We hope that you had a lovely Easter time and are excited about the Summer term.

PGCE student Miss Rushton will be teaching alongside me for the majority of this term.

We have now finished our Once Upon a Time topic. Our new topic this half term is 'Under The Sea'.  

In English we will be reading ‘Sharing a Shell’ by Julia Donaldson.

We will also be looking at the features of non-fiction texts and working together to produce group booklets with facts about sea creatures. 

There will also be a focus on spelling and grammar rules, for example the use of prefixes (un-) and plural noun suffixes (-s / -es).  

In Maths we will be focusing on multiplication and division by calculating the answer using concrete objects and pictorial representations.  We will also be looking at simple fractions when dividing.

In Science we will describe and compare common animals, for example the differences between amphibians, reptiles, mammals and fish.  We will be grouping under water creatures according to their physical features and what they eat.

In Geography we will be learning the names of the 5 oceans and linking this to the habitats of different sharks.  We will be looking at aerial photographs to recognise features such as beaches, cliffs, sea and harbours.  

The children will be using ICT to design their own under water picture using Paint and giving their picture an appropriate caption by inserting text.  They will gain an understanding of what algorithms are and program BeeBots.

In Art and Design children will be using wax crayons and watercolours to create their own sea creature paintings and will be looking the works of artists that have focused on sealife and water e.g. David Hockney. We will also be working together to make a giant papier mache fish for our classroom!  Children will design and make their own rock pool in D&T so please send them in with an empty margarine tub!

For P.E. children will be using balance and dance techniques to explore the movement of underwater creatures e.g. crabs, eels.

For Music we will be listening to and performing sounds of the ocean, alongside drama based on The Rainbow Fish and Commotion in the Ocean.

In June the children have a statutory phonics screening.  We teach phonics daily, which will ensure that they are fully prepared for this, however we ask that you also practise decoding words at home. For examples of last year’s test, see the DfE website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-2014-materials 

Instead of sending home weekly spellings to learn, we will now be sending home ‘alien’ and real words for you to practise segmenting and blending with your child.

Our new RE topic is The Resurrection. The children will learn that Easter is the most important Christian feast because Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. They will learn about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and reflect on times when their own sadness turned to joy. They will be introduced to Thomas the apostle and reflect on the importance of his story.

Keep checking our class page for photos of what we have been doing each week!