Year 1

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a lovely summer break and is ready for the exciting year of learning ahead! This term our topic focus will be ‘What is it like down under?’ Throughout this topic we will create dream catchers and rain sticks, explore the difference between everyday life in Australia and the United Kingdom, research the types of animals living in each country and create artwork to reflect the animals found.

Literacy

Autumn 1

We will begin the year by creating ‘Who am I?’ posters. The children will have a go at answering ‘Who am I?’ riddles before creating their own based on the animals we meet in the book ‘The Koala Who Could’ by Rachel Bright. Throughout this unit we will focus on using adjectives to describe the animals and use conjunctions to extend our sentences.

Once we have finished this unit of work, we will then create Lost/Missing posters. The children will use their knowledge of adjectives to build an image of their character in the readers mind. From the research completed during computing lessons, the children will choose their own Australian animal to describe.

Autumn 2

At the start of the second half term we will move on writing stories from the perspective of an Australian animal. We will use the book ‘Town Possum, Outback Possum’ to generate ideas about what life is like for animals who live in the countryside in comparison to those that live within a town. Year 2 will begin to use expanded noun phrases and possessive apostrophes in their writing.

To finish our Australian topic, we are going to write a report about what an Australian Christmas is like. The children will use their computing skills to gather facts about Australia at Christmas. If you have any relatives over there, please ask if they would be willing to share a picture!

 Maths

Year 1:

In year 1 we will learn about the place value of numbers up to 10 for the first half term. We will explore comparing, ordering and sorting numbers from 0 to 10, with a particular focus on numbers more/less than and greater/fewer.

We will then progress on to addition and subtraction of numbers up to 10 and learn about the place value of numbers up to 20 towards the end of term.

Year 2:

For the first half term, Year 2 will learn about the place value of numbers up to 100. We will compare and order numbers from 0 to 100 and become confident in counting in steps of 2, 3 and 5.

We will then move on to addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers. Throughout this unit we will begin to mentally add and subtract; two digit numbers and ones; two-digit number and tens; two, two-digit numbers and three one-digit numbers.

In Autumn 2, we will focus on money, multiplication and division. During the money unit, children will be expected to recognise the pounds and pence symbol and combine amounts to make a particular value. They will be taught to add and subtract money, and give change from different amounts up to £1.

For the start of the multiplication unit, we will begin to recall multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times table. We will learn to recognise odd and even numbers and use the x and ÷ symbol when writing calculations.

Science

Both classes will be learning about materials throughout the first half term.

Year 1 will learn to;

• Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made.
• Identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, and rock.
• Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials.
• Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties.

Year 2 will learn to;

• Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses.
• Find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

Art and Design Technology

In art we will be learning about local artist ‘David Hockney’. We will practise our sketching skills and create landscape art using paint and pastels.