Dear Parents/Carers,

Happy New Year! We hope that you and your family have had a magical Christmas. We are very excited about starting a brand new year and have got lots of things planned for the Ducklings this term.

Our topic for this term will be ‘People Who Help Us.’ We will be looking at people in our community who help us. If you would like to come and talk to the Ducklings about what you do in your job and how you help people we would love to welcome you in. Please chat to one of the team to organise a good time to come in,

If you have any questions (no matter how small you think they are) or concerns then do please let us know. You can ring the school or send in an email anytime and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We will also be on the door at drop off and pick up. This is always a busy time as the children have our sole focus, so we would ask for your patience whilst we ensure they are either safely in school or with their parents/carers.

The Early Years curriculum is split into several key areas. Below we will map out what your child will be learning in each of these during their first term. You can use these to talk to them at home and ask questions about what they have been doing – be prepared for them to answer “What have you done at school today?” with “I can’t remember!” and this is ok. We will be also be aiming to blog at least once per week to also help you know what they have been up to.

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Personal, Social and Emotional Development (managing self, building relationships and self-regulation)

This term our topic will provide opportunities for the children to develop their social skills, understanding the community around them, and developing an awareness of different roles in society. We will be creating opportunities for the children that encourages empathy and understanding of others' roles and needs. Through exploring the different roles in our community the children will begin to appreciate the value of people who help us and know how to be kind and respectful to others.

Throughout the term we will also continue to encourage the children to focus on using their manners with adults and their peers, especially when asking for things. We will also continue focusing on our listening, especially when others are talking and finally persevering when things are tough.

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Literacy (reading, comprehension and writing)

This term we will be continuing our phonics learning. Each day the children will have a phonics session where they will recap sounds they know and begin to acquire new sounds. The children will also be learning rhymes for how to write each of the sounds they learn. This term we will be focusing on the children blending the sounds, so that they can begin to read simple words with more ease.

Sight words will continue to be introduced to the children. The aim of these words are that children become familiar with the letters and letter patterns/shapes that they will be able to read these by sight and will not have to sound them out.

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Each week we will have a book focus linked to the topic. We will be reading this book each day to encourage the children to become familiar with the text, increasing their vocabulary and understanding of the story. We will use this book to ask the children questions about the characters, asking the children to retell parts of the story and we will focus on the vocabulary that they may not know and how the language used in the story can change how we feel.

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Throughout this topic the children will be encouraged to take on the role of different jobs and this will provide different writing opportunities. For example, doctor’s prescriptions, nurse’s notes, vet’s case files, delivery driver’s orders, electrician’s forms and librarian’s book list.

Maths (numbers numerical pattern, shape, space and measure)

This term the children will be exploring the composition of numbers, this is how the number can be made up. For example, 4 could be created by 4+0, 3+1, 2+2, 1+3 and 0+4.These would all look different but create the same number. As part of our number work we will also be looking at subitising numbers up to 5 and 1 more and 1 less. The children will also be continuing work on shapes including shapes with 4 sides and comparing to the shapes we have learnt in the previous term.

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You can continue to support their number work at home by encouraging your child to count different objects and talking about what 1 more or 1 less would be. How quickly can they count a group of objects, do they touch each object, can they see a certain number pattern and can they count things that cannot be seen like sounds? The children could also try writing their numbers from 0-10. If your child does any number writing at home they could bring it in to show us, we would love to see.

Understanding of the World (past and present, people, culture and communities and the natural world)

During this topic the children will learn about the word community. They will explore what makes a community and who is in their community. Our topic ‘People Who Help Us’ explores how different people contribute to society. The children will be learning about different jobs, how people work together, and the importance of community. We will also be looking at how we can help in our community.

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Physical Development (gross and fine motor skills)

This term the children will be using the outdoor space to take on the role of different jobs in our community. The children may use the bikes to deliver the post or newspapers, the children may scale the climbing frame to rescue someone trapped in a building or they may use the kitchen to whip up a delicious batch of cakes to be delivered via our class Just Eat Delivery Company. The Ducklings have great imaginations and we are sure that this topic will inspire them to get active in many different ways.

Alongside their COOL time activities we will also be looking to exploring the indoor hall space and develop our gymnastics skills. This term we will focus on using our bodies to create shapes, showing a basic level of stillness using different parts of our bodies. We will begin to take weight on different body parts and show shapes and actions that stretch our bodies. In addition to all that the classroom will provide, the children will have a designated PE session with our sports coach on Fridays. This term the sports coach will be introducing the children to dance.
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Expressive Arts and Design (creating with materials and being imaginative and expressive)

This term will see the children get creative with their dramatic play and role play. The children will take on the role of helpers in our community and to support this we have a special treat planned for this term. The travelling drama company called KIC Theatre is coming to St Eanswythe’s and each class will spend time with the wonderful Ian, as he brings our topic to life. He will support and encourage the children (and adults) to use their bodies to take on new roles. It is always a really fun session!

Throughout the term the children will be encouraged to use the creative station to create their own props to support their new roles. Perhaps the children will decide to create their own walkie-talkies to add to their role as a member of the police or a firehose to tackle the blazes on the playground. ‘People Who Help Us’ will see the children creating art, role-play, music, and storytelling based on the theme of helpers.

Reading
Please share the books that are sent home with your child because the more they are encouraged to share books the better reader they will become.

• Reading is a necessary, lifelong skill.

• Being read to provides comfort for children, improving their concentration and focus.

• Being read to gives children knowledge to understand and talk about the world around them.

• When children understand what is being read this helps them understand how words, phrases and sentences are put together.

• Using and sharing fiction and non-fiction books, poems, rhymes and songs builds children’s understanding and use of language.

REMINDERS:

Please make sure that everything your child brings to school is labelled with their name. This can be with a name stamp, sticker or simply written in pen. If something becomes misplaced or lost, if it is named it does have a higher chance of coming back.

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P.E is on a Friday and the children must come into school wearing full PE kit this day.

Please remember to let us know who your child is going home with if there is a change to the normal routine. This can be done at the front door, by email or a phone call to the school office.

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Hopefully this gives you an idea of what we will be doing this term. Our main aim, as well as learning, is to have lots of fun and to make coming to school something the children want to do!

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Thank you for your continued support and you are most welcome to come and ask about anything that we do. We are so excited to continue this year and cannot wait to see where it takes us!

The Ducklings Team