Year 1 English
Choose the block you wish to teach
We’ve been busy spring cleaning our poetry blocks.
Our revised summer poetry blocks should be on the site in May, the autumn ones in July, and the spring ones in September.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
