Our school topic for this term is ‘DETECTIVES’. In Class 1, we will be combining this with a variety of other topics such as in week 1, our sub theme is ‘Animal Detectives’. We will also be ‘detecting’ around different areas of the curriculum, finding out as much about the following areas as we can:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development/PSHE
During PSHE sessions, we will be focusing on five social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings, motivation, empathy and social skills. We will be aiming to help children develop skills such as understanding another’s point of view, working in a group, sticking at things when they get difficult, resolving conflict and managing worries. This term the themes are ‘Going for Goals’ and ‘Good to be Me’.
We are also encouraging the children to become as independent as possible by taking responsibility for choosing and tidying away their own activities, and by changing themselves for P.E. and outdoor play. In group activities children are taught to consider others, to work co-operatively and to solve problems.

Communication, Language and Literacy/Literacy
Our daily literacy work will be focusing on Nursery Rhymes, which will enable us to develop the children’s ability to hear and generate rhyming words, which is a vital part of learning to read. Phonics will be taught daily which will include grapheme/phoneme correspondence and blending and segmenting words. This will be taught using a variety of fun interactive games and activities.

Besides the daily literacy work, children will read either individually or in a group daily. At this stage the emphasis should be on reading to your child and discussing the story and pictures together. It is very important to foster this enjoyment of books early on, as this will be great motivation for your child to learn to read!

Mathematical Development/Numeracy
Our teaching of maths is mainly through songs, rhymes and games. The objectives for this half term will be to:

• Count reliably at least 20 objects, recognizing that when rearranged the number of objects stays the same; estimate a number of objects that can be checked by counting
• Compare and order numbers, using the related vocabulary; use the equals ( ) sign
• Read and write numerals from 0 to 20, then beyond; use knowledge of place value to position these numbers on a number track and number line
• Say the number that is 1 more or less than any given number, and 10 more or less for multiples of 10
• Use the vocabulary of halves and quarters in context

In our Science work we will be looking at forces and the way things move. We will investigate ‘Pushes and Pulls’ which will also link to PE and History.
Our Humanities work will cover the children’s toys and how they compare to toys from the past. If you have any ‘old’ toys that you wouldn’t mind them bringing in for a day it would be greatly appreciated. (or photos of old toys for example an old train set).

We will be learning songs to link in with our theme this term. If you have any family favourites we would love to include them in our repertoire! The children will also be using percussion instruments to accompany songs and rhymes. In art, we will be experimenting with different types of materials, sculptures and weaving.

The use of the outdoor space is very important in the Foundation Stage curriculum. While the weather is still changeable, we would suggest that your child brings a wet weather wear (hat, gloves, warm coat) and wellies if they haven’t already). It may also be a good idea to leave a pair of jogging bottoms in school for those very muddy days!

Dance lessons are timetabled for Monday afternoons, which will take place in the village hall or in our outdoor area. Tuesday afternoons the children will be taught ball skills by Mrs. Ingman. Wednesday the children will visit the Abbey Sports Centre at Berinsfield where Mrs. Penny Packham will teach them gym. They will have further P.E. lessons later in the week. The children will also have many opportunities to refine gross motor skills through our outdoor equipment, and to develop fine motor skills by using malleable materials, construction kits, scissors and other tools.

 

I hope you will find our termly newsletter helpful in explaining some of the work your child will be covering. If you have any ideas to contribute to our topic, we would be very keen to hear from you or if you would like to come into school, either to help or just to see what happens in our day, please do! Your children and their education are very important to us and we value your input tremendously. Finally, please do not hesitate to see me after school if you need to discuss anything concerning your child.

 

Follow this link to see some of what we have been doing this term.......