Chestnut Class

Welcome to Chestnut Class!

Ours names are Mrs Deacon and Miss Simporis and we both teach in Chestnut Class. Mrs Deacon will be in class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Miss Simporis will be in class on Thursday and Friday. Mrs Bugden is our Learning Support Assistant who works in our class every morning.

Our topic for the Autumn term involves focusing on these Power of Reading books - ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson, 'The Bog Baby’ by Jeanne Willis and ‘Traction Man is Here’ by Mini Grey. We are very excited about our topic and plan to spend lots of time in the grounds, exploring the pond and woodland areas and linking these to our stories. During the term we will be enjoying reading and writing stories and information texts; in Science we will be learning about Animals including Humans and also how the weather changes with the seasons. Our maths learning will start with place value and ordering and sequencing numbers, then moving on to addition and subtraction and 2D shape.

Our topic for the Spring term involves focusing on these Power of reading books-'The Robot and the Bluebird' by David Lucas and ‘The Puffin Book of Fantastic First Poems’ edited by June Crebbin and various versions of the fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ We are very excited about our topic and plan to spend lots of time in the grounds exploring the woodland areas and linking this to our story and poems. During the term we will be enjoying reading and writing stories and information texts and listening to poetry; in Science we will be learning about Animals and Materials. Our maths learning will start with ordering and sequencing numbers, addition and subtraction and place value.

Our topic for the Summer Term involves focusing on these Power of Reading books - '10 Things I Can Do To Help My World’ by Melanie Walsh and 'How to Find Gold' by Viviane Schwarz and ‘Look Up’, by Nathan Bryon. These books have a Geography/PSHE focus - what we can do to improve our environment and map work. As always, we are very excited about our books and we plan to spend lots of time in the grounds, exploring the pond and woodland areas and linking these to our texts. During the term we will be enjoying reading and writing stories and information texts; in science we will be learning about plants and trees, including learning the names of common plants and trees in our area. We will also continue to observe and record how the weather changes with the seasons. Our maths learning will continue with place value and ordering and sequencing numbers (counting forwards and backwards to and from 100), learning to count confidently in twos, fives and tens, and learning how to multiply and divide.

Learning will take place outside as often as possible and children need to be dressed for the weather – warm, waterproof coats for the cold, and hats for sunny days please.

Throughout the year, the children will have regular phonics sessions where they will practise recognising sounds and applying their phonic knowledge to reading and writing.

It is important for children to read and talk about books every day. As they become more confident at decoding words, please encourage them to look out for punctuation and begin to read with expression.