Auckland (FS2)

Mrs Dale

Class Teacher

Mrs Blair

Class Teacher

Mrs Phelps

Teaching Partner

Mrs Cary

Teaching Partner

OUR TOPIC FOR TERM 1: BEAR ADVENTURES

Self-initiated Learning

We value play very highly as a vehicle for learning and social development. A large variety of exciting resources are prepared in the classroom and outdoor area that are designed to stimulate creativity, curiosity, problem solving and imaginative play.

The children have access to areas such as role play, sand and water exploration, construction, art and technology. We encourage the children to select their own activities, ensuring that their experiences are wide-ranging and educational. The adults use questioning to develop language and vocabulary and to assess and further the children’s understanding. The children are encouraged to recognise and record their own learning.

Reading

The children read individually to a member of staff each week.   We also have a number of volunteers that kindly come into the classroom to hear readers. Your child has their own reading book, and a Link Book to record their progress, and these will go home with them each evening in a book bag. Every morning the children are able to choose a new book. The children move at their own pace through the reading levels.
Click on the PDF below, Reading at Home, to find out about the structure of our reading levels and how you can support your child with reading.

We also offer ‘Read Together’ books for your child to take home, story and non-fiction books that you can both enjoy as a bedtime story or at a time to suit you.

If you would like to hear readers in the classroom, please let us know.

Reading At Home.pdf

Literacy

This term our literacy work will focus on the topic of ‘Bear Adventures’. We will start to explore ‘have-a-go’ writing by orally segmenting words into initial and final sounds and recording any familiar sounds. The adult will then scribe the sentence or phrase so that the child can trace over the letters. The children will build on their segmenting skills throughout the year working towards writing the sounds they can identify independently. Our literacy work is strongly connected with our Phonics programme so the children will be building a bank of phonics knowledge that they can apply to their writing.

This term we will explore some classic and modern stories about bears. These will inspire our weekly writing and provide much discussion about our topic.

Our ‘Talk for Writing’ book this term is ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen.

We will explore writing by

  • developing confidence in mark making
  • writing lists
  • recounting familiar events
  • imagining our own bear adventures
  • developing alternative elements and endings for stories.

Understanding the World

This area of learning broadly covers science, geography, history and culture. As part of our topic, we will be creating ways to transport our bears across land and sea and finding out about some of the countries that the bears could visit. We will explore how toy vehicles move across different surfaces and creating boats to test on water. The children will be developing their skills by:

  • carrying out their own practical investigations
  • making verbal predictions
  • explaining what they have noticed
  • discovering facts about other countries
  • exploring changes through history.

Physical Education

Each week the children take part in two PE sessions. This term there will be outdoor multi-skills and indoor gymnastics. The children will be introduced to a range of apparatus and equipment and taught how to be safe when taking part in sporting activities. Through PE lessons the children will be:

  • developing control and balance when travelling along apparatus
  • practising different jumps and landings
  • increasing awareness of direction and speed
  • improving catching and throwing skills
  • developing accuracy when aiming at a target
  • taking turns and sharing.

PSED and Spirituality

This term we will be getting to know each other and learning about our class routines. In Term 1 it is important to develop relationships within the school and create cohesion through taking part in team building activities and circle time.  

Story times are planned to include a variety of social stories to provide the opportunity for discussion and personal development. Also Philosophy for Children (P4C) is delivered throughout the curriculum to enable children to develop deeper thinking skills. Each week the children will come home with a 'sticky question' to share with their family.

Through our daily experiences and worship at school the children will be introduced to spirituality and understanding what it means to them.

The children will develop their personal, social and emotional skills by:

  • listening to what others say
  • asking appropriate questions of others
  • speaking confidently to others about their own interests
  • becoming aware of the boundaries set, and of the behavioural expectations in the school and classroom setting.

Phonics

Phonics is taught four times a week. The sessions last around 20 minutes. This term we will begin Phase 2 of the Letters and Sounds programme. We will be learning the sound and shape of individual letters in an order which encourages quick succession to blending. We will be exploring the early stages of segmenting for writing and blending for reading.

In week 2, the first set of sounds we will teach is s, a, t and p. Just with these few sounds the children can begin to make and read words, e.g. sat, pat, tap and as. When we teach a new letter sound we also teach a short jingle to aid the children’s memory of the letter formation and sound. For example, the sound ‘a’ has an accompanying jingle ‘around the apple and down the leaf’. A copy of the jingles and their illustrations can be found in your child’s Link Book.

Each phonics lesson is broken down into four sections: revising previously taught sounds, teaching a new sound, practising writing and reading the sound, and applying the sound to read and write words. This structure provides an organised routine that the children quickly get used to and enjoy.

Phonics Play

Maths

Maths is taught four days a week. Every week we will have a different maths focus, all of which builds on problem solving, reasoning, shape, space and measure and key number skills, using a wide variety of physical resources. Whilst the children are learning independently through play, there are other opportunities outside of mathematics lessons where they can develop their skills and understanding. This term, during our maths sessions, we will focus on

  • careful counting
  • number recognition
  • sequencing and repeating patterns
  • position and size
  • 2D and 3D shape.

We will also introduce Number Sense, a programme of short sessions that teaches a deep understanding of quantity and the composition of numbers to 10, through animations and discussion.

Topmarks

Computing

There are a variety of digital devices available in school and the children use these during their self-initiated learning and through maths and literacy activities.  The laptops are accessible at all times and we will also continue to explore the iPads and the BeeBot floor robots.

This term the children will be developing their technology skills by:

  • using a mouse to draw, drag and drop
  • inputting commands into a floor robot
  • creating scenes with 2Simple software by selecting objects and activities
  • exploring simple iPad apps
  • using software to draw and write
  • operating a cd player.

Music

Music is a fundamental tool in developing language, maths and social skills. Throughout the week we will sing songs and use simple percussion to enhance the children’s confidence and motor skills. They will become familiar with a number of topic related songs and rhymes in the classroom as well as taking part in whole school singing every day. Each week we also have a short ‘Move it Moments’ session, dancing to different music styles.

The children will be learning to

  • explore body percussion combinations
  • compose a simple rhythm pattern
  • recognise the different sounds that instruments can produce
  • combine percussion sounds to create layers of sound.

Art and Design

This term we will be exploring colour.  The children will discover what happens when they mix colours together using paints and they will learn the names of primary and secondary colours.  We will be using a variety of exciting media and materials to develop our understanding of colour. The children will also be designing and making their own model vehicle. The children will be developing their artistic skills by:

  • exploring primary colours and how these colours can be changed
  • investigating what happens when they mix colours
  • understanding that different media can be combined to create new effects
  • choosing particular colours to use for a purpose.