Curriculum News – Upper Foundation Phase Autumn Term 2018

Welcome to a new school year! The summer is over and we are all settling in well to our new classes in school. Please find below details of some of the topics and activities that will be covered during the coming term. The topic that we will be covering this term is, ‘If you’re happy and you know it’. If you feel that you could help in any way with anything, or you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Important Information

Fruit MoneyFruit is £1 per week. We would be grateful if this could be paid at the beginning of each half term, in a clearly labelled envelope.

PEThese are the current PE days for the Upper Foundation Phase classes:

Mrs Reynolds (Year 2) – TuesdayMrs Manning (Year 1/2) – ThursdayMiss Walstow (Rec/Yr 1) – Monday

Please send in a PE kit for your child, consisting of a plain white t-shirt, plain black shorts and black daps. This will be kept in school and sent home to you before each holiday.

Outdoor LearningA lot of the learning that we do takes place outside of the classroom, and your child will regularly take part in outdoor learning. Therefore, it is essential that your child comes to school in clothing/footwear appropriate for the weather. We ask that during the wet/winter months, you child has wellingtons/wet-weather clothing in school for their outdoor sessions. If you have any questions about this, please speak to your child’s class teacher.

ReadingYour child will soon be allocated a reading day. Please return your child’s reading book to school on this day.

Religious EducationOur values this term are Creativity and Courage. The children will have the opportunity to explore these themes using stories, Bible stories, drama and discussion. Our RE focus for the term is the Bible and Festivals.

To know about the Bible and why it is special to Christians. To listen to stories that are found in the Bible. To know about the special services which take place in church. To prepare and participate actively in the major Christian festivals. To understand that Christian Festivals are celebrated in Wales and world-wide. To understand that Advent is a time of preparation.

Language, Literacy and CommunicationDuring this term, our writing focus will be profiles and poetry. We will also write letters and cards and will sequence familiar stories. Throughout the term the children will continue to develop their key writing, punctuation and grammar skills. They will be encouraged to check their own work for the use of capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces, and will begin to use a more interesting vocabulary in their writing.

Alongside this, we will cover all aspects literacy including fiction, non-fiction, reading and oracy. We will learn new phonic skills as well as building upon previous learning in our daily phonics sessions. Developing the children’s ability in handwriting and spelling will continue

to be a class focus. Please continue to support your child in their literacy development by listening to them read regularly and making notes about their progress in their reading record.

Ways to help with writing When you go on holiday, encourage children to write postcards to friends or relatives. They could

record things that you do in a holiday diary which they can share with friends or relatives when they get home.

After making a cake or doing a craft activity, challenge children to write the recipe or instructions for someone else to use.

Write an information page or booklet about something they find interestinge.g. pets, sports, dinosaurs, etc. Draw a picture and label it or write a captionto go with it.

Encourage your child to learn weekly spellings. Write the spellings in sentenceswith accurate punctuation and practise high frequency words and handwriting.

Provide your child with a comfortable place to work and exciting writing materials. Talk through their ideas with them before they start to write, for example, prompt them to think about

how they intend to tackle a subject. Encourage them to read through their work, shaping their sentences for clarity and checking their

accuracy.

WelshThe children are encouraged to use as much incidental Welsh throughout the day as possible. During this term, we will continue to build upon the language patterns and vocabulary that the children have previously learned. Each day, the children will take part in Welsh games led by the HelpwrHeddiw. We will also begin to discuss what we like and where we live.

Mathematics and Numeracy In mathematics, we will continue to build upon and develop their number knowledge through games and activities. Our focus this term will be number and shape. It is important to develop the children’s confidence in mathematics and we will play lots of maths games to help to reinforce what the children have been learning. The children will also have the opportunity to use their maths skills during class activities, reinforcing the methods that they have learned.

Ways to help with Mathematics Let your children know you believe they can be successful. Encourage and support risk taking and celebrate perseverance. Encourage your child to solve problems with you.

Help them identify different methods or strategies to use in finding solutions and resist the temptation to provide the answer or method. There is usually more than one way to solve a problem, and simpler strategies are often effective.

Provide opportunities for your child to explain and justify their thinking. Connect mathematics to real life experiences. Emphasising the mathematics around us helps to make it

relevant. Encourage children to estimate an answer before working it out.

Health and Well BeingThe children will talk about things that make the children happy. Choose photographs from home that show them happy. Write simple sentences about the photographs describing why they feel happy. They will talk about and remember significant family or community events that made them and others Happy, such as a wedding, a birthday party or a christening, and will listen to what makes other people happy, understanding that different things make different peoplehappy. They will go on a visit, play games, watch cartoons, tell jokes, dance to a happy tune, sing a happy song and look at ways of making each other laugh and feel good.The children will take part in games and will learn exercises that can be done to keep us healthy. They will

watch, learn and practise dances. The children will also continue to further develop their fine motor skills through classroom activities including cutting, sticking threading and

sculpting with dough

HumanitiesDuring our topic ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’, the children will develop an understanding of how the

environment (inside or outside) can affect their happiness and well-being. They will make a plan of their favourite place and label what is there and make a map or plan of an imagined place, describing what it would be like and what features of it would make them happy.

Science and TechnologyThe children will learn that being healthy is a big factor in being happy. They will begin to learn names of different parts of the body and find out how to look after these through exercise and healthy eating.

Expressive ArtsDuring the term we will look at the different colours on a colour wheel and discuss which colours make us feel happy and which make us sad. Listening to different pieces of music,the children will paint a ‘feelings’ picture. We will learn the skills of paint mixing.

We hope that you have found this information useful. If you have any questions, ideas or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Manning and Miss Walstow