Welcome back to a brand new school year from the team.

Class 1 Teacher - Mrs Rodgers

Teaching Assistants - Mrs McGuire, Miss Mair and Mrs O'Brien

Higher Level Teaching Assistant - Mrs Stewart

 

These are some of the learning areas in our classroom:

Our exciting topic for Spring 1 is Why Do Zebras Have Stripes?

We will be researching jungle animals and Africa this term, finding out what the children already know and what they would like to know. We will be using  fiction and non fiction texts as well as the internet to discover facts about the animals. The children will compare the animals to see which are the heaviest, biggest, tallest and fastest. School Census Day is Thursday 16th January and will be Safari Day for the Reception children.

Literacy

Children will have twice weekly guided reading and handwriting sessions as well as a weekly focussed writing group activity and daily shared literacy  sessions.  We will explore a range of non fiction texts and become familiar with the index and contents pages.

Maths

Children will be: 

Counting to and beyond 10,

Working on finding one more or one less using a number line, 

Becoming familiar with the language for addition and subtraction including more, less, add, plus, subtract, take away, equals and amount,

Exploring number bonds to 5 and then 10 using a range of resources, including Numicon,

Beginning to use mathematical names for 2D and 3D shapes

 

You may want to share the books and songs at home with your children that we are looking at this term.

 

Book
Giraffes can't Dance

The Tiger who came to Tea

The Other Ark

Other reads include:

Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A village Tale from Kenya – Mary and Rich Chamberlin.

On Beyond Zebra! – Dr Seuss

Greedy Zebra – Mwenye Hadithi

Wild – Emily Hughes

The Leopard’s Drum: An Asante Tale from West Africa- Jessica Souhami

Reading books:  Reading books are changed weekly on a Thursday morning; It is important that reading books are returned on this day. Please can you ensure your child has a book bag and we also ask that you make a note in your child's reading record of any reading you do with them at home.

Reading records: At Elm Wood we consider reading to be an important part of your child's education and the reading record is a method of communication and an opportunity for you to share with us how your child is doing. 

PE- Class 1 will have PE sessions once a week on a Monday morning with Manchester United.  PE kits can be kept in school for the full half term.

Music We are following the Charanga music scheme. Lessons this term are entitled Everyone!. Children will listen and respond to a variety of musical pieces as well as singing and performing a range of songs.

Open mornings- Elm Wood has an open morning every Thursday from 8.30am.  This is a great opportunity for you to come into the classroom to look at displays, see your child’s work  and speak to the class teacher.

School uniform- Can we please ask for all items of clothing to be labelled with your child’s name or initials. Please can you ensure that your child has a labelled pair of Wellington boots in school for outdoor use.