Literacy

This half term, our theme has been ‘This is Me’, where the children have been exploring emotions and learning strategies to help them understand and manage how they feel. Through the books The Gruffalo, The Colour Monster and The Invisible String, the children have explored different characters and settings, while making connections to their own feelings and experiences. These stories have created lots of discussions about emotions, while also helping us to understand how our friends might be feeling and how we can support one another.

Phonics

In phonics, we have continued to develop our letter recognition, blending, segmenting, and letter formation skills. It’s been fantastic to see the children showing such enthusiasm and determination in their phonics. To support their learning, we’ve enjoyed a variety of fun phonics games including Silly Soup, Saluting Soldiers, and Red Word Bingo, which have helped reinforce our key skills in a playful and engaging way.

Maths

This half term, our focus in Maths has been on number and place value. The children have been using a range of concrete resources such as ten frames, cubes and counters to help them build a strong understanding of numbers and how they are composed. Using these resources have helped the children in developing key skills such as counting, recognising numerals, comparing quantities and understanding the value of each number.

Science

In Science we have been learning about humans and animals. The children have explored the different body parts that humans and animals have, identifying and naming them confidently. We have also discussed the similarities and differences between humans and other animals, looking closely at how different creatures move, eat and use their senses.

As part of our learning, we looked at healthy diets and what both humans and animals need to eat to stay strong and healthy. The children enjoyed sorting different types of food and thinking about which animals might eat them, as well as learning what makes a balanced diet for people.

PSHCE

Our focus in PSHCE this half term has been ‘All About Me’. The children have explored what makes us the same and different, celebrating the unique qualities that make each of us special. We have talked about the importance of friendships and family, and how spending time with the people we care about can make us feel happy, safe and valued.

DT

In DT this half term, the children have been exploring mechanisms through our exciting project, Moving Monsters. We began by learning about linkages and how simple mechanisms can be used to create movement in a model. The children explored how linkages work and experimented with different ways to make parts move.

To help us create our own monsters, we researched monster characters we may know and set up a monster making station in provision. They then created their monsters using a range of materials, adding moving parts such as flapping wings or opening mouths.