This week, the children will consolidate their understanding of the composition of 5. Composing and decomposing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 5 can be made of 3 and 2. The children will deepen their understanding of a ‘whole’ being made up of smaller parts through practical experience, in this case moving frogs from a log to a pool in a nursery rhyme. They will begin to recognise that numbers can be made by combining parts in different ways, and will be encouraged to make links by considering similarities and differences in the ways of making 5. A key focus will be partitioning 5 (splitting it into parts) and considering the missing parts; the children will be encouraged to visualise numbers within 5 and to work out how many are hidden when they know the whole number in a set.
The children will already have experience of subitising small quantities and will use their existing skills to identify the numbers within 5. They will have previously made towers of blocks and patterns of 5 in different ways, and will begin to recognise the numbers that combine to make 5. When the children can compose and flexibly decompose numbers mentally, they will become more fluent in their knowledge of number bonds and will be able to use these to become efficient when calculating in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
In English the children will be writing labels and continuing work in their phonic groups. The will be starting work in our handwriting books with a focus on some letters from the curly caterpillar family - starting with c, a and o.
In Mandarin, we will be learning about Chinese New Year and linking this to work on ordinal numbers i.e. first, second, third etc.
In P.E. they will be working on dance, ball skills and continuing work to develop their core strength and gross motor skills in our 'Big Moves.'