LITERACY
We will be reading a variety of different stories and using drama and role play to develop themes and ideas. We will be focusing on sentence structure; ‘Golden Sentence’. This includes capital letters, finger spaces and full stops, as well as using adjectives to make our writing more interesting.
Our focus book will be ‘Lost and Found’ which is a journey tale. Children will be learning to write their own stories and after the children learnt the story, they will plan and write their own journey tale by creating new characters and settings. We also have a big emphasis on handwriting and will be practising this every day.
There will be a big emphasis on phonics this term. The children will practise sounding out and blending real words and nonsense words in preparation for the Year 1 phonics screening later this year. It is vital that they continue to practise using their sound strings on a daily basis to support this.
In reading, we will continue to develop the children’s fluency and decoding strategies as well as encourage the children to read with meaning. Please continue to read with your child at home, but remember, even after they have learnt to read by themselves, it is still very important for parents to read stories aloud to their children – by reading stories on their interest level, but beyond their reading level, you can stretch your child’s understanding and motivate them to improve their skills. It can also be a very special bonding time and sends the message – reading is worthwhile!
NUMERACY
We will be focusing on adding, subtracting, grouping and sharing, as well as counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s. We will be learning about different 3d shapes and their properties in Shape, Space and Measure.
Every lesson will start with ‘Big Maths’, which is a systematic and structured approach to embed number and calculation knowledge.
Please could you support your child’s learning at home by practising their termly ‘learn its’ using the ‘learn it’ mats provided. The ‘learn its’ for this term, which they must learn off by heart are as follows:
2+8; 3+7; 4+6
4+2; 5+ 2; 6+2; 7+2; 9 + 2; 4+3; 5+3; 6+3
WIDER CURRICULUM
History: Last term our focus was on Geography, when we learned about ‘Our local area’; ‘Our country’ and ‘Our world’ and this term the focus will be on History and our topic is Toys. We are using this topic as children can relate to it and we use this as a platform to develop their understanding of present and past an how decisions can shape the future.
Science: This term we will be learning about ‘Animals, including humans’. We will be looking at the different animal groups and sorting the animals according to their characteristics. We will also be learning about the human body; this will include the 5 senses and learning the main parts of the human skeleton.
Religious Education: As part of Christianity, the children will be looking at ‘Jesus as a friend‘ and also ‘The story of Easter’ and how Christians celebrate Easter. At St Michael’s we have 7 school values and each half term we focus on one of our values in more depth – this half term is the value of Hope, and after February half term it will be the value of Resilience.
PE is on Monday mornings and this term our focus is on Gymnastics and Invasion Games. If your child has a school tracksuit, they may wear their tracksuit over PE clothes to school on a Monday.
Art & DT: In addition to art work the children will be doing in class, we also do termly ‘whole school art project’ at St Michael’s and this term our topic will be Sculpture, which we will definitely share on the blog, so watch this space! We also have a Design and Technology project around food technology planned for after half term, which will be super exciting!
Music: We use the Charanga scheme of work to teach music. In addition to our music lessons, the children also enjoy singing in our collective worships.
Computing: Our children are growing up in a digital world and in the Autumn Term the children were learning about online safety. Please monitor what the children are doing on the digital devices at home to ensure that the content the are accessing is age appropriate. Also, please continue to remind them of how they can keep themselves safe online. NetAware has a great website which offers parents expert advice on the top apps, sites and games children are using as well as advice how to set up parental controls.
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/
This term in computing our focus is on computer skills such as painting and word processing skills.
Modern Foreign Language – Italian: Research has shown that learning a second language has cognitive benefits. We are therefore fortunate to have a teacher from the Italian embassy visiting the school once a week to expose the children to the foreign language of Italian.
Let’s Talk: At St Michael’s we have designed a ‘Healthy Body, Mind and Spirit’ curriculum and we deliver our teaching in what we call a ‘Let’s Talk’ session once a week. The theme for this term is ‘Be Yourself’, with the aims to enable children to identify their strengths and achievements as well as help them to recognise different emotions they experience.
HOMEWORK
Phonics: Children will be given phase 5 sound and tricky word mats to practise reading. Phase 5 is one of the more difficult phases so please practise on a daily basis.
Reading books are changed twice a week on a Monday and Thursday. Daily reading is encouraged as it will greatly help your child’s learning in other curriculum areas. Please remember to sign your child’s reading log at least twice a week.
Learn-its and spellings will be given out on Monday, children will be tested on the following Friday.Also, children will be given their new set of Spelling Learn-it’s for them to learn to read and spell.
Please continue to complete the assigned Mathletics homework as it is checked on a weekly basis.
GENERAL – LABEL ITEMS OF CLOTHING
Whilst the school cannot accept any liability for loss of school uniform items, we will do our best to return lost items of clothing… However, we can only do that if the item of clothing is LABELLED! So please ensure you have put your child’s name on especially their jumper or coat, as they often take it off during play and then forget it in the playground when they go back to class.
HOW TO STAY INFORMED
We post blogs on our school website every week, so please continue to check what is happening at St Michael’s. More information about the curriculum can also be seen our website.
Our Spring Term parents meeting is planned for the 25th March, but if you have any concerns, please come and talk to us!
