Reception - Windmills
Welcome to Windmills!
Starting school is such an exciting time and a real milestone in the children’s lives. The classroom, outdoor areas and school grounds provide many exciting play opportunities to support your children on their learning journey. Throughout the curriculum this year we are encouraging the children to play and explore, engage in active learning and be creative and think critically. Children love solving problems and we will use stories and different scenarios to enable the children to explore different ways of doing things and come up with their own solutions. Mindfulness, our JIGSAWS PSHE lessons and show and tell will be important opportunities to listen, learn how to share our emotions and talk to a group.
In the Autumn Term the topic will be ‘I Can Grow’. We will start the term by exploring Harvest and Autumn time through a range of stories and songs that explore growing fruit and vegetables and finding out about harvesting, windmills and bread making. We will look at the season of Autumn, animals that hibernate and the changes taking place around us using ‘Welly Walks’ and Forest School. We hope that our children will be fascinated in the world around them. Later in the term, we will move on to explore how we change as we grow. Learning about our bodies, exploring our senses and how we have changed since we were babies. We will look at families and what makes us all special. Exploring birthdays, festivals and the way different families celebrate will help us to become rounded individuals, who understand and respect different religions and traditions.
In the Spring Term, our topic will be ‘Fly High and Explore’. We will learn about space and different ways of travelling in the sky using both fiction and non-fiction books. Exploring space in ‘Astronaut school’ will help us learn how living in space is different to living on earth. We might even meet some aliens too! We will explore Winter changes (there might even be snow!) and the beginnings of Spring. We are really looking forward to our bulbs turning into flowers and appearing this term! We will find out about other things that fly high, learning about Owls and other birds through stories, books and hopefully meeting some real ones. We will learn about eggs and Easter celebrations around the world.
In the Summer term the topic will be ‘Out and About’. We will find out about the local area, where people live, different types of homes and how they are built. We will be builders and designers too and help the Three Little Pigs design a wolf-proof house! We will learn about journeys and different kinds of transport and make maps to show the journeys we have been on. We will notice that we need to look after our environment and be eager to make a difference in the world. We will learn about the animals and mini-beasts that live near our school and in the woods and ponds. The children will also learn about the life cycle of a butterfly and have the opportunity to look after some caterpillars in school.
Throughout the year, we will be encouraging the children to have high aspirations and to strive to achieve their best in all that they do. We are looking forward to sharing our learning with you.