Welcome to Seals

Teacher - Seals Amanda Waters
Photo of Amanda Waters

Welcome to Seals Class! We are an energetic and lively group of 10 children supported by 5 adults.

We use lots of different approaches to our learning but we particularly enjoy singing with sign along, designing and building towers and writing and drawing. Where possible our learning is linked, so our English lessons will support our learning in Maths, History and even cooking! We enjoy working together on our communication and language development and we are learning to support each other with our emotional understanding. We have a positive attitude to learning and developing and we aim to make every day fun!

Spring Term 1 Timetable

 

Spring Term 1 -Learning Together - Independence Curriculum Info for Parents - Support communication and language development, emotional growth and generally embed a positive attitude to learning and developing.
EnglishIn English we will be using machines as inspiration for making up some of our own poems. We will be reading stories and poems about machines, such as Clink by Kelly Di Pucchio and Little Robots by Mike Brownlow, discussing the setting, characters and story using the pictures and words to help us. We will collect words we like to describe the machines and their sounds and we might even make some words up ourselves for the poems! To help your children with this at home, encourage them to listen to the sounds of machines you see and have some fun mimicking the sounds or making up some descriptive words to describe them!
MathsIn Maths we are studying shapes. Developing and using language such as straight, curved, corners, edges and round, we will be describing and matching 2D and 3D shapes according to size, number of corners, edges and other characteristics. We will be using 2D and 3D shapes to create pictures and models of machines and robots to support what we are learning in other areas of the curriculum too. At home you could try looking out for and commenting on 2D and 3D shapes around the house with your child, such as round clocks, rectangular drawers, tins that are cylinders, boxes that are cubes etc.
SceinceIn Science Seals class will be learning about rocks. We will describe and make comparisons using language such as hard, crumbly, rough, smooth and jagged. The children will have opportunities to explore the surrounding area and visit The Patch to collect rock and soil samples of their own to experiment with. At home the children could be encouraged to notice and comment on different textures and surfaces and to use this language to describe them.
HistoryThe children will be exploring ‘The Iron Age’ in our History lessons. We will be considering the differences and possible similarities in clothing, houses, farming and food between ‘The Stone Age’ and now. We are looking forward to making our own paper mâché version of Stonehenge! To support what we are learning in class, you could share books such as ‘Cave Baby’ by Julia Donaldson (or sing Julia Donaldson’s Cave Baby song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3tpHRnvX68), with the children at home.
ICTIn ICT we will be learning about and using different types of technology, such as cameras, iPads, photocopiers, fans, fridges or microwaves. We will be exploring a range of devices, learning how to use them safely and will group them according to their different function and characteristics e.g. things that play music, devices that show images, items that help us prepare food etc. It would be fun for you to spot electronic devices around the home and when you’re out and about with the children and discus their uses.
PSHEIn Personal, Social, Health and Emotional lessons the children will be learning to reflect about themselves and others. We will be exploring appropriate greetings and looking at some ways of greeting from around the world and we will be building on our understanding of the variety of emotions we feel. We will use games, emotion cards, role play and ‘feelings dolls’ to further develop our understanding of emotions and how to express them.
MusicThis term Seals class will be listening and responding to various pieces of music written to represent animals and their movement, such as ‘Peter and the Wolf’, or ‘Trust in Me’ from the Jungle Book. We will be discussing the pace and style of the music and using instruments to represent other animals and their movements, such as a slow, beating drum as an elephant or a squeaky recorder as a monkey. What sounds could you make at home with the children to represent an animal’s movement? It would be fun to see if they can guess which animal you are being!
P.EIn P.E. we will be exploring movement and actions, developing our own style of dance inspired by the animals, music and machines we come across in Music and English lessons. Our aim is to design our own style and range of actions that represent and mimic these things – some might be slow, steady and stomping movements, others might be quick, spinning, up/down movements – we are looking forward to seeing what the children come up with!
Art and DTOur Art and DT lessons this term have been inspired by our History and Science Topic. We will be looking at houses from the Iron Age and will collect materials to design and build our own versions of these houses. We will look at Cave Paintings and will try this out for ourselves using our own designs and patterns. The children will also be collecting and decorating stones and rocks, making necklaces and we will try our hand at making Stone Age inspired clay pots.