🍂 Autumn Term

📚 Reading and Writing

We use Talk Through Stories to explore story sequencing, inference, and language through role play, discussion, and games.

Our writing sequence helps us practise applying phonics to decode and record new words. Using colourful semantics, we begin learning sentence construction by linking question words to sentence parts (e.g. orange = who?, yellow = what doing?, green = what?).

Books for this term:

• Can I Build Another Me? – Shinsuke Yoshitake

• Three Billy Goats Gruff – Kate Pankhurst

• Funnybones – Allan Ahlberg

• Where the Poppies Now Grow – Hilary Robinson & Martin Impey

• Monkey Puzzle – Julia Donaldson

• Luna Loves Christmas – Joseph Coelho

• Santa Post – Emma Yarlett

🔢 Maths

We follow Maths No Problem, which uses a concrete–pictorial–abstract approach. Children embed new learning through discussion and practical tasks before applying skills in written form.

This term, we focus on:

• Numbers within 10 (value, sequencing, number bonds, addition, subtraction)

• Daily Flashback 4 sessions to practise and revisit prior learning

🌍 Our Wider Curriculum

✝️ R.E.

We begin with Christianity, exploring why the Bible is special to Christians. We will look at how and why it is used, and where it might be found in places of worship.

🔬 Science

Our topic is “My Body.”

• Identifying and labelling body parts

• Linking senses to body parts through games, scavenger hunts, and investigations

• Discussing which sense might be the most important

• Exploring how to keep mind and body healthy through diet, exercise, and sleep

🗺️ Geography

Our focus is Peterlee.

• Locating Peterlee on a map

• Identifying landforms: woodland, forests, and coastline

• Naming local water bodies: Castle Eden Burn/stream and the North Sea

🏛️ History

Topic: Buildings in Peterlee.

• Exploring its mining village origins and transformation into a town

• Investigating what houses, streets, and villages looked like in the past

• Beginning to use a timeline to plot events

• Learning about Peter Lee, the man the town is named after

🎨 Art

With Mrs. Foster, we will explore portraits and collages, creating self-portrait collages using a range of materials and visual inspiration.

💬 PSHE

We start the year with two key topics: Safety First and VIPS.

• Learning how to keep ourselves and others safe

• Identifying trusted adults as duty bearers for our right to safety

🍎 D.T. (Design & Technology)

Topic: Fruit and Vegetables.

• Categorising foods into fruits and vegetables

• Designing and making a healthy smoothie, then tasting and evaluating it

• Exploring food groups and balanced diets

• Creating wrap ideas that offer a nutritious, balanced meal

💻 Computing

Using PurpleMash, we will:

• Practise logging in and out independently

• Learn about online safety and how to protect ourselves when using devices

🏃‍♂️ P.E.

Unit focus: Send and Return
We are learning to:

• Slide a beanbag to a target

• Hit a ball in different ways using hands or a bat

• Move towards a ball to return it

• Work with a partner to stop and return a beanbag

• Understand and practise rallying with a partner

• Send a ball into space to challenge an opponent