Year 1 Newsletter
Term 6
June 2015
Dinosaur Planet
ENGLISH LEARNING
Stomp, crash, RRRAGH! Watch out everyone the dinosaurs
are on the prowl! In Year 1 our topic this term will be exploring
the exciting land of the dinosaurs! We will start the topic by imagining we are palaeontologists, digging deep and exploring to
find out amazing dinosaur facts.
Our science learning will be all about animals, during which we
will investigate which dinosaurs were herbivores and carnivores and become Dinosaur Dentists by examining the differences in their teeth.
Later in the term, Year 1 are going to become historians and
find out as much as they can about a very famous palaeontologist called Mary Anning. This will link to learning about fossils
and producing our very own fact files about dinosaurs.
To keep your children and you in suspense,
there will a number of exciting surprises
throughout the term. One surprise, which we
can only release limited details about will be an
‘Egg Discovery Week’ during which your children will turn into detectives. We don’t want to
give too much away so more details later in the
term!
Term 6 Family Learning Project
Thank you to you all for the amazing Family Learning Projects that we received last term. We would like to have
even more to celebrate together this term, so please do try
to dedicate some time at home to complete 1 of the activities with your child. Please return the project to school by
Friday 10th July so we can share our efforts:
1) Research amazing facts about an unusual dinosaur of
your choice.
2) Create a dinosaur mask/hat and bring it into school for a
dinosaur parade.
3) Use a shoebox to create a miniature Dinosaur land.
4) Design a meal for a dinosaur to eat. Why not present this
on a paper plate?
Maths home learning tasks will continue to be set on a Friday and will need to
be due back in the following Wednesday in the Homework folders. Phonics
activities will be set in place of English
for the first 2 weeks of term.
Our English learning focus this term
will be developing the language that we
use to make our sentences exciting to
read. We will be extending our repertoire of adjectives, verbs and conjunctions and using these to write a range
of texts including: riddles; our own
dinosaur stories and dinosaur fact
files. A large amount of our English
learning will be centred around the
book called ‘The Lonely Beast’. We will
be using this book to explore our ideas
about characters and settings. We
will also be writing newspaper articles
and short stories using themes from
this book.
TALKING
POINTS
When were dinosaurs alive? Which
dinosaur was the fiercest? What did
dinosaurs eat? How many years ago
did they live? Which dinosaur was the
tallest? How do people know so much
about dinosaurs? What did the Earth
look like when dinosaurs roamed?
Which dinosaur had the longest teeth?
Why did dinosaurs become extinct?
PE Days
Children in Year 1 will continue to have PE on Tuesdays
and Fridays during Term 6.
Please ensure that your
child has their kit in school
at all times, just in case it is
needed.
Y1 Phonics Screening
Just a reminder to you that all children in
Y1 will be completing the Phonics Screening Check during the week of 15th June
2015. The children have worked very
hard to learn their sounds and more importantly become secure with blending
their sounds to read real and nonsense
words.
Dinosaur museum advanced date
warning
During this term, we are going to
build our very own giant model
dinosaur. To do this we need your
help! Do you have any spare construction materials such as wood, cardboard or plastic
that you would be able to bring in that could form a part
of our giant dinosaur model? Any contribution big or
small will help!
If you do then please let Mr Currie or Mrs Waller know.
Thanks!
How can you help your child at home?
Dino day warning
To help prepare your child further, please
Phonics
screening
warning
practise
reading
through
the word packs
that were sent home before the holiday
and the additional homework that will be
set during the next couple of weeks.
Encourage your child to identify the
sounds in each word and then blend them
together to read the word. We look forward to every child trying their very best
during the check.

Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s with
your child. Vary the number that you
start on as well.

Practise subtracting numbers by crossing
the tens boundary (eg: 54-9)

Take your child to the library to find some
non-fiction books about dinosaurs.

Practise forming cursive letters with your child, when
your child completes writing homework.
Spellings
Children will continue to bring home spellings linked
to the graphemes that they have been learning to
write in phonics. We will also be focusing on the following rules in our English lessons, which are linked
to the Y1 National Curriculum:
Writing words correctly that have split digraphs
in: a-e/i-e/o-e and u-e.
Maths Learning this Term
We will be covering the following areas this term:
Adding and subtracting
Fractions (halves and quarters)
Money
Capacity
Time
Please do try to support your child with these units at
home. Using Mathletics is often a good place to start to
find suitable activities for your child to do.
Writing plurals of words by adding ‘s’ and ‘es’.
Helpful websites
www.mathletics.co.uk
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
www.nhm.ac.uk/dinosaurs
www.kidsdinos.com
Y1 Dinosaur Day
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Year 1 Dinosaur Museum
To bring our learning project to a close, Year 1
will be set the challenge of organising their very
own Dinosaur Museum to exhibit lots of different artefacts that they will be making throughout the term. The children will act as tour
guides and will work hard to impress you with
how much they have learnt about dinosaurs and
the outstanding work that they have produced.
Save the Date!
We would like as many of you to attend as possible. The date for this will be Monday 20th July
straight after school. See you there!