Welcome back to a new half term! As we are now half-way through our first year at school, we will be encouraging the children to ‘Reach for the Stars’ to achieve their very best in all areas of learning, persevering to achieve their goals and finding their own ways to solve problems.  We will travel together through Lent as we prepare for Easter, making some ‘super’ discoveries about ourselves along the way! 

Personal, Social & Emotional Development 

We begin Branch 4 of our RE syllabus, Desert to Garden. We will understand that Lent is a time to ‘grow more like Jesus’ and think of ways we can follow in his footsteps, caring for others and shining from the inside out.  We will know the key events of the Easter Story and recognise the symbols associated with this special time for our Church family. We will also learn about springtime traditions and those from other cultures when we celebrate Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, International Women’s Day, Mother’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter and the Hindu festival of Holi. 

Understanding the World: 

‘Egg-citing’ times ahead, as Lent continues, we will observe new life growing from the ‘inside out’ when we look after a clutch of duck’s eggs for two weeks just before Easter.  The children will be on ‘duckling watch’ as they take care of the eggs in the incubator and, fingers crossed, we will hopefully witness a real hatch, right before our eyes!  Once the ducklings are hatched, the children will take charge of feeding and caring for them, as they grow in their brooder box for the rest of their time with us.  

Communication & Language 

The children are exposed to high quality reading experiences every day and we continue to develop our vocabulary during Drawing Club and story time sessions, we encouraged them to be ‘word collectors’ finding new words to remember and use.  In addition, the children will be encouraged to develop specific vocabulary and give verbal accounts of what they see, hear, feel and think while they engage in awe-inspiring activities such as witnessing a duckling hatch right before their eyes! The children will reflect on these experiences by asking questions, making predictions, noticing patterns and examining evidence to draw their own conclusions. 

Literacy 

We continue to embrace a lifelong love for reading and our mission to make ‘every child a reader at Emmaus’.  We will focus on our Reception adopted author, Julia Donaldson and her collection of wonderful stories, rhymes and animations. In particular, we will focus on ‘The Gruffalo’ and ‘Room on The Broom’ embarking on a range of themed learning experiences, including acting out these stories for our Nursery friends.

We look forward to celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 6 March.  Our theme in Early Years is ‘Bedtime Stories’.   The children may come to school dressed in their pyjamas or one of their favourite book characters on World Book Day.  We will meet a real author, Sarah Oliver, who will perform her stories, talk about her life as an author and challenge us to create our own school story book which will be published!

To mark this special event, we will embrace our love of books when visit ‘The Story Barn’ on Tuesday 4 March (RG) and Wednesday 5 March (RKM).   Please see separate letters regarding arrangements for this educational visit. 

In phonics, we have begun a new rotation of teaching in our Read Write Inc groups.  We will continue to keep you informed of the phonic skills, sounds and words your child has been learning via the school app, homework books and school website.  Your child’s small transparent reading wallet will be labelled to indicate their RWI group and the correct day to return their reading book/ditty sheet.  Please continue to return library books/learning log books in their purple homework bag every Wednesday. 

Mathematics

We will build our understanding of numbers 9 and 10, applying counting principles and representing 9 and 10 in different ways.  We will explore subtraction in a real life context as we watch our ducklings hatch and count the remaining eggs.  As the term progresses, we will introduce number bonds to 10, finding number pairs and asking how many more to make 10? We will learn the names of 3D solid shapes and use them to build, create and construct models, pictures and patterns with an Easter egg theme. 

Expressive Arts and Design 

In music, we will learn a variety of topical songs including ‘Reach for the Stars’, ‘Spring Chicken’, ‘My Lighthouse’ and ‘Shine from the Inside Out’. We will design and make seasonal greetings cards and gifts using mixed media and materials. 

We will explore colour mixing when we celebrate ‘Holi’ gaining hands-on experience of mixing powder paint to create new shades as we follow in the traditional of throwing and sprinkling brightly coloured paints to welcome the beginning of Spring.  We hope to create a natural ‘cross of New Life’ as part of our Easter preparations-be prepared to save your Mother’s Day flowers once they begin to wilt, they will be very welcome in school for this special project. 

Physical Development  

We complete our Balance Bike sessions with LSSP and will transfer all the skills we have learnt when using our balance bikes in Green Base: gliding, stopping, weaving, and turning.  In PE, we will focus on ball skills: rolling and receiving a ball, throwing to a target, bouncing and catching, dribbling with feet and kicking a ball. In dance, Mrs Neil will lead another exciting dance session with a ‘Springtime’ theme. 

Please continue to praise your child’s efforts to dress themselves and look after their belongings independently as we are continually encouraging this in school when we get changed in and out of our PE kits. 

Please see below for some key dates this half-term for your diary: 

Tuesday 4 March – RG visit to The StoryBarn

Wednesday 5 March – RKM visit to The StoryBarn

Thursday 6 March – World Book Day (dress in PJs or as a book character)

Tuesday 18 March and Thursday 20 March – Parents Evening

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement-this enables us to ensure that your child is fully supported in school and at home.   

Emmaus Reception Teaching Team