This term in Chestnut Class, the children will be exploring the theme ‘Animals and their Babies’. Throughout this theme, the children will be learning about the different animals that live in different environments. We will be exploring animals and their offspring, farm animals, jungle and wild animals, woodland animals and finally Antarctic and arctic animals. 

In Literacy, our class text will be ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. Throughout our class text, the children will be exploring the characters in the story and the setting of the story. As the children develop a deep familiarity and understanding with the text, they will be able to retell the story. The children will be using props to support their retelling of the story. They will be also be writing sentences about the story, using the sounds they know and using their phonic knowledge to reread their work. The children will also be developing their independent writing skills, by using finger spaces and full stops in readiness for the transition into Year 1. 

The children will learn 2 key rhymes in their daily reading session and literacy inputs. Our 2 key rhymes this term are ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’ and ‘5  Little Ducks’. The children will also have these rhymes in their rhyme packets. Copies of these are on the right-hand side for you to explore. 

In our Phonics' sessions we will be continuing to learn the Initial Code of the Sounds Write programme. The children will be continuing to revisit their prior knowledge of previous sounds learnt, as well as being introduced to new units of sounds. During Units 9 and 10, the children will be practicing segmenting and blending CCVC, CCVCC and CCCVC words. 

Unit 9 – CCVC words.

Unit 10 – CCVCC and CCCVC words.

In Maths, the children will be continuing to develop their counting skills, focusing on numbers from 10 and beyond, up to 20. We will be ordering 'teen' numbers up to 20. The children will be developing their subitising skills to help them recognise doubles. We will also be learning about the composition of numbers to 10, focusing on the '5 and a bit' structure. Finally, the children will be focusing on the composition of 10, exploring how 10 is made up from two parts.  Throughout these lessons, children will be using manipulative to support their mathematical thinking and development.

In addition to this, the children will be consolidating their learning on 2D and 3D shapes. The children will explore rotating shapes thinking about how the shape has changed position. Children will be learning prepositions such as 'over', 'under', 'next to', 'behind' and 'in front of'. Finally, we will be learning about composing and decomposing shapes to identify which shapes makes a whole shape and which shapes can be broken down form a whole shape. 

In Understanding the World, the children will be learning about ‘Animals and their Babies’. First, the children will be exploring what each animal is called and what the animals’ offspring are called. Next, the children will be learning about farm animals. In this lesson we will be identifying which animals live on a farm and what these animals provide for us. We will also be exploring which seasons some of these animals are born in. The children will then move onto to learning about woodland environments. The children will identify which type of animals live in the woodlands. We will also learn that the home of an animal is called a habitat. In addition to this, the children will explore ways in which the habitats might be destroyed by humans and the effects on the animals that live there. After this, the children will explore wild and endangered animals thinking about which animals might become endangered. We will focus on which parts of the world these type of animals may live. Lastly, we will be learning about artic and Antarctic animals. 

The Knowledge Organiser on the right will show you some of the key vocabulary that the children will be learning. During our theme, we will be reading stories to linked to ‘Animals and their Babies’. You will also find a list of books that link to our theme ‘Animals and their Babies’, that you might want to share with your children. 

In RE, our focus for this term is ‘Why is every single person unique and precious?’. Throughout these sessions we will be exploring why objects can be precious and what precious means. This will support our learning of why babies are special and unique. We will also be learning about how Jesus welcomes everyone and believes that everyone is special and precious. Finally, the children will be exploring the Thanksgiving service and showing how babies are special to God. 

In Art this term the children will be learning about the French Artist Henri Rousseau and his art ‘Tiger in a Tropical Storm’. The children will learn and develop their art knowledge by recreating this artwork as their final piece. First, we will be practising our scissor skills to recreate long and short wavy lines. This will then lead onto recreating the jungle grass and vines in our final pieces. Tthe children will be revisiting how to use watercolours to recreate the sky. Finally, the children will be using pastels, tissue paper, paints, crayons, felt to create  jungle scenes and the tiger. 

In Design Technology, the children will be completing their ‘Build’ unit. In this unit the children will learning to use blocks to recreate a house structure. This unit will be broken down into 4 sections; Research and investigate, Design, Make and Use and Evaluate. In Our Research and Investigate session, we will explore the different materials that we are going to use to recreate our house structures. We will also identify different parts and rooms of a house and explore examples of house we could make. In our Design session, the children will become designers and draw a plan of what their house is going to look like. We will be annotating the children’s plans with materials and colours that they would like to use. During our Make session the children will be using cardboard boxes, cardboard and matchsticks to create their own open house. The children will use their plan to support their making process. Finally, in our Use and Evaluate sessions, we will be exploring and using our houses to see how they work. The children will be thinking about ways to change their house, what they found easy or hard and what they wish to improve on next time. 

Home Learning

Each Monday, 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 support the children’s fluency and comprehension skills, please could you encourage your children to ‘say the sounds and read the words’ in their phonics reading books. The children should be reading every day for 5 minutes. Please can you record their reading in the children’s yellow reading diaries. 

As we move into the Summer Term we are focusing developing and supporting the children with their independence.  Your children will have sound packets to independently practise their phonics at home. Children should be encouraged to say the sounds and read the words and say the sounds and write the words. 

To help support the children’s maths learning at home, you can borrow a maths challenge bag from us. 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 onto your child’s Tapestry learning journal.