Reception
Spring 2nd Half Term
Dear Parents/Carers,
A warm welcome back to you all. We hope you had a lovely half-term break.
Our topic for this half term is ‘Traditional tales’ which will include a range of stories such as The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Billy Goat’s Gruff to name but a few!
Throughout the half term, we will be ensuring that our core value ‘to be generous to others’ is embedded at every opportunity.
Religious Education
Sorrow and Joy – children will learn about the significance of Easter, that Jesus learnt to forgive and to reflect on ways that we can forgive, be kind and generous and help others.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Children will be supported to continue to initiate conversations and listen to others. They will have lots of opportunities to explain their knowledge and understanding and ask appropriate questions to further their learning. Children will be encouraged to become independent learners, expressing preferences and ideas through their own choices as well as learning the important skill of compromising when necessary.
Communication and Language
Children will explore different traditional tales and become acquainted with its story language and repeated phrases. A big emphasis will be to verbally retell stories through re-in-act-ing prior to writing them down on paper. Children will be encouraged to introduce storylines and narratives into their own play. Once we are all back in school together children will take part in ‘helicopter’ stories to promote confidence and speaking skills as they express and share their ideas.
Literacy
Children will begin to recognise and join in with predictable phrases in stories such as ‘I will huff and I will puff’ and think about other words and phrases that characters might be saying. They will sequence stories in order to retell and act them out, exploring the different characters and settings through ‘hot-seating’ opportunities. We will continue learning Phase 3 sounds and recap Phase 2 sounds daily. Children will continue to read words and simple sentences and build up a vocabulary influenced by stories.
Physical Development
Children will continue to develop their fine motor skills becoming more confident at using a pencil effectively and showing an interest in writing. They will also continue to develop their gross motor skills moving in different ways by running, jumping, skipping, hopping etc. This half term we will explore keeping healthy and foods that can help us stay fit and well. Children will hopefully have opportunities to have fun in the kitchen cooking recipes from traditional tales.
Mathematics
Children will focus on counting objects reliably as well as finding one more or one less than a given number. They will continue to recognise numerals to 20 and begin to understand number bonds to 10. Children will explore money, counting out the Giant’s coins from Jack and the Beanstalk and begin to recognise the value of different coins. We will explore size, comparing the difference in size of the three bears as well as the Giant. Children will develop their knowledge of 3D shapes, understanding them as a solid and exploring their different properties.
Understanding the World
Children will explore different settings in stories as well as discussing and imagining new environments. We will talk about different animals and their habitats and explore materials, for example through the story of the Three Little Pigs and the different homes they built.
Expressive Arts and Design
Children will be encouraged to act out traditional stories and their own stories, thinking about their body language and gestures in relation to different characters. They will use musical instruments to help them think about characters actions through sound.
Things to remember
Please continue to hear your child read every day.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Mrs Anthony, Miss Oakley, Ms Underwood
and the Early Years Team