F1 Welcome

Summer 1

Welcome back to our F1 class page!

We hope you have all had a fantastic half term and are ready to come back to our lovely class. We have a great term planned, full of exciting activities and lots of brain growing!

Our topic this term will focus on planting, seeds, and growing, helping children to explore the natural world in a hands-on and engaging way. We will be growing our own plants and observing how they change over time, learning about plant lifecycles and what plants need to survive. Alongside this, we will be discovering a variety of minibeasts, looking closely at different insects, what they look like, and the important roles they play in our environment. We will also study flowers in detail, learning about the different parts of a plant and how they function. We will be reading the stories ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’ and Walter’s Web’ as our focus texts.

In Literacy - our main focus will be to continue to develop our mark making skills - practising our pre-writing shapes and for our older children, writing the letters from their name. We will be exploring the characters from our class stories, joining in with the story and creating our own story maps.

In Maths - we will be continuing to consolidate the numbers from 1-6. Alongside this, children will explore positional language, learning to describe where objects are using words such as “in,” “on,” “under,” “next to,” and “behind.” We will also introduce the names and basic properties of 2D shapes, helping children to recognise and talk about shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles, including their sides and corners. In addition, children will practise sequencing, learning to order events and objects, which supports their understanding of routines, patterns, and early problem-solving skills.

In Understanding the World - we will be learning all about growing and planting by planting our own beans and seeds. Some in our own homemade greenhouses and others in plant pots.

In RE ‘The Vine and the Branches’ -we will be continuing with Jesus’ story and following his journey ‘To the Ends of the Earth’. ‘Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:19) In this branch, in an age appropriate way, pupils will study the events that flowed from the Resurrection and Ascension in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work of the apostles and early Church. They will also learn about the Catholic Church today as the apostolic Church and how its liturgy and structures flow from the early Church.

We will continue with our daily Phonics lessons through listening for rhythms, patterns and rhyming in Nursery Rhymes. We will also continue to follow our ‘My Happy Mind’ framework - learning about our brains and our different character strengths.

 We love going outside in our EYFS and we have an amazing outdoor area so we will be learning outside come rain or shine! Unfortunately, our Great British weather is unpredictable so the children will need a raincoat and wellies every day and hopefully, a sun hat! These can be left in school, alongside a spare change of clothes - play can be messy and the children will have access to water, sand, playdough and paint, amongst other things :)

Please let us know if your child develops any new allergies or conditions, so we can keep our records up to date and your children safe. Thank you!

Please ensure your child also has a water bottle each day - busy minds and bodies need lots of hydration :)

We will be using the Tapestry app as our main communication link – please ensure you have activated your login and that you check regularly as there will be pictures and key dates and information regarding upcoming events. We really love to hear about what the children get up to home and we share weekend stories every Monday morning as part of ‘Communication and Language’ sessions. Please share any activities that you get up to at home - this can be something super exciting like the beach or the park or something simple like reading a bedtime story and having a family dinner! Please ask us if you need any support with this and we will do our best to help you.

We can’t wait to get to know your wonderful children and watch them make their brains grow each day.

Our door is always open so please pop in if you have any questions.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs O’Hanlon and Mrs Barber

F1 Team