In Literacy, during this term, in phonics, we will be continuing to learn the phase three sounds. You might hear your child talking about digraphs (when two letters make one sound, such as ‘sh’ in ‘shed’) and trigraphs (when three letters make one sound such as ‘igh’ in light). Now the children are using their knowledge to read words (blending sounds) and sentences. They are also beginning to break up words into sounds (segmenting), so they can write words and sentences. Please encourage your child to write for a purpose, such as lists, labels, letters and cards for their friends.

We are also having daily shared reading sessions, the link to each week’s Shared Reader is sent by text and uploaded to Tapestry each Friday afternoon.

Please continue to listen to your child read and write in their reading record. Remember that we want reading to be an enjoyable and fun thing to do. Choose the time carefully and if it is just a page or two, that is okay. When you read a book to your child, can they read any of the words to you? Can they spot any red words? When you are out and about, can they read any words on signs? Or spot digraphs? It really can be done anywhere.

This half term we will be focusing on the story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’, learning the story and actions to help retell it independently. We will also be acting it out and making up our own different version of the story. We are learning the vocabulary of ‘character’, ‘setting’, ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ in relation to stories. Next half term’s focus will be on a dinosaur story and looking at non-fiction texts.

In Maths, we have been consolidating our knowledge of numbers to five, including the composition of these numbers (e.g., five can be made up of 4+1, 3+2, 5+0 etc.). We will also be looking at vocabulary related to mass and capacity and how they can be measured. Over this term we will be learning about the numbers six, seven and eight and combining two groups. After half term we will learn about and comparing numbers nine and 10 and learning our number bonds to ten. We will also be looking at comparing height, length, mass and time. We will spend some time looking at more complex patterns and 3d shapes.

In PE, we are learning different kinds of rolls and jumps and then moving on to using gym equipment.

In our Understanding the World learning, we will be looking at special places, focusing on churches and mosques and then looking at how special times are celebrated including Lunar New Year. We will also be looking at seasonal changes, looking at winter, cold places in the world and the animals that live there. As spring arrives, we will look at the changes that can be observed and plant our own seeds. We will also be finding out about children’s lives in different parts of the world too.

In Art we will be looking at the artists Henri Matisse and Jean-Michael Basquiat.