During the Spring term, the children will be whisked around the world as they learn about the life and achievements of different explorers. They will travel to the Antarctic with Shackleton as they learn about his incredible exploration and use the book Ice Trap as inspiration for a newspaper report. While in the Antarctic, the children will learn about the Emperor penguin and how to write a persuasive letter to save these beautiful birds. To begin, we will be travelling to the Arctic and reading The Great Explorer before switching continents and reading The Great Kapok tree. During the term we are hoping for a visit from a real-life explorer and will be taking a trip to the Living Rainforest to experience the sights, sounds and smells of a lush tropical rainforest environment – and explore how plants, animals and cultures are all linked.

As we move to the second part of the term, the children will be learning about explorers such as Ibn Battuta, Christopher Columbus, Neil Armstrong and a whole host of modern explorers! The children will find out all about the lives and achievements of these significant individuals and why they are remembered today. They will also learn how we know about these famous explorers through investigating historical sources such as books, diaries, artefacts, film and photograph. In Art, the children will be exploring Flora and Fauna Artists: Eric Carle, Joseph Redoute, Jan Van Kessel.

This half term, Year 1 will continue outdoor learning with Miss Bailey and the focus on these sessions will be maths based. Both Maths and Spellings homework will be set every Thursday and will be due the following week. Please ensure that the children are doing this as it reinforces the children’s learning from in school and they can also receive house points for this. The children should also be reading regularly at home as fluent reading underpins everything they learn at school and will help them to flourish. We will continue to change reading books on a Thursday and library books on a Friday.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Bailey