At preschool children will engage in extended conversations about stories, learning new vocabulary. During Terms 1 and 2 we will build on this skill and support the children to:

• Ask questions about stories.

• Repeat words and phrases from familiar stories.

• Repeat new vocabulary in a context of a story.

• Have favourite books and seek them out, to share with an adult, with another child, or to look at alone.

The classroom is well stocked with an attractive collection of carefully-chosen quality literature and nonfiction books to interest boys and girls, care is taken to ensure that the individual child's interests are taken into consideration.

The children are read to daily at several timetabled opportunities from quality literature including authors such as Julia Donaldson, Oliver Jeffers, Janet and Allan Ahlberg,  Eric Carle and Judith Kerr. We have a story of the week so we can develop comprehension and this story links to our topic. For our topic 'All About Me' we will read stories such as:

• All Are Welcome Here, Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kauffman.

• It’s Okay To Be Different, Todd Parr

• Who’s in My Family, Robie H Harris

• The Same But Different Too, Karl Newson

• Mini Monsters Can I Play, Caryl Hart and Tony Neal

• Sharing A Shell, Julia Donaldson

• The Lion Inside, Rachel Bright

• The Colour Monster, Anna Llenas

• Sometimes I feel Sunny, Gillian Shields and Georgie Birkett

• The Girl With Two Dads, Mel Elliott

We will also read the Story Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell. This will support the children's learning of plant life cycles and seasons; They will learn the life cycle of a pumpkin and the seasons from Autumn to Autumn. Learning will be enhanced with exploring real pumpkins. We will also look at other stories about seasons such as Tree by Britta Teekentrup.

During Term 2 our topic is ‘People who help us’. We will read stories which link to the topic such as:

• A Supero Like You, Dr Ranj

• You Can’t call an Elephant in an Emergency, Patricia Cleveland-Peck and David Tazzyman

• All Through The Night, Polly Faber and Harriet Hobday

• The Jolly Postman, Janet and Allan Ahlberg

• Mog and the Vee Ee Tee, Judith Kerr

In addition to this, we will read stories which link to Christmas and the seasons such as:

• The Jolly Christmas Postman, Janet and Allan Ahlberg

• A Christmas Story, Brian Wildsmith

• The Christmas Pine, Julia Donaldson and Victoria Sandoy

• Robins Winter Song, Suzanne Barton.

• Mog’s Christmas, Judith Kerr

• Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter, Kenard Pak

• The Very Long Sleep, Polly Noakes

• Animals in Winter, Henrietta Bancroft and Richard G. Van Gelder

• Hibernation, Tori Kosara

• What Can you see in Winter?

Whilst reading stories we will discuss words that rhyme, clap syllables to words and recognise words with the same initial sound.

At preschool children will begin to use some of their print and letter knowledge in their early writing, write some or all of their name and write some letters accurately. During Terms 1 and 2 we will build on these skills and support children to:

• Form lowercase letters and capital letters correctly.

• Spell words by identifying the sounds and then writing the sound with letter/s.

• Copy full name from a name label.

• Use a range of small tools competently and confidently. (Physical Development)

There will be  a wide range of resources available for mark making, both indoors and outdoors.  There will be a wide variety of resources for your child to use including chalk, paint brushes large and small, crayons, pens and pencils.  It will be real world and meaningful to the unique child. Activities that support fine motor skills, such as tap a shape, will also support writing development.

During each phonic lesson we will practise writing the letter on whiteboards to develop letter recognition and letter formation of both lower case and capital letters. As we develop our phonic knowledge we will learn to spell  words by identifying the sounds and then writing the sound with letter/s.

We have a free writing table to support child initiated mark making and early writing. This will be enhanced with resources and writing prompts linked to our topics as well as the children’s interests. The teaching team will be available to support children with their writing in child initiated play time but writing will also be supported through adult directed teaching in small groups. In terms 1 and 2 we will focus on pre-writing skills/shapes, letter formation, writing their name and beginning to write words.

At preschool children will begin to learn and understand the five key concepts about print; print has meaning, print can have different purposes, we read English text from left to right and from top to bottom, the names of the different parts of a book and page sequencing. They will also begin to develop their phonological awareness, so that they can spot and suggest rhymes, count or clap syllables in a word and recognise words with the same initial sound, such as money and mother. During Terms 1 and 2 we will build on these skills and support children to:

• Develop their phonological awareness to spot rhymes in familiar stories and poems, count or clap syllables in a word and recognise words with the same initial sound.

• Begin to read individual letters by saying the sounds for them.

• Begin to blend sounds into words, so that they can read short words made up of known letter– sound correspondences.

• Begin to read CVC words containing known letter-sound correspondences

To support our learning of word reading we will be following to Monster Phonics Scheme. Across Terms 1 and 2 children will learn the following sounds:

Term 1 – s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

Term 2 – j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, th(v), ng, oo (long), ar