January 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

Happy New Year!  Welcome back to another exciting term. It has been lovely welcoming the children back to school after the Christmas break. Here is an overview of the work that your child will be completing this term.

English

We will be introducing your child to poetry, with a focus on poems called ‘When the Wind Blows’ by John Foster and ‘The Mud-pie Makers’ Rhyme’ by Janet Paisley. The children will develop their ability to predict, improve on learned responses and develop their anticipation skills. We will continue to develop our communication skills through Makaton, Grid 3 and visuals (e.g. aided language displays/symbols), to support our understanding and provide opportunities for expression and movements.

Phonics

Through our simplified, fun and interactive approach to phonics, we will be developing our sound differentiation skills, listening to and recognising different environmental and musical sounds. Because we are at a pre-reading progression level, we will focus our learning on attaining responding and reacting skills, i.e. hear it, see it and if possible, say it.

Maths

Our focus this term is time, weight, number, add and take-away. We will use a scale to measure, clocks to tell the time and various objects to differentiate weight. Part of the objective is for the children to know how to respond to very obvious stimuli, to know how to turn their heads in response to sounds and sights, vocalisation and body movements.

PE

This will consist of swimming, yoga, dance and daily walks in the playground. This will also support the development of gross motor/fine motor skills. Our swimming days are Wednesdays or Fridays. Occasionally, extra swimming slots open up on other days, so please send your child’s swimming kit into school for us to keep in case. We will send it home once it has been used.

Science

Our theme for science is Light. There will be many exploratory sessions with lights, listening to stories such as ‘The Very Lonely Firefly’, crafts and starting to recognise that we need light in order to see things. We will learn that dark is the absence of light, notice that light is reflected from surfaces, begin to recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous ,that there are ways to protect our eyes from light and begin to recognise shadows.

Computing

We will introduce the children to online safety this term. This includes how to use the internet safely, being  given choices,  choosing our favourite music amongst two,  requesting  help using Makaton/communication cards/aided language displays-more/choice/finish and continuing to request if we need more support. The use of switch equipment according to the needs of each child to access any programs is necessary for independence. We will work on enabling the children to respond to very obvious stimuli.

Art and Design

Our topic is formal elements of art: pattern, texture and tone; to create printed patterns using everyday objects; take rubbings using different media and learn how to make our drawings three dimensional. This will also allow the children to experience a wide range of sensory experiences.

RE

We will be looking at friendships and its definition; who our friends are by looking at photos of friends/classmates. We will observe whether we can identify them by looking at them or responding to their names, recognising their voices/vocalisations or through facial puzzles of pupils-matching the pieces to show our faces and sing songs.

Geography

This term involves investigating/exploring our local area including our school, immediate environments and homes. We will learn about people and places in our class, school, homes, follow simple instructions and directional language to move around our school.

Music

Our sessions this term will focus on exploring sound/pitch & tempo (Luna New Year), Pentatonic melodies and composition. This will take place through sessions including those where the children will match the sound to an object or animal, know that when they hear a strong beat they need to use their claves, that percussion instruments produce vibrations when they are struck and know the joy and satisfaction of experiencing and learning something new. 

PSHE

We begin to learn how to manage strong feelings. Also, how we communicate our feelings to others, who we communicate with, how to manage anger/frustration, how to manage excitement/affection and how to make others feel Ok.

Please email us to let us know how your child is doing during the weekends or any news you would like to share with us – we love to hear about what the children are enjoying outside of school.

Best wishes,

Lorna, Agata, Caroline & Moira.