Teachers Mrs Gill and Miss Kernig – Foundation Stage Class 1G and 1K
Main Overarching Question – Do all things live and grow?
Overview of topic – Again we are linking our spring term topics with one of our come and see topic which is
GROWING. We will start off by talking to the children about what things live and grow to gauge what the
children already know. We will be setting up our role play area into a garden centre (outdoor area) and growing
more plants in our outdoor area. The role play area inside will be set up as a secret story telling garden with
costumes for a bee, butterfly etc to encourage the children to role play stories involving the minibeasts etc. We
will be thinking about all the different things that grow and live in our world from animals, minibeasts, plants
and flowers. The children will also be looking at the life cycles of these and what we need to do to care for these to
ensure that they grow healthy. To start the topic we will look at themselves and think about how they have
grown and changed since they were a baby. During the topic we will cover all areas of learning with a big
emphasis on the World. We will be showing the children how to use espresso to find out about plants and
animals. Also during this topic we will be thinking about Spring and changing our seasons display. We will also
go on a visit to the Skitters woods to look for signs of spring. A Weekly challenge will have been sent home at the
end of last term - children will be asked to find photographs of the different stages of their life for discussion
during our topic. They will also be asked to send in fairtrade wrappers and recycling for our model making.
Throughout the term during dance we will be completing a hungry caterpillar dance. Which we will perform to
each other at the end of term.
LC 1 Why is Fair trade important?
23.2.15
This week as a whole school we are participating in the Fairtrade fortnight. The children will be
finding out about what Fairtrade means and why it is important. They will be finding out about
which foods we can buy that are fairtrade produce and will be using some of this produce to
make some fridge cake. During literacy we will be looking at how we can encourage people to
buy fairtrade by creating posters and displaying them around school. During maths we will be
starting our new mini topic on addition and using fruits as a focus to help us with our addition.
In the afternoons we will be looking closely at the fruit and describing these and then having ago
a making observational drawings and collages of these. They will look at the journey of the
banana and find out about all that is done to get the banana to the shops so that we can buy
them. This week we will be setting up the garden centre in our outdoor area and having a fruit
and vegetable stall for the children to work with. The children will also be planting cress seeds to
make their own grass caterpillars that they will be caring for and looking after over the term.
LC 2 What lives and grows – how This week we will be thinking about what the term Growing means to them. The children will
have we changed?
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Waste Week
be thinking of how they have changed since being a baby. During Literacy we will read the story
of Once there were Giants and we will be sequencing pictures of the human life cycle thinking
again about how we change as we grow. During maths we will be continuing with our addition
focus and will be applying this when using money to buy items from the garden centre in the
outdoor area. We will also be working on some Eco activities to join in with our whole school
Waste week.
The children will be using lots of found materials to create their own
constructions. We will also be preparing for our mothers day assembly practising poems, songs
and our words and creating our mothers day cards.
LC 3 What do plants need to grow? This week we will think about what plants need to grow and set up an investigation to see what
9.3.15
the plants need. During Literacy we will be reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and
thinking about the characters and settings in the story. In maths we will be working on post
learning addition tasks and be looking at the addition of doubles by creating our own doubles
Beanstalk. (ie double one is 2) . Expressive Arts and Design - the children will be creating black
and white observational drawings of the plants and flowers focusing on the size, shape and
detail. When the observational drawings are complete the children will add colour to their
observational drawings choosing from a variety of media- chalk, pastel, crayons or pencils. We
will also be continuing to work on our mothers day assembly practising poems, songs and our
words and creating our mothers day cards. Role play and drama (Expressive Arts and Design)
will be a big focus this week as we will be role playing in the secret garden and the garden centre.
The children will be continuing with the hungry caterpillar dance and continuing to look after
the grass caterpillars.
LC 4 What is Spring like around This week we will be focusing on Spring around school and working with the story of Jack and
our local environment?
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the beanstalk, focussing on the beginning middle and end of the story During Maths we will be
starting a new mini topic on 3D shape where the children will be finding out about these shapes
and describing them. Expressive art and Design- Expressive arts and design- The children will be
creating their own secret box garden using a variety of material. The children will be continuing
to look after the grass caterpillars and the plants in the outdoor area.
LC 5 Do all baby animals look like This week we will be focussing on the story of the Hungry Caterpillar, the Ugly duckling and
their adult animal?
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frog on a log which will give the children an insight into the lifecycle of these animals and show
that not all animals start of like the adult animal. During Literacy we will read the story of the
hungry caterpillar, sequence the story and completing story maps for their own stories about
the very hungry butterfly. During maths we will focus incidentally during the oral mental on
days of the week to link with the hungry caterpillar and on money so that the children can buy
from the garden centre in the outdoor area and we will be continuing with our 3D shape
activities. Expressive Arts and design – We will be making moving caterpillar and butterfly
pictures. They will be colour mixing in the outdoor area and creating beautiful butterflies that
we will be able to hang in the outdoor area. The children will also be performing their hungry
caterpillar dance to each other.
LC 6 How can we show our For the final two days the children will be working on a presentation to show each other what
learning from this topic?
30 + 31st March
they have learned from our topic of Growing. The children will be involved in creating pictures,
singing songs and speaking infront of others during these two days.
Areas of Learning that will be Physical Development – the children will be using a variety of media materials and tools
covered discretely.
throughout the topic but we will also be covering a unit on dancing. During outdoor games we
will be covering a unit on hoops and quoits.
Literacy Phonics - We will still be having our daily phonics session where we will be recapping
the sounds in phase 2 and 3. Revisiting all of the sounds and the key words. Our focus will also be
on chopping and blending activities and segmenting activities. Guided Reading – The children
will be continuing to learn the key words within phase 2 and 3 and will be reading phonics books
that will help them with their chopping and blending skills. Looking at Spring poems.
Maths – where possible we will try to link our maths to the weekly learning challenge however
our main focuses will be addition and 3D shapes with some work on measure in the outdoor
area. Expressive arts and design- a range of media and materials to create mothers day cards,
Easter cards and Easter baskets.