Reception & Year 1 - Curriculum News               

Spring 2012 Topic – Food and Farming

We would like to welcome you all back from your Christmas break and wish you a very happy new year!

As you may be aware this year we are delivering our curriculum through a ‘stage not age’ approach, which therefore means that both reception and year 1 will be covering the same topics and through differentiated tasks your children will be progressing at their own stage of development.  The curriculum for the Foundation Phase is topic based, this term being Food and Farming.

In line with the Foundation Phase Policy all seven areas of learning will be covered. These areas are:

• Mathematical Development
• Language, Literacy and Communication
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Creative Development
• Physical Development
• Welsh Language Development
• Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity

As a Church in Wales School your child will also take part in whole school daily worships and weekly Religious Education sessions.

This term your children will participate in a variety of learning styles that will include outdoor learning and learning through play; this will be in compliance with the Foundation Phase Outcomes for 3 to 7-year-olds in Wales.

Personal & Social development, Well being and Cultural Diversity – The children will discover how to look after themselves in terms of healthy eating and hygiene. We will be discussing how to care for plants, animals, items within the classroom and each other through our classroom and school rules. Our role play areas will also be a focus for social skill development and the children will be playing together interactively through a range of activities.  The children will develop their ability to share with their peers further and they will also develop their friendships whilst working in their learning environment.

Circle time activities will have a big emphasis on the children’s emotional development. The children will have the opportunity to be open to discuss issues that worry them in and out of school.

Religious Education - Your children will be discovering the world of Christianity through daily worship (assemblies) and through play based activities within their setting.  This term we are going to be exploring ‘Jesus’, and stories from the new testament.  The children will also be learning about the church year and the season Epiphany, St. Bridget’s Day and St. David’s day. they will take part in a special Mothering Sunday Service (Mum’s - bring tissues always a tear jerker)

Language, Literacy, and Communication skills – One of our main emphases will be to continue with the learning and reinforcement of letters and phonemes through sound/spelling pattern of the week and other practical activities.   During these sessions your children will be encouraged to take care with their presentation and handwriting (letter formation).  The children will be learning high frequency words each week and developing a love of mark making and writing for different purposes, during our ‘BIG WRITE’ sessions.  The children will continue to take part in group guided reading activities using the schools scheme ‘All Aboard’. Pre-readers will be looking at pictures, characters, familiar words and the book as a whole.  As your child’s’ reading skills develop we will be looking to enhance their quality of reading using a wider range of genres.  The children are invited to use the writing table in our class through free choice and teacher directed activities, this will have a range of resources and mark making tools on it so the children can experiment and develop their writing skills.  Each week your child will focus on a topic based story and participate in Literacy activities based on this text.  We will be encouraging your child to speak in front of an audience on a regular basis through topical activities and they will be invited to take part in ‘Show and Tell’ on a half termly basis.  This will take place on the last Friday of every half term.  Your child’s artefact for ‘Show and Tell’ should be carefully chosen to reflect your child’s interests and where possible the current topic (please give warning if livestock will be visiting this term!).

Mathematical Development – Numeracy skills will be taught through practical activities and play.  In reception we will be learning number formation and how to write numbers using sand, paint and shaving foam.  Year 1 will also be adopting a kinaesthetic approach to revising and reinforcing maths concepts.

During maths sessions we will be learning to:

Count in 1’s to 20 and on to 100

Count on or back in 10’s

Estimate a number of objects

Recall days of the week, months of the year and seasons

Say the number that is one more

Count on 1, 2, 3 or 4 from a given number

Recall addition facts for pairs to 7; relating addition facts to an understanding of addition

Recall the names and features of 2d shapes.

Repeating patterns.

Welsh Language Development –.The children will be learning about the Culture of Wales and its language.  They will be using incidental Welsh daily such as numbers, colours, rhymes, songs and greetings and also learning a variety of topic related vocabulary relating to Bwyd (Food) and Dewi Sant.

The children will be learning how to ask a variety of questions in Welsh. They will be learning how to respond appropriately when asked questions in Welsh and they will be encouraged to use Welsh constantly during their independent learning.  The children will also be learning Welsh Folk dancing and performing this during our Eisteddfod.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World – The children will be learning through practical activities and discovering the following:

Spring term 1

• The origins of food, relating life processes to animals and plants in the local area.
• The difference between things that are living and things that have never lived.
• Where food comes from.  Grouping foods according to which animal they have come from.
• Changes in vegetables when heated.
• Healthy eating.
• Fairtrade foods.

Spring Term 2

• Life on the farm.
• How to take care of farm animals.
• Comparing current farming machinery to machinery that was used in the past.
• Names of baby animals.
• Where milk comes from.

(this will include trips to local farms and visits from farmers)

Physical Development – Reception and Year One will be taking part in Welsh folk dancing (Spring 1) and gymnastic sessions (Spring 2).  During dance they will be learning about rhythm and traditional dance steps.  They will also be developing control of their bodies and good body tension.  During gymnastics they will be exploring a variety of body schooling movements and positions and how this affects their health.  They will need black shorts and white t-shirts for these lessons. They will also be involved in Adventurous play activities in our outside classroom as well as participating in games lessons (during Sportstars sessions) to develop gross motor skills.  (Reception on Wednesday and Fridays, Year One on Tuesdays and Thursdays).  They will develop hand eye co-ordination using small equipment.  Other physical development activities will be developed through topical play both indoors and out, threading, riding bikes, building models and dens and construction such as Lego etc.

Creative Development – This term we will be singing and performing (using actions) a range of songs, dances and rhymes linked to our topics and Welsh culture.

Every day the children will have the opportunity to take part in a creative activity, whether it is drawing, painting, making, colouring or singing.  The children will explore a variety of tuned and un-tuned Fairtrade instruments in group activities.  They will also take part in weekly Music Express lessons.

We will be making prints of different foods, Still life paintings, designing and making menus and healthy soup, learning about the artists Guiseppe Archimboldo and creating artwork based on his  style of work, during these sessions the children will be taking part in both 2D and 3D art and using digital photography to capture some of their work.  The children will be using a variety of media such as chalks, pastels, paint and collage materials. 

Best Wishes

Mrs C. Jones & Mrs J. Saal

Further ways to help your child:

• Please ensure your children have school P.E. kit every Tuesday and Thursday (Year one) and Wednesday and Friday (Reception).
• Please return homework folders every Monday, these will be returned every Wednesday.
• Encourage your children to reinforce their phonemes by practising regularly using their sound books and completing their homework and reading books etc.
• Please ensure your children have appropriate weather proof clothing which is clearly marked with their names as they will be engaging in the outdoors every day.
• Please ensure all of your children’s uniform is clearly marked with their names.
• Please ensure your children have a healthy snack for morning play time and also a drink.  As we are a healthy school, we do not allow chocolate, crisps or biscuits in school.  Drink bottles and snack boxes should be clearly labelled.
• Please check your children have their red bag with them every day and check its contents on a daily basis for correspondence from school.
• Children under 5 will be provided with milk every day and will only be offered water as an alternative if requested by yourselves; so if your child does not like milk please inform us as soon as possible.
• If your children are away from school at any time, please inform the school as soon as possible and also provide a letter stating the reason.  If we do not receive a letter we will have to mark your children with an unauthorised absence.  Holidays within term time are unauthorised absences and a holiday request form should be completed prior to the children’s absence.  These can be obtained from Mrs Money’s Office.
• To enhance your children’s learning at home please visit our website to keep your self updated and your children to access our ‘Kidzone’. 

A reminder for your fridge: