This term in Chestnut class, the children will be exploring their new learning environments, friends and adults.  To help support the children’s Personal, Social and Emotional development we will be exploring the story 'The Colour Monster'. This book helps the children to understand different emotions, why they might be feeling a particular emotion and help them to think about how to regulate their own emotions.

In our Literacy this term the children will be exploring our core text, 'Owl Babies'. Throughout this text, the children will be focusing on character descriptions, retelling and sequencing the story using props, and identifying problems in the story and possible solutions. The children will be learning to identify the characters and use different voices to represent the characters.  They will also start to use story maps and repeated phrases to help them retell the story. The children will be learning new vocabulary and the definitions of these words to extend their language development. 

Throughout the Autumn term, we will be learning 2 core rhymes. These rhymes are closely linked to our theme ‘All About Me’. We will be learning ‘1, 2 Buckle My Shoe’ and ‘Miss Polly had a Dolly' and singing these during our literacy sessions and whole class reading times. Copies of both rhymes are available on to download by clicking on the links on the right hand side of this page.

In our Phonics sessions we will be revisiting our sound awareness through different games that use instruments, voice sounds and body sounds.  The children will be learning to identify and make sounds that are the same as each other and different from each other. These skills are really important to develop as we move on to hearing, saying and blending together letter sounds in words as we start the Initial Code of our Sounds Write phonics programme. 

In Maths this term the children will be learning how to subitise within 3 and representing these amounts on their fingers. The children will learn that subitising is recognising an amount without counting. We will also be developing our counting and ordering skills using numbers to 5. In addition to this, the children will be learning about the composition of numbers to 4, focusing on how each of these numbers are composed and learning how to represent these in different ways. Finally, we will be learning and understanding how to compare numbers. The children will be exploring comparing numbers more than and fewer than 5. 

In our numerical patterns sessions the children will be learning to match and sort using a variety of manipulatives and loose parts. The children will be learning how to compare different amounts and objects, which will help them to develop their counting and measuring skills. The children will also be exploring length, weight and capacity and using key mathematical vocabulary to describe and compare these amounts of measure. Finally, we will be learning how to copy, create and describe repeating patterns. 

In Understanding of the World, our Primary Knowledge Curriculum theme is ‘All About Me’. As we explore this theme, the children will be learning to name and identify body parts and exploring what the different body parts are used for.  They will be learning about the past, present and future as they talk about babies, starting school and thinking about what they would like to do when they are adults. We will be looking at families and how families and important people that help us.  The children will be explore maps and how to use these. We will be learning how to draw maps to explore and identify different places in Weeting. Finally this term, we will be learning about the natural world around us, exploring the four seasons and how trees and plants change during each of these.

You will see on the Knowledge Organiser, on the right hand side of this page, some of the key facts and vocabulary that the children will be learning. There is a list of recommended books that you might to like to borrow from the local library, or find on your bookshelves, on the right hand side of this page. All of these link very closely to our 'All About Me' theme.

In RE, our question for this term is ‘What makes us special?’. The children will be exploring and learning about what makes them special. We will be thinking about ourselves, our names and the people around us who make us special. We will also be learning about what the word ‘special’ means. Finally, the children will be exploring religious world views and how people are viewed as special. 

In Art this term, the children will be learning how to paint using primary and secondary colours. The children will be learning what the primary colours are and how these are mixed together to create secondary colours. We will then use our knowledge of primary and secondary colours to develop our painting skills, using a variety of paint brushes to create different mark making patterns. We will explore artwork inspired by the artist Joan Miro and use his style of work to create our own style of self-portraits. 

Home Learning

Each Monday, the children will be visiting the library. The children will choose 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 your child'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 should be 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 into this. 

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