1. Term 3 If You Go Down in the Woods Today … Reception Personal, Social and Emotional Development The children will learn about feelings – how do the three bears feel when goldilocks takes their food? Should Goldilocks have gone inside their house? How does the bear from the story feel when the family are trying to run away from her? What might the bear want? How could they treat the bear differently? We will talk about different emotions in circle time. Communication and Language Through familiar and new stories the children will develop their language skills. They will re- enact the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears in our cottage and they will develop and tell their own stories with our ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ story box, that the children will make. We will continue with our daily singing sessions and even learn a song or two linked to bears. Physical Development This term in PE the children will develop their Dance skills, learning how to move in different ways. Many of the children will also be taking advantage of the new Multi-skills sports club at lunch times. We will be developing our fine motor control and pencil grip through some fun new activities called ‘Dough Gym’ and ‘Funky Fingers’. There will continue to be opportunities for the children to maintain regular exercise throughout our Plan-Do- Review sessions. Literacy The children will be read a range of stories related to their interests and many linked to bears! We will use our theme books as a stimulus for lots of fun writing activities, developing the skill of writing a whole sentence. Phonics will continue and the children will be learning more phonemes and continuing to blend and segment words. Mathematics The children’s number skills are developing well and we will be continuing to extend their understanding of number. We have recently introduced the concept of addition as the total of two groups or more and we will be focusing on this throughout the term. The children will consolidate their knowledge of 2D shape names and extend this to learning the names and features of 3D shapes. Expressive Arts and Design The children will compose music to express the different scenes within the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’ We will do lots of Art work linked to our stories, some of which parents and carers are invited to join in with! The Wider Curriculum This theme allows the children to enjoy traditional stories that are familiar to them as well as extending their experiences of reading with other books. They will have many opportunities to express themselves and be creative. Look out for our homework letter and the details of our parent event, which will allow you to get involved and enjoy some time with your child during the school day. Understanding the World We will use our bear theme to learn about caves and other animals that might live in caves, we will also link this to animals that hibernate, developing our own factual display. We will continue to use the forest each week to learn many aspects about the outdoors, so remember those wellies on Fridays! What do you think? Should Goldilocks have gone into the three bears’ cottage? What should she have done if she was feeling hungry? Would you like to go on a bear hunt? Which would be your favourite part of the walk in the story? Possibilities Could you go for a walk in the woods or hunt for a bear? What different animals might you see? Where would you need to travel to find a real bear? Would you like to go to America or Canada? What different homes might you see if you travelled abroad? Knowledge of the World This theme allows us to learn about different animals and their habitats, different homes and climates. We will continue to enjoy exploring our outdoor environment, noticing changes. Celebrating Differences We will learn about different families and languages, including learning songs in different languages. We will look at pictures and puzzles that pose questions about different cultures.