This term  the children will be learning about ‘Space’.  Throughout the theme of Space, the children will be exploring and learning about the planet that they live on and the other planets that make up the solar system. They will also be learning about important people in the space community and their discoveries and journeys. 

In Literacy this term the children will be focusing on the core text, 'Whatever Next?'. The children will be learning to identify the characters and use different voices to represent the characters.  They will also start to use character props, story maps, repeated phrases and key parts of the story to help them retell the story. The children will also be learning new vocabulary and the definitions for these words to enhance their language development. 

The children will be learning 2 core rhymes during Literacy and Whole Class Reading times. These rhymes are closely linked to our theme ‘Space’ - ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’ and ‘Fine Little Men in a Flying Saucer’.  Copies of these rhymes are available to download by clicking on the rhyme buttons on this page. t

In our Phonics sessions the children will be continuing to learn sounds in the initial code. This term they will be focusing on:

• Unit 7 – x,y,ss,ll,ff,zz

• How to segment and blend VCC and CVCC words using the sounds that they have been taught.

Throughout the sessions, the children will be learning to identify and recognise sounds and learn how to form the corresponding letters correctly. 

In Maths, the children will be continuing to develop their subitising, comparison and compositions skills to continue to develop their mathematical thinking. First of all, the children will be deepening their understanding of subitising and recognising amounts without counting, using die arrangements. They will learn about counting and deepening their understanding of numbers to 5, through a focus on staircase patterns t. Next, the children will learn about composing numbers 5, 6, and 7, representing these as 5 and a bit. The children will then move on to comparing amounts using key mathematical language of ‘more’ and ‘fewer’. Finally, the children will revisit counting and stopping at different numbers, learning that the position of the numbers do not change. 

In our numerical patterns sessions, the children will be learning about length, height and time and comparing objects in these categories. They will then move on to learn about mass and capacity of different objects and use key vocabulary to describe these. 

In Understanding of the World, the children will learn about our sun and how it warms our planet, how gravity keeps us from falling off the ground and about people who study the stars including Galileo and Caroline Herschel. They will also learn about astronauts including Mae Jaimeson, the International Space Station and the planets in our solar system. The children will look at stars and constellations, the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and the Mars 2020 mission that put a rover on the red planet.

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

In RE, our question for this term is ‘Which stories are special to different people?’.  Throughout this unit the children find out a little more about religious worldviews by exploring books and stories that are important to Christians and Muslims. They will be introduced to the Bible and the Qur’an, think about why these books are important and how they are treated by Christians and Muslims. We will use questions drawn from Theology to find out more about Christian and Muslim stories. The children will also think about the books and stories that are important to them, and why these are important.

In Art this term our final pieces will be inspired by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. As the children build up to their final pieces, we will be exploring the work of Jackson Pollock. We will be exploring different types of lines including straight, vertical, horizontal, long and short. The children will also explore using different resources to create the splatter effect.

In Design Technology the children will be exploring and developing their cutting skills to make and create their own  dragon puppets inspired by dragons used in Chinese New Year celebrations. The children will learn and explore what happens during Chinese New Year and why this celebration is special. The children will then design their dragons and then use different creative materials to create their dragons including dowel and split pins

Home Learning: 

Each Thursday, the children will be visiting the library. The children will be choosing a new library book to borrow for a week. You will find ideas on how to support your child’s storytelling and comprehension skills in your child’s reading packets. 

To help support the children’s maths learning at home, you can borrow a maths challenge bag from us and complete a challenge. There are lots of different bags with activities to supporting counting, sorting, matching and making. The maths bags will be given out each Monday and returned the following Monday. 

Your child has a homework book, which includes a range of challenges linked to our class learning. You can complete these challenges in any order you wish and can add photos and comments in to here. 

Please upload any photos and comments from learning at home into your child’s Tapestry learning journal.