Class Teacher Blog

Class Teacher: Miss Dempsey

Teaching Assistant Monday-Thursday: Miss McDonagh 

Teaching Assistant Friday: Mrs Darboe

PE: Friday. PE kits to be worn 

Class Email: ladybirdclass@CirrusTrust.onmicrosoft.com

‘How can I make a pattern?’ is our theme this half term, when we learn about patterns. We learn what a repeating pattern is and how to copy one as well as learning new vocabulary to describe patterns.   

To support us with this learning we read the books, ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ and ‘Say Hello to the Snowy Animals’. We use these books to describe and draw patterns in a variety of media.  

In our maths learning, alongside learning about patterns, we begin to learn our numbers to 5. We practise showing numbers to 5 on our fingers, subitising with numbers to 5 and making sets of numbers to 5.  

In our literacy learning we continue to practise recognising our name and are continuing to engage in our writing with patterns such as circles, lines and marks.  

In phonics we will be playing rhyming games to help us spot and suggest rhymes.    

‘What can we celebrate?’ is our theme this half term, when we learn about celebrations such as Diwali, Bonfire night, birthdays, Christmas and weddings.  

Together we learn about different celebrations and the different ways we can celebrate. We learn about similarities and differences between ourselves and other family's celebrations and traditions. 

We think about the different festivals and celebrations we have in our own families and communities. We invite our grownups and other children from around the school into our classroom to talk about their celebrations. 

We learn about these celebrations through activities such as; creating firework art inspired by Jackson Pollock, decorating cakes, learning songs for our Christmas production and writing celebration cards. 

By the end of this theme all of us can talk about celebrations and compare the similarities and differences.  

In our maths learning we are beginning to learn the names of 2D shapes. We will be using 2D shapes in our play, beginning to recognise them in the learning environment and learning to know when two shapes are the same. Whilst learning about 2D shapes we will also be creating artwork inspired by Pier Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky.  

In our literacy learning we will be continuing to mark making using a variety of shapes as well as continuing to practising recognising our name and beginning to write our name.  

In phonics we will be playing Phase 1 sound discrimination games.    

‘How can I make a new friend?’ is our theme this half term, when we learn about starting Nursery.  

We begin by learning our class rules; we listen, we walk, we tidy up we share, we are kind and our school bee rules; be respectful, be responsible, be honest, be polite, be kind. We read the book, ‘Little Tiger Goes to School’ to support our learning and each week two children who have been following these rules get to be Star of the Week and take one of the class mascots home for the weekend!  

Together we talk about our families; who is in our family and what we like to do with them. We also create self-portraits taking inspiration from famous artists such as Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso.  

We learn about Autumn and explore the season by going on an Autumn walk. We discuss what changes we can see and what colours are in nature. We continue to explore colour using a range of media and learn the BSL signs as well.  

In our maths learning we are listening to lots of maths songs and beginning to use number names in our play. We are also beginning to understand prepositional language when listening to the adults and our friends.  

In our literacy learning we are beginning to make marks in different media and in phonics we are beginning to discriminate between sounds, such as following instructions.