Mayfield Primary SchoolEarly Years: Spring Term
BURSTING INTO SPRING WITH EARLY YEARS
OUR CORE INTENTION IN ACTION
Take a look at the page below, including our curriculum project posters and mats, and download copies at the base of the page.
Please click here for our Phonics: Resources page for the latest practical support for learning at home.
.png)
I Dream Of Being... continues this term with a theme titled 'Hot & Cold' with a major focus upon understanding the wider world through Contrasting Continents. There is a real focus on new places, new experiences and building upon what we have learned about our home and comparing this to new settings. A new calendar year and a brand new step in our thinking, building carefully upon what we know so far. Our core texts draw upon this theme of hot and cold in My Polar Bear, Polar Bear by Bill Martin, Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne and Blue Penguin by Petr Horacek. We also love reading Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Rumble In The Jungle by Giles Andreae amongst many others.
We move into a growing and planting theme during the second half-term as we move through Springtime. We call this 'Plant The Seed'. There are great opportunities to explore the changing seasons, and take the first steps in a science project that will progressively run over many years to come. Its a real favourite of ours! Our core texts capture this theme: Oliver's Vegetables by Alison Bartlett & Vivian French, Errol's Garden by Gillian Hibbs and the fairy tale Jack & The Beanstalk. Amongst others, we read aloud and share Zog by Julia Donaldson and The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and take a look at texts related to 'Plant The Seed' such as Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke. There are many books to share this term - these are just a few of them!
Our phonics session take place every morning across the term, starting the day with our pacy sessions with children grouped to meet their starting point need and point of learning. We are looking at the numbers 1-10 in Mathematics, as well as introducing mass, capacity, length, height and time and exploring 3D shapes. We explore waterproof materials - undertaking tests and reporting black to the class. We move on to plant our own 'beanstalks', we then study what happens and what changes we notice as we introduce plant life cycles. We also talk about magnetism in our forces provision activities. Our Geographical work focuses upon hot and cold places and how they are different. We look at the animals that live in these different climates and continue our consideration of the seasons, the changes they bring and how they alter our environment as we link to themes in scientific understanding of the world. We look at the roles of people in the past and present who help our community during our historical understanding of the world, then we embark upon a really exciting study of dinosaurs as we develop a sense of chronology and living things from the past. We introduce, talk about and share different places of worship for different faiths during our Religious Education time together. We then look at faith leaders and compare them to people who work in our community.
Exploring colour mixing through painting and texture is the focus of our artwork. We also look at the paintings of Eric Carle from our favourite books. We then look at the work of Helen Wells and create our own flower paintings, drawings and 3D creations inspired by this. We then use fruit and vegetables to help us create the final designs. We continue to explore our design and making skills by creating our own bird feeders and then take a first look at food and diet with fruit kebabs. Our Music is all about listening and performing this term: focusing upon Plant a Tiny Seed, Daddy's in the Garden and Spring Chicken during the term in our dedicated music time with our subject leader: Mrs Rickwood.
During our opportunities to introduce and learn about ICT in class through continuous provision, we explore different ways to take pictures and devices which allow us to do this. We talk about and share these different devices and what they can safely do during the term. This links well to the beginnings of our E-Safety work.
Our Physical Education focuses upon co-ordination, movement, balance, jumping and rolling as key elements of our ongoing work and we develop our dance and movement sessions into a special dinosaur themed project.
Our PSHE introduces what it means to be a member of our school community. We talk about being a Mayfield Citizen and what a citizen is in our community as we gradually take steps and participate in our wider school journey and experience.
