Lion Cubs 

                                         Hello Summer Term! 

                                      

Welcome back to a warmer term. 

   We hope you had a lovely Easter break.  We are sure that the weather will be warmer and sunnier this  term.  

 Below is an overview of what we will be doing for the next half-term:

 English 

                                                                        

 This half-term our topic will be 'Glorious Growing!' using the books 'Seed to Plant' and The Woolly Bear Caterpillar by Julia Donaldson. Here we will look at plants and animals. 

Writing  

The children love writing. We encourage them to write allsorts in reception, from lists, to celebration cards, to factual sentences and funny captions too.  It is important that they use a 'good' pencil grip and form their letters correctly. The children will be using capital letters, finger spacing and full stops.         

Read Write Inc (RWI)

Daily RWI activities will teach and consolidate new sounds, blending, practise writing each sound, read sounds speedily, read green words speedily, read words with new sounds, practise blending with nonsense words (alien words), write spellings, read short sentences and write short captions. Below are set 1 and set 2 sounds and the correct rhyme for each letter formation.

                                

     

Reading

Children are now taking home RWI levelled reading books. Please continue to read them repeatedly, as this will build up the children's fluency in reading. As well as the 'library book' they usually take home, the children have been assigned 'Oxford Reading Tree' levelled books, which they can access online (username and password needed) and practise their reading with these books. In addition, children should be looking for and be familiar with 'red words', i.e. words that cannot be blended/'Fred talked', e.g. I, he, she, me, was, you, no, you, my, was, etc. 

 Speaking and Listening 

This term, the children will be working on responding to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to or during whole-class discussions and small group interactions. We will be encouraging them to make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding. The children will be supported on using full sentences, including the use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions.

Maths

This half-term, our focus will be consolidating the compositions of each number up to 10, continue with addition and subtraction, doubling, sharing and halving. 
In addition, the children will continue to look at measuring short periods of time and be familiar with a clock- face and hands and look at British coins and notes.   
For mental starters, the children will be verbally practising counting beyond 20 and recognising the pattern of the counting system of teens numbers.  

 

                                    

 Physical Development

P.E. lessons will continue to be on a Tuesday. We will still be encouraging children to practise their gross and fine motor skills during continuous provision, e.g, pencil grip, cutting up food, taking on and putting on a jumper, putting on socks etc. It is important to work on their hand muscles in order to strengthen their pencil grip and to exert good pressure when writing.  

                                                             

In addition, we will be practising 'bat and ball skills' and athletic skills ready for sports day.  

Understanding of the World

Tying in with our theme of 'Glorious Growing', the children will be looking at the life cycle of plants and animals. This will also include looking at their habitats and what they need to grow.                                                                 

RE & PSED

Through stories, artefacts and Puddles the cat, the children will be able to talk about the members of their immediate family and people who are familiar to them in the local community. Also, in R.E, the children will explore 'why is the church a special place for Christians?'    

                            

For Personal, Social & Emotional Development (PSED), this whole term will be working on working towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate. In addition, embed being confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge.

Expressive Arts and Design

Through the topic 'Glorious Growing', the children will be designing and making, creating with different mediums (water colours, paint, clay etc). They will be taught how to return to and build on their previous learning, refining their ideas and be able to talk and comment on their peer's ideas too. 

                            

In Reception, sometimes the ideas and initiatives come from the children themselves. Therefore, there may be activities we do that are not on our topic web, but have come and grown from children’s own interests. For example, 'sharks, Super Mario, Minecraft etc'.   

                     

The Curriculum

For more information about what we have planned for this academic year, please go to the curriculum section on the school's webpage, click on 'Reception' and have a read about our amazing and busy curriculum.

Tapestry 

We look forward to putting our observations onto our electronic learning journal 'Tapestry' which will show you the wonderful learning that is taking place with your child in school. Equally, you can load onto 'Tapestry' the special moments your child has at home, e.g. a day out, a special time, a 'wow' moment etc. We love to know what they have been doing, and the children love sharing and talking about their photos/videos of what they have achieved.

                                                                             

Water Bottles

Please ensure that they take it home every day to be cleaned and refilled. 

                                                                           

We have an open-door policy where, at the end of the day, if you have a query, please ask away or email at lioncubs@parkgate.cheshire.sch.uk

No question is daft, so please never feel uncomfortable approaching us. 

Thank you for your continued support, 

Mrs Foster, Mrs Barralet, Miss Whiteway & Mrs Wilson xxxx