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What are we doing this week?
Summer term 1 Week 3
Our key text for this week is 'The Bog Baby' by Jean Willis.
Granny has set up her 'Storyteller's Cottage' in the Role Play Area, and traditional tales or fairy stories will be added
every week.
In Maths, we will be learning about sharing and grouping, the foundations of division and multiplication.
In PE this term, the children will be refining their skills, precision and accuracy with a ball, so any practise at home would be great!
Summer term Week 2
The children have shown great interest in our new topic, helping in the class garden, observing plants and tiny creatures, and exploring the seasonal changes out at Forest School. We will continue to follow their interests with planting and caring for the garden, setting up and recording nature finds on our nature table and using our bird hide.
Granny has sent her best china tea set and old leather suitcase in for the children to explore, so that the children experience handling artefacts that encourage thinking about the past.
Granny loves to tell the stories that she heard when she was a child, especially fairy tales. The trouble is, she can't always remember them! Hopefully, the children will be able to help her to retell these stories.
Our key text for the week is Spyder by Matt Carr.
Summer term 1 Week 1
Our week will be a chatty one with lots to talk about after the Easter break!
We will pose the question ' What does it mean to have 'green fingers'?'; to elicit the children's knowledge of plants, growing and gardens, and encourage questioning from the children to find out more.
There will be work to be done to prepare our class garden for planting, and the children will help to plan what to grow and how to develop the garden.
In our Read Write Inc phonics and guided reading sessions the children will continue to consolidate sound knowledge and apply it by reading and writing sentences.
Our key text is ‘Errol’s Garden’, which is a story about a boy and his diverse community collaborating to create a communal garden on the roof of their skyscraper block of flats in a city. This will give the children a window into the lives of people and places beyond their everyday experiences.
Please see the curriculum guide on the 'What are we doing this term' page.
Spring Term 2 Week 4 11th-15th March
Our Wild World Animal Adventures continue as we learn about another amazing true story from the past through our key text Zeraffa Giraffa by Dianne Hofmeyr and beautifully illustrated bu Jane Ray.
In 1824 the Pasha of Egypt gave a baby giraffe to the King of France. Along with her keeper, Atir, Zeraffa Giraffa travelled over 4000 miles, sailing down the Nile, across the Mediterranean and then walking 550 miles from Marseilles to Paris. Zeraffa arrived in 1827, the first giraffe ever seen in France.
Our vocabulary will be lovely unusual nouns taken from the text:
Pasha-a man of high rank or office (as in Turkey or northern Africa)
Haboob-a type of intense dust storm which occur regularly in dry land area regions throughout the world.
Felucca-A traditional wooden shallow sailing boat used in the Mediterranean and along the Nile in Egypt, its rig consisting of one or two sails.
Amulet-a small object worn to ward off evil, harm, or illness or to bring good fortune; a protective charm.
Awning- a piece of material attached to the felucca which provides shelter from the sun.
Taffeta-a type of stiff, shiny cloth made from silk or a similar material, used especially for making dresses.
Rotunda-a type of building or room that is round and often has a dome on top.
We will think about wild animals in captivity and look forward to the visit from Wild Kids Reptiles on Tuesday.
Through our construction challenge to design and make an African-style percussion instrument, we will develop our creative ideas for music, movement and performance.
In Maths we will apply estimating skills using non standard units of measure.
Spring 2 Week 3
A lost penguin arrived in Class 1, and we will help it to find it's way back to Antarctica by crossing the equator in Africa. There we will meet Handa, and think how her home and local village area is different to our own.
We will learn an African call and response song to sing to him to, explore African instruments and move in time to the beat of African music.
In Maths, will begin to use the skill of estimating, thinking about the range of numbers that an amount could be.
Our Jigsaw lessons continue to encourage healthy choices;
SPRING TERM 2 WEEK 2 26th Feb - 1st March
Our topic 'Wild World' continues as we think about the weather both locally and around the world, and we will find out about various types of extreme weather. We will discuss places that are very cold and name the polar regions. Our key text is Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
In our Read Write Inc lessons we will consolidate the sounds we have learned so far, reviewing words and speeding up word reading. We have 2 guided reading groups, one group reading the Red Ditty books and one reading short ditties on a page. Your support at home is really appreciated. Remember to encourage your child to re-read their books to build confidence and fluency, and talk together about the story to secure understanding.
In Maths, our focus is on consolidating the composition of 6, 7and 8, and then learn about estimating.
We will be encouraging back and forth conversations & discussion, and extending vocabulary using photos as stimuli as part of our 'morning jobs' routine as the children come into class.
SPRING TERM 2 Week 1 19th-23rd February 2024
This week we will talk about the people we meet in the local area and the places we have visited in half term.
In our role play area we will take on the roles of people from the community who visit our homes. We would like every child to know their own address-and parents could help their child with this.
Our key text will be 'Noah's Ark' retold and illustrated by Lucy Cousins. We will read a daily weather report and learn that weather can be extreme. We will recreate the storm using body percussion, movement and instruments. Our Forest School sessions this term will help the children learn about the weather.
Our Read Write Inc sessions continue daily to help the children learn new sounds, read and write words and to read short ditties. In Literacy-Drawing Club- the children will have opportunities to apply their phonic knowledge as well as to draw in detail.
In Maths we are learning about doubling numbers and the composition of numbers 6, 7 and 8.
PE this week will be the first session of ball skills taught by a visiting cricket coach.
Spring Term 1 Week 3 22nd-26th January
This week our key text will be Dogs in Space. We will change our learning environment to reflect this, and learn more about space exploration and the solar system. Please see the 'Rainbow Challenges' below.
In Read/Write Inc, we will begin to teach the Set 2 sounds, and these will be put in the red homework books.
The STEM rocket launch day on Wednesday fits in perfectly with our literacy and topic!
At Forest School we will learn about birds in winter. You may like to get involved with the RSPB birdwatch at home.
Spring Term 1 Week 2 15th-19th January
This week we will be reviewing the 'Special Friends' diagraphs- sh ch th qu ng. Look out for consolidation videos on SeeSaw. In our Word time lessons we will be reading and writing words with 3 & 4 sounds, trying to build up our 'Speed Words' and using our 'Fred Fingers'. We will also begin to read longer words with 5 sounds or 2 syllables.
In Maths, we are consolidating the composition of numbers 4 & 5.
Our Animal Shelter role play area is set up and we are busy caring for many stray cats and dogs, of different shapes, sizes and breeds.
In story time we will be describing the appearance and characteristics of 'Scarface Claw', the cat from our text of the week, 'Hairy McClarey from Donaldson's Dairy' using adjectives and descriptive phrases.
Spring term 2024 Week 1 8th-12th January
In our first couple of weeks back we will be introducing our topic Animal Adventures, looking at the similarities and differences between different breeds of dogs and cats, through the stories Tabby McTat and Hairy McClarey.
In Letters and Sounds, we will review all set one single letter speed sounds, and learn to read and write words with 4 sounds, and we will be reviewing Set 1 'Special Friends'.The children will review letter formation.
In maths, we will learn about zero, and review the composition of 3,4 and 5, learning about the Part-Part-Whole model.
We will also talk about time; years, months and days, and measure short amounts of time.
On Thursday, we will visit the chancel, to learn about The Creation Story from The Bible.
Autumn 2 Week 6
This week we will continue to explore the forest at night, through our key text, The Owl Babies, and browsing non-fiction books about nocturnal animals. We will find out about barn owls.
We will study the famous painting 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh, and use it as a stimulus for our own version.
The children enjoyed our nativity dress rehearsal on Friday, and are looking forward to the 2 performances this week.
In Maths, we are learning about shapes with 4 sides, and consolidate the composition of 4 and 5.
Science with Mrs George is about physical activity and its effect on our bodies, and the children will learn about their heart and lungs.
Friday will be our last Forest School session, with a fire pit and toasted marshmallows!
Autumn 2 Week 5
This week we are invited to explore the forest at night, through our key text, The Owl Babies, and will be browsing non-fiction books about nocturnal animals.
In phonics we will revisit the 'Special Friends' that we have learned so far, and begin blending words with 4 sounds.
In Maths, we will think about time, sequencing events and sorting night and day, as well as continuing to compare numbers to 5, using '1 more' and '1 less' as we count forwards and backwards.
We look forward to our performance of 'Baaamy Bethlehem' next week, and will be learning the songs and dances for this nativity.
In RE we will learn why Christmas is special for Christians.
Autumn 2 Week 4
Our next topic 'Into the Woods' will begin with the traditional tale of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'
Our science lessons 'My Body' on Wednesday afternoons continue this week; so far we have learned about our bones & joints, our digestive system & handwashing/germs. This week, we will look at our teeth and how to take care of them.
In Read Write Inc lessons we will learn Set 1 diagraphs. or 'Special Friends'-sh th ch qu and ng.
In Maths, we are learning all about numbers 4 and 5.
Autumn 2 Week 3
This week we are continuing to learn about Diwali and finishing our Autumn Celebrations rainbow challenges.
In maths we are learning about circles, triangles and positional vocabulary.
Autumn 2 Week 2 13th November
Our Autumn Celebrations continue into this week, when we will celebrate Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light, and compare it to other celebrations we know.
Last week we found out about the way people in Mexico celebrate 'The Day of the Dead' to remember their loved ones. Talk to your child about why we 'Remember, remember the 5th of November' and why remember the brave soldiers on Poppy Day.
Find out more with the help of 'Little Glow'.
Autumn 2 Week 1 November 6th-10th
This week will see the start of our work on 'Autumn Celebrations', please see the Learning Prompts and Rainbow Challenges below. The children will share their experiences of Halloween and Bonfire Night.
A little candle character called 'Little Glow' will help us learn how different communities celebrate in different ways. Please see the Curriculum Overview for more information.
In our 'Read/Write Inc' lesson we will review Set 1 sounds and read & spell VC and CVC words.
In Maths we will explore how 1. 2 and 3 are represented in different ways and develop the skill of subitising - recognising an amount without counting. Follow the link for White Rose Maths below.
In science, the children will learn about their skeleton.
On Friday, we will join the whole school for a special Remembrance Day assembly.
In our Forest School session we will go on an Autumn walk to meet the trees in our school grounds.
Autumn Term 1 Week 7 Harvest
This week is all about food and where it comes from. Our key text is The Little Red Hen and the children will learn to retell the story using actions, pictures ans complete sentences, using s 'Talk 4 Writing' approach.
In our 'Read/Write Inc' lesson we will review Set 1 sounds and read & spell VC and CVC words, to label a 'story map'.
In Maths we will compare masses and use the vocabulary 'heavier than' and 'lighter than' as we role play in our 'Farm Shop'. This will also be an opportunity to use coins 1p, 2p, 5p, & 10p to pay for goods, and use the Maths vocabulary involved. Please have these coins at home to, and maybe give your child some pocket money for helping out at home, so that they can become familiar with them, as they rarely see adults exchanging coins these days!
We will use the '5 a day' phrase to encourage eating plenty of fruit and vegetables to keep ourselves healthy. If you can promote this at home it would support your child in making healthy choices.
The children will use fine motor skills to peel, grate and chop vegetables, and review using all of their senses while making bread.
We will practise the songs for the Harvest Festival service at the church on Thursday morning, and learn some poems to perform there too.
Wishing you a wonderful half term break-the children have settled in to school life so well but are ready for some time off! There will be a half term task to complete-details to follow.
Week 6 16th-20th October
We have been recreating The Train Ride, using small world resources and drawing the map of the route. Some of the vocabulary from the story to explore: 'a mare and her foal' - can you think of other male and female animal words, and their young? 'A gaggle of geese' - can you think of other collective nouns for groups of animals?
Our role-play journeys by train have brought us to the seaside! We will be sharing books with a sea setting and use these to inspire our own illustration.
Our key text for this week is 'The Sea Monster' to inspire creativity and develop vocabulary. We will use the story to inspire our 'Drawing Club' work and also introduce the 'Tales Toolkit' to the children, which is a play-based approach to creating and writing stories.
Science with Mrs George continues as the children learn about their 5 senses-this week it is taste.
In Maths we will consolidate our learning from last week, using the vocabulary of comparative measure, and begin to learn all about repeating patterns.
Our Read/Write Inc sessions continue to teach new sounds and to use 'Fred talk' to blend words orally and using magnetic letters. We will assess the children before half term to see if they can read all the sounds we have covered so far speedily, and if they can blend these to read words.
White Rose Maths Block 2 continued
Week 5 9th-13th October
This week we embark on our new set of Rainbow Challenges, based on our Home and Away Topic-Journey to the Seaside.
We enjoyed a wonderful day out on the steam and diesel trains on Thursday, and the station staff commented on how well behaved the children in Class 1 were. Your child will bring home a photographic record of the trip. Please would you scribe what they tell you about it and return to school.
In Maths this week we are talking about measures-direct comparison of size, mass and capacity-See the White Rose presentations below.
In Letters and Sounds we are continuing to learn the Set 1 sounds and how to blend them to read words.
Videos to help at home will be on SeeSaw.
This Friday we are holding an activity day, as part of Mental Health Week, when the children will be in their house teams. They will find out later this week which house they are in-either Robins (Red team), Blackbirds (Yellow team), Kingfishers (Blue team) or Woodpeckers (Green team). Younger siblings will be in the same team as their brother or sister.
Next week we will administer the Reception Baseline Assessment-see information booklet below.
The children really enjoyed Drawing Club last week, based on the animation Wakey Races.
White Rose Maths
Week 4 2nd-6th October
The children have responded so well to their first set of 'Rainbow Challenges'. They will conclude this week and the children who have completed all six will be awarded their first gold coin.
Our second 'Home & Away' set of challenges will launch this week, based on a 'Journey to the Seaside'. Our key text of the week will be 'The Train Ride' by Julie Crebbin, linked to our trip on Thursday.
In Read Write Inc sessions we will continue to learn to blend the sounds we know to read words, and some children are ready to write words as well.
The children have enjoyed responding to stories at Drawing Club. This week they will make drawings and codes based on an animation.
In Maths we are learning how to sort objects using different criteria or rules.
Reception Baseline 2023
White Rose Maths Week 4
Week 3 25th-29th September
We have introduced our 'Rainbow Challenges' to the class,(see below) and they will work towards collecting their coloured lolly sticks to create a rainbow and reach their 'Proud Cloud'. Our first 'Purple' challenge is for them to remember the morning routine with very little prompting from us; let's see how independent they can be!
Thank you for coming to the meeting about reading. Remember, in Class 1 we give out books every Tuesday, to be kept all week and returned with the completed reading record every Monday. Did you know that the more nursery rhymes that a child knows ay 5 years old, the more confident they are learning to read-see video below for singing at home together!
Our key Text this week is Not Now, Bernard by David Mackee.
We have made a start with our 'Letters and Sounds' and the children are doing so well in class and at home too, as seen in their red home learning book-thank you for your support!
If you would like to support them at home with their Maths, follow the link below to the White Rose Home Learning resources. We are starting the unit of work titled 'Just Like Me'-Week 1 which is all about matching and sorting.
We will be using the song below to help your children learn effective handwashing procedures.
Supporting your child with reading meeting presentation
Week 2 18th-22nd September
The children were fantastic in their induction week, getting to know us, each other and the school routines and expectations. We hope they enjoyed their first week and are not too tired!
Our Focus texts last week were 'The Colour Monster' and 'The Colour Monster goes to school'. These books help us to understand our feelings, including the mixed up feelings we have about staring school. We have thought about feeling happy, sad, calm, angry and frightened, and how these feelings are represented by the colours yellow, blue, green, red and black. We will extend the children's vocabulary by thinking of other words for these emotions, such as cheerful, miserable, relaxed, furious and worried. These words will be revisited through the year as we share stories and empathise with others.
We also shared the story of 'Mr Big' a jazz pianist gorilla who had no friends; he was so big that he frightened everyone away, and inside he felt very small. He was very lonely until he bought a piano and his music drifted out of his window around the town. He received an invitation from other musicians to play in a band in the jazz club, and then he wasn't alone or lonely anymore! We will be encouraging the children to play together, to be friendly, to include everyone. We will pair them up with a new friend to be 'Learning Partners'.
We have been using the social phrases of greetings and partings; saying 'Hello', Good Morning, and 'Goodbye', as well as remembering good manners by saying 'Please' and Thank you'.
This week we carry on focusing on Nursery Rhymes and our key text is 'Little Lumpty'.
This week we begin our teaching of 'Letters and Sounds' using the Read/Write Inc approach. You are all invited to learn more about this at our reading meeting on Tuesday 19th at 5.30pm.
In Maths we are singing number rhymes to help with finger counting. Number of the week is Number 1 (see Number-block video below) and shape of the week is the circle.
In science this week, we will introduce our five senses and talk about how they help us to learn. In art, we are looking at our physical features and making a self portrait painting. In PHSE we will learn the word unique and talk about individual talents and interests.
Induction Week Monday 11th-Friday 15th September
On Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday your child will be attending school for a 2 hour 15 minute induction session in a small group, either in the morning or the afternoon. They will learn about the entering school routine; what they will be expected to do independently every morning.
The children will have the opportunity to explore and play in the different areas of the classroom, indoors and outdoors; to select and use resources and to return them to the right place when they have finished with them, or at tidy up time. They will begin to get to know each other and the layout of the room, including the toilet. Please help your child to be independent with toileting and hand washing. However, there will be explicit teaching of good hygiene procedures in school.
We will observe and chat with the children to get to know them better. We will share stories, songs and rhymes and games that help us to get to know each other too.
We will meet together as a whole class on Thursday, and the children will need their PE kits.
On the afternoon of Friday 15th, we will have our introduction to Forest School session, and the children will need their Forest School bag- a big supermarket shopper is the best!