Autumn Term 1
Fantastic Families
Our first exciting topic for this school year is Fantastic Families. Within this topic we will explore different families, respect, our new class family and how kindness makes others feel through our PSE curriculum. We will also set up and begin to use our online learning platform Natterhub to support this. Natterhub will also form part of our computing curriculum as we create our own avatars and begin to explore online safety. In History, we will be learning about significant people from the past focusing on Florence Nightingale and Mary Secole.
In science we are beginning our learning journey by furthering our knowledge of the human body. We will learn the name and use of different parts of the body and link this to our five senses which we will explore deeply through a range of different practical activities. Alongside this, our art work will focus on portraits, using different media and then the portraits Picasso created.
This term our RE focuses on Christianity and considers the question “What do Christians believe about God”? During this unit of learning we will explore the meaning of different parables and different types of Christian prayer.
We also have many carefully selected high quality texts for story time that link to Fantastic Families, we cannot wait to start reading them. These include Elmer, Avacado baby, Burglar Bill, We’re going on a bear hunt, Five minutes peace, The singing mermaid and Perfectly Norman.
We will also be doing PE, sessions with the sports coach and beginning our Forest School journey.
Reading and Phonics Information
As always, we place huge emphasis on the importance of regular reading practice both in and out of school. Every child will be allocated a Reading Practice group and will read three times with their group each week. Books will be changed each Monday.
Please ensure that your child brings their reading practice book and reading record to school each day so that we can assess and record their progress appropriately. Hearing your child read at least 3x a week is very valuable in developing their reading skills and their love of reading! We cannot emphasise this enough!!
As we start the school year we will begin the next step in our phonics journey. Our daily lessons will take the same format and build on the phonics teaching from Reception. This progresses quickly and so practicing new sounds and spellings is vital. More information about our expectations for reading and spelling and how you can support your child at home will be sent home in a separate letter.
Extra helpful information
Children will be doing PE on different days throughout the term, so it is important that your child has their PE kit in school every week so that they can fully engage in activities. We will be doing some PE lessons outdoors, so please ensure your child has a pair of plimsols or trainers with their PE kit in school.