Dear Parents/carers,
Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely Easter break and are looking forward to what we hope will be a much more straightforward Summer term!
Our topic for this half term will be ‘Growing and Life cycles’. We will begin by looking at plants, examining and planting a variety of seeds, both indoors and out, and tracking their progress as they grow. We will also perform an experiment to look at what seeds and plants need to grow and be watching carefully to see the results. We will follow this by looking at the life cycles of frogs and ducks or chickens and will hopefully track the development of some frog spawn at school.
The topic for the second half of the term will be ‘Minibeasts’. Again, this will be very ‘hands on’, exploring and investigating the wildlife in our local area as well as further afield.
Daily sessions of Read, Write Inc have been reinstated and will continue as usual with a greater focus on writing sentences accurately. To help the children to consolidate and use the sounds they have learnt for blending and segmenting we will also be introducing weekly spelling tests. These are typically introduced after Christmas at the beginning of the Spring term and are a valuable addition to their phonics learning. Spelling books and a letter giving further detail will be provided shortly in book bags.
Before the holidays, we completed some preliminary assessment of maths concepts with the children. As a result, in Maths lessons we will be revising some aspects such as one more/one less than numbers to 20 and addition /subtraction of single digit numbers to ensure they are embedded, as well as looking at solving problems involving money. Towards the end of the first half term, we will also look at parts of Space, Shape and Measure such as weight and capacity.
Weekly reminders:
* Reading books have returned to being changed on Mondays and Fridays. Please ensure books are in book bags and the home contact book has been signed.
* P.E. takes place on Mondays. Reception children will change for P.E. in school as independence in dressing and undressing forms part of the Early Leaning Goal for Physical Development and this provides a good opportunity for additional practise. Please ensure the children have a kit in school on this day although it is helpful if they remain in school throughout the week in case we need to reschedule. We will be outside whenever possible so please could you also ensure the children have trainers for outdoors use.
* Show & Tell will begin again on Friday afternoons on a rota system. The dates for each biscuit group are as follows:
| 16th April | 23rd April | 30th April | 7th May | 14th May | 21st May |
| No Show and Tell | Bourbons | Cookies | Custard Creams | Digestives | Jammie Dodgers |
HALF TERM
| 11th June | 18th June | 25th June | Thurs 1st July | 9th July | 16th July |
| Bourbons | Cookies | Occasional Day | Custard Creams | Digestives | Jammie Dodgers |
A few dates for your diaries:
* Sports Day is on Friday 2nd July. This consists of a carousel of activities in which the children take part in ‘house teams’ in the morning, followed by running races in the afternoon. In normal circumstances, parents are welcome to support their children for either or both events. We are hopeful that this will be the case again this year.
* Our Summer Fair is on Saturday 17th July at 4pm. This is a very popular event in our school calendar and not to be missed!
We are looking forward to a very busy and enjoyable term! As always, if you have any questions or concerns at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Jenny Kerr and Mrs Jane Carmichael