Happy New Year to all of our Lion Cub families   

We hope you all had a restful break and are raring to go in this new year. 

 

Below is an overview of what we will be doing for the next half term:

 Topic/English 

This term we will be looking at the topic 'Wonderful Water'. Using the books, 'The storm whale in winter' and 'Hello Penguin', the children will learn about habitats, animals, jobs and the seasons.

           

                                           

Writing  

The children are keen writers. At every opportunity, we encourage them to write in the form of labels, captions, speech bubbles and short sentences, including capital letters and full stops.                        

 Read Write Inc  R.W.I

Using our programme RWI, daily activities will teach the children to 'Fred talk' read the word, learn 'special friends', read 'red words' (tricky words that cannot be sounded out) and spell the words they are reading. In addition, the children are learning to read and write short captions and sentences. Putting into practice the above, please continue to watch the R.W.I videos each week (set on Google Classroom). This will consolidate and practise the children's learning. 

                                        

Reading

Please continue to read the material the children take home on a weekly basis. Plus, don't forget to do the RWI activities sent weekly on google classroom too. 'Little as often' is the key. It is important that children practise their reading/sounds, and continue to share books with an adult and listen to an adult read to them. This not only strengthens their vocabulary but also develops their inference and prediction skills—all of which play a key role in fostering a lifelong love of reading.

 Speaking and Listening 

We will be focusing on using new vocabulary in different contexts, e.g. through story telling, explanations etc. Also, the children will be developing their understanding skills by answering and asking 'who, what, where, when and why?' questions. Also, this term we will be encouraging the children to use talk to work out their problems, organise their thinking and explain how things work/why things work. 

                                                                                           

Maths

This term, our focus will be the composition of 6,7,8,9 and 10 and revising number bonds to 5.

We will use a number of images and models, e.g. 'part-whole model' and 'tens frame', to support the above concepts and skills. From this, they will move onto simple addition and subtraction, and begin to share, double and half up to 10 objects. 

For mental starters, the children will recite numbers from 0-20 and back from 15, find one less and one more between the numbers 0-10 and consolidate subitising 5 objects with quick recall. 

In addition, the children will be learning about 'measures'. This includes, mass, capacity, length, height and time.

                                            

Homework

Each week, the children will be given short activities to complete at home. This will include a ‘Talking Homework’ task, a maths, English, or topic activity and phonics videos for you to watch together.

All homework is designed to either consolidate the learning taught that week or provide pre-topic research to prepare your child for upcoming lessons.

Homework will be posted every Friday on Google Classroom, and completed tasks can be uploaded to your child’s account for the Lion Cub team to see.

Physical Development

  P.E. will continue to be on Monday afternoons. This term's focus will be dance and apparatus. The children will develop their skills of balance, control and stillness. In addition, they will learn to combine sequences of movements, to make their own routine. 

                                                                                                     Understanding of the World

As part of our topic, we will be looking the season 'Winter', winter animals and their habitats and jobs associated with the sea. Also, in February, it will be Chinese New Year (17th Feb). The children will be learning about this festival, it's customs, making artefacts to celebrate and dressing up. This year, it is the year of the horse.     

                                 

 RE, SMSC & PSHE                                                                                                                                                                              Through stories, artefacts and 'Rev Fisher and Puddles the cat', the children will learn about the miracles of Jesus,  values including caring for one another, friendships, love, caring for animals and the environment and respect for all.  In P.S.H.E, we will be looking at being grateful and how we can show someone this through our actions and words.         

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Expressive Arts and Design

 Through the topic 'Wonderful Water', the children will be drawing, sketching, making and colour mixing. We also like to act out stories through drama and using puppets.                             

                                        

 The Curriculum

For more information about what we have planned for this academic year, please visit the Curriculum section on the school’s webpage, click on Reception, and have a look at our exciting and busy curriculum.

In Reception, we also value and follow the children’s own ideas and interests. This means that sometimes activities may not appear on our topic web, but grow from the children’s curiosity and enthusiasm. For example, we might explore themes such as sharks, Bluey, or Minecraft if these capture their interest.

   

                               

Tapestry 

We look forward to sharing our observations with you on our electronic learning journal, Tapestry. This will give you a window into the wonderful learning and progress your child is making in school.

Equally, we encourage you to upload your own special moments from home—such as a family day out, a celebration, or a “wow” achievement. We love seeing what the children have been doing outside school, and they really enjoy sharing their photos and videos with us and talking about their experiences.

                                                                      

Water Bottles

Please ensure that they take it home every day to be cleaned and refilled. 

                                                                           

We have an open-door policy, so if you have any questions or queries at the end of the day, please feel free to ask. You can also contact us via email at lioncubs@parkgate.cheshire.sch.uk.

No question is too small—please never feel uncomfortable approaching us.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs Foster, Mrs Barralet & Miss Whiteway xxx