Literacy

This half term we have been diving right into learning new sounds and tricky words in our phase 3 phonics journey. The focus has been on confidently writing short sentences using our known phonics sounds independently.Including capital letters, finger spaces and punctuation.
Our English lesson’s focus is on ‘Errol’s Garden’, where we’ll engage in lively discussions to deepen our understanding of the story’s key events. Children will be encouraged to retell the tale in their own words, using important vocabulary to express themselves effectively. It’s going to be an exciting half-term full of learning and creativity!

Maths

In Maths, we have been using manipulatives such as cubes, counters, dice, numbers, cards, simple objects, and base 10 to explore numbers from 1-20 in depth. Every session incorporates different counting and number songs to encourage fluency in counting, we can count all the way up to 30 and back down to 0 again. We have been working hard to recognize numbers, count using objects and our fingers, chunk and split numbers through the use of part-part whole models, and learn to subitise using dice arrangements and dot cards. We have also explored our new topics of doubling and halving, shape and measure.

In provision, we are set daily challenges that encourage us to apply the skills that are linked to our maths lessons. These help us to further our knowledge and independently solve problems.

Understanding of the world/ Expressive art and design

(R.E, Geography, History, Science, Art, DT)

This half term in Gruffalos we have tried to adopt a holistic approach to learning. We have used the book that we have been learning about in English to prompt our learning. The book we explored was  ‘Errol’s Garden’. We developed our social skills through turn-taking and sharing our equipment and space with others. We have grown lots of plants over the last few weeks in class and in outdoor learning, We have learned how to look after them to ensure that they grow healthily.

We explored different fruits, veg by planning, preparing and creating our own fruit salad. We researched fruits, before creating a shopping list, taking a trip to the greengrocers and cutting and tasting our own fruit salad. At the end we evaluated the fruits we tasted and discussed what we might do next time to make it even more delicious.

We have really enjoyed learning new songs in music with Mrs. Lingard and the year 1 class and have even had a go at creating our own sounds on our outdoor performance stage.

In our afternoon topic sessions we have been learning about the history of toys and exploring new and old toys, what they are made from, and how they are different to the toys that we play with today.

Physical Development

This half term our children have been participating in daily gross motor sessions, each session has been adapted and built upon to fit the children’s progression level of independence. In our outdoor area children have been using tires, crates and planks to mirror and create their own obstacle courses this has helped engage the pupils and promote independence as well as fine and gross motor skills.

In our weekly PE sessions we are getting super quick at getting ourselves ready independently and have even began playing competitive team games which we have really enjoyed! On Thursdays we have our outdoor education sessions which gives us plenty of opportunity to climb, swing, risk take and explore.

Personal Social and Emotional Development

Our daily emotional literacy sessions have been really helpful in allowing us to explore our feelings and emotions and identify which feeling is which. Expressing our thoughts and feelings through the storys that we hear has promoted our own self-awareness and recognition of feelings and most importantly knowing how to manage them. As part of PHSCE we have been learning about what keeps us health and how to manage our own health and hygiene, we are becoming more and more independent and we can now get changed independently for PE!

In Gruffalo’s we often experience problems and have been working on our ability stay calm when we feel angry or to reassure ourselves and others when in doubt. Our calm area allows us to regulate our own feelings it is a safe space for us to enter when we feel overwhelmed. We have incorporated a catastrophe scale to help us visualise how big our problems our and come up with our own solutions.

In group sessions we are encouraged to share all our resources and reminded of the feeling that sharing and caring gives us. we talk about the sensitivity around the feelings of others and talk through our issues collectively as a class to see if we can solve them.