Willow Class

Welcome back to a new academic year. I hope you have all had a wonderful break and enjoyed some family time. I am very happy to be your child’s teacher this year, and I look forward to all the adventures that await us!

Our topic for this term is ‘What is it like here?’. The children in EYFS will start the school year focusing on getting to know each other and their new school and routines. The children in KS1 will be focusing on locating features on an aerial photograph of the school and naming and labelling the country and village in which they live. They will also be making their own maps of the classroom including key features, using objects to represent the distance and direction of these features in the classroom. We would also welcome any volunteers, who would like to come in and speak to the class about how the local area has changed. In our science lessons this half term we will be learning all about ‘Living Things’. The children in EYFS will be focusing on sorting things that are living and non-living, making bug hotels and learning about animals and their offspring. The children in KS1 will also be learning about parents and offspring, in addition to learning about different habitats throughout the animal kingdom and life processes. If your child would like to complete any research or if they have anything they would like to share relating to the topics then please bring them in.

In maths, EYFS will be focusing on cardinality and counting through their play, focusing on numbers 1-5. They will also be looking at 1:1 correspondence and subitising. In KS1 the children will be learning about place value. The children in Year 1 will be focusing on numbers to 10 and mastering different strategies before moving on to numbers to 20. They children in Year 2 will be focusing on place value up to 100.

In English, the children in EYFS will be getting used to our Little Wandle phonics scheme. The children will be introduced to sounds and will explore these further in our literacy sessions. The children will have lots of opportunities for mark making and practicing oracy skills through their core texts ‘The Friendship Bench’ and ‘Amazing’. In KS1, the children will be reading ‘Lost and Found’ as their core text. The children in Year 1 will be writing simple sentences focusing on capital letters and full stops. The children in Year 2 will be focusing on using conjunctions to extend their ideas and improve them with simple description.

This half term we will be focusing on our painting skills and colour mixing in our Art sessions. We will look at understanding how the school computers work in our Computing lessons. The children will learn about tempo in Music, including action songs for the EYFS children.

Our RE topic in KS1 for this half term is all about Christianity and creation. The children will explore what Christians, Muslims, and Hindus believe happened in the creation. that God created the world. They will also learn how Christians, Muslims, and Hindus believe that people should take care of our world. Throughout the unit the children will be focusing on what it means to belong and the awe and wonder of the world around them.

In EYFS the children will learn about what makes them special. We will also be focusing on understanding feelings and emotions by learning to recognise specific emotions and how to manage strong feelings effectively.

The children will have PE lessons every Wednesday this half term, so PE kits will be required to be in school on this day if possible. If you could please ensure that your child also has a labelled water bottle that they can bring outside with them.