Caterpillar Class
Class teacher’s welcome
Welcome to Caterpillar class.
It is going to be a fun-filled, productive and exciting year and we hope to enrich your child’s learning with plenty of opportunities to learn through play . They will build on their language and communication skills, develop their knowledge of number and have fun developing their creative skills. In both adult led and child initiated activities, they will learn about the world and the environment around them. We aim to help the children grow as individuals whilst fostering a love of learning.
Curriculum news
Autumn 2
Theme – Dark nights and Christmas
Phonics
We are continuing to learn new phonemes (sounds), including some digraphs (two letters that makes one sound- eg: ‘sh’ like ‘shell’). The children will bring home the new phonemes which they can practice reading and writing.
Reading
When the children are ready, they will bring home a book with words in to practise their blending skills. The aim is for the children to eventually read the word without sounding out. Keep supporting their blending. This book is the guided reading book which they have read three times throughout the week. It will be sent home on a Friday with their phonics book.
Maths
- Maths mastery- numbers to 10 continued.
- Knowing number pairs that make 4, 5 and 6.
- Number recognition to 10 and 20.
- Counting forwards and backwards up to 20.
- One more and one less than a number up to 10.
Knowledge & Understanding of the World.
- Looking at the varied weather outside – wind, rain, snow, hailstones.
- Changing of the seasons – making autumn leaf wreaths, pictures, printing.
Religious Education
- Celebrating Christmas and practising our Christmas Nativity to perform to parents and school.
- Learning about the story of Christmas and why Jesus was a special baby.
- Celebration of Diwali.
Outdoors
- Changing of the seasons and leaf collecting
- Mud kitchen play
- Planting bulbs in our growing area in preparation for Spring
- Subitising and counting natural objects outdoors
Expressive Arts & Design
- Using the creative area to make poppy pictures
- Firework paint and drawing skills
- Playdough – making autumn animals
- Bubble wrap printing of autumn
- Space marbling inks
- Christmas cards and crafts
PSHE
- Valuing differences
Links to support learning
The children are beginning to learn the phonemes and beginning to blend some simple words. This is a very exciting time and the children are eager to read. They will soon come home with reading book with words they will need to blend to make a real word. Please support your child by encouraging them to read their book as often as they can. Your support and encouragement at home is vital in ensuring success. Below are links to some useful websites to support learning.
Phonics and segmenting and blending:You can download the presentation and handout to find out more about how we teach phonics using the Little Wandle resources.
All of the resources referred to are in the For parents area
Games
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/phonics/balloon-phonics-cvc-game
https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/bingoOriginal/index.html
Phase 2 practise:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2yf4j
https://www.teachyourmonster.org/teachers-area/learning-resources/phonics-songs
https://www.starfall.com/h/word-machines/
Numbers to 10 counting:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/teddy-numbers
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/helicopter-rescue
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/underwater-counting