Lion Cubs 

                                            Term

Welcome back to Spring term 2. 

   We hope you had a lovely break.

        Let's hope the weather will be kinder to us for this                                                half term 

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

 English 

                                                               

 This half-term our topic will be 'Awesome Animals!' using the topic books of 'The Elephant's Umbrella’ by Laleh Jaffari and 'Chimpanzee' by Ben Hubbard. Here we look at the safari and jungle habitats and learn about these  specific primates. 

Writing  

Children will continue to explore writing. It is important that they use a 'good' pencil grip and form their letters correctly. The children will be using their phonics knowledge to write words, labels, captions and sentences. We will be using capital letters, spacing and full stops.          

Read Write Inc (RWI)

Daily RWI activities will teach and consolidate new sounds, blending, practise writing each sound, read sounds speedily, read green words speedily, read words with new sounds, practise blending with nonsense words (alien words), write spellings, read short sentences and write short captions. Below are set 1 and set 2 sounds and the correct rhyme for each letter formation.

                                

     

Reading

Children are now taking home RWI blending books or levelled reading books. In addition, we would like them to continue to read with an adult the library book they also take home. The children can re-tell the story after it has been read to them, let them make up their own version of the story using the illustrations, practise inference skills, e.g. how do we know the character is feeling angry, annoyed etc, blend any words that they are able to read and look for 'red words' (words that cannot be blended, e.g. I, he, she, me, was, you, no, you)

 

 Speaking and Listening 

This term, there will be a strong emphasis on children initiating conversations, discussion tec, with their peers and adults AND having that 'to and fro' conversation. We will be encouraging children to use their own experience and new learning and link their understanding of other subjects and themes. The children will be supported on using connectives, e.g 'because, but, also', and answering and asking questions to develop an understanding of 'who? what? where? when? and why? 

Maths

This half-term, our focus will be the composition of 6,7,8,9 and 10 and revising the number of bonds to 5. In addition, they will be consolidating using the STEM sentences of' 9 is made of 4 and 5 ', 9 is one more than 8' 8 is 1 less than  9' etc.  
We will use a number of 'images and models' e.g. 'part-whole model' and tens frames, 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. 
In addition, the children will continue to look at comparing and ordering measures, e.g. capacity, weight, length etc. Plus, measure short periods of time and be familiar with a clock face and hands. 
For mental starters, the children will recite numbers from 0-20 and back from 15, finding one less and one more between the numbers 0-10 and consolidate subitising 5 objects with quick recall. 

                                                                                          

                                                  

 Physical Development

P.E. lessons have paused on a Tuesday for the time being. However, 'Rugby Tots' will continue on Friday afternoons.   We will still be encouraging children to practise their gross and fine  motor skills during continuous provision, e,g, pencil grip, cutting up food, taking on and putting on a jumper, putting on socks etc. It is important to work on their hand muscles in order to strengthen their pencil grip and to exert good pressure when writing.  

                                                             

Understanding of the World

Now we are heading towards the season of Spring, the children will be learning 'what does springtime look like' in the natural world. This also includes developing an understanding of light (including colour and shadow) and heat. Linking in with our 'Awesome Animals' theme, the children will be exploring hot countries and contrasting them to the cold countries. In addition, they will be exploring natural materials and the properties of them, e.g. wood is hard and waterproof. 

                                                                  

RE, SMSC & PSHE

Through stories, artefacts and Puddles the cat, the children will be able to talk about the members of their immediate family and people who are familiar to them in the local community. The children will explore the Muslim festival of Ramadan and celebrate 'Mothering Sunday' and the Christian festival of Easter.                

                                  

Expressive Arts and Design

Through the topic 'Awesome animals', the children will be designing and making, creating with different mediums (water colours, paint, clay etc). Also, the children will be taught how to return to and build on their previous learning, refining their ideas and be able to talk and comment on their peer's ideas too. 

                            

In Reception, sometimes the ideas and initiatives come from the children themselves. Therefore, there may be activities we do that are not on our topic web, but have come and grown from 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 has 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. 

                                                                           

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