Welcome to Spring 1

Hello and welcome to our class homepage!

I hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas and are well rested. We are very excited to see you all and 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 Storm Whale in Winter ’ and ‘Hello Penguin’.

‘The Storm Whale in Winter’ will give children the opportunity to discuss winter and seasonal changes. Children will be introduced to Noi and the whale. Children will learn about characters and the setting of the story, discussing what a lighthouse is and its job. Children will write in speech bubbles using ‘I am’ and build their cvc words using action words like jog, run and dig. 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, he, I and the’. To finish, children will compose a simple sentence using five words. Children will use the stem sentence ‘ I am in the…’ making sure to use their segmenting and blending skills.

For our second book ‘Hello Penguin’ children will learn about non-fiction by delving into facts about penguins. Children will learn 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 penguin and firstly what they look like. Children will work together to build images of penguins and talk about their body parts. Children will also continue to develop their vocabulary skills by learning words such as ‘shuffling, huddle and habitat’. We will discuss where penguins live and share information by completing fact posters and writing facts in a simple sentence. Children will be able to access lots of linked provision which will be accessible indoor and outdoor.

In maths, we will start the term by exploring numbers to 5 by firstly introducing zero and allowing the children to understand what zero is. Children will use their previously build knowledge on subitising and one more, one less and apply this to higher numbers. Children will then work their way to 8 by looking at numbers 6, 7 and 8 in depth. Here they will find 6,7 and 8 then represent the numbers in various different ways using different resources moving on to finding doubles and exploring odd and even. To finish, children will explore and compare length, height and time. Children will talk about long and short linking books including ‘Superworm’ and ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’. Children will then explore tall and short when learning about height involving themselves in fun activities like drawing around themselves and building the tallest or shortest tower in the construction area. 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 any phonemes and Phase 2 digraphs we need to practice making sure to embed those sounds. We will then start our Phase 3 sounds including ai ee igh and oa . Here, 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 some blending games.

In Understanding the world and Exploring Arts and Design we will learn about living things including animals and plants. Children will learn that animals live in wither hot or cold places. They will discuss their habitat and talk about contrasting environments. We will link our Literacy texts and learn about winter and how some animals hibernate during the colder months. We will also discuss the seasonal change and discuss how we can care for the environment and respect living things. Moving on, we will celebrate key festivals including Chinese New Year, Valentines Day and Shrove Tuesday. Children will have lots of opportunities to continue their learning in our provision and areas of learning.

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 continue to be on Thursday, 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