Year 1 English
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Autumn Blocks
Using humorous texts (You Can’t Take an Elephant on a Bus) study different sentence types; punctuate correctly. Focus on commands and ‘bossy’ language. Write commands.

Commands and Requests: Commands: What You Shouldn't Do at School
Pattern and rhyme help children memorise and write poetry. Develop comprehension skills and rehearse end of sentence punctuation and present and past tense verbs.

Rhyming and Patterns: Poems with repeating patterns and rhymes
Read Jill Murphy's Five Minutes' Peace, Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny and Group Reader Boris and Sid Make a Mess, inspiring children to write a familiar settings story.

Familiar Settings: Family Stories
Spark imaginations with Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis and Billy’s Bucket by Kes Gray and Garry Parsons. Explore sentence building and punctuation, writing labels, lists and signs.

Labels, Lists and Signs: Getting and giving information
Develop reading and comprehension skills and stimulate writing using Oi Frog! & Oi Dog! Study syllables, the prefix un- and suffixes –ing and –ed. Begin to understand past/present tense.

Humorous Poems: Funny Poems
Have fun with repeating patterns in Mrs Armitage on Wheels and Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present. Explore repeated refrains and develop sentence writing and punctuation skills.

Repeating Patterns: Mrs Armitage on Wheels
Explore differences between fiction and non-fiction using fantastic books about machines. Use features of information texts. Sequence and punctuate sentences; revise plural nouns.

Information Texts: Big Machines
Children use colour to express emotions and then read and create different monsters to act out feelings. They draw on puppet making, drama, singing, modelling and art to express themselves.

Wellbeing: Colours and Monsters
Spring Blocks
Explore traditional tales, Dragon Dinosaur, The House that Jack Built, Anancy and Mr Dry-Bone and Chicken Licken. Write and punctuate sentences with ‘and’ and ‘because’.

Traditional Tales and Fables: Sharing and Retelling
Explore the fantastic Mo Willems books about Pigeon. Practise giving/receiving instructions and write/ illustrate their own Pigeon story. Read Hamilton: Boris and Sid are Bad!

Instructions: Pigeon Books by Mo Willems
Read a range of humorous poems. Learn to use capital letters to start names and sentences. Explore how 'and' can be used; write sentences to express ideas creatively.

Humorous Poems: Express Ideas Creatively
Enjoy We’re Going on a Lion Hunt, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, and Handa’s Hen. Sequence, retell and then write own repeating pattern story.

Repeating Patterns: African Settings
This block is all about writing letters in different contexts. Children write requests and responses, explore sentence types, focus on punctuation: capitals and end of sentence.

Letters and Postcards: Letters in Different Contexts
Using poems on the theme of the senses. Children learn parts by heart and respond, focusing on interesting adjectives. Identify and create similes. Write own poems.

Poems on a Theme: The Senses
Humorous stories about animals, including The Day Louis Got Eaten and There’s a Lion in my Cornflakes stimulate reading and writing. Children generate oral and written descriptions and learn correct capitalisation.

Stories on a Theme: Funny Stories
Use non-fiction texts to research fun facts about nocturnal animals. Join clauses using ’and’, rehearse sentence punctuation, prepare presentations and produce books on a chosen creature.

Information Texts: Night-Time Animals
Summer Blocks
Superheroes All Sorts, Super Daisy, Superhero ABC will inspire your class to read and write! Study antonyms and punctuation while producing comic strips based on invented superheroes.

Stories on a Theme: Superheroes
Read gorgeous books about tigers, whales, sharks and polar bears. Understand differences between fiction and non-fiction, read, answer and write questions and produce factual texts.

Information Texts: Comparing Non-fiction and Fiction
Read, discuss and recite nature poems. Study sentence punctuation including questions & answers, and adjectives. Build descriptive vocabulary and use senses to write poems.

Poems on a Theme: Nature Poems
Explore Cinderella, Snow White and the Billy Goats Gruff. Tell new versions inspired by Snow White in New York by Fiona French. Study adjectives and punctuation.

Traditional Tales and Fables: Fairy Tales
Read and write letters inspired by Simon James’s Dear Greenpeace and Hamilton's Group Reader, Boris and Sid Meet a Shark. Explore sentence punctuation and extension.

Letters and Postcards: Letters: Dear Greenpeace
Have fun with traditional action rhymes, rounds, songs and nursery rhymes. Explore verbs and sentence punctuation. Improvise dramas based on nursery rhymes; write in role.

Classic Poems: Traditional Poems
The engaging Max stories by Ed Vere form the backbone of a block focused on reading for understanding and stimulating creative writing. Write character profiles, describe bad dreams and sequence narratives.

Modern Fiction: Ed Vere Stories
Read and choose favourite recipes, discover interesting facts and write question-and-answer information texts about food. Read and write questions and statements and produce recipes.

Information Texts: Questions and answers about food
This great poetry collection stimulates writing, reading, discussion. Learn about rhyme, descriptive language (noun phrases) and verbs as we enjoy traditional rhymes and use wonderful poems as inspiration for writing.

Anthologies: Fantastic First Poems
Using How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffries, and other stories and poems about space, this block helps children to express themselves through painting, modelling, dance and marbling as well as writing. 2 weeks offered.

Wellbeing: Kites, Stars and Rockets
Two weeks’ work, focussed on key skills, NO printing required – all do-able by children at home with just a screen. Starts with a fun day; all you need if your class is self-isolating.
