This half term we'll be looking at A RIVER by Marc Martin

A beautiful geographical story with lush landscapes and poetic text from an award-winning Australian illustrator. A River follows on from Marc Martin's incredible A Forest - winner of the 2013 Crichton Children's Illustration Award.

There is a river outside my window. Where will it take me?

So begins an imaginary journey from the city to the sea. From factories to farmlands, freeways to forest, each new landscape is explored through stunning illustrations and poetic text from this award-winning picture-book creator.

This is a colour illustrated, hard back book.

The children will be using this book as a stimulus for discussion and writing their own story.

We follow the Read Write Inc. phonics programme, which gives children a flying start in learning to read and write.  Children are assessed regularly and grouped to meet their needs. We teach children the initial sounds, moving into reading 'special friends' such as ng and oo.  Then children are taught to decode and blend to develop their reading skills.  Reading is the key to opening the door to learning.

This half term we will be focusing on time and fractions.  The children will be learning the months of the year and days of the week, and how to tell the time (o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to), which is a very important life skill.  In fractions children will be learning about euqal and unequal parts and how to find equal parts of a whole.

In history the focus will be on knowing our Famous People, including Edith Cavell -   The children will look exploring local memories by learning about famous people and places close to where they live and further afield.  They will look at the way the local area has changed over time and use maps to identify significant parts of the local area.

In Science we will be learning about Everyday Materials. We will be learning to sort and classify materials by their properties and introducing new vocabulary, such as translucent, transparent and opaque.  We will learn to describe the physical properties of materials and perform simple tests.

Our focus for this half term will be, 'how the universe came to be'. As part of this, we will be looking at Hindu and Christian stories looking at the origins of the universe. 

We will be learning about our beliefs.  We will be exploring what makes us unique, the fact that there are lots of different types of families and understanding that we should not feel pressure to be different to who we are.

Art:

We will be exploring 3d Design this term and exploring the different materials and techniques we can use.

DT:

Through a variety of creative and practical activities, pupils should be taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making.

We will be learning to perform actions to music and respond to musical signals and themes using movement. We will be exploring and creating rhythm patterns and learning how to use these to create a composition, writing down our compositions.

This half term we will be learning about programming through using the Beebots.   We will learn about algorithms and debugging through practical exploration.

We link a range of learning to our woodland sessions.  The children really enjoy their time in the woods (both learning and wild play time for exploring and following their own interests).  This is a fundamental opportunity for children to develop teamwork skills and build resilience through problem-solving.  It also teaches children about having respect for our environment.

Our woodland session is on a Tuesday afternoon. Please could children wear clothing suitable for the weather, as we are likely to be outside even if it is raining.  They will also need different shoes or wellies to wear in the woods.

Our PE days are Wednesday and Friday this half term. Please ensure your child is wearing the full and correct PE kit on these days.  Could we please also ensure that children are not wearing earrings (where possible) on these days and that long hair is tied up.

In PE this half term we will be doing Ball Skills and Sending and Receiving.

Class Dojo is our main form of communication with parents. If you have not yet signed up for Class Dojo and would like to, please do not hesitate to come and see us.  We are more than happy to help if you are having difficulty in accessing this.  It's a great space where you can view photos, videos and information about all the amazing things that are happening in our classroom and around the school. It gives you the chance to see what your children have been learning in school each week, giving you the opportunity to talk to them at home about what they have been doing.

A home learning menu will be posted on Class Dojo at the beginning of each half term.  These activities are suggestions linked to the Discovery Learning focus for the half term, but you are free to explore other home learning opportunities with your child.

Please ensure your child’s clothing and belongings are clearly labelled.