Autumn Term Overview
Class: Early Years
Topic: Animal Survival!
Communication/Language & Literacy
We will work on our social interaction and making choices via our preferred method of communication. In daily communication sessions, we will use switches, signs, symbols and objects of reference to interact with our friends. Our key texts will be: The very Helpful Hedgehog, Wide awake Hedgehog and Catch a falling Star! We will also look at factual books about autumn, harvest, hibernation and migration, as well as developing our early mark making skills.
PSED
In PSED we will look at how we can build old and new relationships, interact with our friends and explore the engage with the wider school community. We will learn about personal hygiene and how we can manage our feelings, helping others and being kind, as well as keeping safe. We will learn about keeping active and eating well via our sensory baking/cooking sessions. We will also begin to look at special days and festivals and how we celebrate these.
Physical Development
In Physical development we will follow our postural management programmes and MOVE programmes, as well as accessing different aspects of fine and gross motor skills via PE sessions in the hall and in soft play/sensory mat sessions. We will work on all our physical skills using a cross curricula approach through our many sessions in the day, as well as during free choice, and look at ways in which we can challenge ourselves.
Mathematics
We will be looking at all aspects of maths including counting songs, numbers, patterns, shapes, puzzle work, size: big/small, sorting, more/less and positional language linking many of these to our autumn and animal theme. We will do this in discrete sessions as well as in our continuous provision both in the classroom, outside and around school.
Expressive Arts & Design
We will be exploring various aspects of music that illicit feelings about autumn, sleep/hibernation, harvest and animals. We will explore different genres of music and make/play musical instruments, as well as make choices with favoured songs and rhymes. In Art and Design, we will create autumn and animal pictures and explore doughs/clay and different media. We will also create different animal models, make festival crafts and be creative when exploring natural materials.
Understanding the world
We will be learning about autumn, hibernation and migration, as well as exploring these in our local community. We will look at different environments in the local area such as woods and the animals that live there; we will also collect and explore natural materials such as pine cones, conkers etc. This will be explored on a sensory level, through smells, touch, sounds etc, as well as via ICT, books, small world and role play and first hand experiences in our wildlife garden. We will also explore Harvest Festival!
