This is a fantastic topic for finding out about what the word ‘celebration’ means, what and how we celebrate, and the variety of celebrations within many different cultures and why these are important to people.  Pupils will learn about the celebration of Bonfire Night, Diwali, Birthdays around the world and many more.  Our children will have a better understanding of why people celebrate Christmas and how it's celebrate differently all over the world. We will ask families of our class to share their different celebrations with us to enable us also to gain a better understanding of other cultures and religions. 

We will be exploring the following texts:

Communication and Language

Our children will use their communication and language skills through a variety of discussions we have during this topic.  We will be sharing our ideas and knowledge about different celebrations and events such as Remembrance Day, Bonfire Night and Christmas, as well as some of the other seasonal traditions pupils in our class who are from different countries celebrate.   Pupils will think about shapes and colours when learning about Bonfire Night. When reading 'Seasons Come, Seasons go Tree' children can talk about the different seasonal changes and be able to discuss the changes we can see around us. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

 Bonfire Night’ will open up discussions about our fears and how we can find comfort in others or overcome our fears by finding out more about them.  Remembrance Day will lead us to think about what the word ‘respect’ means and how we can show respect towards objects and living things such as wildlife and people in the past and in other cultures.

Physical Development

During our P.E. lessons pupils will use dancing scarves and ribbons to move like fireworks, thinking about speed, levels and shapes they can make.  There will be many opportunities for children to continue to develop their fine motor skills, whether it’s through making poppy bracelets, making clay lamps or Christmas decorations.

Literacy

We will continue to learn new sounds through our phonics sessions.  Pupils will practise their blending skills to enable them to read short phonetic words independently.  They will begin to bring key words home to learn to read and spell. These are words they cannot sound out, such as ‘the’ and ‘said’.

We will look at the language used in our focus texts, discussing what new words mean and why they are interesting. Pupils will also be introduced to words such as ‘title’, ‘author’, ‘illustrator’, ‘fiction’, ‘non-fiction’ and ‘contents’ when looking at books. Children will be given opportunities to order and retell stories, such as ‘Mr Men Little Miss Happy Diwali’ and the Christmas story.  Pupils will also learn some new songs linked to seasons and Christmas.

Pupils will continue to develop their literacy skills throughout our provision.  They may be writing recipes in the mud kitchen, Christmas lists, letters or cards. Our children might decide to retell some of the stories we have read through roleplay, small world or use puppets. 

Maths

Our daily morning registration and calendar maths, as well as our focused sessions, will continue.  Pupils will explore numbers to 5 through representing and composition of the number ad exploring shapes. They will become more confident in using mathematical vocabulary, such as 1 more and 1 less. Through looking at the seasons, pupils will gain a better understanding of time.

Maths is present within our continuous provision also. In our roleplay there will be opportunities to experiment with size and weight.  Through producing their own Christmas wrapping paper, pupils will explore shape and pattern.

Understanding the World

This topic is fantastic for giving our children a better understanding of different cultures within our school community and the wider world.  When looking at each celebration pupils will also look at which culture and where in the world it is of particular importance.  We will use maps to identify where these countries are, will think about how far away they are from England and will compare their size.  Pupils will think about how buildings, clothing and food can be different and important to each celebration. 

Pupils can share their experiences of Bonfire night, and learn why this event takes place and how we can keep safe during any linked events.  We will also focus on how different countries celebrate birthdays and Christmas and where these countries are.  We will discuss the natural changes we have seen as we go through Autumn and into Winter and will learn about how animals keep themselves safe during the colder seasons (including hibernation).   As part of our Religious Education, pupils will learn why and how Christians celebrate Christmas, and will have the opportunity to take part in our play, retelling the Christmas story.  

Expressive Arts and Design

Pupils will experiment with many different materials and how they can be manipulated to form a desired effect. Using clay and chosen natural materials, our children can produce a clay lamps.  Through a variety of mark making resources, such as chalks, felt tips, paint and crayons, tissue paper and biodegradable glitter, pupils can record their thoughts and experiences of Bonfire night. There will be the opportunity to produce their own Christmas wrapping paper, using patterns and printing to do so.  As we get closer to Christmas, pupils can help to set up as a post office.  Here they can design, make and wrap toys and other parcels.  There will be letters to Father Christmas, Christmas cards, addresses to write.   

What you can do at home to support your child 

Please continue to read books you may have at home with your child, as well as the school library and reading books that are sent home.  Can your child predict what the book may be about by looking at the title and cover?  Once they have read the book, if it is a story can they tell you how it started, the main happening and how it ended?  If you feel confident to do so, you can model using book language such as ‘title’, ‘author’ and ‘contents’.
 

Your child will continue to bring ‘sound of the day’. Please ask them to teach it to you, they can tell you the name, sound and action!  Can your child write the letter, following our school handwriting policy? You can write some words containing the sound for them to sound out? 

Your child will begin to bring ‘Key Words’ home.  These are words that cannot be sounded out.  Please help your child to learn to read and spell these words.  Suggested activities for this will also come home.  Little and often always works a treat!

We hope you are enjoying your suggested maths and communication and language activities.  If you feel your child will benefit for anything different, please feel free to talk to one of the Year R team.