Spring Term 2 2025

Week 1

To get us started on our new theme of ‘Holidays’, we began with our first topic of Aeroplanes and Boats. We explored our key vocabulary with Makaton and enjoyed learning about floating and sinking using different objects in the water tray. We loved our focus story this week which was ‘Maisy goes on a plane’ and sang one of our favourite songs ‘Row, row, row your boat’ and used actions to help us.

In bucket time this week, we had a go at predicting ‘sink or float’. We were so surprised when the wooden spoon actually floated! Our favourite stage 3 activity was sitting in our own little rowing boat which even had oars to help us move around.

In phonics this week, we introduced our new sound ‘r’ – down the robot’s back and curl over his arm. We matched ‘r’ objects to their pictures, traced the sound in the sand and splatted our sound on the window.

In our maths learning this week, we have been focusing on 3D shapes. We were able to sort the shapes into boxes and loved holding and feeling all the different objects in our hands. Some of us even enjoyed rolling the sphere across the floor to our friends 😊

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the word ‘go’ where we signed our word and took turns sending the helicopter toy up into the air saying ‘ready, steady, go!’. This was lots of fun.

We had some special visitors in with us this week and didn’t get chance to cook. Next week, we will enjoythe eggs we collected from the chickens to make scrambled eggs!

Week 2

This week, we have continued our learning about transport and have extended our knowledge into trains and buses. We used the Runaway Train as our story of the week and enjoyed singing The Wheels on the Bus as our focus song.

In bucket time this week, we explored other aspects of the road, including traffic lights. We rolled out a large piece of paper, drew our traffic lights on it and then used red, yellow and green paint to splat on the correct area. In stage 3, we enjoyed driving our very own Atlas bus. We made it ourselves and the children were able to steer the wheel, ring the bell and beep the horn as we sang 'the wheels on the bus'.

In phonics this week, we introduced our new sound 'j'- down his body, curl and dot. We enjoyed matching items to their pictures, highlighting our sound and reviewing our sound at the end of the week in amongst other initial phonic sounds we have already learnt about.

In our maths this week, we have been focusing on time terminology including 'today, tomorrow, now and next'. We use our circle time to embed our days of the week knowledge and to understand the past, present and future.

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the word 'stop' where we signed our word and then took turns working our spinning tops by twisting the mechanism to begin with and then releasing the spinning top onto the carpet saying 'go'. When the spinner was coming to an end, we then signed and said 'stop!'.

Our life skills curriculum focuses on 'what can we make with eggs?' and this week we were able to dust off our cooking equipment and make some yummy scrambled eggs. We helped Nia to crack and whisk the eggs and then all had a chance to scramble them in the frying pan. We weren't overly keen on trying it but a couple of us were brave and had a small bite. Perhaps next week, we will enjoy the food a little more?!

Week 3

Our learning this week has found us exploring England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales. We have loved singing songs such as 'What a Wonderful World', 'London Bridge is Falling Down' and 'United Kingdom Song'. Our stories and videos we have watched have given us lots of insight into cultures in and around the UK and we particularly loved listening to 'Grandad's Camper'. We have decorated flags, coloured in national flowers, paint marked shamrocks and found English landmarks.

In bucket time this week, we loved our special glitter glue reveal where we made a lovely Welsh daffodil. We also created a union jack using red and blue paint dipped cotton buds. Our favourite stage this week was decorating our shield and sword in the colours that represent the four countries. This was lots of fun to play with.

In phonics this week, we introduced our new sound 'v' - down its wing, up it's wing. We highlighted our sound, used scarves to air write our sound and reviewed our sound at the end of the week using the splatter to help us embed our previously learnt phonics.

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the word 'me'. We signed our word and then looked in the small mirrors to find ourselves. It was very funny making silly faces and seeing this in our reflections. Jenny then helped us to draw a self-portrait whilst finding our facial features.

In life skills this week, we continued our egg theme and enjoyed making Eggy Bread. First, we read the recipe book and decided what we would need. Then we all helped to crack the collected chicken eggs, whisk them with a fork, dip the bread into the eggy mixture and then flip the bread in the frying pan to make sure it was nice and crispy. We shared the eggy bread and some of us really enjoyed tasting it.

We will be continuing our England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales tour next week.

Week 4

This week, our learning has continued with our topic of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales. We have enjoyed threading beads to create rainbow patterns, mixing blue and yellow paints to colour match our shamrock pictures, making dragon play-do sculptures to live in our castles and paint dabbed the Loch Ness Monster!

In bucket time this week, we loved shamrock glitter glue reveal and rainbow bead threading. We all got chance to make our own rainbow necklaces and sang the colours of the rainbow song whilst we identified each colour.

In phonics this week, we introduced our new sound 'y' - down a horn, up a horn and under his head. We really enjoyed tracing this sound using highlighters and sand to help with our fine motor skills.

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the word 'you'. We looked at pictures of ourselves and Meggan handed them out whilst signing our word. We then brought our pictures back to the carpet and lined them up to find ourselves. We used the splatter to splat our own picture which was very funny.

In life skills this week, we enjoyed collecting our chicken eggs and making dippy eggs and soldiers. We watched Jenny placing the eggs into water and she boiled them, but not for too long. We then helped to cut our bread soldiers. Using a knife we carefully sliced through the bread to make long rectangles. We had to let our eggs cool down before tapping the shell and cutting the top off to reveal the delicious orange yolks inside. We had a little taste and they were very yummy!

Week 5

Our learning this week has been very tasty. We have explored foods around the UK through taste, feel, smell and sight. We enjoyed playing (and eating) with lots of different fruits and vegetables at the start of the week, identifying foods in an I Spy game, reading our focus story ‘I like, I don’t like’ and singing songs such as ‘What’s on your plate?’ and ‘Playing with your food’.

In bucket time this week, we had lots of fun with food and drink and watched a purple lemonade fountain which soaked Nia (oops!), enjoyed egg splat with Meggan and took turns to add vinegar onto bicarbonate of soda to create fizzing stars.

In phonics this week, we introduced our new sound ‘w’ – down, up, down, up – w-w-w worm. We finger traced our sound, identified pictures beginning with our sound and read our ‘w’ book all about whales.

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the word ‘sit’. We practiced our Makaton sign which was quite tricky this week and then we watched ‘Stand Up, Sit Down’ and mimicked the actions to go with it.

In life skills this week, we continued our theme of ‘What can we make with eggs’ and made some yummy pancakes. We made a batter, adding eggs, water and some oil and whisked until we got rid of the lumps (or most of them at least). Once it was all mixed, we carefully added the mixture into our frying pan and watched for the bubbles to appear. We then had a turn at flipping the pancakes by throwing them into the air!

What a fun week 😊

Week 6

This week, we have enjoyed dressing up and exploring clothes. Our focus story was 'The Smartest Giant in Town' and we loved being able to identify the different clothes that he gave away to his friends. We practiced putting our own clothes on e.g. socks and shoes and had fun playing with fastenings in the busy books.

In bucket time this week, we loved clothes reveal where we used kitchen roll to make our designs and then poured over water to uncover the colours of the clothing. We also enjoyed dressing up the characters using magnet clothing where we all created an individual design.

In phonics this week, we introduced our new sound ‘th’ – down the tower, across the tower then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back. We used our splatters to find pictures beginning with our sound, finger tracing our sound and writing our sound on whiteboards.

On Wednesday, our core word bucket focused on the term ‘stand up’. We watched ‘Stand Up, Sit Down’ again and mimicked the actions to go with it.

In life skills this week, we made fried eggs with Jenny. We helped to crack the eggs, heard the eggs sizzling in the pan and then had a taste of the runny yolk.

We have had a great term with lots of fantastic learning. We hope you have the best Easter with lots of fun with your lovely children and we will see you all in 2 weeks time!