Welcome to Honeybee Class with Mrs Edwards (Class Teacher), Mrs Elliott and Mrs French (Classroom Support Professionals).
Summer Term
This half term our topic is ‘What Is At The Bottom Of My Garden?’ We will be exploring and hunting for the minibeasts that can be found at the bottom of our garden. We will be completing observational drawings, paintings and making some beautiful minibeast sculptures with clay. In English we will be writing lists of minibeasts and simple facts – remembering to use our phonic knowledge carefully in our writing as well as finger spaces. We will also be retelling some of our favourite stories and writing the part that we liked best. We will be sharing lots of different books, both non-fiction and fiction. Some favourites will be ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, ‘Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell’ and ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’. Towards the end of the half term we will be learning about growing and planting. We will find out what plants need to live and grow and plant our own sunflower seeds.
We have had a great time hunting in our garden and found so many different types of minibeasts. We have learnt the word ‘habitat’. We have drawn maps of our garden and shown with pictures where we found different minibeasts.
We are very excited to receive our own caterpillars in class. We can’t wait to observe them change and grow and learn about their lifecycle!
In Maths we will be exploring numbers to 20 and beyond. We will order numbers and recognise missing numbers in a sequence. We will look at simple addition and subtraction by grouping amounts – adding and taking away practically. We will continue to ensure that we are counting amounts reliably – touching each item only once.
In phonics we will continue to recap all previously learnt graphemes – segmenting to spell and blending to read with growing confidence. We will have a particular focus on CVC, CVCC and CCVCC words. (Cat, dog, pin, fan, help, band, tent, camp, stop, frog, spin for example).
Summer Term 2
In our final half term our topic will be ‘What’s Special About Summer?’ We will be looking for signs of summer – identifying clothing that’s worn in different seasons. We will talk about how to stay safe in the sun and find out about flowers that grow in summer and how when it is hotter, some food will melt!
We will find out about beaches and seaside holidays now and in the past. We will also learn about creatures that can be found in rockpools.
Some of our key texts will have a seaside theme and this will be the stimulus for our writing.
We will be learning about the artist JMW Turner and explore using the watercolour paints to recreate some sea inspired artwork.
Spring Term
This half term our main topic is ‘What’s In My World?’. We will be starting with ‘Winter’ – noticing changes in the weather, talking about the clothes that we wear and remembering the four seasons. We will explore ice an observe how water freezes in the cold and how ice melts when it gets warm.
We will then be looking at ‘Me and My School and Me and My Locality’. We will be drawing maps of our school and drawing things that we pass on our way to school. We will be thinking about safe adults and knowing the names of the people who work in our school and what their job role is. We will talk about how we are all part of the Honeybourne school community. Towards the end of this term we will learn about ‘Africa’. We will share stories and songs and make comparisons between where we live with some villages in African countries. We will compare animals that are native to the UK with those that are native to Africa. We will recreate some traditional African patterns in art too.
In maths we will be developing our confidence in recognising and ordering numbers to 10 as well as counting out objects reliably. We will develop our understanding of 0 and sort pictures as to whether they show 0 or not 0. We will also be comparing mass, using the vocabulary of heavier and lighter and looking at length and height. We will begin combining groups and saying how many we have ‘altogether’.
Check back later to see some of our work or look at our class Seesaw page for photos!
Autumn Term
The children have settled in beautifully to their new classroom – making friends, learning names and exploring their new school.
Our focus topics for the autumn term are: My Life Milestones, Me and My Family, and House Pets. We will be having lots of circle times, getting to know each other, speaking and listening and turn-taking in groups. Through this topic, we will write for different purposes, trying hard to use the correct initial sound and any other sounds in the word that we can hear. We will write birthday cards, shopping lists, simple captions and labels.
In other areas we will be learning about primary colours and how to mix these to make new colours. We will be drawing and painting pictures of ourselves, our families and pets. We have forest school every Friday where we explore the forest school area on our school field; we will share stories, look for signs of autumn and talk about the different seasons and changes in weather. We will make pictures from fallen leaves, create leaf rubbings and help Mrs Elliott plant bulbs and look after the flowers and vegetables in our garden.
In maths, we will be sorting objects into ‘same’ and ‘different’ as well as by size, colour and shape.
We will be comparing amounts – looking at which group has more, less or the same.
We will practise counting, making sure that we count items carefully by touching or moving them and sing lots of counting songs!
We will also explore pattern by copying, extending and creating a range of different patterns.
This half term will focus on a deeper understanding of 1, 2, 3: counting, representing these numbers in different ways, forming the numbers correctly, understanding one more and one less, and noticing that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers – like numberblocks!
We enjoyed learning about animals that make good pets. Mrs Cowley brought Willow into our class and answered all of our questions about how she looks after Willow.
In Design and Technology we designed our own fruit jelly pots!
We use the Monster Phonics scheme to help us learn sounds and key words. We practise our phonics every day and use our growing phonic knowledge in our reading and writing. We take home keyrings with sounds on, as well as a Monster Phonics reading book to share at home too.
Zones of Regulation
In class we use the Zones of Regulation to help us identify different feelings. We talk about the colours associated with different feelings, recognise different facial expressions and talk about times when we have felt specific emotions.
We watch ‘Inside Out’ and relate this to our own experiences and feelings.
Seesaw
We use Seesaw to share our learning and class messages. Please check your child’s Seesaw page for regular updates and photographs of your child.
Useful Videos
Watch the videos below to practice the letter sound and names – sing along and learn!