Hummingbird - Year 1
Hi, my name is Miss Eccles, and I am the Year 1 Teacher for Hummingbirds. I am thrilled to be joining St John's Primary School and to be part of the Year 1s journey of learning. I have a passion for fostering a love of learning in young minds, with a background in Early Childhood Education and a dedication to helping children reach their full potential. In Hummingbirds, I look forward to a year full of growth, fun and memorable learning experiences. I love teaching maths in year 1, and I have a huge passion for story telling. I enjoy nothing more than ending the day with a story and becoming lost in the world of books. Outside of teaching, I enjoy reading, cooking, hiking, spending time with family and friends.
Other staff supporting in Hummingbirds:
Miss Reilly is our teaching assistant. Mrs Nottage teaches all day on a Tuesday.
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to our first term as Year 1 Hummingbirds! We hope you are ready for lots of learning and fun. Our exciting new topic this term is ‘All Things Great and Small’. We will be learning all about different animals in our Science and Art lessons. The children will be learning how to draw from observation and on a range of different scales using different sketching techniques!
In English this term, we will be reading some fiction texts such as ‘Handa’s Surprise’, ‘Elmer’ ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ and ‘The Snail and the Whale’. The children will be using their phonic knowledge to read and write words and simple sentences.
Reading - Your child will be bringing home a reading book every day so please bring a book bag to keep the books safe. Please try to spend 10 minutes each day listening to your child read as it really does have a positive impact on their progress. Remember to sign your child’s reading record book when they have read to you, these needs to be brought into school each day to be checked. The children will be able to change their reading book every Monday and Thursday. This will give your child the chance to become more confident by re-reading the same book several times.
Phonics - The children will continue to learn their sounds in set 1, 2 & 3 and use the sounds they know to help with their writing.
In Maths, we will be practising counting objects accurately, reading and writing numbers 1-20 (and beyond) and counting forwards and backwards within 10. To help the children with counting and calculating, we will be using tens frames, Numicon and other practical resources. Later in the term, we will be adding two single-digit numbers together as well as solving problems involving addition.
In RE, we will be focusing on ‘God’. We will be exploring the question ‘What do Christians believe God is like?’.
This term in Science, we will be learning about ‘Animals Including Humans’. We will be exploring the five senses and learning about parts of the body with some help from Simon the Skeleton! In Geography, we are learning all about the weather and how it impacts us, and naming the four seasons and what they look like!
Outdoor learning is every alternate Tuesday and you will receive a text beforehand so that appropriate clothing can be brought in. PE is every Wednesday morning. Children come to school dressed in their PE kits. Please do not hesitate to talk to us if you have any worries or concerns so that any problems can be sorted out quickly.
Be ready for learning! In Hummingbirds, your child will need to have these items in school:
Key Stage One (Years 1 and 2)
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Book bag (no rucksacks please)
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PE kit (to be worn on PE day)
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Water bottle (no squash or juice)
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Lunchbox (if not having school meal)
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Wellington boots (to leave in school)
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Coat (weather appropriate)
Please don’t bring other items into school, as we do not have space to store them, and it can cause upset if things are lost or damaged.
Learning at home for Hummingbirds Class:
Children are expected to read every night for at least 10 minutes. Reading records should be signed by an adult and brought back into school each day to be checked by a member of staff. Your child will take home 2 books each day – a banded book, and a phonics book. These will be changed on Mondays and Thursdays.
Spelling Shed and Numbots can be accessed from home using the logins provided on the inside of your child's reading record.
School Uniform Checklist:
Please label ALL items of clothing and shoes clearly with your child’s name. This helps even our younger children to take responsibility for and look after their uniform.
Reminders
In the morning, please drop your children off at the gates and leave any important messages with staff on the playground. We start our day's learning as soon as the children arrive, so teachers are not available to speak with parents and carers at the start of the day; after school is best.
Hummingbirds learning highlights so far this year:
In maths, we have been looking at greater than and less than, the children got creative using concrete objects to represent these!
In Geography the children were busy designing their own maps which included some physical and human features.
Hummingbirds thoroughly enjoyed inviting their toys to our class tea party...the Tiger especially enjoyed his hot chocolate and biscuit!