Year 1 Blog 27.2.26

Date: 27th Feb 2026 @ 5:27pm

What a fantastic first week back for our new spring half term! The children have returned full of energy and excitement, ready for new adventures in their learning.

In English, we began our new key text, Grandad's Island by Benji Davies. We read the story together and imagined we were the main character setting off on a magical adventure with Grandad. The children loved sharing their ideas, and over the next few weeks we will use this story to inspire our own adventure writing, thinking carefully about exciting settings and using wonderful descriptive words to bring our stories to life.

We also launched our new topic, Pirates and Explorers, which has created great excitement in the classroom! The children have enjoyed getting into character, making treasure maps and telescopes, and using their imaginations in their play.

In Maths, we are building on our knowledge of numbers to 50 by finding one more and one less, counting in 10s and 1s, and playing a fun game of “Is it a double or not a double?”

In Geography, we began learning about maps and compass directions, focusing on North, South, East and West. We even located where we live in the North West of England.

In History, we explored what a pirate is and learned about Sir Francis Drake, who sailed the seas and stole treasure from Spain. We talked about how pirates lived in the past and how we learn about them through history.

When the rain stopped, we took a short spring walk around the school grounds, looking for signs of the new season. The children spotted flowers, fresh leaves and birds, then created beautiful spring artwork for our Year 1 display.

Your child will be bringing home a new Home Learning Grid next week, along with a weekly “tricky red word” handwriting sheet. This handwriting sheet is to be completed at home to help your child become familiar with how these red words look and also to practise forming their letters neatly and correctly. Once completed, the sheets should be glued into your child’s blue Home Learning Book and returned by Wednesday each week. If you need any support with the activities, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

We are very excited to be setting sail next week as Year 1 celebrates our famous Pirate Day on Tuesday 3rd March! Throughout the day, the children will take part in a range of fun pirate-themed activities, including a thrilling treasure hunt. Children are welcome to come dressed in their own pirate costumes for the day (Mufti underneath - no uniform). We have plenty of pirate outfits available in class if needed. 

We are also excited to celebrate World Book Day with a special Breakfast Bookfest from 8:45am on Thursday 5th March. The children will enjoy story times, book activities and a light breakfast of toast and juice. They are welcome to dress as a favourite book character or come in pyjamas.

A suggested £2 donation (via School Spider) will support FOSLS and our school library.

We will also be holding a book swap - children can bring in a book they no longer read and will choose a different one on the day. 

It has been such a joyful and imaginative start to the term - we are so proud of how well the children have settled back in!