Lion Cubs 

                                            Term

Welcome back to a new year and a new term. 

                    We hope you are all raring to go! 

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

 English 

                                                               

 This half-term our topic will be 'Wonderful Water!' using the topic books of 'The Storm Whale in Winter’ by Benji Davies and 'Hello Penguin' by Katherine Williams. Here we look at the habitats of these arctic creatures and learn about their species. 

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 term, the children will be learning how to count to 20; learn to start and finish when counting back and forwards from any number; count arrangements accurately to 10; compare quanties up to 10 and to know the number bonds to 5 and explore the composition of numbers up to 10.

In addition, the children will begin to compose and decompose shapes with practical actives (see below) and rotate and manipulate shapes in order to develop spatial reasoning skills. 

                                              

 Physical Development

P.E. will continue on Tuesday mornings, with Mr. Hall.  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

As part of our topic, we will be looking at the habitats of 'arctic' creatures and similar and different features they have. The children will be learning about water, 'how does it freeze and why does it melt?', the season of winter and how we prepare for it, clothes we wear, activities etc. Also, we will be looking at occupations to do with water, fishermen, boats etc, and  looking at old photographs from the past and identifying why we know it's the past. 

                                                                  

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  why Jesus is special and what he teach us. In addition, we will be looking at festivals and special places from other beliefs. We will be celebrating Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is on Wednesday 29th January, and it is the year of the snake. 

                                          

Expressive Arts and Design

Through the topic ‘Wonderful Water!’, 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 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