English

We will be learning about seeds and lifecycles in Science, and will use this knowledge to write our own explanation of the lifecycle of a sunflower in our writing lessons.

Our focus for this half term is to write all of the letters of the alphabet correctly.

This is an important step to achieve as it will make it easier for your child to write quickly and join up their writing as they progress through school. It would really help if you could support your child to hold their pencil correctly and practise writing each letter correctly. To make this more interesting, you could try using our app ‘Letter Join’ at home to support correct letter formation.

Please see the letter sent via Groupcall on 10^th February 2023.

Each day we will read lots of wonderful food related books for pleasure and enjoyment and for the children to widen their exposure to quality texts.

Each morning, the children will work in small groups on phonics. This is a combination of skills to support reading, writing and spelling. We use the Read Write Inc scheme and the children are becoming more and more familiar with Fred talk; and green or red words. This learning is supported through reading at home. It is extremely beneficial to the children if they can read as often at home with you. We always love to hear the children read in school and see their improved progress.

To be on track with reading at this stage in the year, children should be in Orange, Yellow or Blue group. If your child is working in Red, Green, Purple or Pink, we are working hard to help them progress quickly to catch up. You can help at home by finding time each day to listen to your child read their Read Write Inc Book Bag book with your child and allowing your child to ‘show off’ their storyteller voice with their Read Write Inc paper book that they have been reading in school.

If you would like to know more about how to support your child, please speakto your child’s class teacher or Mrs Cockerill, English Leader.

Vocabulary

Capital letter, full stop, finger space, title, headings, sub-heading,fiction, non-fiction, diagram, caption.

Maths

Measure – Length and Height

Next half, children will use non-standard units, such as cubes, hands and straws to measure length and height, understanding that the units they use need to be of equal length.

We will work on recognising that longer, non-standard units are more suitable for measuring the length and height of longer/taller objects.

Mathematical talk will be explored throughout our learning

Which person is taller/shorter?

Which pencil is shorter/longer?

Are we measuring the height or length of something?

What is the same?

What is different?

How many different sentences can you make to compare the vehicles? Say them to your partner

Weight and Mass

In this unit of learning, children will be introduced to weight and mass for the first time, however they may already have some understanding of heavy and light from their own experience of carrying objects. We will begin by holding objects and describing them using vocabulary such as heavy, light, heavier than, lighter than before using the scales to check. The children may believe that larger objects are always heavier and this misconception should be explored.

Mathematical talk will be explored throughout our learning

Hold two objects, which is heavier/lighter?

How do you know?

How can we prove this?

Are larger objects always heavier than smaller objects?

If the balance scale is down, what does that tell us?

If the balance scale is up, what does that tell us?

If the balance is level, what does that tell us?

Which of these objects is heavier?

How do you know?

How will this be shown on the weighing scale?

Vocabulary

Taller, shorter, longer, unit of measure, height, length, heavier, lighter, balance scale, larger, smaller, weighing scale

Science

Seasonal change

We will be looking at a range of plants and trees, identify different types that are common to the United Kingdom.   We will explore the life cycle of different plants and trees and extend our knowledge through our food topic, looking at plants around the world and why they need to grow in different climates.

Vocabulary

Wild plants, garden plants, deciduous, evergreen, trunk, branch, leaf, root, fruit, vegetables, bulb, seed, leaves, bud, flowers, blossom, petals, stem, climate, weather

Computing

Children will learn how to explore and tinker with hardware to find out how it works.  They will use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of a simple programme and use decomposition to solve challenges

Children develop skills that enable them to follow simple set of instructions and use this to programme a floor robot to follow a planned route.

Children will also explore how to ‘debug’ a programme when things don’t go as expected and try solutions to fix the problems.

Vocabulary

Algorithm, Bee-bot, forwards, backwards, turn right, turn left, go, pause, clear, computing code, computing programme, instructions, predict

Religious Education

The Easter Story

Over the Spring 2 half term, we will be learning about the Easter story and what it means to Christians. We will explore the story a little bit at a time, so that we really understand each part.

Art and Design

Free Standing Structures

Children will be engaged in activities where they fold paper or card in different ways to make freestanding structures and make joins where necessary.  They will think about how folding materials can make them stronger, stiffer, stand up and be more stable.

Children will then use this knowledge to work on challenges that require them to apply their skills and learning experiences.

Vocabulary

Cut, fold, join, fix, structure, weak, strong, base, top, side, freestanding, framework, stronger, stiffer, stand up, stable.

Music

Under the Sea

Children will have opportunities to make movements that are appropriate to the pulse and tempo of a piece of music.  They will choose instruments with appropriate timbre to represent sparkling fishes.

Children will learn to create pitches and rhythms as well as respond to dynamic changes in a piece of music.

Vocabulary

Pulse, dynamics, tempo, Timbre, pitch, rhythm

Geography

What is the weather like in the UK?

Children will learn the names and locations of the four countries on a map of the United Kingdom and be able to identify the county that they live in. The will also learning the four capital cities of the UK.

Children will explore the characteristics for the four seasons and investigate seasonal changes.

We will learn about the four compass points, North, East, South and West and use these to describe the location of feathers and places.

We will observe and learn how to describe the changes in daily weather patterns and think about what appropriate clothing and activities are for each of the seasons.

Vocabulary

Sunny, cloudy, rain, snow, thunder, lightning, windy, autumn, winter, spring, summer, England, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast

P.E.

This half-term, pupils will be taking part in dance lessons, focusing on Modern. This popular genre will enable the pupils to experience various movement patterns and develop their use of rhythm. Pupils will follow set choreography as well as being given the chance to create their own movements and add them to a short sequence. After learning set moves, pupils will try to put these to various speeds. 

Vocabulary

Modern, movement, sequence, sequence, choreography, speed, beat, link, rhythm, dance, copy, repeat 

Outside - Health and Fitness

Over the next few weeks, the focus for outside PE will be Health and Fitness. It is important that pupils understand the need to keep healthy and active as well as the role in which water plays in keeping us well. Pupils will experience a range of activities which can be played at other times to maintain fitness. In addition to this, pupils will learn different ways of warming up and cooling down and why these are both important. By covering a range of different activities, pupils are more likely to find something that they enjoy and therefore wish to continue. Through this topic, pupils will be able to develop perseverance and resilience, both of which are key skills across the curriculum.

Vocabulary

Health, fitness, warm up, cool down, active, water, drink, important, challenge, activity 

PSHE

Citizenship

We will consider why class and school rules are important and why voting is an important and fair way to decision make.

Children will also discuss the different needs of a range of pets and also be able to describe some of the needs of babies and young children.

Children will develop their ability to recognise similarities and differences between themselves and others as well as identity groups that they belong to.