Spring 2018

Physical Development

We have been developing our fine and gross motor skills each day through lots of different activities including P.E, cutting, joining using split pins, threading and using tweezers.  We have been learning to form our letters correctly so that we can write recognisable letters using our new handwriting scheme.  This is really helping the children to know where to begin to start writing their letters.  Come and see our careful handwriting.
In our P.E sessions we have been learning to 2 sequence movements together on the apparatus.  We have been stretching, curling and finding different ways to travel around the hall and then practised our movements on the apparatus.  We jump from small heights are growing in confidence to use the climbing frame and balance.  We also had a taster session of Judo which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

Communication, Language and Literacy

This term we have learnt to retell the oral stories of The Three Little Pigs and The Gingerbread Man.  We have learnt to think carefully about the stories in P4C sessions, asking questions, voting for our favourite one and then giving our thoughts and ideas to answer it. We also loved meeting the Gingerbread Man in our Gingerbread man workshop!
In our writing we have been learning to write speech bubbles for different characters in the stories as well as writing character descriptions and writing our first story book titled ‘The Gingerbread Man’ in which we changed the characters in the story.
We all loved dressing up as our favourite characters and sharing our favourite books with our grown-ups on World Book day. We enjoyed a Family Read afternoon where I parents came to share stories with us. Mr Payne has also visited our classes to share his poems with us.

Mathematics

In our maths learning this term we have been learning to work out addition number sentences using counters and Numicon to help us.  We have been working out number problems including how many ways to make 10.  We have been using Numicon to help us to find different ways to make numbers.  We have learnt to record our thinking as a number sentence.  We have been learning the language of capacity and comparing quantities and amounts of water, pasta and rice and ordering by capacity.
In our outdoor maths we have been learning about measuring and ordering sticks and natural materials by length and weight and we enjoyed going on a number treasure hunt with our partners.

Understanding the World

We have been learning about China and our families as part of our understanding of the world.  We enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year by making a 3D model dragon, Chinese dance, tasting Chinese foods, learning to say hello in Mandarin and learning to write our names using the Chinese alphabet to help us.  We have been observing the signs of Spring in our outdoor learning and drawing the buds on the trees and planted bulbs.  We enjoyed creating gingerbread men and traps using natural materials.  We investigated what happened when we dropped a gingerbread man in water.  “I thought it would break straight away.” “I predict it might float.” “I predict it will melt and go soggy.” The children have been learning to use scientific vocabulary to describe their observations. We have been investigating which objects we could huff and puff and we recorded our results like ‘real’ scientists. 
We have also enjoyed a visit from the Road Safety team who helped us to learn about being safe when crossing the road.
In our technology learning we have learnt to programme a Beebot and are beginning to use this knowledge to help us to make tracks and programme our Beebot.  

Expressive Art and Design

We have been busy this half term in our artwork. We have been learning to work together to create a 3D Chinese dragon.  We observed Chinese dragons and copied the patterns to create our own dragon which we used to dance with to Chinese music. We have been learning to make close observational paintings of tulips and have learnt to draw a self-portrait.  We had to look closely in a mirror and carefully draw our faces and features.  We have been learning to create angels using mixed media and used the work of the artist Janet Bolton to create our own angel pictures.  The children enjoyed creating their own Easter cards using forks, paint and glitter.  As part of our home learning the children made story characters and story boxes to help with their story telling of The Three Little Pigs.  We also created our own animal sock puppets.  We had to draw our own design and them follow our design and create our puppet and evaluate it.

Personal, Social Health Education

In our Personal, social and emotional development we have been focusing on what makes us unique.  We have been exploring what we are good at and have been setting ourselves goals.  We read the story of The Hare and the Tortoise and set our own challenges for both home and at school. We have been focusing on our learning team member Percy Vere who is helping us to learn how to keep going even when we find things hard.  We have been learning to work in tidy up teams using a tick chart to ensure that our area is tidy.  We have enjoyed sharing our baby photos and talking about our families and what we enjoy doing with them.  We have been thinking about what we are good at and what our friends are good at.