Welcome back to our final term in Macaw class, and what a busy term we have planned.

Our theme this half

term will be Traditional Tales. We have begun our theme using our talking tub and have a great interest in
the tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Gingerbread man. We will begin our theme with these
tales focusing on the structure of stories, characters, setting and acting out different scenes from
different tales.
Also this half term we will be joining in with Walton Le Dales 50 th celebration week, week beginning 18th
May, involving lots of singing, dancing, baking, arts and crafts. More information will be sent nearer to time
informing you about all the exciting things that will be happening that week.
In our final half term we have planned to look into animals: different groups of animals, habitats and
looking after animals. As we work on the interests of the children we will be completing another talking tub
to find out what the children are interested in and plan around this.
In Phonics this half term we will be orally blending and segmenting words. This involves segmenting words
up into their sounds; for example hat word be h-a-t, 3 sounds; sheep would be segmented into sh-ee-p
also 3 sounds. During this learning will not be writing letters to go with the sounds, the purpose of this is
to hear the sounds within words to prepare them for when letters are introduced. Playing games such as
eye spy and Simon says (Pat your h-ea-d) at home would reinforce sound recognition supporting your
childs learning. Towards the end of Summer term we will begin to introduce some letters and sounds from
Phase 2 looking at the shape of the letters, the sounds they make and using actions to help support our
learning of the sounds, the letters that we will be focusing on include; s, a, t, p, i and n as well as recapping
Phase 1 phonics listening skills.
During Mathematics we will be reinforcing our number recognition, looking at one more and one less than a
given number and also focusing on one to one correspondence when counting. To support this we be going on
number hunts, asking questions to promote thoughts about numbers that come before and after certain
numbers, counting objects set out in groups and matching the correct quantity to numeral. In shape, space
and measure we will be recapping on repeating patterns, shape names and shape properties and will be
beginning to look at 3D solid shapes. To support this we will be making repeating patterns using a variety of
different materials around our inside and outside classroom. We will also be comparing shapes, describing
them to our friends and learning lots of new facts about 3D shapes.
Throughout Physical Education we will continue to develop our independence in getting changed and turning
clothing the correct way, which we are getting very good at! We will also be continuing our Sports Day
practice, learning a variety of skills including balance, coordination and moving in a variety of ways. We will
also be learning about team spirit, the importance of taking part in our activities and trying our best.
You can have a huge impact on how your child develops both in confidence and ability by encouraging and
supporting them at home. Asking them to help you with everyday tasks such as counting objects and
collecting a specific amount of objects from around the house, noticing numbers and print in the
environment, encouraging mark making for shopping lists, writing their name in cards, segmenting words
into sounds, continuing rhyming strings, communicating with your child, asking questions, modelling language
about the world around us and personal interests and making silly sounds to encourage mouth movements
to encourage correct sound pronunciation.
I would also like to thank you for sharing your childs achievements using the Magic Moment cards, the
children have really enjoyed coming up and sharing their achievements with their friends and ask you to
continue share these achievements with us.
Thank you for your continued support
Miss Anderson