We have been impressed to see how well the children can retell the story of ‘The 3 Billy Goats Gruff’ and also their own stories following the same pattern. It was fantastic to share our learning in the parent carer session. The children loved the noodles for the Chinese New Year and also the Police visit and being able to get in the car. We have had another wonderful half-term together. As we move into spring, we are looking forward to seeing the changes in the season and growing lots of plants.  The children will have new role-play opportunities and their first outing together when we walk to the local area around Cuckoos Hollow.

The children have made great progress in their reading, writing and maths. We appreciate all of your support from home as it greatly supports the children in their development.

Communication and Language 

With each area of learning,  the children are constantly being introduced to new vocabulary related to maths, role-play or our topics.

This half-term, our role-play area will be a shoe shop. We would welcome any offerings of shoes or boots of any style or size to encourage as much discussion as possible. This will link to our story ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’. With our non-fiction topic of transport, the children will be introduced to lots of new vocabulary. In our outdoor garage, the children will ask questions to find out the problem with the vehicle and to then discuss how they will solve the problem.

Vocabulary: damaged, repair, broken, mend, fix, sell, buy, cost, cheap, expensive, delicate, strong, wide, long, short, measure, helicopter, tram, pedestrian, passenger, vehicle.  

Literacy

In our Read Write Inc phonics sessions, we have now covered set 1 and 2 sounds. We will continue to revise these. Please continue to read regularly at home as this has a massive impact on the progress and confidence in reading for the children. Homework will continue to reflect the learning in class. In this half-term, the children will be focusing on reading and writing simple sentences using the sounds they know. These will be encouraged through their play, for example, to write lists of transport types, repair notes in the garage. The children will make a transport book with information about different modes of transport.

The children are doing brilliantly with their handwriting which they do every morning when they first come in to class. We will start to look at the formation of capital letters. With our focus book: ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ the children will retell the story through 'talk for writing'. They will be able to play the roles of the different characters from the story. The book focus is on ‘finding’.  So, as well as this story, the children will be introduced to other lost and found type stories such as ‘Where’s my Teddy’. We will celebrate Mother’s Day and the children will make cards and thank you letters. We will read the story ‘Brian Bear’s thank you letter’ and write other thank you letters of our own to people who help us.

Vocabulary: capital letter, adjective, description, sentence, digraph, trigraph, lost, found, celebration, thanks, grateful.

Physical Development

Our focus for PE this half-term is multi-skills. This will involve a range of skills to support the children when they come on to other sports. We will practise throwing and catching bean bags and balls independently and with a partner.  They will be using a target to throw and aim. Using bats and balls or hockey sticks,  the children will learn to move a ball around the space and to shoot or to hit the ball with the bat, building up hand-eye coordination and accuracy.  In each session, we will look at being healthy and how exercising makes us feel and strengthens our muscles. We will improve our running and moving in different ways,such as, jumping skipping and hoping in our warm-up sessions.

Vocabulary: pace, spin, target, aim, obstacle, turn, rotate, jump, move, direction, travel, strength, muscles, veins, blood, heart, exercise, healthy, unhealthy.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

In our previous sessions, the children really enjoyed the story of The Colour Monster. His colour changed depending on his feelings. The children have really found this helped them to describe their feelings. They will often say at playtime that they are feeling; 'yellow’ for happy or ‘green’ for calm when it is story time. In our circle times, this half-term we will be looking at ‘Special Relationships’. This will include: my family, special people, sharing, I am unique, my interests and similarities and differences.  We will continue with our peer massage sessions as a way of children developing ways to self-regulate and calm themselves as well as showing respect and care to their friends.

Vocabulary: relationships, unique, family, aunt, uncle, cousins, grandparents, stepmum, stepdad, emotions, feelings, coping, describe, happy, excited, nervous, anxious, angry, calm, scared, loved. 

Mathematics

The children have learnt so much already this year.  They are able to count and recognise numbers to 8.  They have measured weight, capacity and length so far. It is important that we keep encouraging the children to use the correct vocabulary instead of big and small, to use long, short, wide, narrow, full, empty, as this is something that they need to keep practising. Every day, straight after lunch we have our maths time.  The children enjoy working with a partner to count and show the matching number or to add totals on the dice.

This half-term, we are building 9 and 10. There will be lots of counting and matching, looking at different ways to make 9 and 10. Outside, the children can throw at a target to match the amounts to the numbered pots. With the dice, they can add the amounts and collect the corresponding number of objects. We will play lots of maths bingo together. With a ten frame, the children will be able to quickly find ways to make 10 and to recognising which number is missing.

Vocabulary: total, altogether, most, least, bond, number, shape, subitise, compare, different, same, more, less, pair, amount, yesterday, tomorrow, before, after, next, soon, long, short, tall.

Understanding the World

In our water area, the children will be exploring floating and sinking. They will be make boats to test out on the water. Lots of children already enjoy using the ramps to see how fast the cars can go. With a focus on pushes and pulls, they will investigate how they can make vehicles go further, faster, slower using different ramps and materials. Also, they can use the large trikes to experiment with pushing each other and pulling, then linking to previous learning in maths about heavy and light.  Linking to past and present, we will look at old and new types of transport and how they have changed with technology. For example, steam trains and electric.

We will look at the countries of the United Kingdom. By reading books and watching videos, we will find out about other countries around the world using Google Earth, stories and videos with a look at how they are similar or different to the UK.

Vocabulary: push, pull, force, friction, material, ramp, fast, slow, heavy, light, float, sink, absorb, country, map, United Kingdom, climate, temperature, North Pole, South Pole, globe, Equator.

Computing

Last half-term, the children were introduced to keyboards and practised typing their name. They have been using ICT in lessons,for example, to play phonics or maths games.  In computing lessons, they have been looking at programming. This has been by giving and following instructions. For example, to direct their friend across an obstacle or to get dressed.

This half-term, they will be building on this in the second programming unit. They will use ‘bee-bots’. These are small programmable toys. The children will learn to programme them to go in different directions and to program the bee-bot with the correct instructions to reach a target destination. They will also learn to debug the bee-bot to follow the correct route or to have the correct instructions programmed.

Vocabulary: Forward, back, backwards, forwards, bee-bot, direction, turn, straight on, right, left, arrow, circle, debug, sequence, program, algorithm, directions, route, instructions.

RE

In our RE sessions, we will look at the Christian story of Easter. This will link with Spring and new life. We will have fun going on egg hunts, decorating Easter eggs and making Easter cards.

Vocabulary: Christian, belief, salvation, new beginning, Easter.

Expressive Arts and Design

By the end of this half-term, the children will have created their own 3D sculpture.  Over the weeks, they will practice first with play dough. They will learn a range of techniques and use a variety of tools. They will then design an animal. With clay, they will make the animal sculpture, add to it then finally paint their work. This will be in our focused art lessons. At other times, the children will have access to junk-modelling and large construction outside to create a range of different types of transport. Boats for the water area and cars or lorries to test out the ramps.

We love to sing in Reception and we will learn lots of new songs related to transport. Such as down at the station, the wheels on the bus.  We will then adapt these to match different vehicles such as the wheels on the truck. 

Vocabulary: mould, attach, join, link, blend, add, bend, paint, collage, transient, stick.

We need your help!

For our topic, please save and bring in any small boxes, bottle tops or kitchen roll tubes for our junk modelling area.

USEFUL WEBSITES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/zf44jxs/videos/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/