This term the children will be exploring the theme “Stories From The Past”. 

In Literacy, the children will explore two fairy tales in depth, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Gingerbread Man”. They will discover that there are many different versions of these stories, each with similarities and differences. The children will be identifying, describing and comparing the characters and settings in different versions.  They will use character props and story maps to develop their retelling skills further. The children will use their huge knowledge of sounds and how to construct sentences as they increase their writing stamina. To support this they will become authors, creating their own versions of these stories, sequencing the beginning, middle and end as a guide to help them with their story writing.

We will continue to use rhymes to develop children's love of language and song.  This term's rhymes can be downloaded from this page.

In our daily Sounds Write phonics' sessions we will use our knowledge of taught sounds to develop and expand our ever growing reading and writing skills. Each session will focus on “saying the sounds” (segmenting) and “reading the word” or “writing the word” (blending). This term we will focus on units 7 to 10 of the Initial Code, building on the sounds we have learnt throughout the year, but using them to build up VCC, CVCC, CCVC, CVCCC and CCVCC words. 

In Maths we will be exploring numbers beyond 10. The children will become more familiar with numbers beyond 10 and the pattern (stable order) of numbers to 20 and beyond. The children will learn to recognise that the numbers 1 to 3 repeat after every full ten. We will consolidate their understanding of the number sequence by counting on and back from different starting points, saying what comes before or after a given number and to place numbers in order. The children will develop their recognition and understanding of the numbers beyond 20 through the use of 100 squares and number track games.

We will then explore the change structure of addition (augmentation) by adding more and subtraction (reduction) by taking away. The children will use real objects to see that the quantity of a group can be changed by adding more or taking away more than one object. We will use the vocabulary of ‘first, then, now’ to help the children create mathematical stories in meaningful contexts. 

Finally, we will build on previous learning about 3D shapes to further explore the properties of shapes and spatial relations. The children will explore the attributes of shapes and select shapes for a particular purpose. They will be encouraged to explain why they chose a particular shape and why other shapes would not be suitable.

We have added further home learning maths bags that support these maths concepts to our collection. If you would like to borrow one of these, please let us know and we will book it out for you. Please upload any photographs of you and your child completing these onto their Tapestry account.

In Understanding the World, the children will explore some fascinating story types including fairy tales, legends, Ancient Greek myths, fables and folk tales. All of these will help them begin to understand the variety and diversity of the world within the wonderful world of storytelling. 

Throughout this unit children will begin to understand that stories have been told for many, many years. They will encounter classic story characters, will find out about their adventures and escapades and will develop new vocabulary as they enjoy the stories they hear. 

The children will begin to appreciate that some stories teach us things; when hearing some of Aesop’s fables they will see that the fables have a lesson for us. They will begin to understand that some stories were told long ago to explain things, such as the Ancient Greek myth of Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods to give to people. 

Alongside the stories with their twisting plots and intriguing adventures, we are also teaching children about the world. The children will learn that stories have been told in many places around the world; they will learn about St George and where it is believed he came from, Ancient Greece, Aesop and what historians believe about his identity and the Anansi stories which are Ashanti folk tales from West Africa that were taken to other places including the Caribbean. 

You will see on the Knowledge Organiser some of the key facts and vocabulary that the children will be learning.

In Art, we will be studying the work of Degas and Miro who explored the representation of the human form through sketching, drawing and sculpture. The children will learn how to use charcoal and sketching pencils to create the sketch of themselves in a ballet pose, before using oil pastels and chalks to complete their drawing.  They will then move on to learn how to use clay and clay tools to sculpt a 3D abstract figure.

In Design Technology the children will use their rich knowledge of stories to explore puppets and puppet theatres.  The children will learn about the role of a theatre design and deconstruct puppet theatres to learn about the key elements of these – a stage, a backdrop (or scenery), characters and props.  They will use their knowledge of one of our two class traditional tales to construct their own theatre which they will use to narrate their own version of their chosen story.

In RE the children will explore the big question “If the world is special, how should we treat it?” We will start our learning by looking at how we care for our class and school environment as well as exploring amazing examples of the natural environment across the world.  We will be supported on our journey by our RE friend Theo who loves to discover knowledge through books.  This term we will be learning about two very special books, the Bible and the Qu’ran and discover the Christian and Muslim creation stories.

Our Summer Term homework challenges are included on the right hand side of this page and you will also find a copy of these in your child’s homework book.