🐬🐧🦈 Year 1 at Cottesbrooke

In Year 1, we love learning new things, asking questions and discovering the world around us!

This page shares key information for families and gives a glimpse into some of the exciting things we’ve been up to in class.

📚 Supporting Your Child at Home

• Book bags go home every Friday and should be returned by the following Wednesday. They include a reading book and a phonics book.

• Please listen to your child read every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes — it makes a huge difference!

• Children choose a library book each week to take home and enjoy with their family. These should be returned every Monday morning.

👕 PE & Art/DT

• All children in Year 1 have PE and Art/Design & Technology every Tuesday afternoon.

• On this day, children should come to school in their PE kit.
  This includes:
  – A white T-shirt
  – Black or navy shorts, leggings or joggers
  – Black PE pumps (not trainers)
  – School jumper/cardigan (optional over the top)

• Please make sure all items are clearly named and no jewellery is worn on PE days.

🧼 Name Everything!

As the weather warms up, jumpers and cardigans often come off — and go missing!
Please label all items of clothing so we can return lost property quickly.

💬 Reading

In Year 1, reading is part of everything we do! We:

• Visit the library weekly to choose a book

• Use our class reading corners to explore stories

• Practise using Fred Talk to decode and blend new words

• Share favourite books to build a love of reading

➕ Maths

We love exploring patterns and solving problems in maths.
This term we’ve been working on:

• Addition and subtraction

• Counting in 2s

• Early multiplication and division

• Using objects and drawings to help us explain our thinking

✏️ Writing

Our writing is creative, expressive and full of ideas! We’ve been:

• Learning and retelling stories like Avocado Baby

• Creating our own story maps and using actions to remember events

• Using adjectives to make our writing more interesting

• Writing instructions using time connectives (e.g. first, next, then)

🕰️ History

In History, we’ve been learning about:

• Toys from the past – comparing old and new toys

• Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole – two inspirational women who made a big impact on healthcare

🗺️ Geography

In Geography, we’ve been exploring the United Kingdom:

• Naming the four countries

• Finding them on a map

• Learning about places we’d like to visit
  (We think a class trip to Scotland might be fun... if only!)