This topic offers great opportunities to learn more about the great outdoors. The children will be learning about plants, life cycles, habitats and the nature we are surrounded by.  Children will be exposed to new scientific language and storytelling language.

We will be exploring the following texts:

Communication and Language

Through this topic the children will develop their questioning and discussion skills further.  We will be thinking about where certain minibeasts can be found, what they need to survive, how we can help to look after them, and what characteristics they possess.  We will read the story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and will discuss the life cycle of a butterfly.  We will have our own caterpillars and will use these as an opportunity to further describe, question and discuss the life cycle.  When reading 'Superworm' the children will think about what it is that makes somebody a superhero.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Our children will show their understanding of the word 'respect' when we discuss how to look after insects, and will demonstrate this further when we go on a minibeast hunt.  In our Religious Studies we are going be to learning about Sikhism and pupils will need to show respect for other people and beliefs as we do so. The story 'Superworm' will be used to continue to develop our children's understanding of the importance of team work.  We will also think about diet when reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and why it is important for all creatures, including ourselves, to eat healthily.

Physical Development

Pupils will continue to take part in a variety of fine and gross motor activities that are available throughout our provision, such as using tweezers to pull spaghetti worms out of soil, threading wool to make a spider web or producing paper chain caterpillars. In P.E. lessons children will experiment with different ways of moving to express themselves and will form their own dance routines.  Pupils will be encouraged to ride our two wheeled bikes during our outside provision. Children will be encouraged to draw in more detail and accurately, demonstrating their ability to control a pencil.

 Literacy

We will be looking at the language that is used in the story 'Superworm' to describe the characters and their actions.  Pupils will learn to develop their own views of the books we read, expressing their likes, dislikes and preferences.  They will need to explain their thoughts and respond to questions.  While researching insects’ pupils will refine their skills in using non-fictions texts, showing their understand of contents pages.  

We will be securing children’s knowledge of Phase 2 and Phase 3.  The children will be working towards becoming more confident when reading and writing words with adjacent consonants, such as black and train.  Pupils will be writing for extended amounts of time, using captions and sentences to record information and their ideas. One-to-one reading and 'tricky words' will still be focused on daily.

Our children will be encouraged to apply their literacy skills throughout our provision.  They may wish to make a story map to retell a book, write instructions for building a bug hotel, plan a trap for the Evil Lizard in Superworm or label a picture of a minibeast.

Maths

This half term we will be encouraging the children to identify the numbers to 20. They will be using a range of resources including 10 frames, shapes, towers, bead strings. This is to support them to see that larger numbers are composed of full 10s 

and part of the next 10. We will provide the children with many opportunities to count on and back to 10 and beyond and from different starting points. This includes counting on and back in 1s and sequence the numbers in order.

We will also be looking at spatial reasoning by providing opportunities for the children to do puzzles, jigsaws, peg boards, geoboards to rotate and fill the given space. They will also be practicing their positioning language, to describe where the shapes are in relation to each other. 

Once we have a sound understanding of ours numbers we will be consolidating these skills this half term by consolidating using dice, dominoes and other games to secure their understanding of subitising. We will then use objects to see that a quantity can be changed by adding and takeaway. We will create mathematical stories using first, then, now and next.

Understanding the World

Through this topic our children will explore why some habitats are better for some insects compared to others, and how we can tell this.  Pupils will go on a minibeast hunt and will learn how to use a range of equipment such as pooters and magnifying glasses. We will look closely at some insects, thinking about the different parts of their body, what their role in nature is, and their life cycle.  Pupils will use and understand the terms 'chrysalis' and 'pupa' when we look at the butterfly life cycle.

In our Religious Studies pupils will be introduced to Sikhism, thinking about why is Gurdwara special, and what is special to each of us.

Expressive Arts and Design

Pupils will listen to 'The Flight of the Bumblebee' and discuss what it makes them think of and why.  They will talk about the instruments used and the rhythm and tempo.  There will be opportunities for pupils to look at how insects move and for them to try to replicate these movements to music. During our continuous provision, our children will be encouraged to plan their creations and consider if they are happy with their products, or if they could adapt something or change something to make them even better.