Derwent Class Curriculum Letter Autumn Term 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

A warm welcome to Derwent Class and Langton School. I am pleased to share our curriculum plans for Autumn term in Derwent Class. Our theme this half term is “All About Me.” In this topic your children will explore what makes people unique, discuss their wider family, begin to identify their emotions and talk about how they have grown since they were a baby. Our theme for the following half term is “Celebrations,” where we will focus on how people celebrate birthdays, bonfire night, Diwali and Christmas. We will also begin rehearsals for our Nativity Play.

This term will be introducing Phase 2 of our phonics programme, following the Little Wandle framework. I strongly encourage you to visit the parent page of the Little Wandle website here for an array of valuable resources that you can utilise at home. These resources will also demonstrate the proper pronunciation of each sound to support your child’s learning.

In Mathematics, our focus will be on matching and sorting objects, creating identical sets, and recognising patterns. We will also be engaging the children in an exploration of non-standard measures and shape through practical activities. Towards the end of term we will begin to explore and compare numbers to 5, including “one more” and “one less”.

Our featured story for this half term is the beloved The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, which I’m sure you know well! We will focus on ordering and retelling the story, creating verbal instructions and begin to learn how to ask questions about a text. Next half term our focus text will be We’re All Wonders by R.J.Palacio, which we use to explore making predictions and describing characters.

In Expressive Arts and Design, the children will have the opportunity to experiment with various materials for drawing and will choose from these to create self-portraits. They will also be printing using shapes and making diva lamps from clay. In Music, we will be singing an assortment of familiar nursery rhymes and prepare our performances for our upcoming Harvest Festival and Nativity Play.

During our Physical Education sessions, we will focus on developing fundamental skills such as running, hopping, jumping, and balancing by creating obstacle courses and running ‘funny’ races. In addition to this, we will be working on honing our fine motor skills, including the correct use of scissors, proper pencil grip, and the use of large tweezers for sorting objects.

In Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), we will explore the concept of family, begin to identify our emotions and learn what it means to be a good friend. Through Religious Education (RE), we will discuss the uniqueness of each individual and the ways in which different faith traditions and communities celebrate this. We look forward to a productive term filled with learning, discovery and fun. It has been wonderful to meet some of you at pick up and drop off. If you have any concerns, questions or messages please do not hesitate to email me (derwentclass@langton.n-yorks.sch.uk), talk to me at pick up or drop off, or write a note in your child’s planner. Thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,

Mrs Abigail Burbridge

Derwent Class Teacher