Family Challenge

History and Geography

English

It would be great if could have a big focus on name writing.

Most children can confidently write their name by Year 1, however, we often find that capital letters can creep into the middle of names, for example – AmAndA.

Together, can you discuss how a name should have a capital letter at the start only? If you think that your child is more than confident in writing their first name, then move on to surnames or even middle names!

Perhaps your child could make a sign for their bedroom door. We would love to see it!

In line with our ‘A Toy Story’ history topic, we would love for the children to find out what their older family members played with as children.

Can they interview parents, aunty, uncles, grandparents or even great-grandparents? We would love for your children then present what they have found out in any way that they wish. They could draw a picture and you could scribe an answer for them or they could have a go at writing about the toys themselves.

We will then give the children the opportunity to share their hard work with the class and will display their work on our history board.

So many of the children’s early writing skills stem from reading.

This term, we would love for you to read with your child at every opportunity. In addition to their school reading books, reading can also be sharing a bedtime story, reading signs when out and about, words on food packaging, magazines and games on tablets. There is even evidence suggesting that the use of closed captions and subtitles on TV programmes and movies can have a big impact on children’s reading development.

When reading with your child, please discuss with them the use of letters and sounds, individual words in comparison to full sentences and the use of full stops and capital letters. The more children see written words, the easier they will it to reproduce them in their writing.

This website has some useful tips about reading with your Year 1 child: See link below

PSHE

Maths

Science

Our value this half term is Being Kind.

Can you talk to your child about what ‘being kind’ means and looks like in your home? Is there anything that anyone at home could do to be even kinder? Are there any random acts of kindness that you could do together? For example, donating old clothes or toys to a charity shop or offering to help an older neighbour or relative.

Let us know how you get on!

Number is all around us! At present, we are having a big focus on recognising numbers and understanding their value. It is easy to confuse two-digit numbers that have the same digits e.g. 12 and 21, so together, can you recognise numbers in your environment and discuss its value.

Playing board games where a dice and counting is involved is a great way to help children to understand counting on from any given number. It’s also fun!

BBC’s Supermovers videos area fun way for children to embed their maths learning. This particular song is all about counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, all of which children need to be able to do by the end of Year 1.

Our science topic this term is Materials.

What materials can you spot around your home? Why are they made from these materials?

Do you actively recycle your household waste? It would be great to discuss this with your children and discuss which materials can be recycled and how to make that choice when getting ready to throw something away.

Together, could you make greener choices and think about choosing alternative packaging from plastic? A great place to start with this is in lunchboxes!

We would love to hear about your efforts!