Welcome to Honeybee Class with Mrs Edwards (Class Teacher), and Mrs Elliott, Miss Williamson, Mrs Richardson, Miss Tranter and Mr Rimmer (Classroom Support Professionals).
Summer Term
This term our topics are: ‘What’s at the bottom of my garden?’ and ‘Plants’. We will be learning about different minibeasts, their habitats and enjoying minibeast hunts to look at them more closely. We will also be looking after some caterpillars in class and watching how they grow and change. This topic will inspire writing for different purposes including: lists, labelled pictures, descriptive sentences and facts, alliterative phrases and keeping a caterpillar diary. We will be sharing a range of texts, both fiction and non fiction. Towards the end of the term we will be looking at growing and will plant our own sunflowers and sweet peas as well as some vegetables. We will label the parts of a plant and learn what living things need in order to live and grow.
In other areas we will be sorting minibeasts in different ways and learning the signs for them. We will be learning a variety of songs and poems too. We will be creating maps of our garden area and showing where we found different minibeasts. In our creative activities we will be using our observational skills to draw different minibeasts as well as exploring clay and working hard to create some clay minibeasts. We will be exploring marks that can me made in the clay using different tools.
In maths this term we will be deepening our understanding of numbers to 20. We will become more confident in recognising and ordering numbers and identifying missing numbers or numbers in the wrong place in a sequence. We will use different class resources such as the numicon and tens frames to show our understanding and to explore how numbers can be represented in different ways.
We will also be looking at simple adding and taking away, using practical objects to support us. Later in the term we will move on to doubling, sharing and grouping, odds and evens and more complicated patterns.
Spring Term
During this term our topics are: Winter, Me and My School, Me and My Locality and Africa.
We will be talking about the weather and looking for signs of winter. We will be talking about the clothes that we wear in winter and learning about how water freezes into ice and how ice melts!
We will be creating maps of our school and of our route to school. We will be identifying features of Honeybourne, understanding that it is a village. we will be identifying animals native to the UK and later we will be making comparisons between Honeybourne and Kenya. Within our Africa topic we will be looking at some common African animals and creating some artwork inspired by them.
Within our English lessons we shall be writing lists, speech bubbles, simple captions and descriptive sentences. We will be sharing Handa’s Surprise and retelling the story with props and masks.
In maths this term we will be developing our understanding of number bonds to 5 – exploring ways of making 5 and recording these on a part whole model. We shall be exploring capacity and use pan balances to investigate heavier, lighter and objects that the weigh the same.
We shall be deepening our understanding of number to 10, counting reliably with 1:1 correspondence. We will be working on number ordering, number formation and doubles facts.
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 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!
