners, ready to face new challenges with confidence and a determination to succeed independently.

In Religious Education this term, we are learning the story of Creation and exploring the beautiful world that God has made around us. The children will have plenty of opportunities to learn and play outside, where we will encourage them to marvel at the beauty of the natural world and think about how we can take care of the planet, just as God has asked us to do.

Here is a snapshot of what we will be doing across the Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs) this term:

• Health and Well-being: As we explore happiness, we will focus on understanding our feelings, developing friendships, and learning how to take care of our minds and bodies. We will also look at how we change as we grow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBPFplfLvZo

As we explore happiness, we will be using the wonderful book The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas to help us make sense of our emotions. Through this story, the children will learn to identify, sort, and talk about different feelings.

• Language, Literacy and Communication: We will be sharing wonderful stories about emotions and growth. The children will be developing their phonics, reading, and writing skills to express what makes them happy, alongside enjoying plenty of Welsh songs and phrases.

Reading remains a big focus in St. John Lloyd School. Please ask your child about the books they are reading with their teachers and praise them for all the hard work they will be doing. We are certainly very busy!

• Mathematics and Numeracy: We will be using our mathematical skills to measure how much we have grown, and explore shapes and patterns through playful, hands-on activities. The children are beginning to learn about the passing of time and this term we will learn to order the days of the week.
• Science and Technology: Our focus will be on the human life cycle. We will observe changes in ourselves, investigate how our bodies grow bigger as we grow older, and use simple digital tools to record what we discover about growing up.
• Expressive Arts: The children have already been very busy enjoying accessing a variety of mark making equipment in the Creative Area, where they have lots of opportunities to explore their creativity independently! We will be exploring our emotions through music and creative movement, and using role-play to act out different emotions.
• Humanities: We will be learning about our own unique histories by looking at photos of ourselves as babies. We will also explore our local community and think about the things and places that bring us happiness.

We are so excited to guide our Class Family through this wonderful term of discovery!

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION**

P.E. Will be on a Wednesday. Please provide your child with a P.E. kit, including trainers if your child does not already wear trainers to school.

Sensible footwear and a good warm coat will be essential this term as we explore and learn in the outdoors!

**HOMEWORK**

Reading - Your child will soon be provided with a Bug Club log-in, where they can access a fantastic scheme of reading books allocated to them at their own level of reading. There’s lots of fun games to play on Bug Club that encourage the children to enjoy reading even more!

Maths – In the coming weeks your child will have a math activity to complete on the Seesaw App. A new activity will be uploaded ready for every weekend.

Please do feel free to ask the teachers any questions at any time. We are always happy to help!

The additional adults in the classroom supporting the children’s learning this year are:

Ms Taylor

Ms Sara
We look forward to many adventures together with your child!