Year 1 Curriculum Overview


Autumn 1Autumn 2Spring 1Spring 2Summer 1Summer 2
Under the SeaThe Toy BoxArhh Me HeartiesJurassic ParkJack and the BeanstalkWho am I?

Finding Nemo

The activities in this topic are designed to help the children make the transition between the Early Years Foundation stage and KS1. The topic focuses on the PHSE themes of feeling alone, rules, responsibility and being lost.

The children are supported in developing friendships within their new classes, whilst also establishing a kind and respectful environment in which they feel safe and comfortable to learn.  The children quickly begin to learn about responsibility, as we discuss taking care of our pets and other animals.

As the topic progresses, science, art and design become the focus.  The children will begin to learn about a large variety of sea creatures through fun, hands-on and informative ways.  These will include creating collages, sea scenes and observational drawings.

The children will have the opportunity to learn about a variety of sea creatures such as octopi, crabs, eels, jellyfish, sharks and whales.  They will be expected to find out information about the creatures’ features, characteristics and habits. Using a variety of non-fiction sources the children will research and record notes and information on a sea creature of their choice, and then create informative posters on their chosen fish or creature. To develop their ICT skills the children will create a variety of posters and paintings about their favourite sea creatures.

In DT lessons the children will learn a variety of methods and techniques, which will allow them to create a 3D underwater scene.  This will include paper plate jelly fish and turtles, along with sea creature collages, observational drawings and a shark display turning the classrooms into aquariums, which parents will be invited to view.  The children will take on the role of aquarium tour guides and share the information they have discovered with you.

WOW day: Finding Nemo exploration.

Fantastic Finish: Parents to visit the class aquarium.


Toy Story

For their WOW day the children bring in their favourite toy and dress up as their favourite Toy Story character. After watching some clips from the Toy Story films, the children join in with a show and tell afternoon where the children will be allowed to share their toys with the rest of the class and discuss why it is important to them.   During their history learning  in this topic, the children look closely at toys and how they have changed over time and  create their own toy time line of famous toys.

This topic looks closely at the theme of friendship. The children use their new  ‘Working Together’ Learning Life Skills to discuss what makes a good friend and how to take care of others in our class. In RE we will look at different festivals celebrated across a variety of cultures for example Christmas, Diwali and Chanukah. We will take this opportunity to discuss sharing and giving gifts to others.

To develop their enquiry skills, the children use their scientific knowledge and understanding to investigate how far a car will travel when the height and surface of a ramp changes. Thinking carefully about the  features of recounts, the children then use their Talk for Writing skills to write a recount of their Science experiment in Literacy.

In DT the children work through the design, make and evaluate process to make their own toy. These have included, pull along toys, jigsaws, and puppets. This links closely to the children’s science learning by focussing on which materials are suitable for different toys, looking at how mechanical toys move and thinking about forces.

Over this half term, the children in EYFS and Key Stage One work collaboratively to learn and perform a Christmas Play. The children celebrate the end of their Toy Story topic by inviting parents and carers to watch their performance.

WOW day: Children dress up as their favourite Toy Story character and bring in their favourite toy for a show and tell afternoon.

Fabulous Finish: Parents and carers are invited in to watch the EYFS and Key Stage 1 Christmas performance.


Sea Adventures

This topic ignites imagination and creativity through drama, music, art and role plays.  For their WOW day the children become pirates for the day and experience pirate life first-hand.  Children learn how to talk like a pirate, dress like a pirate and act like a pirate including hoisting the sails and scrubbing the decks!

We will be singing pirate songs and we  will be finding out about the famous pirate Blackbeard and will then look at famous sea journeys including the journeys and discoveries of Christopher Columbus.

In Geography, the children learn to use keys and co-ordinates to read maps, including treasure maps!  They will design and make their own treasure maps and in ICT, will use a computer program to navigate around a  desert island. Children will also create their own treasure maps and use their knowledge of positional language and directions to guide their Beebots around their islands.

Using sea shanties in Music, the children learn about rhythm and dynamics.  The children learn  pirate songs to perform during their Fabulous Finish.  In Literacy they will be looking at stories and create their own adventures and characters and use drama activities as stimuli for  extended writing.  Throughout their art lessons in this topic, the children work collaboratively to create their own pirate ship role play area and  desert island. The children create paper plate pirate faces, hats, eye patches, telescopes to build their pirate identity to use during their Fabulous Finish.

Parents and carers are invited into school for our Fabulous Finish. The children perform the sea shanties they have been learning and become experts at explaining the key skills you need to be a pirate. Arhh!

WOW day: Pirate dressing up day. Creating a pirate ship and desert island role play area.

Fabulous Finish: Pirate school and graduation ceremony.


Jurassic Park

This historical topic will begin with the children becoming palaeontologists, investigating dinosaurs and their habitats. On Wow Day, children will discover frozen dinosaur eggs and explore different ways to melt and ’hatch’ their dinosaurs. They will begin looking at the different features of dinosaurs and talk about what they think they already know and want to find out.

Children will also get the opportunity to investigate fossils, using brushes and magnifying glasses. Later in the topic, the children will learn about how fossils are formed and make their own fossils and dinosaur footprints, using modelling clay in art lessons.

Linking to their numeracy the children will learn about sorting and classification by examining the features of different types of dinosaurs. The children will be looking at the skeleton and appearance of herbivores and carnivores, and identifying the defensive armour and dangerous weapons of predatory dinosaurs.

Over the course of the topic, the children will learn about the three different dinosaur time periods i.e. the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. In history, children will have the opportunity to make models and timelines of the three different time periods in order to understand the differences between them.

In art, they will use their knowledge and understanding to design and create their own dinosaur skeleton, using an X-ray effect! They will also be designing and inventing their own made up dinosaur!

There will be lots of opportunities to use ICT and non-fiction texts for research and presentation. Within Literacy, children will be learning about the features of non-fiction books and texts, and use their topic knowledge, to create their own dinosaur non-fiction book. The children will also be using ICT to create fact files and presentations about some of their favourite dinosaurs and other pre-historic creatures.

Nearing the end of the topic, children will get the opportunity to visit ‘The Dino and Farm Park’, where they will be able to go on a Jurassic adventure and meet the ‘living’ pre-historic giants. This trip also follows onto the ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ topic, as children are able to interact with different farm animals and become familiar with growth and life cycles.

Wow Day: Dinosaur discovery.

Our Fabulous Finish: Class dinosaur museum


Jack And The Beanstalk

This topic uses scientific enquiry to allow children to investigate how plants grow, and what they need to be able to grow into healthy plants. This will extend on what the children learnt about plants in the EYFS. The children grow a large variety of different types of fruit, vegetables and flowers from seeds and are given the responsibility to tend to them, throughout the growing process. The children will attempt to grow their own beanstalk and keep a record of it’s development, over the half term. The children will also learn how to identify and describe the different parts of a plant, i.e. roots, stem and leaves.

Throughout the topic the children will learn and apply a range of ICT skills. The children will use photography to record the progression and process of plant growth. Children will begin to use the internet as a research tool, loading websites that can help them learn about the parts of a plant.

This gradually helps the children to develop their understanding and structure of a story. The children get the opportunity to use their knowledge and imagination to write their own traditional tale and create a ‘What happens next?’ sequel to fairy tales such as, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Children will use their numeracy skills to measure their growing plants and measure out the correct amount of water plants need.

Our WOW day: Story exploration

Our Fabulous Finish: Traditional tale performance


Who Am I?

This topic begins with an art WOW day, based on an ‘All about me’ theme, and develop their skills throughout the topic. The children complete a range of activities based on the work of a variety of famous artists and look at the techniques they use to create their works of art. The children will learn about colour, tone and shape by creating a Pop Art version of the New Chapter logo and will have the chance to sketch their own self-portraits, by carefully looking at their unique facial features.

Throughout the topic, children will also learn about understanding and recognising their emotions, as well as thinking about how to handle different situations. In Literacy, we particularly focus on using role-play to act out a range of emotions and link this to creating a solution to everyday scenarios. The children then create an information page on an emotion and give advice on the best ways to handle it. As well as learning about themselves, children will also get the opportunity to write poetry about others and their surroundings. Using their understanding of questioning, the children will interview their friends and teachers and used their answers to write riddles about themselves and others in our class.

We also develop questioning skills in numeracy, linking to our Learning Life Skills topic, Knowing Me, Knowing You. The children pick a question to research and to find out more information about the children in their class. We then make tally charts and turn them into block graphs to represent what we found out.

In science lessons children will learn about parts of the body and their functions to help them gain some understanding of the workings of their own bodies. Building on from this, children will use their design technology skills to plan and make a moving puppet of themselves. This activity will enable the children to begin to understand the design process, including the importance of prototypes, design development and following a plan, which they will evaluate after each design stage. The children will use peer and self-evaluation to assess their work and think about modifications to both their work and the design process.

WOW Day: Who am I? Exploration art day. Fabulous Finish: Parents to visit the class gallery.


Yr 1 Curriculum Overview - Download PDF version of this page

Understanding the Year 1 Curriculum - A Guide For Parents