Summer Topic Plan 2022 | Embsay CE Primary School

All Change!

Welcome to the Summer term of Reception! We can scarcely believe how quickly this year has gone and that we are now beginning the final term of your child’s Reception year!

We hope you had a fun and restful time with your children over the Easter holidays and that they are now ready to engage in some great learning with us over the next few weeks!

Miss McNulty will be leading some of the learning until the May half-term holidays. She is on her final Teaching Practice placement with us and we are very much looking forward to seeing what she has planned to do with the children. Mrs Meeking and I will continue to be in the classroom and are looking forward to providing some extra, small group support to the children over this half-term too.

The children will continue with PE activities / lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please continue to send them in to school in their PE Kits and Trainers on these days.

As the weather can be changeable at the moment, please do send your child in to school with a coat each day. As the summer term progresses, we will, hopefully, have some sunny days at school and we ask that you apply sun cream to your child before they come to school in a morning and also send them with a sun hat / cap which they can wear when playing out. We will support the children to apply more sun cream during the day but cannot put it on them so a good, initial application at home is really important. We will send more information home about sun cream etc later in the term.

The children are continuing to make good progress in their Phonics and Reading work and we hope your child is continuing to enjoy sharing their Reading Books and Phoneme Cards with you at home. Please do try to read with your child at home – it really does help them and makes a huge difference to their skill and progress.

We will continue to read with the children on a Monday and Friday (unless unexpected events prevent this) and we will send new Reading Books home on these days, if required. We change books when needed and try very hard to match the Reading Books with the children’s phonic ability (though sometimes some books may contain an occasional phoneme / digraph which hasn’t been taught in Reception. It’s fine to ‘teach’ this new sound – we would do it in school too!) As the children become more confident in their segmenting and blending, we expect them to begin to do this more fluently and to begin to remember words from one page to another, developing their sight vocabulary. (This is something we will be encouraging over the summer term when your child reads at school with us too.) Please continue to talk about the story and pictures in the book – developing the children’s comprehension skills continue to be very important!

Please do write and make comments about your child’s reading in their Reading Record book. This is a useful means of communication for us to know how reading is going at home too. Thank you.

The interests of the children determine our Planning and Provision. Below is an outline of the work we intend to carry out over the next half term.

Our Planning will also be further enhanced, or amended, to reflect and include the children’s individual interests.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Over the Summer term the children will continue to be part of the ‘bigger’ school environment, joining other Key Stage 1 classes in the playground at lunchtime, seeing other classes in the dinner hall and joining in with Key Stage 1 and Whole School Collective Worships.

Within the classroom, the children will continue to be encouraged to participate fully in Reception class life, to further develop their independence and to carry out everyday tasks that interest, motivate and challenge them with a small amount of, or no, help. They will also be encouraged to choose the resources and equipment they need for their tasks and play and to tidy it away too! We will continue to provide lots of opportunities for the children to play and work together, enabling them to further develop their friendships and relationships. The children will be encouraged to think about others and to be aware of the effects of their words, behaviour and actions on other children. They will also be encouraged to be respectful of each other and the adults they interact with in the classroom and wider school environment.

As the Summer term progresses, the children will have the opportunity to reflect on their first year at school and to celebrate their many achievements. They will also begin to think about moving on to Year 1 and how they feel about it. It is hoped that the children will have some opportunities to visit their new Year 1 classroom, exploring their new learning environment and meeting their new teaching staff.

The children will also think about how we can care for Living Creatures and will have the opportunity to look after some different creatures in our classroom including, hopefully, Chicks, Frogs, Caterpillars and Butterflies.

The primary aim of our PSED work, however, will be to ensure the children are happy, confident and self-motivated learners in our class.

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Personal, Social and Emotional Development work during the Summer Term are:

To describe a range of different habitats around the world
To learn about different family structures

Early Learning Goal – Self Regulation

Show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly
Set and work towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate
Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions

Early Learning Goal – Managing Self

Be confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenges
Explain the reasons for rules, know right from wrong and try to behave accordingly
Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet and understanding the importance of healthy food choices

Early Learning Goal – Building Relationships

Work and play cooperatively and take turns with others
Form positive attachments to adults and friendships with peers
Show sensitivity to their own and to others’ needs

Communication and Language

The children’s Speaking, Listening and Understanding skills will continue to be developed through a range of activities and experiences. They will have the opportunity to talk in a range of contexts, to participate in conversations and discussions and to express their thoughts, ideas and knowledge using a wider vocabulary drawn from their work and experiences. Through a range of different activities, they will also be encouraged to ask questions of each other or the adults working with them. The children will continue to be encouraged to respond to questions posed by both adults and peers, answering in longer sentences and using a wider vocabulary, including words derived from their learning.

Throughout the term the children will continue to listen to a range of stories, songs and rhymes and will be encouraged to respond to them, to retell them and to describe the characters and features of a familiar story.

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Communication and Language work during the Summer Term are:

To be able to name, label, and sort a range of living things
To be able to describe habitats and to talk about different habitats
To be able to order a range of life cycles and to know about some of them
To be able to begin to research using a search engine
To know a range of facts and to be able to give facts about a specified subject
To engage in meaningful conversations with others

Early Learning Goal – Listening and Understanding

Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interaction
Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding.
Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers

Early Learning Goal – Speaking

Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary
Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate
Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher

Physical Development

Throughout the Summer term the children will continue to have access to many opportunities to develop and refine their Gross and Fine Motor skills using a wide range of resources.

During their PE sessions the children will participate in Bat and Ball activities, Athletics lessons and will play co-operative and competitive Team Games, building upon the skills they have developed throughout their previous PE sessions. The children will use equipment to climb, travel along and balance on and will learn the importance of keeping safe on it. They will also design and create their own obstacle courses. They will use the scooters, bikes and trikes to ride on in the playground and will be able to practise their throwing and catching skills using our PE equipment.

Within the classroom (accessed through focussed activities and / or provocations in the Areas of Provision) the children will be provided with opportunities to develop their Fine Motor Skills through the use of malleable materials (clay, play-dough and salt dough) cutting, (with scissors), sewing and threading and using appropriate tools, including hammers, screwdrivers, spanners, nuts and bolts etc. They will also be encouraged to develop an effective pencil grip to enable them to mark-make, draw and write comfortably and efficiently.

The children will have many opportunities to engage in self-initiated drawing and writing activities, working on large and small scales. They will continue to participate in formal Handwriting sessions and will practise writing all the Handwriting families they have been previously introduced to, these being: ‘Curly Caterpillars’ (c, q, e a, g, s, o, d, f), ‘Long Ladders’ (l, i, j, t, u, y), ‘One Armed Robots’ (n, m, h, k, b, p and r) and ‘Zigzag Monsters’ (v, w, x z).

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Physical Development work during the Summer Term are:

To be able to use a pencil effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are formed correctly
To be able to use a range of equipment and tools, including scissors, effectively and safely
To show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements

Early Learning Goal – Gross Motor Skills

Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others
Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing
Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing

Early Learning Goal – Fine Motor Skills

Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing – using the tripod grip in almost all cases
Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paint brushes and cutlery
Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing

Literacy

The children will continue to participate in daily Phonics lessons, focussing on the Phase 4 teaching and learning in our Twinkl phonics programme. There are no new phonemes, digraphs and trigraphs for the children to learn in Phase 4 as the main focus of this phase is to consolidate the children’s previous phonic knowledge and to help them to learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, eg, trap, string, milk etc. There are, however, new Phase 4 Tricky Words to learn to read. As part of our Phonics learning, the children will bring a list of 5 or 6 Spelling Words to learn at home, which they will be ‘tested’ on each week in school. These spellings will be taken from the Phase 2, 3 and 4 Tricky and Common Exception Words lists and will also contain words to practise specific digraphs too. The children will be able to play phonics games on the SmartBoard and / or iPads to further develop their knowledge and ability.

The children will continue to bring home their ‘Rising Stars’ and ‘Big Cat’ Reading Books to read and share with you. Please continue to support your child by reading regularly with them, talking to them about the pictures / events and characters in their books as discussion and understanding of story structures and events are important reading skills. We will continue to work with the children to develop their reading and comprehension skills, focussing on their Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Retrieving Information and Sequencing (VIPERS).

In class we will continue to read, discuss and share a wide variety of texts and books relating to our themes of work, our provocations or the children’s interests. They will listen to stories together and then re-tell them in their own words, beginning to develop their comprehension and recollection skills. Some of the books / texts we will use and explore in relation to our work include, ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk,’ ‘Camille and the Sunflowers,’ ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ ‘Flora’s Flowers,’ ‘The Secret Sky Garden,’ ‘Once There Were Giants’ and ‘Handa’s Surprise.’ The children will also look at Non-Fiction books and will use books to ‘find things out.’

The children will continue to be given many opportunities to draw, mark-make and write in a wide variety of contexts, including, writing labels, sentences, questions, speech, messages and cards. They will continue to be encouraged to use a correct pencil grip to enable them to draw and write. The children will also be encouraged to write with more independence, using their own phonic knowledge and appropriate resources to support them in their work and to transfer their thoughts and speech into writing, which is phonetically plausible to read and with Common Exception and Tricky Words being spelt correctly. The children will be encouraged to include ‘finger spaces’ and full stops in the sentences they write too. They will also participate in Handwriting activities, being encouraged to form letters correctly.

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Literacy work during the Summer Term are:

To be able to listen to stories and can anticipate what may happen next
To think of and write short, simple sentences, checking their written work and making changes where necessary
To know that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop
To know how to spell some familiar and Tricky words
To be able to listen to, and hear, the sounds in CVC and CVCC words, identifying the sounds, including phonemes and other digraphs, on a sound mat
To know the sounds that taught phonemes make, what they look like and know how to write the taught letters
To recognise taught Tricky and Common Exceptions Words in texts

Early Learning Goal – Comprehension

Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary
Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories
Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play

Early Learning Goal – Word Reading

Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs
Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending
Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some Common Exception words

Early Learning Goal – Writing

Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed
Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters
Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others

Mathematics

The children will continue to increase their knowledge of Numbers, using NumberBlocks and Numicon as some of our main teaching resources and support equipment. They will use numbers to 20 in their Numeracy Work, being encouraged to use them in their Counting, Addition and Subtraction work. The children will continue to find ‘1 more’ or ‘1 less’ than a given number on a number line They will also complete simple addition and subtraction problems, using objects and number lines.

The children will also explore Doubling, Halving and Sharing numbers, using objects. They will explore Size, being given opportunities and resources to allow them to measure objects using standard and non-standard units of measurement. In their work and play, they will also demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of Capacity and Weight and Position.

The children will explore Time throughout the Summer Term, thinking about, and learning, the Days of the Week and the Months of the Year. They will also make a Clock and will learn to tell the time – o’clock and half past.

They will also explore Money and will look at some of the Coins we use to pay for items.

To further support their Numeracy knowledge and thinking, the children will use suitable ICT websites and software independently and they will be exposed to, and encouraged to use, mathematical language where appropriate, eg, positional language, time, numbers, shapes, language associated with weight, capacity, height etc.

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Mathematics work during the Summer Term are:

To be able to order and recognise numbers to 20, counting forwards and backwards to 20
To know that addition and subtraction problems can be solved by counting forwards, or backwards, on a number line
To know that the word ‘more’ indicates that the group is getting larger
To know that the word ‘less’ indicates that a group is getting smaller
To know that halving means splitting a quantity in two and doubling means having two quantities of the same amounts
To know that sharing equally means everyone has the same amount of an object
To make observations of and compare length, weight and capacity
To use rulers to measure length, scales to measure weight and jugs /containers to measure capacity and to know that length, weight and capacity can be measured using standard units
To read the time to ‘o’clock’ on an analogue clock
To know that the long hand represents the minutes and the short hand represents hours

Early Learning Goal – Number

Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number
Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5
Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts

Early Learning Goal – Numerical Patterns

Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system
Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity
Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally

Understanding The World

The children will be encouraged to think about Growing and Changing, and will explore how Plants, Animals and People grow and change over time. They will plant Sunflower Seeds and Broad Beans and will examine the environmental conditions that plants need to grow and survive. They will also dissect some fruits and flowers to discover what is hidden inside and will name the different parts of a flowering plant. They will also visit Harlow Carr Gardens for an opportunity to further enhance their learning about plants, as well as providing them with a wider environment to explore.

The children will (hopefully) have the opportunity to observe Chicks hatching from Eggs and Caterpillars transforming to Butterflies and will help to look after them. They will think about the Life Cycles of these animals and how we can help to care for them.

The children will think about themselves and the ways in which they have changed from being a baby to a toddler to a young child. They will sequence a series of pictures of people from babies to older people and will learn about the different ways we can keep safe and healthy. The children will also think about people who are important to them in their everyday lives, and explain why, and will think of significant events that have happened during their lifetimes. They will look at toys from now, and the past, and will discuss the similarities and differences between them, developing their sense of time and change.

Throughout all of their work on People and Animals, the children will explore and learn about the special conditions needed for animals and people to grow and survive and will think about the importance of eating a balanced diet. They will decide which foods are healthy or not so healthy and will also learn about the importance of following the Sun Safety rules of ‘Slip, Slop, Slap.’

The children will also explore the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and will have the opportunity to taste all of the fruits named in this story. The children will explore the story’s setting and will investigate some of the arts, animals, cultures and traditions they may encounter on a visit to Africa. The children may, hopefully, share some of their work about Africa and Handa’s Surprise with you towards the end of the summer term.

The children will continue to use the ICT equipment in the classroom and will be encouraged to use the iPads to take photographs and videos of things in our classroom, including our plants, caterpillars, butterflies etc. They will use the laptops to write (type) on and will create a Butterfly picture using an art program. The children will also the iPads to complete a simple coding task.

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Understanding The World work during the Summer Term are:

To be able to talk about the life cycle of plants and animals and what they need to survive
To know that humans and other animals can grow
To be able to know the names of common fruits and vegetables, to know that some foods and healthy and unhealthy and can sort them
To explore a range of habitats, looking at why an animal lives there
To select appropriate materials, according to their properties
To name and identify a range of different materials and to know how they are used in familiar environments

Early Learning Goal – Past and Present

Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society
Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class
Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling

Early Learning Goal – People, Culture and Communities

Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps
Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class
Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps

Early Learning Goal – The Natural World

Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants
Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class
Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter

Expressive Arts and Design

During their Art lessons with Mrs Pettit the children will look at the work of Vincent Van Gogh and will recreate his ‘Sunflowers’ Painting using oil pastels and paint. The children will also look at the work of Giuseppe Archimboldo and will create pictures of Faces in his style using real fruits and vegetables. The children will also have the opportunity to participate in a range of art activities and will look at the art work of other artists and photographers including Georgia O’Keeffe, Matisse, Alma Thomas and Mofeed Abu Shalwa, before taking inspiration from them in their own work. They will use seeds and beans and ‘Loose Parts’ materials to create pictures of plants, flowers and insects. Using the Oil Pastels and Watercolour Paints, the children will create Observational pictures of the fruits in the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and will also use a range of other art equipment to create African-animal inspired pieces too. As always, the children will have the opportunity to use a range of art and malleable materials in their independent work in the Areas of Provision too.

The children will be able to play together in a range of self-initiated imaginary play scenarios, using resources, toys, props and dressing-up clothes to enhance their play. When engaging in imaginary and role-play, the children will be encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas with each other and negotiate with each other so all ideas are accepted and included. We will create a ‘Garden Centre’ role-play area for Summer 1 and a ‘Baby Clinic’ role-play for Summer 2.

Throughout the term, children will be encouraged to learn and sing a variety of songs and rhymes relating to our work in class. They will also have the opportunity to play a range of musical and percussion instruments, exploring the ways they can change the sounds they are able to make with them and will also be encouraged to use the percussion instruments to recognise, and then continue, a rhythm. The children will learn some songs relating to Africa and will also have the opportunity to use the African Drums to explore drumming patterns.

Our Learning Objectives for the children in their Expressive Arts and Design work during the Summer Term are:

To be able to use what they have learnt about media and materials in an original way and be able to explain their choices
To be able to select appropriate resources and adapt their work where necessary
To know the different uses and purposes of a range of media and materials and to be able to construct safely with a purpose, evaluating their designs
To be able to describe the different ways they can safely use and explore a variety of materials
To be able to select the tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials that they are using

Early Learning Goal – Creating with Materials

Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function
Share their creations, explaining the process they have used
Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories

Early Learning Goal – Being Imaginative and Expressive

Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher
Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs
Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others and, when appropriate, try to move in time with music