Term 5

English:

Scottish Owls have had a fantastic term learning about all sorts of creepy-crawlies. The children have loved exploring new and exciting vocabulary to describe various minibeasts. In Phonics, we have been practising blending and segmenting. Our favourite part of our phonic lessons are, ‘Alien words,’ the children love to blend the words and pull funny faces when they say the words aloud.

Our practise and revision of the sounds has been evident in our independent writing. We have enjoyed writing about ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and non-fiction books on insects and bugs. We have also been learning rhyming words and we are becoming really good at hearing them in stories! The children are using more red words in their writing and it is fantastic to see them all trying to write sentences. We have been practicing our finger spaces, full stops and capital letters and they even know what a question mark is used for.

Maths:

Scottish Owls have been exploring numbers to 10 and beyond. They have been looking at how numbers beyond 10 are made up of tens and ones. They are incorporating patterns now in a lot of their work and are proud to show us their beautiful patterns.

The children have been learning to order and write numerals to 10 and have just started to count and order to 20. They have had lots of fun doing this by finding missing numbers, using number lines, numicon, cubes, and practicing on the white boards. They started to learn counting on and back and loved playing snakes and ladders.

Learning through play is a lovely way to reinforce mathematical language and concepts, for example, through maths games like dominoes, snakes and ladders, 10 frames, counting bugs and matching to the correct numeral. We have started to learn that one full ten frame and five counters on the second frame add up to fifteen altogether.

Topic:

Scottish Owls have been busy bug hunting all term! They have been taking a closer look at the insects and bugs that they have found under leaves and logs. They also loved learning facts about minibeasts through looking at non-fiction books and stories. We focused on life cycles, bug habitats, bugs around the world and hygiene. We sat in a circle and put glitter on one person’s hands and shook our neighbour’s hands to see how quickly germs are spread; we were all sparkly at the end of that activity! We made Henri Matisse famous snail art, and some of us want to go to London to see his artwork now. We also learnt some classical music, we listened to ‘The Flight of the Bumble Bee’ and spoke about the bug the song reminded the children of and how it made them feel.

Term 4

Maths:

This term in Maths, we have been making comparisons between objects relating to size and length. We loved making towers of different sizes and exploring things of different lengths. We got to feel things that were heavy and light and enjoyed using balance scales to find out exactly which item was heavier or lighter. We also focused a lot on number bonds to 5 and 10 using part whole models and ten frames.

Topic:

Our topic this term was ‘Ready, Steady, Grow’.

The children looked closely at the various seeds, even growing their own beanstalks and some vegetables. We learnt that plants need soil, water and sunlight to grow and survive. We found lots of different plants on our Forest school trip to Shorne Woods Country Park.

Our favourite texts linked to our topic were, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, ‘The Enormous Turnip’ and ‘Handa’s Surprise’. We enjoyed learning about different fruits linked to Handa’s surprise and discussed what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, including the importance of brushing your teeth. We learnt all about farms and what produce we get from them. We spoke about Spring and what changes happen.

This term we celebrated Neurodiversity Day. The children got to come to school dressed in their own clothes and we spoke about how we are all different. We also did our first class assembly and although we were nervous we all did brilliantly up on stage and remembered our songs and poems.

English:

In English this term we have been using our phonic knowledge to write simple sentences using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. The children are learning to remember all the features they need to write a super sentence, and are segmenting so well. We wrote about our favourite part of the forest school trip, many of the children enjoyed the coach ride, climbing the tree and eating a packed lunch! We also love playing ‘teacher’ with the sound cards.

Term 3

Maths:

This term, we have been looking at the composition of the numbers: 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. We have been combining groups together and have been introduced to the part-whole model. We have also been using the 10 frame for lots of our fun activities

We played a fun game where we had to put the apples in the tree when given an instruction of positional language. We also got to play with the Bee Bots and had to help them go in the right direction.

In keeping with our topic of long ago, we also played some old maths games like hopscotch, snakes and ladders and dominoes.

Scottish Owls have been using vocabulary such as: ‘more’, ‘less’, ‘fewer’, ‘first’, ‘then’, ‘now’, ‘together’, ‘total’, ‘part’, ‘whole’… these are just some of the key language we spoke about this term!

English:

Scottish Owls have been consolidating their skills by blending and segmenting sounds that they have learned. We have been playing a fun game with magnetic boards and letters and have to blend to make words.

As part of our topic, ‘Long Ago’, we listened to and discussed a range of fiction and non-fiction texts linked to our topic including, ‘The Tiger who came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr, ‘Rosie’s Hat’ by Julia Donaldson and ‘Coming to England’ by Floella Benjamin.

We explored so many traditional tales, like ‘The Gingerbread Man’, ‘Rapunzel’, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and so many more! We also enjoyed a rhyming book written by one of our favourite authors; Julia Donaldson, called ‘Chocolate Mouse for Greedy Goose.’

The books created many writing opportunities, including labelling, making lists, role playing with characters, making a meal for the tiger and writing shopping lists.

It has been fantastic seeing the progress that the children have made in reading and writing.

Topic:

The children were introduced to language relating to time, including 'yesterday' and 'last week'. We learnt that the past is made of events that have already happened and that memories are things we remember from the past. The children looked at pictures from the past and began to spot similarities and differences between pictures of the past and the modern day. They made observations about objects and artefacts from the past, such as toys, clothes and other items relating to everyday life.

We spoke about the seasons and how they change. We even learnt a song.

We discussed our families’ culture and heritages and spoke about where we were born by looking on the World Map.

The children brought in photographs of themselves as babies. We had fun looking at the photos and seeing if the children could guess who was who and discussed how we had changed.

A highlight this term was a visit from a storyteller. We enjoyed retelling stories linked to our theme, role playing stories using puppets and painting and drawing scenes from stories.

Term 2

Topic:

‘Marvellous Machines’ has been a very interesting topic this term.  The children have enjoyed discussions about the machines that we use in our everyday lives, as well as how machines have changed over the years. Interactive learning activities, such as controlling remote-controlled cars, was a highlight. The children had fun practising their directional awareness skills.

The Nativity rehearsals, which have taken place during the term, have encouraged lots of opportunity for movement, singing and dancing. The children have learnt actions, and how to move rhythmically and keep to the beat. It has been a great way to improve gross motor skills, which supports the children’s co-ordination and will even help to improve their handwriting.

English:

We have read inspiring and humorous stories relating to our theme. There have been discussions about how characters may be feeling, as well as discussing our favourite parts of stories. Through story maps, the children have learnt to sequence events. There has been lots of mark making and writing. The children are using the new sounds that they are learning in phonics, to help them write initial sounds and simple words.

Maths:

We have been learning to identify representations of numbers 1-5 and learning to subitise, or count, to find out how many objects there are. We used dice to count out the corresponding number of objects, which were placed into two groups. The children discussed the concepts of more and less.  Children have been using chalk on the ground to make marks to represent numbers. They have been exploring Numicon and this has helped them to learn that numbers are made up of smaller numbers.

The children have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. They have explored real life objects and are able to identify that circles have one curved side and triangles have 3 straight sides. They began to recognise these shapes on everyday items in the classroom and outside.

Term 1

Maths:

This term the children have been counting, comparing amounts and sorting objects in different ways. Scottish Owls have been using vocabulary such as ‘more’, ‘the same as’ and ‘fewer’ to compare objects. They also completed a practical measurement activity when the concepts of “shorter”, “taller”, “bigger” and “smaller” were explored.

The children have been using various objects, including autumnal objects, to sort and group, as well as to count, compare and make patterns. They used shapes to create pictures of their homes and buildings used in the local community, such as hospitals and schools.

Phonics:

Scottish Owls have been playing various listening games, including ‘Guess the Sound’. They have started learning new sounds and practising how to write letters, starting on the line and using lead-ins.

They have been introduced to Fred the phonics frog.  He only uses the sounds in each word. The children have enjoyed playing a listening game where they have to say what is in Fred’s bag by blending the sounds that they can hear to make the correct word. They have also been using their ‘Fred fingers’ to work out how many sounds there are in CVC words like ‘mat’ or “sat”.

Children have been experimenting with mark making using white boards and black markers, as well as also shaving foam, glitter, paint and chalk. They have also been practising writing their names.

It has been wonderful to see the children enthusiastically transfer what they have learned as a whole class to their independent learning time.

Topic

‘Let’s Explore’ has been a lovely way to start our year. The topic has inspired the children to think about the environments that they share with others, including their homes, school and places in the local community.

Linking in with our topic, the children have been thinking about what they would like to be when they grow up.  Occupation dress-up day was met with great enthusiasm and excitement. The topic regarding “people who help us” was explored, as well as emergency vehicles that are used.