Year 1 Home Learning - How you can support learning at home

Homework expectations:

 

Please see some slight changes to weekly homework expectations. Although we understand that home-life is busy, learning at home gives children the opportunity to practice at home the tasks covered in class and helps children work towards improving important skills. Thank you for your support with homework already, it is lovely to see the children take so much pride in their home learning. 

 

Maths (Approximately 10mins)

This will be in the form of a booklet which aligns with the work we are doing in class. If you need another copy, please let me know and I am happy to print one for you.

Comprehension (Approximately 15mins)

Each week, your child will also be given a comprehension sheet with some questions to answer. Please support your child to read though this and unpick the information together. This activity is not about how much your child can read but whether they understand what they are reading/what is read to them. One sheet will be given to each child every Monday and will need to be returned on the following Monday.

Spellings (Approximately 15mins)

Please practise spellings each week for the test on Friday’s. All spellings for this term have been posted on the website under the ‘What we are learning tab’. I have also given each child a hard copy of this to take home. If you are unsure of which group your child is in then please contact me and let me know. In order to improve the children’s writing skills, please pick one or two spellings and include them within a sentence. Just one sentence is perfectly fine but please support your child with capital letters, finger spaces and using a full stop. It is important that your child can read back to you what they have wrote.

Reading (Approximately 10mins)

Please continue to read with your child at home and log this on Boom reader. Your child will have a RWI (Read, Write, Inc.) book in their red book bag that is decodable for them. Your child should also have a library book in their bag for you to read and enjoy together.
Reading:
 

Reading with your child is vital! Giving a child time and full attention when reading with them tells them they matter. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves their sleeping patterns. Although we understand that home life is busy, it is important to listen to your child read aloud every night. Even if this means only reading a couple of pages with your child. It is also important to read to your child as this promotes: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun.

 

In school, the children will be supported in a variety of ways in reading, focusing on word reading and comprehension (both listening and reading). Skilled word reading involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (in particular of vocabulary and grammar) and on knowledge of the world. The children will have a class text read to them daily as well as daily opportunity for individual reading. The children will have corresponding RWI (Read, Write, Inc.) ‘Book Bag Book’ to take home. Please note: These should be paper books that go home with your child on a Monday and be returned on a Thursday to be changed. 

Spellings:

Every week, the children will be learning a new set of spellings which will be sent out in the weekly class email and posted on the website. These spellings will be shown to the children on Monday and will be practiced throughout the week to prepare the children for the spelling test on Friday. The spellings can be challenging, so little and often is the best way to learn them at home. Spelling games and making it fun are the most effective way to learn spellings. We use Spelling Shed to practise our spellings and support with learning spelling patterns. Every child will have been given their own unique login to Spelling Shed, please let me know if you are unsure of your child’s login.

In addition to phonics, we also learn a number of common exception words which cannot be sounded out. Please see the link below and practice these with your child, in order to help them recognise these words that appear frequently in texts. This will enormously help with their reading confidence and fluency.

Maths:
 
At St Day and Carharrack School, maths is mainly taught through two schemes, called ‘White Rose Maths’ and ‘Fluency Bee’. This ensures that children develop a strong foundation in maths by following small-steps that are highly personalised to the children’s needs. Maths is best taught in context and we will use as many real life practical situations as possible to ensure the children are clear on new concepts and can remember methods and strategies to use. At home, the most valuable way to support your child’s mathematical development will be through discrete and fun activities. For example, when shopping, involve your child in counting out items and talk about one more, one less, bigger, smaller etc.
 
Please keep a look out for weekly maths homework which will be sent home in the children’s homework folder. I have also given every child a set of flashcards. Flicking through these flashcards with your child will help to develop their subitising skills. Subitising is the ability to tell at a glance how many items are in a particular group without counting. This is a vital maths skill for children because it helps them develop number sense, mathematical reasoning and logical thinking.