Dear Parents,

Welcome back to the start of another busy and happy term in Coral class.

Our topic this half term is ‘Flowers and Insects’. We have already started this topic with gusto! The children love learning about the bugs they find and are fascinated with the colony of ants we have living in the ‘Ant World’. The children have made gardens in shoeboxes and we have been out on several walks to find out about where insects and other living things prefer to live and grow.

In May, we are going on a trip to the Botanic Gardens and will be finding out about different flowers, plants and trees. We have also become little scientists in a bid to find out how seeds grow and what they need to do this well. We have begun to set up a variety of tests to help us.

The children will also be learning about the life cycles of insects and they will be listening to a talk all about bees in the near future.

In Art the children have already made models of spiders and ants and will be learning about paintings of flowers and insects.

In the second half term, as the days hopefully grow warmer, our topics will be ‘Holidays’ and ‘Summer’. We will, amongst other things, be looking at the places children have visited, why people go on holidays and writing postcards. If you have anything at home that would help with our topics, especially any old postcards, then please do send them in with your child.

In Literacy, we will be continuing our work on writing in sentences, using basic punctuation and reading/writing stories with patterned structures, rhymes and fantasy stories. In non-fiction we will be learning how to use information books, write captions and labels and write chronological/non-chronological reports. In poetry we will be reading/writing poems that rhyme and playing with words. We will regularly practise handwriting and letter formation skills as well as regular phonics sessions and spelling rules.

We will still hear your child read daily, first thing each morning. Please continue to hear your child read regularly at home and thank you for filling in their reading records.

In Mathematics, we will again be covering the topics of counting, partitioning and calculating, securing number facts and understanding shape and handling data and measures including money and time. We will also continue to practise number formation and securing mental maths strategies.

As a reminder for PE this term:
The children will swim on a Monday morning and must have dark blue or black swimsuits.
On a Tuesday the children have dance and will get changed during the school day, so please send full kit (black/blue shorts, white polo shirt, white socks and trainers) in a bag.

On Thursday they begin the day with outside games, so need to come to school in full kit with tracksuit over the top, including wearing trainers.
Please find attached a copy of this term’s timetable. If you have any questions, queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to come and see me. I look forward to a great term ahead, with lots of hard work!

Yours sincerely

Carine Bennett
Coral Class Teacher