Area of learning

Key learning for this unit

Communication and Language

We will continue to focus on back-and-forth interactions. We will help to articulate every child’s ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences.

How can you support your child at home?

• Share a conversation and continue it, taking turns. Ask open-ended questions to encourage more thinking, understanding and longer responses.
• Instead of correcting sentences, model accurate irregular grammar such as past tense, plurals, complex sentences: “That’s right: you drank your milk quickly; you were quicker than Darren”.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We will encourage children to build constructive and respectful relationships.  We will support them to find solutions to conflicts.

How can you support your child at home?

• Model positive play and co-operation using toys or in play. Teach ways of solving conflict such as listening to someone else and agreeing a compromise.
• Have high expectations of your child. Encourage them to listen to others, congratulate them for their kindness and promote respect.

Physical Development

We will help children to develop core muscle strength to achieve a good posture, to do up zips on coats, to develop fine motor skills and to eat using a knife and fork.

How can you support your child at home?

• Increase core strength by playing at a park, swinging from monkey bars and being active. Sit your child at a table to be purposeful and free of distraction.  Ensure their feet are flat on the floor or a footrest. Give regular, sensitive reminders about correct posture.
• Teach your child how to independently zip their coat up.
• Encourage them to pick up small objects like individual gravel stones or tiny bits of chalk to draw with.

English

Reading:
We will explore a range of texts as part of our reading diet including: ‘Bumble Bear’ and ‘The Naughty Bus’. We discuss the vocabulary in these books and explore some of the story language. We will continue to have daily phonics sessions where children will learn new diagraphs and continue to practise blending.

How can you support your child at home?

• Go to a library and borrow picture books to share at home. Talk about stories and retell favourite stories. 

Writing:
We will write according to each child’s own writing journey. Some children will be learning to write 3 letter CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words while those who are ready will be writing simple sentences. We will focus on the transcription of curly caterpillar family letters: c, a, d, g, o, q, s.

How can you support your child at home?

• Practise the new sounds sent home each week. Can they link the sound (phoneme) to the letters (grapheme)?
• Write in front of your child so that they can see writing in action.
• Support your child to write 3 letter words.

Maths

We will increase confidence in subitising by:

• continuing to explore patterns within 5
• explore a range of patterns made by some numbers greater than 5, including structured patterns in which 5 is a clear part
• experience patterns which show a small group and ‘1 more’
• continue to match arrangements to finger patterns.

We will focus on cardinality, ordinality and counting to:

• develop verbal counting to 20 and beyond
• develop accurate object counting skills, using a range of strategies 
• link counting to cardinality, including using their fingers to represent quantities between 5 and 10
• order numbers, linking representations of number.

We will look at composition to:

• explore 5 and practise recalling ‘missing’ or ‘hidden’ parts for 5
• explore 6, linking this to familiar patterns, including symmetrical patterns
• begin to see that numbers within 10 can be composed of ‘5 and a bit’.

We will use comparison to:

• compare sets using the language of comparison, and play games which involve comparing sets
• compare sets by matching, identifying when sets are equal 
• explore ways of making unequal sets equal.

How can you support your child at home?

• Practise ‘finger numbers’ to represent a number
• Practise accurate counting
• Compare quantities using language ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’

Much of the learning will be child led and incidental. Our directed teaching this half term will include themes around:

• Caterpillars and life cycles – The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
• Transport – Whatever next
• The moon landing – Whatever next
• People, culture and communities – The Magic Paintbrush
• Past and present – what were houses made of? - The three little pigs. 

How can you support your child at home?

• Develop positive attitudes about the differences between people. Encourage your child to talk about the differences they notice between people, whilst also drawing their attention to similarities between different families and communities.
• Provide frequent opportunities for outdoor play and exploration.  Foster curiosity and give children freedom to touch, smell and hear the natural world.

We will encourage creativity and support children to explore a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas and feelings. We will explore colour mixing and creating symmetrical artwork.

How can you support your child at home?

• Practise and praise singing at home.
• Work together to develop and realise creative ideas.
• Provide them with a range of materials to construct with.