Ducklings   

Spring 2 Topic: I Wonder…..Who Helps Us?

Topic Summary

During Spring 2 we will be focusing on our topic called 'I Wonder........Who Helps Us?'.  This topic is a fun way for our Ducklings to explore different occupations. We will begin by exploring familiar characters who help others such as Paw Petrol and Fireman Sam. We will then look at a range of different jobs which people do to help others in the community e.g. teachers, dinner staff, lolly pop people, emergency services, retail workers, cleaners, dentist, vet etc. We will have short discussions during our mat times and set out fun and inviting activities during Rainbow Time linked to our topic (free play). We will also have many activities linked to the children’s interests. We will ask the children weekly would they would like to learn about and play with.

How can you help at home……

• Please look at photos on Tapestry with your child to discuss their learning.
• Please upload photos to Tapestry from home to share what your child has been doing e.g days out, craft, spotting any numbers, singing etc. We would love to see and share these!
• We would love to invite people in from different occupations to have a short chat with the children – please let us know if you can help!

Our Key Texts

People Who Help Us books –

We will read and discuss a range of short books showing different occupations.

Little Red Riding Hood- As part of World Book Day we will read and complete activities around the well-known traditional tale of Little Red Riding hood. We will read the story and encourage the children to act out the story using stick puppets and masks! We will join with Kingfishers who will also be looking at this text.

Through My Window by Tony Bradman and Eileen Browne– A fantastic text to promote discussion about different job roles in a multicultural community. “Jo is ill and has to stay in bed for the day, but her mum promises to bring her home a surprise to make her feel better. Through the day she watches for her return, seeing the variety of delivery people, neighbours and animals who come to her street, offering a springboard to readers for role-play games. Jo's is a multicultural community, its roles shared among the genders (dad stays to tend Jo, the window cleaner is a woman), and the text and illustrations are a bold, colourful, vibrant representation of the riches this offers our world.

We will also revisit Owl Babies and The Colour Monster for our new children starting as well as for all children returning. Owl Babies is a fantastic text all about the mother owl leaving but coming back again. We will relate this to grown-ups leaving whilst the children are at preschool and then coming back again. The Colour Monster is a brilliant book exploring feelings and emotions.

Our Areas of Learning 

Please find below examples of some of the activities:

Communication and Language

• We will be continuing with phase 1 phonics, focusing on a variety of listening and speaking games.
• For children starting Year R this year we will also play games focusing on the initial sounds of words e.g. ‘c’ for ‘cat’.
• We will be listening to and joining in with daily rhymes, songs and stories including those mentioned above as well as the children's favourites. This will contribute to building up the children’s vocabulary.
• Throughout Rainbow Time the children will be encouraged to use talk to explain what is happening and to anticipate what might happen next.

        Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• We will look at different emotions and when we may feel these emotions, encouraging the children to also talk about how others might be feeling.
• We will be encouraging children to invite others into their play.
• A focus will be on building up the children’s confidence through taking risks and trying new things e.g. new activities that they might avoid.

Physical Development

• A focus will be to continue to develop our core muscle strength when playing on the tyre park, playground and the field by building obstacle courses using large equipment and soft play blocks. We will challenge and extend this depending on the children’s needs.
• We will use a range of equipment including bikes, scooters, balls, bats, parachute games etc to build upon our gross motor skills, focusing on maintaining balance and having spatial awareness.
• The children will be encouraged to independently take off and put on their coat and to wash and dry their hands effectively.

Literacy

• We will be listening to and joining in with stories, rhymes and songs and encouraging the children to fill in the missing word or phrase from known stories and rhymes.
• We will be drawing and mark making daily using many different tools such as pens, pencils, crayons, paintbrushes, chalk on many different surfaces including paper, card, large and small screens plus more!
• The children will be encouraged to use a range of tools to strengthen their fingers which will help them to then move onto writing,

Maths

• We will be exploring many maths resources.
• We will enjoy counting songs and count daily in real life contexts e.g. how many children are in our group. We will represent this number using our fingers, clapping that many times etc.
• We will count objects recognising that the last number said represents the total counted so far.
• The children will have the chance to explore differences in size, length, weight and capacity. In meaningful contexts we will find the longer or shorter, heavier or lighter and more/less of two items.
• We will play with 2D shapes using them to create pictures.

Understanding the World

• We will be finding out about different occupations.
• The children will be encouraged to comment on and talk about aspects of their familiar world whilst outside – what can we see, hear, feel, smell?
• We will think about the weather daily and any changes that we notice.
• The children will have the chance to use technology by playing simple games on the laptops and the class interactive whiteboard.

Expressive Arts and Design

• We will take part in many art and craft based activities e.g. making our own people who help us puppets and using cardboard boxes to make emergency vehicles.
• We will create a doctors, dentist and a school role play area!
• The children will continue to have access to their favourites including playdough, water beads and painting

Thank you for your amazing support which is greatly appreciated.