Mayfield Primary SchoolEARLY YEARS: SPRING TERM
OUR EARLY YEARS DURING SPRING TERM
OUR CORE INTENTION IN ACTION
SPRING TERM THEMES: I WONDER...HOW OTHER PEOPLE CELEBRATE. I WONDER...WHAT CHANGES IN WINTER. I WONDER...WHAT CHANGES IN SPRING. I WONDER...IF MY PLANT WILL GROW. I WONDER...IF JESUS ATE EASTER EGGS.
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An 'I Wonder' Spring Summary
I Wonder... gives us the chance to explore more themes this term. Much of our work is planned on a much shorter term basis with ideas and prompts from the children and being guided by their starting points and interests and, importantly, creating provision that builds upon the baseline for our young learners and their gaps in learning, however we still have some I wonder statements to explore within this. Equally, although we have our separate areas of learning in the Early Years Framework, we have a curriculum that ensures that this first year creates opportunities for all subjects to begin their journey of progress (all of which appear within the Early Years curriculum just under different headings in many ways). It is important for us to be the first in a seven year journey rather than a one-off year.
In addition to our ongoing opportunities within our stripped back provision, our children have been busy printing using vegtables and drawing plants based upon our I Wonder statement during their Artwork. We have been looking at food and diet this term and we planned and created individual fruit salads for our Design & Technology work.
We have been thinking about the changing seasons during Music and been listening to, singing and performing songs linked to the seasons throughout the term. The children have been jumping, running, hopping, skipping, throwing, catching and kicking as we continue our Fundamental Skills programme in Physical Education. We have been working upon balances during gymnastics work, by jumping on and off objects and learning to land correctly. We then moved onto under and over balances.
Our knowledge and understanding of the world Science studies focused upon similarities and differences between environments - particularly during changing seasons and cold weather. We also made observational drawings of plants during Spring as we introduced the parts of plants and the way they look. Our History work expanded to look at some significant local events both within and beyond our lifetime. This created some interesting chats about how and why things have changed and how things look as they do with - as ever - the children having lots of questions and thoughts. Weather and seasons were the main focus for our Geography based time together, we took a particular look at how weather changes at different times of the year and how this affects the behaviour of all living things - including plants and animals. We studied the Chinese New Year and the first Easter as our Religious Education focus this term. The children really enjoyed looking at the Chinese celebrations and the animals linked to different years.
We have developing our control skills in Computing work this term. The children took photos and recordings of plants and their life cycle. They are becoming experts at touchscreen technology already! During our PSHE & Relationships work, we have been looking at jobs and roles in our community and how they are important to us. We also talked about rules and, even if we don't always like them, considered how they help to protect us and keep us safe.
Our work in Mathematics this term has been all about developing and consolidating our numbers to ten alongside our continuing shape work. Matching, sorting, comparing and exploring patterns and sequences have been important ways we have been doing this. Obviously, we have continued working very hard with our phonics this term. This happens each and every morning and in every opportunity throughout the day. Mark making and name writing have continued to be regular parts of our English work as well. We have also enjoyed listening and responding to a wide range of books which have provided ideas and stimulus for the children to use and develop throughout the day. These books have included Mr Wolf's Pancakes, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Chinese Animal Race.
