This term, we will be learning about the seven continents of the world. We will be exploring similarities between countries within the same continent, as well as comparing different continents across the world. The children will also be learning about plants, trees and the importance of nature in our world.

We will be learning the following key vocabulary within our Geography sessions:

Continent

Asia

Africa

North America

South America

Antarctica

Europe

Australia

In alignment with our curriculum intent; we are continually developing the children’s oracy skills, ensuring they are confident in articulating themselves, using ambitious vocabulary and have a good understanding of what words mean. This term, we will continue to focus on one of our tier 2 words each week, whilst still implementing oracy as part of our home learning so that the children can practise using the new vocabulary at home.

Within our Phonics sessions, the children are recapping and learning the different spellings of sounds, for example /ai/ is the sound and this can be spelt in many different ways, for example rain, play, break, a, they.  We have now completed the Phonics Screening Checks to assess the children’s progress in recognising the different sounds, blending and segmenting. As the children are becoming more fluent at reading, we will be focussing on recognising punctuation and developing expression. Comprehension will also continue to be a focus and we are going to be covering a variety of genres during our daily story time session.

In English, we are reading ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go’. This is a rhyming book, so we will be exploring poetry, specifically rhyming and repetition. We will also use the theme of this book inspire them to write for the new Year 1 children next year. They will be role models in explaining some of the routines and expectations they have learnt over their time in Year 1. Lastly, we will be linking our writing to our Geography topic, by creating fact files of the continents we have learnt about. This will allow the children to explain what they have learnt over the term.

In Maths, we will be focusing on multiplication and division, fractions and money. The children will learn how to count in 2s, 5s and 10s as well as dividing into groups. They will be finding a half and a quarter of objects and numbers, whilst also recognising and writing their numbers to 100. We will finally be moving on to recognising and counting coins and notes.

In DT, we will be looking at how to live a healthy lifestyle. Within this, we will discuss what foods are good for our body and create a healthy smoothie. Children will handle and explore fruits and vegetables and learn how to identify which category they fall into. They will then undertake taste testing to establish their chosen ingredients for the smoothie they will make and design packaging for.

In our Music lessons, we will be learning songs that explore a range of musical techniques, including tempo, pitch, rhythm and lyric.

In PSHE, the children will explore the characteristics and impact of positive friendships. They will learn that they can overcome issues and that stereotyping is unfair. The children will also think about their individual strengths and new skills they have to prepare for their move from Year 1 to Year 2.

In PE, pupils will be introduced to the basic skills required in Net and Wall games. Pupils will learn the importance of the ready position. They will develop throwing, catching and racket skills, learning to track and hit a ball. They will learn to play against an opponent and over a net. With our Coxheath Sports Coach, pupils will develop skills required in athletic activities such as running at different speeds, changing direction, jumping and throwing. In all athletic based activities, pupils will engage in performing skills and measuring performance, competing to improve on their own score and against others.

In RE, we will be learning about what it means to belong to a faith community. We will be doing this by exploring symbols of belonging, in Christianity and Islam as well as comparing religious ceremonies in the two religions; particularly focusing on baptisms, welcoming ceremonies and weddings.

In Computing, we will be focussing on using spreadsheets this term. The children will learn how to navigate around a spreadsheet and explain what rows and columns are. The children will progress to enter data into cells, add clipart images and move cells around. Finally, they will learn how to add value to images and add the 'count tool' to find the total. 

For Reading, please continue to read your child’s school book with them every day. Please record all reading in their Learning Journals and tally up the reads for your child’s teacher to see.