Our Curriculum for Summer 1

In English next term, we will reading ‘Yeti and the Bird’ by the author Nadia Shireen. We will explore the themes of friendship through writing letters, postcards and character descriptions before writing our own stories about unlikely friendships.

As we write we will explore use of the third person (he, she, they) and using the past tense. We will use adverbs to sequence sentences as well as conjunctions such as ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘so’ to link ideas together.

This term, Year 1 and 2 maths will focus on multiplication and division, including counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s, making equal groups, and creating arrays. The Year 2 children will go further by using the division symbol and solving real life problems. We will then explore fractions, where children will learn to find halves and quarters of objects, shapes, and quantities. Year 2s will also learn about thirds.

To support your child at home, encourage them to count in 2s, 5s, and 10s.

An important area of learning that we will tackle soon is ‘time’. This is an area that can be supported at home with lots of opportunities for regular practise. Year 1 children will learn to tell the time to the nearest half an hour while Year 2 children will learn to tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes.

As addition and subtraction is so important to overall maths learning, the children would benefit from practise of adding and taking away numbers up to 20 for Year 1 and up to 100 for Year 2.

For support with practising using number lines or written methods, please refer to the handout sent home in the autumn term which can also be found on our class webpages through the ‘Curriculum’ tab.

In science, we will be learning all about plants. We will review the parts of a plant, understand the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees and carry out investigations to show what plants need to grow. Furthermore, we will study the plants we eat and we will also be planting some too.

In art, we will be looking at mixed media jungle drawings including learning to blend with oil pastels through art inspired by the artist, Henri Rousseau.

In DT, we will be researching and making our own stilt tree houses. We will focus on ways of strengthening structures to make them more stable.

In RE lessons we will be asking the question ‘What does it mean to belong to a faith community?’ and will learn how the religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism might respond to this.

In our music lessons, we will focus on developing children’s understanding of pitch. They will learn to recognize and copy simple pitch patterns using their voices and instruments.

Our computing learning this term is to create digital art using a range of tools including: shape tools; various styles of line; and colour fill tools.

This term in PE, we be striking & fielding and dance. In striking & fielding lessons we will continue to develop the basics of throwing, catching and using bats to strike a ball with increasing accuracy. Our indoor PE lessons will be focusing on gymnastics. The children will practise forming arches with their bodies, traveling in curved positions, and stretching while balancing. They will then combine these movements to create their own gymnastic sequences.