R.E
We are following the RE programme Come and See. It is an invitation for children to ‘Come and See’ the wonder of all that is within them and beyond them.
We are finishing our topic on Signs and Symbols where we have thought about the meaning behind the signs and symbols of Baptism. We will spend a week learning about Judaism before moving onto our topic Preparations when we will think about how Advent is the time when we prepare to celebrate Christmas.

Writing
We will be exploring a variety of writing styles this half term. The children will retell stories they have read in class, write bonfire night poetry creating shape poems and acrostics, and write a non-fiction piece about The Great Fire of London. They will be encouraged to use adjectives in their writing. To develop their writing further, we will focus on how to improve our work by using conjunctions to extend our sentences. We will continue to focus on the accurate use of full stops and capital letters and how to use a wider range of punctuation, including commas and question marks. We will also develop the use of capital letters for names, places and titles.
 

Reading

Throughout the week the children will be heard to read individually and in guided reading groups. We will be reading a range of texts: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. They will use their knowledge of phonics and comprehension skills to answer questions, predict what might happen next based on what they have read, provide explanations  and understand the meanings of unfamiliar words.
 
Phonics
In our phonics sessions we will revise the Phase 5 graphemes, working on alternative spellings. The sounds that the children learn during the week will be sent home for a ‘spelling quiz’ at the end of each week.
 
Grammar
This half term we will be working on conjunctions ( a word that joins two or more phrases together e.g. but, so, because, however).

We will also be learning about the four different types of sentences that there are: statements, questions, commands and exclamations.
We will be revising adjectives, nouns and verbs.
The children will also be learning about tenses ( which show the time of an action or a state of being as shown by a verb), specifically the  present tense and the past tense.


Maths
This half term the children will continue to work on addition and subtraction, developing the children’s fast recall of number bonds. We will work on number fact families and related facts. We will add by making 10 and then add to the next 10 and across 10. The children will develop their addition and subtraction skills with single digit numbers before learning strategies to add and subtract 2-digit numbers. 

Later in the half-term, we will work on 2-D and 3-D shapes, learning to recognise and sort them by counting sides, vertices and edges. We will also work on lines of symmetry.

Science
In science the children are learning about the difference between plants and animals.
They will be learning that all animals need food and water to stay alive
and that they need a variety of food and drink to enable them to grow.
They will be recognising and sorting basic food types and know that they need the right amounts of different types of food to be healthy.
They will also explore the importance of exercise for staying fit and healthy.
 

Computing
The children will be using creative media to create pictures. They will explore the world of digital art and learn how to create pictures on the computer using shapes and lines.
 
History
The children will be putting on their detective hats this half term to find out about a significant historical event;
The Great Fire of London. 
The children will ask questions in order to find out about the fire and then use different sources to find the answers. They will be learning about the events of the great fire and show it on a timeline.
 
Art and Design
The children will be making a mixed media collage. They will explore collage techniques to create a Fire of London background including the use of light and dark to create tone and tissue paper as a medium.
They will also make and design a pinch pot and paint using ready mixed paint.
 
 
Music
We are working on developing a wide range of music techniques and skills, including the following:

Recognizing shapes and patterns in music through learning songs. The patterns can be in the rhythms, which we play on classroom percussion instruments, or in the melodies, and we discover these sequences by listening and singing.

Playing a variety of different sounds on percussion instruments to suit the style and expression of the music.

We are learning to make sounds by tapping, shaking, scraping, playing firmly or more subtly, and deciding which colours will best suit the songs we are accompanying.

Learning more complex songs and singing with even better pitch matching, tone quality and meaning.

We are continuing to develop our singing skills, and learning songs to support other areas of learning as well as celebrating special events.

P.E. 
This half term the children will be learning all about balance in gymnastics.  They will be working on poses and the ability to link them to create sequences on the floor and on different pieces of apparatus. Our aim will be to create performances linking a sequence of 4 movements with control and fluency. P.E. is on Monday and Thursday.

Homework

The children are expected to read daily.

Spellings are given out on Friday and there is a quiz on the following Friday.

English and Maths homework is given out on Friday and should be returned on the following Monday.