Lion Cubs 

Autumn Term

Welcome to our new Lion Cubs and their families

 A big welcome to all the new Lion Cubs and their families! We do understand if your little one and yourselves are feeling a little apprehensive about their 'first day' at school. Please let us reassure you that we will all do our very best to make this transition as smooth as possible. 

 

Our goals are to ensure the children are settled and happy, make learning fun and, most importantly, get to know them and their families. With your help, we are positive that the beginning of their primary school journey will be a very happy and memorable one. 

 

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

 

Topic/English 

                                                                 

 This half-term our topic will be 'Fabulous Me!' using the topic books of 'The Friendship bench’ by Wendy Meddour; and 'Amazing' by Steve Antony. Here we will get to know the children, their likes and dislikes, their families and what can they do?

 

Writing  

Children will be exploring ‘mark making’, letter writing and experimenting with new phonic sounds, patterns and drawing.  This will help to foster their love for writing, their imagination and most of all, their confidence! In addition, we will be focusing on writing their names with correct letter formation.                   

                                                                               

Read Write Inc (RWI)

Using our programme RWI, short daily activities will teach the children to recognise the sounds letters make, blend them together to make the word (Fred Talk) and in addition, they will learn how to form individual letters using a bespoke rhyme.  

Reading

For the first half-term, your child will be taking home stories with pictures in. This is to encourage them to use their imagination and tell the story in their own words. It is important that your child speaks in full sentences. Adults should always model the correct sentence back to them. For example, your child may say... "teddy brown", you will then model back to them, "Yes, the teddy is brown."

To develop their vocabulary, you could ask them to say ‘where is the teddy?...what is teddy doing? How is he feeling and why?’ etc. Asking your child about the pictures is equally important as them telling you the story.

                                                              

Speaking and Listening 

This will be a strong focus this term, with emphasis on building the children's confidence to speak and join in discussions. Also, following on from the reading skills, we will be working on your child’s  understanding. For example," Why is teddy smiling?" How do we know that Teddy is happy?" Your child should be able to formulate their answers from what they see, hear or predict. As adults, we are there to encourage and develop the above skills and be good 'role models' for ‘listening and speaking’ skills.

 

Maths

As part of our number learning, the children will learn to count forwards and back to 10, and learn the value of each number. For example, what is 3? It could be 3 sounds, 3 movable objects, 3 objects that they cannot move, a group of 2 and a group of 1, etc.  Also, we will practise counting objects and matching numerals and quantities correctly.  

Also, relating  to our topic 'Fabulous me', we will be using the vocabulary of long, longer, short, shorter, ordering children by height. In addition, we will be looking at 2D shapes and their properties.  

                                                            

 Physical Development

Children will begin developing both their gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor will involve big movement, skipping, hopping and balancing skills. They will also work on developing independent skills. For example, getting dressed, cutting up their own food in the dining hall, putting on their shoes and fastening their coats, going to the toilet and washing their hands etc. With fine motor skills, they will be practising threading, 'dough-disco', beads, drawing, painting and  mark making/writing. 

This term, P.E. will be on Tuesday mornings. As part of their physical development, getting dressed and undressed will be part of the P.E lesson too.  

                                                             

Understanding of the World

As part of our topic, we will be looking at all kinds of families. Who/what are they and where do we find them?  E.g blood families, school family, community families etc .

                                                                                           

RE, SMSC & PSHE

Through stories and artefacts, the children will learn about Puddles the cat and her adventures with Reverend Fisher; Bible stories and tales of families and about caring for one another.                                                                                                                                                 

Expressive Arts and Design

Through the topic ‘Fabulous me!’, the children will be drawing, painting, sketching and making. We also like to act out stories through drama and using puppets. 

                                                                               

In Reception, sometimes the ideas and initiatives come from the children themselves. Therefore, there maybe activities we do that are not on our topic web, but have come and grown from the children’s own interests, for example 'sharks, Super Mario, the vets etc'.   

                         

The Curriculum

For more information about what we have planned for this academic year, please go to the curriculum section on the school's webpage, click on 'Reception' and have a read about our amazing and busy curriculum.

Tapestry 

We look forward to putting our observations onto our electronic learning journal 'Tapestry' which will show you the wonderful learning that is taking place with your child in school. Equally, you can load onto 'Tapestry' the special moments your child does at home, e.g. a day out, a special time, a 'wow' moment etc. We love to know what they have been doing, and the children love sharing and talking about their photos/videos of what they have achieved.

                                                                             

Water Bottles

Please ensure that they take it home every day to be cleaned and refilled. Don't worry if they lose it them. Any named water bottle can be used.

                                                                           

We have an open-door policy where, at the end of the day, if you have a query, please ask away or email at lioncubs@parkgate.cheshire.sch.uk

No question is daft, so please never feel uncomfortable approaching us. 

Thank you for your continued support, 

Mrs Foster, Mrs Barralet & Miss Whiteway xxx