Bonne Année!

Our theme for this half-term is ‘Happy New Year!’

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

In RE, we will begin Branch 3 of our RE Programme ‘Galilee to Jerusalem’. We will celebrate the feast of the Epiphn and listen to the Bible stories of The Visit of The Magi (Matt 2:1-2,10-11) and Jesus Welcoming the Little Children (Mk 10:v16).  We will know that Jesus was born to show God’s love and welcomes everyone.

Children’s Mental Health Week begins on 3 February.  The theme is ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’ and with the help of the characters from Disney’s Inside Out 2, the children will be empowered to embrace self-awareness to build resilience, grow and develop.

The children will develop respect for other cultures when we celebrate Lunar New Year.  To prepare for the Year of the Snake, which begins on 29 January, we will set up and decorate a Chinese restaurant in our role play area. We plan to come to school wearing the traditional colours of red & yellow to celebrate this exciting festival on Friday 31 January.  We will learn about the traditions and customs of this lunar festival through music, dance, stories and sharing real Asian artefacts.  More details of arrangements for this special celebration will follow in a separate letter.

Understanding the World

We will extend our understanding of our own culture and traditions by reflecting on our Christmas and New Year celebrations.  Please continue to use your child’s ‘special book’ or send us an email with any photos or mementos of your family’s festive celebrations for us to share and talk about in school.

The recent wintery weather has provided perfect conditions for us to develop scientific concepts and skills.  We will investigate seasonal change as winter takes hold and spend time outside using our senses to experience, make predictions and observe the changes we see when water freezes, melts, cools and evaporates in different temperatures.  We will look at different habitats and know how animals and plant adapt to living in cold environments.

We will further explore our home city as we discover the location of Chinatown on maps, photos, online and in real life.  We hope that you will be able to visit Liverpool city centre to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Snake and experience the annual New Year festival celebrations during the weekend of 1 February 2025.  Please email or send in any photos/videos/souvenirs if you do!

Expressive Arts and Design

Our creative work will focus on our New Year celebrations. We will welcome 2025 with our New Year wishes, making wish stars to place on our ‘wishing tree’ and manifesting good intentions for the year ahead as we make affirmations in our wishing pond.  When our Lunar New Year preparations get underway, we will practise folding, assembling, cutting and decorating to create a giant Chinese dragon, as well as making cards, fans and lanterns to decorate our Chinese restaurant imaginary play area. In dance, Mrs Neil will lead a spectacular Chinese ribbon and dragon dance.  We will listen to traditional Chinese music and move in time to the rhythms we can hear.  The highlight of the celebration will be when we parade our dragon around the school to bring good fortune to each class.

Communication and Language

Through ‘circle time’ and ‘time to talk’ sessions, the children will be encouraged to express their ideas and opinions using appropriate vocabulary and clear, audible speech. We will reflect on 2024 by looking at photographs and talking about what we remember. We will look ahead and make predictions about what 2025 may bring.  The children will be encouraged to recount their experiences in increasing detail, answering questions such as what? where? who? how? and why? in order to structure their ideas clearly.

Literacy

We have begun a new rotation of Read Write Inc. phonics teaching.  Your child will work with one of the Reception team in a group based on their current level of attainment in reading.  They will develop their reading and spelling through Speed Sounds, Fred Talk and Speed Writing activities.  The children will bring home ditty sheets/reading books in a transparent wallet, labelled with their name.  Please support your child to read their ditty/book every day then return to school in their wallet every Wednesday.

Mathematics

We will develop the concept of time as we learn the names of the months of the year, the four seasons and days of the week.  We have begun the topic Alive in 5! We will consolidate our understanding that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers, exploring the different compositions of numbers 4 and 5, noticing how they are made of two parts or more than two parts.  The children will practise comparing numbers, saying which is more or less or equal and then move onto comparing measures, experiencing direct comparison of objects, saying which is heavy/ier/iest and light/er/est.

Physical Development

We are excited to begin ‘Balanceability’ Balance Bike sessions every Thursday this half-term.  These sessions are led by Liverpool School Sports Partnership (LSSP) coaches and all equipment/safety gear provided.   The children will be grouped and rotated over the six weeks to allow everyone to take part.  Back in class, to develop our fine motor skills, we will embark on a ‘chopstick challenge’ to practise picking up and transporting small objects with tweezers and chopsticks.  In PE, we will work on fundamental movement skills: travelling, copying & performing actions, practising galloping, skipping, sliding, jumping, changing direction, balancing, running.

We are delighted to begin 2025 with you and your families and look forward to another busy, enjoyable half-term together.  Please let us know if further advice or support is needed.

Emmaus Reception Team