Year R

After learning about human habitats around the world for the past 2 modules, we have moved on to look at animal habitats.Through the theme of ‘How the World Works’ we have been learning about the central idea of: Nature can be observed using our senses.

The start of the term began with our classrooms being transformed into rainforests, the polar regions and under the sea environments to explore. We learnt about the different animals that live there and the conditions that they live in. We have also been learning about being zoo keepers in our career shed, exploring rhyme through stories such as Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae and creating various art pieces of animals including painting, weaving and collaging.

In phonics, we have continued to learn sounds, develop our blending skills and have begun to read short sentences. We have developed our comprehension skills and vocabulary through our ‘Talk through Stories’ sessions, exploring picture books such as ‘The Squirrels Who Squabbled’ and ‘There’s a snake in my school’. In writing, we have been working on hearing the sounds in words and writing short sentences, sometimes challenging ourselves to use our Red words as well.

In Mathematics, we have been exploring number bonds to 10, doubling numbers and length and height.

More recently, we have been learning about minibeasts. We have been exploring our outside area, looking for all the creepy crawlies that may be around and learning about what they can do for the environment. The careers shed transformed into a Minibeast investigation lab and we have been studying the life cycle of the butterfly in class, having been hosts to our own caterpillars. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching them eat all of the food, grow in size and eagerly anticipate them turning into butterflies that we can later release back into the environment.

We have also had a first time experience for us, putting on a pride assembly! The children have all been amazing and brave to stand up and say their parts, sharing their successes with their grown ups.

We also had the visit from Exotic Explorers who brought a variety of animals for us to meet which made a great ending to another fantastic term!