Welcome to Summer 1

Hello and welcome to our class homepage!

I hope that you have had a wonderful Easter half term and are well rested. We are very excited to see you all, we are going to be very busy over the next 5 weeks doing lots of lovely and exciting things, learning lots and of course growing those brains!

We will start our exciting new texts including ‘The Woolly Bear Caterpillar ’ and ‘Seed to Plant’.

‘The Woolly Bear Caterpillar’ will give children the opportunity to discuss the life cycle of caterpillars, learning about each stage and delve into the different species of moths. Children will learn about minibeasts and name some of the key features of a minibeast including wings, antennae, fins. Children will be introduced to the Woolly Bear Caterpillar as she wonders what kind of moth she will become! She dreams of being a bright and bonny moth but the other caterpillars laugh at her and show her no kindness. Children will describe the caterpillars by using the sentence starter ‘Look at the…’ Children will also label illustrations of caterpillars and share their knowledge about caterpillars to friends and fellow peers. Children will continue to write speech bubbles using ‘I am’ and independently write cvc/cvcc words using action words like jog, run and dig. Children will be exposed to facts about caterpillars and moths and watch videos to embed their knowledge. We will continue to use our segmenting and blending skills throughout this unit making sure we trap our sounds. Children will use their phonics knowledge to read CVC and VC words and read the tricky words ‘and, she, I and the’. Children will be encouraged to write independently this term including writing 2 simple sentences about a character. To finish, children will create a fact file about caterpillars and what they have found out during the term. Children will work together to create their facts then present it to out friends in Foundation 1!

For our second book ‘Seed to Plant’ children will learn about another non-fiction by delving into planting and how a plant grows. Children will learn once more what a non-fiction book is and discuss the similarities and differences between fiction and non-fiction. Children will learn the journey of a plant from seed pollination to growth and what they need to thrive including sunlight, water and air.

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In maths, we will be learning about numbers up to 20 and beyond this term. Children will learn numbers 11-20 to begin and understand the patterns including the teen numbers. Children will learn about how to build numbers and understand that these numbers have a ten in them therefore we can start by saying ten and counting forward. Children will use many concrete resources to support their maths learning including numicon, cubes, beads and counters. Children will build on their previous knowledge of number and use their skills on numbers beyond 20. Children will start by verbally counting past 20 by singing lots of songs, rhymes and stories. Children will take their maths outdoors too by using large chalks to draw numbers, spots and tens frames to show numbers to 20 and large numicon to identify numerals.

In Phonics children will continue their journey to becoming readers! We will begin our first week by consolidating our Phase 3 sounds to make sure the children are confident with their digraphs and trigraph sounds. Once assessed, we will continue Phase 4 where children will learn about consonant digraphs and learn more longer words Here, children will continue to learn how to ‘chunk’ words up to successfully read them.

Children will continue to learn how to pronounce each initial sound correctly and learn the phase to match the sound. Furthermore, children will be taught the formation phrase and play blending games in provision.

In RE this term children will learn about branch 5 ‘To the Ends of the Earth’. Our lessons will help children explore what happened after Easter when Jesus was crucified on the cross. Children will learn about Jesus appearing to his disciples and staying with them for 40 days. Here he explains what he wants his disciples to do and become. Jesus then returns to his father so here children will learn about the ascension back to heaven. Furthermore, we will learn about the Holy Spirit and Pentecost where the story of Jesus continues and throughout the church his messages rippled.

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Reading is key to all learning and we would encourage you all to share books daily with your children. Developing a love of reading from an early age is essential for every child. We will continue our guided reading sessions and we do this four times each week.

Book bags need to be in school every Friday so your child can have their phonics reading book changed.

Each day follows the same routine which the children thrive upon as they know what to expect. Please see below:

8:30-9:00 – Our doors open from 8.30am when the children can self-register and access Calm & Connect activities and check in with staff

9:00-9:10 – Register, Prayer and Song

9:10-9.30 – Literacy Carpet Session

9:30-10:20 – Adult led activity Literacy, Indoor and Outdoor Continuous Provision, Snack

10:20-10:40 – Maths

10:40-11.20 – Indoor and Outdoor Continuous provision, Snack

11:20-11.45 – Phonics

11:50-1.00 – Lunchtime

1:00-1:20 – My Happy Mind/RE/PE or Handwriting (each day differs)

1:20-2.50 – Guided Reading, Indoor and outdoor provision, Interventions, Adult led activities through provision

2:50-3:05 – Story/Rhyme time

We will continue to use Class Dojo to communicate with parents - look out for messages posted on here which include key dates, activities to do at home and class updates. Please feel free to send any photos in of what the children have been up to outside of school, we love looking at these photos together in class.

A few quick reminders - PE Day will continue to be on a TUESDAY, please ensure your child comes to school wearing their School PE Kit with pumps or trainers, the children will need a jacket or hoodie on top of their t-shirt please. Children also need to bring a coat every day - we do go out come rain or shine!

Children also need a water bottle each day.

Please make sure all uniform is labelled with your child’s name including their coat and water bottle.

As always our door is always open, please don’t sit at home worrying about anything, get in touch if you have any questions.

Thank you for your continued support!

Mrs Denton & Miss Ballard x