This term, we have many exciting things planned under our topics of 'Life Cycles/Growing' and ' Journeys'. Some of the texts which support these topics are: Titch, Ten Little seeds, Once there were Giants, The Most Amazing Eid, On my Way Home, What the ladybird heard, Rosie’s Walk, The Hungry Caterpillar, Jack and the Beanstalk, Caterpillars and Butterflies, Whatever Next, Oi get off our Train and Where the Wild Things Are.

In Communication, Language and Literacy the children will:

• Be proactive in seeking adult support and able to articulate their wants and needs. 
• Extend vocabulary: blossom, buds, bulb, evergreen, deciduous. 
• Use correct terms e.g. chrysalis, pupa when observing life cycle of butterfly and ladybirds.
• Hold conversations when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teachers and peers. 
• Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past and present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.
• Be able to recall and discuss stories or information that has been read to them, or they have read themselves.
• Listen and respond to ideas expressed by others in conversation or discussion.
• Understand questions such as who; why; when; where and how.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development the children will:

• Describe their competencies, what they can do well and are getting better at describing themselves in positive but realistic terms.
• Be increasingly socially skilled and take steps to resolve conflicts with other children by negotiating and finding a compromise; sometimes by themselves, sometimes with support.
• Recognise that they belong to different communities and social groups and communicate freely about their own home and community.
• Attempts to repair a relationship or situation where they have caused upset and understands how their actions impact other people.

In Physical Development the children will: 

• Develop and refine a range of ball skills including: throwing, catching, kicking, batting and aiming.
• Watch and talk about dance and performance art, expressing their feelings and responses.
• Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others.
• Demonstrates strength, balance and coordination when playing.
• Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing.

In Literacy the children will

• Read some letter groups that each represent one sound and say sounds for them.
• Read simple phrases and sentences made up of words with known letter-sound correspondences and a few exception words.
• Describe main story settings, events and principal characters in increasing detail.
• Give explanations of why events happened in a story.
• Be able to recall and discuss stories or information that has been read to them, or they have read themselves.
• Write short sentences with words with known sound-letter correspondences using a capital letter and full stop.
• Write sentences, sequencing them to form short narratives.
• Re-read what they have written to check if it makes sense.
• Form lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place.
• Form capital letters.

In Maths the children will:

• Have a deep understanding of numbers to 10, including the composition of each number.
• Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5.
• Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.
• Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system.
• Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity.
• Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.

In Understanding the World the children will: 

• Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.  
• Have some understanding of growth and change.
• Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past.
• Talk about past and present events in their own life and in the lives of family members.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children will:

• Respond imaginatively to artworks and objects.
• Explore, use & refine a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas and feelings.
• Express and communicate working theories, feelings and understandings.
• Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs.
• Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others and when appropriate, try to move in time with music.

Additionally, in Music lessons this term, we will start by exploring pitch through our topic ‘Climb, Buzz, Wriggle’.

• The children will use movement and songs to explore sounds that move between high and low.
• The children will experiment with different tuned percussion instruments and play musical games.
• The children will explore timbre, looking at different instruments and their sounds. They will match instruments and vocals sounds to characteristics of sea creatures and play sea sound effects on percussion instruments. They will listen to a range of sea-related pieces of music and respond with movement.

• Your child should read or be read to for 10 minutes every day. Please talk to your child about the book and check their understanding by asking questions about events and the characters’ actions. Please also explain new or unfamiliar vocabulary. Their bookbag should come into school every day. 
• Your child will have PE once a week. Their PE kit should stay in school in a named draw-string bag.
• Your child needs to bring in a named water bottle every day.
• Please name all items of clothing.
• We are a Healthy School. Please do not put sweets or chocolate bars in your child’s packed lunch. Please do not send in sweets or other treats when it is your child’s birthday. If you want to celebrate your child’s birthday with their classmates, you could buy the class a book, send in a healthy snack such as boxes of raisins or buy stationery such as pencils, but due to the impact on the environment, we ask you not to send in plastic toys.
• The weekly 50p donation that purchases snacks and other miscellaneous items is collected on a Friday morning. You are welcome to pay weekly, half termly or termly.
• If your child will be absent from school, please contact the school office: 020 8850 5486 and leave a message detailing why your child is absent. Please try to book medical appointments outside of the school day and note that family holidays will not be authorised.
• If you have any questions or wish to raise a concern, please contact the class teacher in the first instance. Please use the email addresses above. 

Please note the following events and add them to your diary:

• Friday 26th April - Cake Sale and Pre-Loved Uniform Sale
• Monday 29th April - Class photographs
• Thursday 2nd May - Local elections (Sports Hall) – school open as usual
• Monday 6th May - Bank Holiday – school closed
• 20th to 24th May - Walk to School Week
• 27th to 31st May - Half-term break
• Monday 3rd June - Inset Day – school closed
• Tuesday 4th June - Children return to school
• 17th to 21st June - Dance workshops for all year groups
• Wednesday 26th June - Reception visit to the Royal Observatory
• 9th to 11th July - Gordon Exhibition 
• Friday 12th July - EYFS Sports Day (morning)
• Friday 19th July - 120th Anniversary Party 
• Wednesday 24th July - last day of term - school closes at 1:30pm