Phonics
We have been learning many more single letter sounds, with most of us moving into phase 3. We are all doing an amazing job of applying the skill of blending to read words in our guided reading sessions.
Literacy
We have been focusing on The Gingerbread man as our core book this half term. We have been using Talk for Writing to learn the story, some of us are so good we could be Miss Harrison! We have been doing lots of writing, using our growing phonic knowledge linked to the book and independently in provision.
We have looked at linked text to The Gingerbread man including the rhyme Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake bakers man. This has helped us become increasingly aware of capital letters and the letter names.
The story biscuit bear gave us lots of opportunities to predict what will happen next and think about characters feelings.
We have finished our unit reading a recipe to help us make gingerbread.
Maths
Number
We have been focusing on the composition of numbers 8 and 9 and ordering and comparing numbers up to 9. We have also had extra visits from Concept Cat to help us understand key mathematical terms that we have found tricky – fewer and less.
Miss Wilson’s group have been securing numbers to 5.
Shape, space and measure
In Shape, Space and Measure, we have focusing on the seasons and time. Understanding the routine of our days and being able to independently talking about it. Using the language that comes with this ‘morning’, afternoon’, ‘evening’, ‘breakfast’, ‘lunch’, ‘dinner’ and ‘tea’.
Fine and Gross motor
In our Provision, we have a fine-motor skills area where children have the ability to strengthen their fine-motor skills through tweezers, scissors etc., this is time will lead to better pencil control, zipping up coats and general control of smaller objects.
As for our Gross-Motor, we practice and refine our skills through Fundamental Movement Skills. We have been focusing this half-term on throwing and catching, jumping, running, kicking and also using the gymnastics equipment for balance and our jumping technique.
People and communities
In our Jigsaw lessons, we have been focusing on Dreams and Goals and knowing that at this time of year we set ourselves a goal for the coming year. We have also been looking at jobs and how our school life builds us up to live a happy, independent life and gives the skillset to complete a job in later life.
In RE, our focus has been celebrations – we have looked in-depth at different new years across the world. First of all focusing on our (British) New Year and what celebration we may have taken part in then, then the Chinese New Year (2nd February) and the story of the Great Race of how the Chinese Zodiac came to be and finally, looking at the Zoroastrian Persian New Year and the story of Jamsheed. We then discussed their similarities and differences.
In our Cultural Lessons, we learnt about Pongal (a traditional rice festival in Hinduism), Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. We have the discovered the origins of these festivals and what other cultures do to celebrate them along try food, creating cards
Sense of place
We have had a big focus on maps this half term, which the children have loved. We went on a wellie walk following a picture map created by the other group. We have created story maps to help our story telling and looked at a map of The Gingerbread man’s land, naming features and directing him to a safe place. We have made our own pirate treasure maps linking our learning to our own interests in provision.
Past and Present
We have focused on different shoes through time which is linked to our story of Elves and the Shoemakers. We also looked at other read stories which are set in the past like Cinderella and other traditional tales.
Natural World
We have been lucky to spend lots of time in Forest School and taking part in outdoor learning this half term. We had treasure hunts looking at natural treasures to develop our understanding and vocabulary of what is in our forest area, as well building on children’s own interest in pirates and treasure hunting and collecting. We had wellie walks looking at the effect of the seasons and weather on our environment. We have looked closely at the trees in the forest making a large tree by foraging for items. We also created amazing observational drawings using charcoal. These activities helped us learn the names of parts of the tree and things that grow on them – branch, trunk, root, moss. On windy days it is not safe to go in the forest but it didn’t stop us learning – we made kites and experienced the power of the wind.
Indoors we have made predictions and explored what happened to the Gingerbread man in different puddles.
Expressive Arts
We have been thinking carefully we our creations trying to plan-do and review. We have used transient art to create Gingerbread men. Created salt dough Gingerbread men and bridges, floats and houses to keep the Gingerbread man safe.
We have been learning about different forms of dance. This half term we watched clips of The Ugly Ducking by the Northern Ballet, we have discussed what we liked / disliked. We have learnt some ballet moves and a simple dance. We then created our own ballet dances. Just like in our art move we are encouraging children to perform to each other and review our dance moves and make changes.
Music
