Welcome to Spring 2

Hello and welcome to our class homepage!

I hope that you have had a wonderful February half term and are well rested. We are very excited to see you all, we are going to be very busy over the next 6 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 Elephant’s Umbrella ’ and ‘Chimpanzees’.

‘The Elephant’s Umbrella’ will give children the opportunity to discuss animal in hot countries including Kenya and South Africa. Children will learn about different animals and their habitat. Children will learn what the Savannah is and which animals live there. Children will furthermore discuss these hot climates and why certain animals only survive in hot places not cold. Children will be introduced to the elephant character who loses her umbrella when the wind sweeps it away! We will also meet some other characters including the leopard and the bear. Children will learn about these characters and discuss the setting of the story. Children will write speech bubbles using ‘I am’ and build their cvc words using action words like jog, run and dig. Children will be exposed to facts about elephants and watch videos to embed their knowledge. Furthermore, children will discuss their favourite character in the story and continue writing speech bubbles using the tricky word ‘I’. 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 book about Bella the umbrella and write what happens to her throughout the story. Children will work together in their groups to create their book then present it to out friends in Foundation 1!

For our second book ‘Chimpanzees’ children will learn about another non-fiction by delving into facts about chimpanzees. 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 how to label an image by discussing a chimpanzee and talk about what they look like. Children will work together to build images of chimpanzees and talk about their body parts including arm, chin, neck, fur. Children will also continue to develop their vocabulary skills by learning words such as ‘chimp, forest, habitat, Africa’. We will discuss where chimpanzees live and share information by completing fact posters and writing facts in simple sentences. Children will be able to access lots of linked provision which will be accessible indoor and outdoor including making chimpanzees masks, labelling chimpanzees and different monkeys, creating dough African animals and travelling like a chimpanzee in the outdoor area including making dens.

In maths, we will start the term by exploring time. Children will talk about time and listen to the ‘Days of the Week’ song discussing how time travels. We will link this to our daily routine in school and talk about what we do when we wake up in the morning. We will order images to show how time passes including waking up, having breakfast, getting ready and brushing our teeth. Children will also learn about how fast and slow time can pass by learning about seconds, minutes and hours. Children will complete some activities to show time passing. Furthermore, children will discuss how we can tell the time by exploring various objects like clocks, watches and stopwatches. Children will have the opportunities to use these objects by completing different tasks and recording the time. To complete this part of our learning, children will order and sequence time by how they happen. For example brushing teeth or eating an apple. For our next part of maths learning, children will learn about numbers 9-10. Children will build on their prior knowledge of numbers 0-8 to climb to 10. Children will compare and represent numbers 9 and 10 by using various maths equipment that the children are familiar will including natural resources too. Furthermore children will build on their subitising skills and learn about one more and one less to 10. Children will then learn the difficult skill of learning number bonds to 10. Children will learn the various different numbers that create 10 for example 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7. Children will use tens frames and part whole models to support their learning. Children will have the opportunity to explore their maths skills in provision working with adults and their fellow peers. Children will also continue to have access to lots of practical resources including coloured teddy bears, counters, cubes and links.

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 move onto Phase 4 where children will learn about consonant digraphs and learn 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 4 ‘Desert to Garden’. Our lessons will help children explore the season of Lent and the celebration of Easter. We will introduce them to simple but important ideas: Lent is a time to care for others, and Easter is a time of joy because Jesus is alive. Children will learn that Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday, which is a sad time, but on Easter Sunday, He rose again, and we celebrate His new life. Through storytelling, discussion, and creative activities, we will explore signs and symbols of Lent (purple, ashes, growing seeds) and Easter (white, crosses, palms, Easter gardens).

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 – Phonics

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

11:20-11.45 – Maths Carpet Session

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 now 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