Weekly News! 28.11.25
What a fantastic week Year 1! Here is what we have been up too…😊
Maths
This week in maths we have been focusing on the concept of measure. We began our week by exploring length. The students engaged in an activity where they ordered various lengths from shortest to longest. To ensure fairness, we used the edge of our table as a starting line. Following this, we moved on to measuring using non-standard units, specifically cubes. The children excelled in this task, using the stem sentence, “The ______ is _____ cubes long,” to articulate their findings. Additionally, we compared lengths and tackled some challenging word problems, which helped reinforce their understanding of the topic.
Next week we will be looking at shape!
Fact of the week
Each week we will have a fact of the week. We will learn the addition fact(s) and the related subtraction fact(s). This week we are looking at doubling the number four!
5 + 5 = 10
Read, Write Inc.
The children have shown brilliant energy and focus this week as we revisited previously taught sounds and continued strengthening their phonetic reading skills. Through our Read Write Inc. (RWI) sessions, we’ve been paying special attention to identifying “special friends”, groups of letters that work together to make a single sound. This RWI method really supports children in recognising patterns, tackling longer words with more confidence, and developing smoother, more fluent reading.
The children have also been practising Fred Talk, blending, segmenting, reading green words, and beginning to remember some of our red (tricky) words. It’s been lovely to see how quickly they’re applying these strategies during both reading and writing activities.
You can help at home by exploring these skills alongside your child. Try spotting special friends in everyday words, saying the sounds together, and blending them to read the whole word. Simple, regular practice like this reinforces what we’re doing in school and gives your child an extra boost.
In addition to our phonics learning, we’ve also been refining our handwriting. The children are becoming more aware of when to use capital letters, how to form their letters carefully, and where to place full stops to complete a sentence. Their growing confidence and steady progress in both reading and writing have been wonderful to see!
Reading
Every week the children will bring home two books in their reading folders, one being a RWI home book. Children are expected to try and read this three times during the week to ensure they are building on their reading fluency. The RWI home books will be changed, by an adult, every Monday.
The other book (with the coloured sticker) should be changed independently by the child themselves, first thing in the morning is a great time to do this! These books can be changed as regularly as needed.
Please encourage children to place their reading folders in the trays, so we can read with your children and ensure books get changed. Thank you for your support with this.
Please listen to your child read as much as possible at home and record this in their reading records. Every week, one child from each class will receive a reading certificate in an assembly. Children will also get a certificate for every 20 times they read so it is important that the reading record gets signed every time they read at home.
If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Home Learning
This week we would love for you to practise your red word spellings, not just those this week, but as many as you can. these can be found in your reading folders (Do not need to record these)
We also would like for you to practise your nativity lines and saying them nice and clearly (Exciting!)
Spellings
We will be focusing on the Year 1 Common Exception Words (also known as Red Words). Each week, the children will have 2–4 spellings to learn. We will also continue practising these in school during our Power Play sessions.
There is no need to record any practice in the Love to Learn books unless you would like to. Please spend some time throughout the week reading, writing, and spelling the words together at home.
Every Thursday, we will have a short and informal spelling check.
Thank you for your support.
This week’s Red Word spellings are:
-
to
-
today
-
of
Thematic
This week in thematic we focused on the weather in the United Kingdom. It was quite surprising to discover that England was the coldest region on Monday! We also compared our findings with those from other ‘warm’ climates, including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and found that their weather patterns were quite similar.
Throughout the week, we engaged in a hands on activity by creating our own class thermometer. With the help of the grown ups, we combined alcohol, water, and food colouring in a glass jar. By placing the jar in a hot bowl of water, we observed how the liquid rose up the straw, demonstrating how temperature affects liquids. This experiment sparked discussions about the equator and the hot, tropical climates surrounding it. Additionally, we explored the contributions of notable scientists such as Anders Celsius, who developed the Celsius temperature scale, and Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, known for inventing the first successful mercury thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale. We also looked at Laura Tobin, a contemporary meteorologist, who is well known for her role as the weather presenter on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. These lessons will serve as a foundation for our upcoming weather presentation that the children will be planning for the class next week.
