Reception Spring 1 Curriculum Information

Welcome to the first part of the spring term, our theme is ‘Adventures!’ We will be reading books linked to our English lessons, to our whole class reading times and in curriculum learning ‘Understanding the World.’

We begin with a book in English called ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. This story is about a boy named Max. Max loves to dress up and has a ‘wild’ imagination where amazing things happen. We will discuss our school values of ‘courage’ and ‘compassion’ as we follow Max as he meets the ‘wild things.’ They admire Max and he becomes the king of the ‘wild things.’ We will use this story as a stimulus to create our own ‘wild adventures!’  

Our next book ‘Tree -Seasons Come, Seasons Go’ by Patricia Hegarty links with ‘Understanding of the World’ as we learn about the seasons. In this book we are invited by an owl to explore and learn about the seasons. The detailed artwork captures the life cycle of a tree as it changes through the spring, summer autumn and winter. We will explore the seasons in our school environment as we go on a ‘Winter Walk’ using our senses to find signs of Winter!

Another book helping us to learn about the world around us is ‘Winter Sleep: A Hibernation Story’ by Sean Taylor. This is an enchanting book that explores an adventure shared by a child and their grandma. It is winter and many animals have hibernated! In this fascinating book we can see under the ground as we take a sneaky peak at the animals that are hibernating! With this book we will explore another or our school values ‘curiosity’ as we learn facts about hibernation.

Our poetry book this half term is ‘Poems Out Loud’ by Laurie Stansfield & Various Poets. Poems to share and enjoy together as we learn about a variety of poems by different poets. We will recite favourite our poems and perform them together.

As we continue with our theme ‘adventures’, we explore space and our planet Earth in our learning about ‘The Natural World.’ In the book ‘Look Up’ by Nathan Bryon we meet the character Rocket, she loves science and space and wants to be an astronaut! This story is inspirational, and you just won’t be able to stop yourself from looking up at the stars and wanting to know more!

Our next English book is ‘How to Catch a Star’ by Oliver Jeffers. This story is about a boy who is fascinated by stars and decides to catch one of his own! Like the boy in the story, we will talk about our dreams and aspirations alongside our school value ‘self-belief.’ If we believe, we can make our dreams come true!

Another book we share is ‘How to Grow a Dinosaur’ by Caryl Hart. Albie, the little boy in the story has amazing adventures! He plants seeds with his mum and overnight they grow into dinosaurs of different shapes and sizes. Imagination and creativity ooze from this book, helping us to create and tell our own dinosaur stories and learn information about different types of dinosaurs…ROAR!   

Finally, our class book ‘The Night Gardener’ by Terry Fan is enchanting. The main character William and his town are transformed by a mysterious night gardener. Trees are sculptured into owls and much, much more. As we turn each page, we see the town change as the illustrations bring the story to life with colour and detail.

This term we have additional books from the Learning Library about ‘Seasons and the Weather.’ There are fiction and non-fiction books adding knowledge and information to our learning.

Looking forward to sharing so many amazing books!

 

Reception Autumn 2 Curriculum Information

Welcome to the second part of the autumn term. In English we begin with the story ‘Jack and the Jelly Beanstalk’ by Rachael Mortimer. This is a traditional tale with a twist! Jack and his mum are heart-broken when they have to sell Daisy their cow. On his way home Jack is drawn into a the most amazing, sweet shop and is mesmerised by a jar of glittering, magical jellybeans. After spending all his money, he takes them home! We think about our school values of courage and curiosity as Jack takes us on an adventure in the clouds as the jellybeans grow into a gigantic jelly beanstalk.    

Another book we share is ‘Meg and Mog’ by Helen Nicoll. In this book we follow the magical adventures of Meg, a witch, and her black cat, Mog, as they make spells and create potions! In this book Meg goes to a Halloween party with all of her friends. However, it doesn’t go to plan…BANG! Meg's spells haven’t worked, what will happen next? We will use our imagination to create our own spells and potions in the outdoor classroom.

After our ‘Diwali Day’ last term we continue to learn about Diwali as we share the story ‘The Best Diwali Ever’ by Sonali Shah. In this enchanting book we find out how Arianna plans to make this the best Diwali ever! As we eagerly read each page, we find out about what Diwali is and how it is celebrated.

Our next book in English is ‘Meet the Weather’ by Caryl Hart. This book makes links to the weather and transport, two of our themes this term. We are taken on a journey in a hot air balloon to explore different types of weather. The rhythm and rhyme of the words are captivating encouraging retelling of the story together. We will discuss the different types of weather in the story and find out more as we learn about the changing seasons in science.  

In our class ‘Project Box’ from the learning library we have many books to share linked to all our learning themes this term! Many of the books are about different types of transport supporting our learning in ‘Understanding of the World.’

Our next book links to our transport theme ‘The Cat, The Mouse and the Runaway Train’ by Peter Bently. A rhyming book full of adventure between a cat and a mouse. A steam train that takes us on a wonderful journey as we learn about modern day transport and transport in the past.

This term in maths we are finding out about numbers to 5 and learning about the different representations. Finding 1 more and 1 less and the composition of numbers 1-5. We are exploring shapes, including circles, triangles, and shapes with 4 sides. We identify and name them and find the shapes in the environment.  

Our class reading times include lots of traditional tales. These include ‘Little Red and the Hungry Lion’ by Alex T. Smith a variation on Little Red Riding Hood. As we think about our school values of self-belief and perseverance, Little Red outwits the lion as she meets giraffes, crocodiles and monkeys. In ‘Cinderella’ by Chloe Perkins the story is set in Mexico, with amazing, colourful illustrations capturing our imaginations.

This term we have two ‘Design and Technology’ days. Our unit is about structures and making junk models. We learn about various types of joins, using a combination of materials and joining techniques in their junk models.

Another book we share is ‘Joy to the World: Christmas Around the Globe’ by Kate DePalma. In this book we find out about Christmas traditions in many different countries. As we turn each page the detailed illustrations encourage talk as we learn about different traditions. Alongside this we will share our own experiences we share with our families,  

As we get ready for Christmas the children will take part in their first ‘Nativity.’ Dressing up, singing songs and celebrating the birth of baby Jesus. We have lots of ‘sparkle and shine’ as we make decorations for our ‘Christmas Bazaar. We also make decorations for our school Christmas tree and these are displayed at the church. Such and exciting time of the year!

We have many books to read and experiences to share this term so much to look forward to!

 

 

 

 

Reception Autumn 1 Curriculum Information

Welcome to the Autumn term! We have lots of books to share as you start your first term in school. We begin the year reading books linked to ‘Our Amazing Bodies.’ During our first term, we focus on establishing school routines, building relationships and settling in.

We begin with the book ‘Super Duper You!’ by Sophy Henn. This book is a rhyming picture book with delightful illustrations. We explore how amazing we all are and the aspirations we have as we grow up. The book makes links to our school value ‘self-belief’, as we talk about what we would love to do now and in the future!

As we learn about our amazing bodies, we read a book called ‘Funnybones’ by Allan and Janet Ahlberg. We learn about parts of the body, how we move about and about skeletons. We go on a journey with a family of skeletons as they go on a night-time adventure. This story is funny, full of repetition and you just have to join in!

In English we are reading a book called ‘Perfectly Norman’ by Tom Percival. Norman is just like other children until one day to his amazement he grows a pair wings! This is an inspirational book about self-belief and being proud of who you are. In the creative area we will make pictures using a variety of collage materials to create our own wings!

As we learn about our incredible ‘senses’ we share the book ‘Listen’ by Gabi Snyder. In this book we tune in on one of the five senses ‘hearing’ and we follow a girl through her school day. She listens to noisy sounds…quiet sounds in the world around her. In class activities linked to ‘The Natural World’ we will explore and ask questions about all our senses.

In the book ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ by Susanna Davidson we find out about the family of bears. In our learning about ‘Past and Present’ we talk about members of our family and people in the community. We will retell this story to each other in our outdoor classroom as we pretend to be the bears or Goldilocks.

The next book we read in English is ‘Everybody Counts’ by Kristin Roskifte. We use this book as a stimulus to make our own fact files. We will be counting and counting…as we find out about our body, our emotions and all the things we love to do! As we turn each page, we discover how we are all so amazing and how we all count!  

Another great book we share is ‘A Superhero Like You’ by Dr. Ranj Singh. In this book Lily wants to be a superhero when she grows up. She doesn’t want to be a superhero with a cape, she wants to be a real superhero. She meets doctors, teachers, paramedics and more... all making the world a better place. This term we are planning visits from fire fighters, police… as we learn about ‘People who help us.’ Please let us know if you would like to come into school and talk to the class about your job.

Finally, our class novel this term is ‘The Owl who was afraid of the Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson. This book oozes so many of our school values…courage, curiosity, compassion and perseverance as Plop the Owl overcomes his fear of the dark. Mrs Barn Owl sends Plop out from his nest hole to find out about all kinds of dark and he realises that dark really is super!

Looking forward to sharing many wonderful books this term!