SEAHORSES CLASS (Reception)

UNDER THE SEA:

In our final half term in Reception, we are learning about different sea creatures that are linked to our school, for example, dolphins, seahorses and jellyfish. We will share photos of our learning in our weekly Tapestry posts.

ENGLISH:

We will be reading the book, Somebody Swallowed Stanley, written by Sarah Roberts. The book is about a plastic bag called Stanley who gets thrown into the ocean. Please look on our cloakroom door for the other Under the Sea related stories we will be reading in our daily story time.

RWI PHONICS:

Some of the children are now learning Set 2 and Set 3 special friends. The children are being encouraged to read with fluency by using Fred in their head. The children will read their RWI book in school several times to build their fluency before they bring it home.

WRITING:

We are continuing to learn to write a sentence using a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. We are going to write key facts about different sea creatures and create a poster about World Ocean Day.

MATHS:

We will be spending time consolidating what we have learnt using the NCETM Mastering Number Term 3 Review and Assess lesson slides and activity plans. We will also learn about doubling, sharing quantities equally and odd and even numbers. We will enjoy linking our learning to Numberblocks and using rekenreks.

SPACE:

We will learn about the learn about the astronauts: Tim Peake, Dr Helen Sharman, Mae Jemison, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and what they achieved in Space. The children will learn that space contains more than Earth and the moon. We will use our building skills to build space rockets with large construction, this will also involve us working collaboratively in small teams. We will learn to follow simple instructions to make a rocket.

ENGLISH:

At the start of the term we will be reading the book, Whatever Next, written and illustrated by Jill Murphy. The book is about a baby bear who uses a cardboard box to fly to the moon! We will have fun retelling the story and learning about the story plot. We will enjoy reading other space related books in our daily story time.

PHONICS:

The children have been working hard in their Read, Write, Inc Phonics and reading lessons. This half term lots of the children have moved to a different Phonics group which will see them learning new letter sounds, special friends, green words and red words (tricky words). The children are being encouraged to read with fluency by using Fred in their head.

WRITING:

In their Phonics lessons and writing activities, the children will use their Fred fingers to write the letters they hear in words. They will learn to write a sentence using a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop.

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths, we will learn all about the number 10. We will be learning our number bonds to ten using different equipment such as tens frames, numicon, abacus, part whole model and cubes. We will also learn a Number bond to 10 song and learn to use a game called Hit the Button on the free website Topmarks.

This is what Clownfish (Nursery) are learning about in Summer 1:

GROWING:

Our topic this half term is ‘Growing.’ The stories we will read and explore this half term are- The Hungry Caterpillar, Jasper’s Beanstalk and the Enormous Turnip.

We will have caterpillars in our class to take care of and will learn all about the life cycle of a caterpillar.

We will be growing our own fruit, vegetables and flowers, and learn what we need to do to help them to grow.

PHONICS:

In Phonics we will continue to play Fred Talk games. We will be trying to become secure in orally blending and segmenting words before starting in Reception in September.

We have also begun Read, Write, Inc phonics lessons now, and are learning new sounds each week. We will start posting onto Tapestry which sounds we have focused on each week, so that you can support your child to remember these sounds at home. Little and often is the key to them becoming secure in their phoneme recognition. 

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths this term our number focus will be numbers 4 and 5. We investigate these numbers in depth. We learn to count that number of objects and learn to stop when we have counted them all. We will learn to recognise the numeral and have a go at matching the numeral to the quantity. We will look at being able to subitise that amount. We will have a go at finding 4 and 5 in the environment by going on number hunts, and we will look at different ways of making 4 and 5, using cubes and counters on our 5’s frames.

THE WOODS:

Now Spring is in full swing, we will look more closely at the seasonal changes, by investigating the buds, flowers and leaves that are growing and changing. We will also take a closer look at the wildlife in the woodland area, and learn how to look for minibeasts, making sure that we are being respectful to them and their home. 

PE:

In PE, this half term we are doing dance. We are working on being able to use and remember sequences and patterns of movements which are related to music and rhythm. We will use our stories as a stimulus for our dance and look at different ways of moving; slithering, crawling, spinning and galloping.  

As part of our new topic, the children will be learning about:

• The climate in Madagascar and how it is different from the climate in England.
• The Baobab trees in Madagascar and all the different uses of the tree.
• The animals that are unique to Madagascar, including lemurs.
• Some of the similarities and differences between the islands of the UK and Madagascar.

PHONICS and WRITING:

In their Phonics lessons and writing activities, the children will continue to learn to use their Fred fingers to write the letters they hear in words. Once the children have mastered learning to write words, they will be taught how to write a simple sentence.

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths, we will learn all about the numerals 8 and 9. We will be partitioning these numbers, learning our number bonds, one to one correspondence counting and learning the formation of numbers so we can write them correctly.

CLASS TRIP to Askham Bryan Wildlife Park on Thursday 14^th March

The children are excited to visit the lemurs at Askham Bryan Wildlife Park and ask the zookeepers questions about them. They will also meet lots of other animals and wildlife at the park. If you would like your child to accompany us on the class trip you must complete the Google Form to give permission by Monday 11^th March. The Google Form was included in a recent email to parents. If you need help paying your contribution for the trip or need help completing the Google Form, please contact the staff in the school office.

RECYCLE and REUSE! Instead of putting these items in your bin please give them to us:

• Birthday cards – we like to cut out the pictures on the cards and use them to make new cards.
• Envelopes – please save the envelopes you get in the post that have a clear plastic window. We like to use them to put our pictures inside. Please do NOT send us envelopes with your address on.
• Empty kitchen roll tubes – we like to use them to make telescopes.
• Plastic bottle tops and corks – we like to use them in the water tray.
• Pans, metal bowls, metal jugs and metal utensils – we use them in our outside Mud Kitchen.

In Clownfish (Nursery) we are learning all about ‘Farms.’

We will begin our topic by reading the traditional tale, The Three Little Pigs. We will learn to retell the story by using Pie Corbett actions for the words. We will enjoying acting out the story in our roleplay area with the Three Little Pigs houses that we make. At the end of this half term we will put on a small performance of The Three Little Pigs for our parents/grandparents.

We will also read the story, Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and will learn more about farm animals and Spring.

PHONICS:

In Phonics we will be playing Fred Talk games all term. We will be trying to become secure in orally blending and segmenting words before starting in Reception in September.

You can help with this at home, as little and often will be the key to us becoming confident with oral blending. For example, at different times in your day you could use ‘Fred Talk’ to talk to your child. Can you put your c-oa-t on please? Or, do you want to read a b-oo-k?

We have also begun Read, Write, Inc phonics lessons and are learning the sounds each letter makes. For example, ‘sss’ for snake.

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths our big focus this term is number 3. We will be reading stories like Goldilocks and the Three bears, so that we can count all the things that come in 3’s.

We will continue to look at recognising numerals 1-5, subitising numbers to 5 by being able to say the amount without counting them and using positional language.

Every day we talk through daily patterns- What day it is, what day came before, what day will it be tomorrow. We sing and count the days of the week as well.