Our topic for the next few weeks is ‘Scouting and Other Leisure Activities’. Pupils will explore a range of leisure activities linked to scouting and outdoor life including camping, hiking and map reading, water activities, sports and team games, creative hobbies and more adventurous pursuits such as climbing. Each week will build on their topic vocabulary and develop their communication and writing skills through writing simple instructions, recounts and opinion writing. We will learn about the equipment used, key actions involved, basic safety rules and what happens during each activity, while developing our ability to express preferences, describe experiences and record information.

Our focus books for this half term are ‘There is a Season’ - poems by Kerri Cunningham; ‘Max and the Millions’ by Ross Montgomery and ‘The Accidental Diary of B.U.G.’ by Jen Carney.

We will continue with our off-site physical activity and further develop our tennis skills at Ebbisham Sports Centre in the lead up to Easter. For this activity, your child will need trainers, a P.E. top and some tracksuit bottoms in a named bag that can be kept at school for the duration of the term.

For our White Rose Maths sessions, we will be continuing to build on our understanding of fractions, identifying halves and quarters, whilst others will be developing their understanding of solving money problems and converting different amounts.

In our White Rose Science sessions, we will be continuing with our chemistry module focusing on materials, identifying different materials and their functions/uses, whilst others complete their module learning about rocks, by conducting a local rock survey before moving on to the biology topic ‘Group and Classify Living Things’.  

In our Jigsaw PSHE sessions, we will be focusing on our new topic ‘Healthy Me’. During these sessions we will develop our understanding of the health risks of smoking and alcohol, recognise and manage feelings linked to peer pressure, and develop assertiveness to make safe, healthy choices. Some of us will also cover topics such as vaccinations, and others thinking about choices we can make to keep ourselves physically and mentally healthy.

Our ICT focus this half term is the Twinkl Scheme of work, ‘Programming with Scratch’. Over the next few weeks, we will learn the principles of coding and develop an understanding of algorithms. We will learn how to create precise instructions for visual working programs, whilst some pupils develop this further by creating animated stories using structured coding.  

Our World Views topic this half term is ‘Christianity - What do Christians believe about creation?’. We will explore Christian beliefs about creation and the fall, using key texts from the Bible and look at how different Christians understand them. We will also consider how these beliefs influence attitudes towards caring for the world and reflect on how ideas about creation shape Christian lives.

In our cooking sessions, we will be learning to make a range of healthy meals and snacks based on the theme ‘Spring into Cooking’ including making spring vegetable frittatas and stir fry.

For our outdoor learning sessions, we will base our sessions around the theme ‘Exploration and Adventure’ and will have lots of fun with some treasure hunts, den building and leisure games.

If there is any other information you would like me to provide you with or if you have any questions, please do get in touch.

Nikki and the Monarch Class Team