Learning Experience Rationale

The learning experience is called “Why do we have seasons?” and as part of this, we will be learning about the four seasons and what causes them. The children will develop an understanding that the Earth rotates around the sun on a tilt, causing the four seasons and that these seasons impact which food can be grown where. Children will develop an understanding of the equator and how this impacts food production. We will begin to learn map skills, starting with learning where the United Kingdom is on the map (and globe), and children will be able to locate the equator and talk about why it is so hot there. Once children understand that there are four distinct seasons in the UK, we will link this to their prior learning of how plants grow, and plant our Radish seeds to produce a late crop of our own.

Learning Experience Outcome

Children will each produce a unit of work that demonstrates how their understanding has progressed through the half term. They will each write a new extract from the story ‘The Enormous Turnip’ with a new animal coming to help pull the Turnip from the ground. We will share this with you virtually over Seesaw. The children will learn Harvest songs and perform these. These will be recorded and uploaded to Seesaw for parents at home to enjoy.

In Assemblies we are learning why Respect is important.

British Value

This half term, in our Class Assemblies, we are learning about the British Value of 'Individual Liberty'.

Vocabulary

The children will be introduced to a range of vocabulary, ranging from simple everyday words (tier 1) to complex vocabulary that is context driven (tier 3).

Tier 1 and 2 words: Weather, Crop, Soil, Sun, Growing, Daylight, Year, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

Tier 3 words: Season, Seasonal, Equator, Tilt, Germination, Sunrise, Sunset, Late crop.

Maths

We will be assessing the children for their understanding and knowledge of place value. We will then use these assessments to inform our teaching. Year 1 children will be learning about place value with numbers up to 10 and then 20, and Year 2 children will be learning about the place value of numbers up to 100 after recapping place value to 20. It is particularly important that children practice their number bonds to 10 and to 20 as often as possible as this will help to ensure they become fluent and confident.

Music, art, poetry and film as part of this Learning Experience

The children will participate in fortnightly music lessons, focused on developing a sense of rhythm and keeping to a beat.

Wider Curriculum:

In RE the children will be focusing on Gospel stories from the Bible. They will develop an understanding of the ‘good news’ that Jesus brings Christians.

In PE the children will be participating in Sports Hall Athletics and creating their own activity circuits:

Tuesday – Tawny Owls and Snowy Owls

Wednesday – Little Owls

Literacy:

Children will write a new narrative story as part of our work on ‘The Enormous Turnip’. They will write about a new animal coming to join in, focusing on describing the new animal using a range of adjectives, and using a range of different adverbs and verbs for the pulling up of the turnip. Children will develop their understanding of what forms a sentence through this work and recap their use of full stops and capital letters, as well as letter formation. All children will be taught how to orally rehearse a sentence before writing it down and will be composing their own sentences.

Reading at Home: Children will bring home two new Read Write Inc books weekly. Please encourage your child to read these aloud to you as often as is possible. These books are linked to sounds they have learnt and they should read these independently. This will help your child to develop fluency and expression, which will enable them to become confident readers. Your child will also bring home a library book. Please share this with your child and enjoy time spent reading together.

Dates to remember:

Thursday 3^rd September – First day of term.

Wednesday 23^rd September – Tempest Photography in school for individual pupil photos

Monday 26^th October – First day of half term holidays

Home Learning

* ‘Plant a seed’ activity.

*‘All about me’ activity.

Both of these activities can be found on your child’s Seesaw account. Please complete them over the summer holidays and upload to Seesaw.

Messages:

Allergies: We have a number of children with nut and kiwi allergies so please ensure these products are not brought into school.

Absence: Should your child be absent due to illness please call the absence line on 01803 607589 and leave a message with your child’s name, class and reason for absence. Alternatively, you can text this information to 07786208446. If your child has sickness and/or diarrhoea, they will need to be absent for 48 hours after the last episode of illness. For planned absences of any nature, you will need to complete an absence request form-these are available on the school website.

Parking on the drive: In an effort to keep everyone safe, please do not park on the school drive when dropping off or picking up children.