Class Teacher: Mrs. Whatcott

Teaching Assistant: Mrs. Garland

The first few weeks will be an exciting time as children settle into their first year of Primary School at the Dassett. There will regular updates on Tapestry and a class update in our school weekly newsletter. First and foremost, we will be working to ensure your children feel safe and happy at school, ready for all the learning they will do!

Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED) 

Jigsaw 

In Autumn 1 our topic is Being Me in My World. Children will talk about how they have similarities and differences from their friends and how that is OK. They will begin working on recognising and managing their feelings, identifying different ones and the causes these can have. The children talk about working with others and why it is good to be kind and use gentle hands. They discuss children’s rights, especially linked to the right to learn and the right to play. The children talk about what it means to be responsible, especially in relation to jobs we all do in the classroom, such as looking after our classroom and school.

Stories to support our learning this half term are ‘Kipper’s Toy Box’ by Mick Inkpen, ‘Same but different too’ by Karl Newson, The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas, , ‘The Great Big Book of Feelings’ by Mary Hoffman, ‘The Squirrels who squabbled’ by Rachel Bright, ‘Hands are not for hitting’ by Martine Agassi, ‘Kind’ by Axel Scheffler, ‘Tidy Up’ by Emily Gravett and ‘The Little Red Hen’ by Ronne Randall

Our key vocabulary this half term is kind, gentle, friend, similar, different, rights, responsibilities, feelings, angry, happy, excited, nervous, sharing, taking turns, unique.

In Autumn 2 our Topic is Celebrating Difference. Children will be encouraged to think about things that they are good at whilst understanding that everyone is good at different things. They will talk about being different and how that makes everyone special but also recognising that we are the same in some ways. The children will talk about their homes and are asked to explain why it is special to them. They will talk about friendship and how to be a kind friend and how to stand up for themselves if someone says or does something unkind to them

Stories to support our learning this half term are ‘Spreading my Wings’ - Nadiya Hussain, ‘Owl Babies’ - Martin Waddell, ‘Our Class is a Family’ - Shannon Olsen, ‘On Sudden Hill’ - Linda Sarah, ‘Mixed’ - Arree Chung, ‘Elmer’ - David Mckee, ‘Super Duper You’ - Sophy Henn, ‘Fabulous Frankie’ - Simon Green and Garry Parsons, ‘It’s OK to Be Different’ - Todd Parr, ‘The Same but Different too’ - Karl Newson and Kate Hinley, ‘Hello Friend’ - Rebecca Cobb, ‘Kind’ - Alex Scheffler.

Our key vocabulary this half term is proud, happy, special, unique, different, similar, differences, similarities,  family, home, friendship, friends,  kind and unkind.

Physical Education (PE)

PE will be on a Friday morning with Mr. Stops from Onside.  Children will need to come into school in their PE kit on this day. 

Autumn 1 –  Basic Multi Skills with a focus on throwing and catching.  Children will

-move freely, with pleasure and confidence in a range of skilful ways where they will be encouraged to run in a controlled way, changing speed and direction to avoid obstacles.

-learn to accept the needs of others

-become aware of boundaries set and behaviour expectations.

Autumn 2 – Gymnastics

Children will learn how to use low level apparatus such as benches, low agility tables, top vault and gymnastics mats safely, learning how to get on and off them, landing correctly.  Children will take turns on the equipment and explore different ways to move over the different apparatus. As their confidence and skills progress children will begin to use more complex equipment, including wall bars.

Literacy

As a school we follow the Twinkl Phonics Scheme using their Rhino Readers book scheme.  There are daily phonics lessons. In Reception we will start Phase 2 where the children will learn to recognize and say around 19 letters and their sounds, including the introduction of some two-letter digraphs (e.g., ff, ll, ss) and three tricky words.  Children will build their oral blending and segmenting skills from Phase 1 and focus on reading and spelling simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, like "sat" or "pin". Children will also start to practice writing these letters and words. 

We will be using Pathways to write to introduce texts to children and through a structured sequence of learning, children will develop essential skills such as oracy, listening and an awareness that their marks or writing hold meaning. The texts we will be using in Autumn 1 are The Gingerbread Man by Mara Alperin and a Bundle of Nursery Rhymes. In Autumn 2 our texts will be Festivals by Jane Bingham and collection of poems “Step back in Time”.

Maths

We follow the NCTEM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) Mastering Number Programme for the teaching of Maths in Reception.  

Autumn 1  

Children will be introduced to subitising where they will quantify sets of objects by ‘just seeing’ and knowing straightaway without needing to count.  They will be introduced to the Numberblocks 1 to 5 and will be learning about these numbers. Children will develop their counting skills by engaging in activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are by learning the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether (the principle of cardinality).  Children will explore how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, begin to investigate the composition of numbers to 5 exploring part hole relations., e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. The children will learn from practical experience that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts. Children will also compare amounts learning the language of ‘fewer than’ and ‘more than’ to describe quantities in each set.

Children will be doing lots of practical activities to support their mathematical development and will also be singing lots of songs. Songs we will be singing to support counting and counting forward are

Hickory Dickory Dock the Mouse ran up the clock

Two Little Dickie Birds, one named Peter one named Paul

Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool?

One Potato, two potato

10 Little dinosaurs

1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive

5 Little Peas in a Pea Pod Pressed

In Shape, Space and Measure children will compare different aspects such as length, weight and volume, as a preliminary to using units to compare later. Activities are practical and linked to other areas of the curriculum. In learning about themselves they will measure how tall they are, how long their feet are. Children will observe length as they learn to make paper chains in preparation for the Christmas. They will measure ingredients as they experience making bread, playdough and cookies.

Autumn 2

Children will do activities to practise cardinality, counting objects, actions and sounds. They will practise 1 to 1 correspondence by counting items at the same time as tagging or moving objects. They will learn about number 5, including representing it on their fingers and on the Hungarian number pattern. They will practise comparing sets of objects, matching them 1:1, usin the language of ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’.  They will look at composition, understanding that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that the whole is, therefore,  bigger than its parts. Children will explore the composition of numbers 3, 4 and 5 with a focus on the special arrangements that can be made with different combinations of the same number of objects. There will be lots of practising of counting, ensuring 1 to 1 correspondence, to secure their understanding of cardinality and the conservation of number (understanding that the quantity of a set of objects remains the same even if their physical arrangement meaning no objects are added or removed).

Religious Education (RE)

We follow the Agreed Syllabus for Warwickshire and Coventry Religious  as advised by the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) .This sets out a clear vision for children to develop their worldviews alongside case studies from various religions. In Autumn 1 children will explore the Question -how do people show they belong? In Autumn 2  we are following the Understanding Christianity unit ‘Why do Christians perform nativity plays at Christmas?’ which explores the theme of  Incarnation and that Christians believe God came to Earth in human form as Jesus and believe Jesus came to show that all people are precious and special to God.

Music 

We use CHARANGA to teach music. In the Autumn Term children will explore and learn about pulse, rhythm and pitch. They will hear a wide variety of music styles and enjoy music by moving to music by dancing, marching, being animals or Pop stars. They will sing along to a pre-recorded song and add actions and learn to sing with the backing track.
 

Cornerstones Projects

Our overarching topic in Autumn 1 is ‘Me and My Community’.  This project supports children with settling into the new rules and routines of school and encourages them to make new friends and feel confident in their class. It teaches children about being helpful, kind and thoughtful at home and at school. This project also teaches children how they are unique and special, the importance of friendship and how people in their family, school and local community are important and can help them.

We will also be looking at Exploring Autumn. Children will learn about the natural changes that happen during the season of autumn, including how the weather changes, why trees lose their leaves and how wild animals prepare for winter.

In Autumn 2 our focus will be ‘Once Upon a time’, a Literacy Project designed to develop a love of stories and reading. It encourages children to learn, retell and act out familiar and traditional tales including Cindrella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Children will also be learning about the celebrations that take place during the autumn and winter seasons, and focus on the significance and symbolism of light at this time of year in the project ‘Sparkle and Shine’.