The Cobbs Infant and Nursery School

Our topic this half term is called ‘Animal Crackers’ and is based around different animals. We will be reading ‘Dear Zoo,’ talking about what makes a good pet and why and thinking of other animals for a new page for the book. This book will also support our Science work this term as we learn the names of different pets and their young. We will be learning lots of animal songs like 'The Animal Fair' and 'We’re going to the Zoo.'

Maps will be our focus for geography and we will be looking at maps of the zoo, trying hard to draw our own or build our own in the construction areas.  Throughout the half term in PE we will be moving like different animals, and we are also looking forward to a yoga session based on animals where we make different animal shapes with our bodies.

Our second text for the term will be ‘Handa’s Surprise’ which will support our maths work learning about weight as well as helping us to think about different places in the world. We will also be learning about capacity in maths, using the water areas.  Our final texts for the half term will be ‘My Pet Goldfish’ and ‘Rumble in the Jungle.’ We will enjoy some imaginative play in our home corner role play and our Noah’s Ark and jungle small world areas. In Science we will be thinking about different forces and investigating whether different materials sink or float and whether different objects stretch or bend. Our art focus for this term is sculpture and we are looking forward to making animal sculptures from clay, playdough and natural materials.

As always we will be watching the weather and looking for seasonal changes around us. We are looking forward to seeing the bluebells in the Wild Garden and watching our plants grow in our nursery garden.

Our final topic is called 'Living and Growing' and we will be retelling the traditional tale of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and acting it out in our dance sessions. In Science we will be planting beans in our gardening area and tasting them as well as searching for minibeasts and naming them.

‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ are texts that we will be reading to support our learning about minibeasts and they will also help us with our learning in Mathematics as we practise counting, number recognition and number formation. We will also be looking at “D" shapes, naming them and creating pictures with them.  We are looking forward to tasting some of the different foods from 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and using them to create fruit faces in Design Technology.  We will also be enjoying singing songs about minibeasts including 'There’s a Worm at the Bottom of the Garden' and 'There’s a little Caterpillar on a Leaf'. 

We will be visiting the Wild Garden to look for seasonal changes and naming some of the Wild Flowers that we find there. As we are getting ready for the summer holidays we will be packing suitcases and finding out about different holiday destinations around the UK.

The children will be visiting the Reception classrooms and playground to help them to get ready for September.   We will all be using the field to practise our activities ready for sports day as well as taking part in assemblies.