RELIGION Our unit of work is ‘Getting to Know Jesus’. We will begin by reminding ourselves that Jesus made each one of us different and special and he has a great love for us all. We will listen to a story about how Jesus loved children and always made time for them. We will then begin to think about how we can show our love for Jesus. Also, we will learn that Jesus cured many people and hear stories of such events. During the second half term we will focus on ‘Sorrow and Joy’. We will begin to understand that we are capable of hurting others and that we should always try to be kind to each other. We will discuss ways in which we can say sorry when we hurt someone and will talk about asking for God’s help. Throughout this unit we will listen to stories how Jesus forgave those who hurt him and know that we can forgive other people when they hurt us. We will learn that we need to ask Jesus to help us to be kind to others.
MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT Children will be encouraged to show an interest in repeating patterns this term. We will begin by looking at patterns in our familiar environment and observing patterns on our clothing. We will look at different types of patterns such as spotty and stripy. We will then begin to look at recognising and describing simple repeating patterns by their colour or shape. We will use resources such as beads, unifix cubes, bricks, pegs and boards and other objects to develop our understanding of repeating patterns. We will then learn how to continue and re-create our very own patterns using two simple colours to begin with leading on to more complicated examples. Further to this we will continue to develop our number skills by orally recalling numbers, counting objects and recognising and ordering numerals up to 20. Some children will be developing their good knowledge of number by learning how to add and subtract two single digit numbers and beginning to record such calculations.
COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE Speaking and listening skills will be developed with the children being encouraged to think about listening to others and responding in a range of ways, both verbally and non-verbally. Children will be encouraged to initiate communication with others and become more confident communicators. We will have fun with our story ‘Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?’ which requires the children to listen very carefully. We will also play listening games linked to the story which develops both speaking and listening skills. We will also be focusing on speaking clearly and developing a good use of vocabulary. We will, as always, encourage children to speak in full sentences, especially when repeating refrains from the story.