Meadow Class topic this term is ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ where we will be exploring different animals,  climates and books that relate to the jungle. The children in Meadow Class really love having a topic book, so in the first week we will be focusing on the first of our topic books in this area; ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ by Giles Andreae. The class will learn about the different characters as well as use this story in their other lessons, such as making, dance and English. In the second week, we will be thinking about the jungle’s environment and climate, and we will be using our first topic book to refer to in topic sessions. The class will also use real world toys and sensory materials to reenact different parts of the story. Then, in the third week, Meadow Class will move onto our next story, ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and think of the themes and characters of the story. We love a Julia Donaldson book in class so we will be photocopying different pages from this book to support the pupil’s understanding of characterisation as well as letter formation and word writing.

Then, as we move into the fourth week, the class will be looking at the last story for our topic of ‘Rumble in the Jungle” which is ‘Walking Through the Jungle’ by Julie Lacome; an amazing story! As we move into the last few weeks of the half term, Meadow Class will be doing some writing, role play and drawing about different stories and animals they love in the jungle. The last few lessons will be based on what we have learnt about in this topic and will ultimately conclude ‘Rumble in the Jungle’. The class will also be carrying out some Easter-themed lessons at the end of the term, concluding with a class party to celebrate these!

This half term we will be aiming to visit Jubilee Woods, LIDL supermarket, Banstead Library as well as Preston Park on our community visits. Meadow Class will also have the exciting opportunity to continue visiting Epsom RDA this term on Thursday mornings, and the children will also be going to tennis on Monday mornings with Teresa and Monarch class.

In our maths lessons, Meadow Class will continue following their White Rose Maths where some of them will be looking at bonds to 10 and doubles to 10, odd and even numbers and exploring 3D shapes and others will be looking at position and routes as well as exploring their own patterns.

In the English sessions, some children are continuing to trace over letter formation words, write independently, match words to each other as well as use the topic books as stimulus for role play experiences. Additionally, other children will be focusing on communicating with peers, choosing from two/three options and showing communication between peers. We will also continue to carry out our exciting phonics sessions each week using the Twinkl scheme of work which I know the class enjoy very much, as well as taking part in daily phonics catch up sessions. We will continue to send new books home every Thursday with each child’s reading records; it has been lovely to see how much the children have been coming along with their reading as well as communication overall.

The class will continue to carry out the Jigsaw PSHE sessions in class and our topic for PSHE this half term is ‘Healthy Me’ where the children will be looking at healthier options and different forms of exercise to ensure that a healthy balance is being promoted. For science sessions, Meadow Class will be starting some biology-based sessions and our topics for these sessions this half term will be ‘Let it Grow’ and ‘Animal Detectives’ which ties in nicely with our topic of ‘Rumble in the Jungle’.

Additionally, the class will be cooking different foods in cooking sessions with Teresa on a Monday based on our topic which will include jungle-themed cupcakes as well as an Easter selection of tasting foods and Easter egg nests.

 Alex and the Meadow Class Team