During this half term our creative curriculum topic is Witches and Wizards During this half term we will be reading many stories involving witches or wizards, including Winnie the Witch, The Wizard and the Princess and The worst Witch. The children will be writing about witches and wizards, making graphs about witches’ pets, making their own potions, writing their own stories and painting pictures of witches and wizards. Our first half term is going to be lots of fun and very busy.

Each day children are involved in practical activities to support their learning which is all focused around our creative curriculum topic. The children are always working hard to improve their writing and maths skills. We cover many aspects of writing, such as recounts, lists, labels, stories, poems and information writing. In maths we work on learning numbers to 20, using addition and subtraction. We focus on number bonds and later in the year the 2's, 5's and 10's times tables. We also focus on 2D and 3D shapes and their properties and how to use different types of graphs.

During this half term we will be learning about different environments in our world, including the jungle, the ocean, the polar region and the desert. We are also focusing on stories from different cultures. The children will be learning about Handa's Surprise. We will be drawing the different fruit and animals from the story and creating our own stories based on Handa's Surprise.

In Art we will look at different artists and their work. Our main focus will be on Claude Monet. The children will be re-creating their own paintings and using their painting and drawing skills using a variety of different materials and resources.

In maths we will be solving problems, concentrating on number bonds to 10 and then 20!!! We will also be adding, taking away and writing numbers in words. One, two, three, four etc.

This half term we will be focusing on the story of The Secret Garden. The children will be writing character descriptions about Mary, Colin and Dickon. The children will be writing their own stories about gardens and we will also be focusing on instruction writing. We will be writing instructions for planting seeds and bulbs and creating our own seed packets.

In the Autumn Term we learnt about Winter and Polar Animals. We read books such as Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, Winnie in Winter and The Magic Sky. These are wonderful books that tell stories about Artic animals. Children painted snowy animals. In Maths children counted penguins and in FS2 children have added numbers together and wrote their own number sentences using dice and numicon to help them. Children are learning letter sounds. (For further information on Jollly Phonics feel free to ask or search on the internet for video clips to share with your child).

During the Spring Term our creative theme is Jungles and Rainforests. We have been reading exciting books such as Rumble in the Jungle, Monkey Puzzle, Night Monkey and Day Monkey. Children have painted, made animal patterns and taken part in imaginative role play based on the jungle theme. Daily practise of letters and sounds, regular singing and counting continues in the Foundation Stage.