Welcome to Year 1 - Willow

This page is where you can find out about our learning in Year 1, our projects and what we will be learning this term.

In year 1, we build upon our high quality early years principles and practice and continue to provide children with elements of independent, play-based learning. Our school experience and research tells us that young children learn best through play, exploration and hands on learning. We achieve this through our Mission Based Learning!

‘Play is absolutely essential to learning because it IS learning.’ Bottrill (2020)

 

Summer Term 2025. 

Our driver project this term is 'School Days'.

In this History project, we will learn about our own school and locality, both today and in the past. We will then compare schooling in the Victorian era to our experiences today.

As Scientists! Learning about Plant Parts. We explore wild and garden plants. We will identify and describe the basic parts of plants and observe how they change over time. In our Animal Parts topics, we explore animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates. We also identify and describe their common structures, diets, and how animals should be cared for.

In Design and Technology, through our 'Chop, Slice, Mash' project, we learn about sources of food and the preparatory skills of peeling, tearing, slicing, chopping, mashing and grating. We will then use this knowledge and techniques to design and make a supermarket sandwich according to specific design criteria.

As artists, we learn through our topic 'Street View'. We enjoy artwork depicting streets and buildings and focus on the work of the American pop artist, James Rizzi. 

In PE - we will focus on team building with Miss Haley and striking and fielding with Mrs Bissmire. We continue to wear our PE kit to school on these days. The kit consists of a sky blue polo, royal blue Oaklands jumper, royal blue cotton shorts, socks and suitable sports trainers. For health and safety reasons, earrings and watches should be removed for all PE lessons and long hair must be tied up.

In RE - We learn about The Naam Karan, a Sikh baby naming ceremony. 

As musicians, we follow Charanga. The children will learn how to: listen to and appreciate music, sing in groups and play along with known songs. They will have the opportunity to improvise using a range of instruments as well. 

Computing -  We use Purple Mash for our computing lessons, which is a child-friendly site if you would like to access it at home for any extra practice.

Our Literacy text this half term is 'Yeti and the bird'. We will be planning and writing our own versions of a narrative about an unlikely friendship. 

In Maths, we will explore multiplication and division, e.g. counting in 2s, 10s, 5s.

Useful information to support your child during our Summer term projects and for phonics and writing can be found in the PDF files at the bottom of the page.

 

Reminders:

• PE is on a Thursday and a Friday. Please ensure your child comes to school in their PE kit on these days.
• Guided and individual reading will take place throughout the week, so please send in reading folders every day.
• Reading books and library books will be changed weekly.

If there is anything you need to ask or find out more about, please email the school office (admin@oaklands.herts.sch.uk) to arrange a time to chat with a member of the team.

Miss Haley and the Year 1 team.