The sun is shining and so are we! We’re excited to be back together for a happy and healthy Summer term.
This half term is called Life on Earth. We’ll be exploring minibeasts, wild animals, farm animals and the human body.
The Bad-Tempered Ladybird
This week, we’ve been reading The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle.
There was lots to explore in this story; feelings and appropriate behaviours, clocks/time and the comparative sizes of animals.
Frustrated is our ‘word of the week’. In our writing, we’ve been wondering what went wrong in the ladybird’s week, to make it behave so badly!
Art; clay modelling
We’ve been using clay to make minibeasts. We looked at pictures and photos of minibeasts, before making our models. We had spiky caterpillars, wiggly worms and crawly spiders to name just a few. Clay is great for our fine motor skills. We have to work hard to mold, pull, press and shape. We’ve also been making ladybirds out of dough.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been counting beyond ten, to twenty. We’ve been suggesting ways to make counting easier, when we are faced with a lot of objects to count.
You can put them in another pile after you’ve counted them- Grace
You can line them up so it’s easier to count- Alfie
We’ve also been counting things that cannot be moved, or things that cannot be seen (such as sounds/actions)
In provision, we re-visited the doubling ladybirds and recorded our doubles.
Help at home- Challenge your child to count more than ten objects. Can they count the pegs on the washing line? Can they count toys in their toy box? Can they count books on a book shelf? Don’t forget to send in photos of counting at home!
Phonics
Summer 1 week 1 has been an introduction to reading phase 4 words. We’ve also learnt our first phase 4 tricky words; said, so, have, like
Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Pitter Patter
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
click below to watch us recite this week’s poem!
More pictures of our learning this week…
Reminders and Dates
SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1
Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May
Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May
We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.