Welcome to Autumn 2

Hello and welcome to our class homepage!

I hope that you have had a wonderful October half term and are well rested. We are very excited to see you all and we are going to be very busy over the next 7 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 Little Red Hen ’ and ‘The Leaf Thief’.

‘The Little Red Hen’ will give children the opportunity to talk about their favourite animals and link the classical story with harvest and Autumn. Children will have many opportunities to talk and listen to each other and ask what their favourite animal is. We will create lists with each other using our phonetic knowledge to spell simple animals like pig and hen. We will use our segmenting and blending skills throughout this unit making sure we trap our sounds. Children will continue to use their phonics knowledge to read VC words and read the tricky word ‘I’. We will move onto speech bubbles in which the children will write ‘Not I’ using their favourite characters linking it with the story. To finish, children will continue to work on their speech bubbles by writing ‘I can’ using their favourite character once more and segmenting and blending CVC words.

For our second book ‘The Leaf Thief’ children will learn about captions and labels and describe the main character. Children will continue to use speech bubbles by writing about Sam the Squirrel. ‘I am Sam’. Children will use their knowledge of adding capital letters when writing their name when writing Sam. Furthermore, children will develop their vocabulary like snug, hazelnuts, canopy and stole. Children will continue to use their phonics knowledge and write short captions then retell the story using illustrations from the book matching captions to each image. To finish children will label images from the story using their phonics knowledge and CVC building. Once more, 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 identifying circles and triangles, comparing circles and triangles and finding shapes in the environment. Children will have the opportunity to listen to lots of songs and rhymes and listen to the stories ‘A Book of Shapes’ and ‘Triangle’. Moving on, children will then continue to pick apart the numbers 1,2,3,4 and 5. Children will use their knowledge of 1,2,3 that they learned last term to identify the numbers 4 and 5, subitise, represent and show one more and one less. Children will continue to sing well known nursery rhymes like ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’, ‘Five Currant Buns’ and ‘1,2,3,4,5 Once I Saw a Fish Alive’ to embed these numbers. To finish the term, children will think about their earlier learning about circles and triangles and start identifying 4 sided shapes learning about their properties. They will then explore and identify all shapes in their environment. 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 we need to practice making sure to embed those sounds. We will then continue to learn the phonemes v w x and y moving onto the digraphs sh th ng and nk. Here, children will continue to learn how to pronounce each initial sound correctly and play the game ‘What’s in the box?’ where they will look at objects that have the initial sound they are learning. 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 materials. Children will use their senses to explore the natural world developing their concentration and observation skills. Children will talk about their likes and dislikes about various materials in and around our learning space and be exposed to lots of practical activities like junk modelling and craft. Children will identify materials then sort and group them appropriately. Moving on, children will learn about some celebrations in our calendar including Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day and Christmas. Children will also learn about where they live talking about their address and how people live in different houses and homes. To develop their geographical skills, children will understand and know where their school is located and study some aerial maps and photographs. We will then create our own maps naming key features like shops, parks and woodland.

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.

We are excited to welcome the children back!

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