How we change and grow - The children will learn and be able to recall some of the stages of the human life cycle (baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult, elderly). The children will be able to talk about what they can do now compared to when they were a baby.
Animals - The children will be able to name the young of familiar adults. We will also focus in upon the life cycle of a chicken. When we visit Bodenham Arboretum, we will visit calves and lambs.
Growing plants - Children will plants seeds and observe the growth and changes taking place. We will also look at how some trees are deciduous and the changes they go through over the four seasons.
Developing the Sensory Garden - For our science week project this year, we will be developing the school's sensory garden. We will make wind chimes, create tyre planters of herbs and grasses, create bird feeders and create a sound wall. We will chart the changes that take place to this environment, recording with photographs.
Food and Farming - The children will know that farmers grow food for us to eat (that some food are plants) and once ripe they will harvest them. The children will be able to name a range of fruit and vegetables and will be given the opportunity to try these.
We will also take some time to explore the season of spring as part of our Forest School sessions, observing the changes in our environment. The children will be able to state the things that happen in spring. Science in EYFS is covered in the 'Understanding the World' area of the EYFS curriculum. The children will participate within activities that encourage them to explore, problem solve, observe, predict, think, make decisions and talk about the world around them.
During our RE sessions, we will explore the key question 'What is Easter?' They will learn about key events of the Easter story and make links to the objects and foods we associate with Easter. This will include making connections with the season of spring.
Many stories and non-fiction books will be used, to develop the children's knowledge and understanding. Examples of some will be 'Think Big', 'The Enormous Turnip' and 'Oliver's Vegetables'. We will be using the Talk for Writing approach to retell the stories.
We will also apply our developing phonics knowledge to read and write simple sentences, gaining experience of how sentences begin with a capital letter, have finger spaces between each word and end with a full stop.
In Mathematics, we will focus upon number up to 10, developing a strong understanding of them, through subitising, counting, composing, decomposing and comparing. We will also explore the measures of mass, capacity, length, height and time.
PE takes place on a Thursday. Your child should attend school in their PE kit on this day.
Forest School will take place on a Friday. Please ensure your child has wellies and a waterproof coat in school at all times.
Library time takes place on a Friday. Every child borrows a library book to take home and you can share it together. Simply return the library book to school when your child is ready to change it.
LEARNING AT HOME We value the support you can give your child at home in helping to develop the basic skills of English and Maths. In Reception, we hope that children will be engaged in continuing their learning for approximately 10 minutes per night. Most of this time will be used to read with your child and discuss what they have read. Reading stories on a regular basis helps children develop a sense of the story structure and fires their imagination. Please read at least 3 times a week. Also every half term we set Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) to be practised at home. We recommend this is focused upon little and often over the weeks.
Other learning opportunities may be suggested and encouraged at home. These will tend to be practical activities.
PHONICS Each day, children take part in a planned phonics session, following Song of Sounds. Children are introduced to new letter sounds and then learn how to read and write by 'segmenting' and 'blending'. Children are also taught 'tricky words' and 'high frequency words'. As part of the phonics program, letter formation is taught. Guidance for this can be found below.