Chick update
I hope you’ve all had a happy and safe half-term. I can’t wait to hear about what you’ve all been up to on Monday.
Sadly, due to the current situation the chick eggs will not be with us this half-term. The farm sends their apologies. They are hoping that we can have them in June – I am keeping my fingers crossed!
On the other hand, Our caterpillars are being delivered sometime next week and we still have our frogspawn – they might even be tadpoles now!
See you all on Monday!
Spring has sprung!
I can’t believe it’s the 1st of April already!
This week, we’ve made the most of the glorious weather.
Below are just a few snapshots of what we’ve been up to this week.
Click here to watch us exploring in our outdoor area. I hope this video makes you smile as much as it did me.
On Monday, we read a book called The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. After reading the book we talked about what a seed needs to help it grow. We each planted our own tiny seed which was sunflower seed. After we planted our seeds, the F2 children did some instruction writing. The children are very good at caring for the seeds and are eager to water them everyday. We really hope they grow into beautiful sunflowers.
Don’t worry! Mrs Rippon has kindly volunteered to look after the seeds over half-term. I wonder what they will look like when we get back to school.
We have some frogspawn! The children were so excited on Monday morning when they saw the tank. We had lots of wonderful discussions and made lots of great observations. We will put the frogspawn back in our school pond over half term and hopefully when we get back to school we will have tadpoles or even froglets!
The excitement continues after half-term…
We are getting chick eggs and caterpillars! Our classroom is going to be very busy. We have been preparing the classroom for the new arrivals.
Summer 1
After half-term, our first focus story will be The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We will be looking at life-cycles and exploring the life of different minibeasts.
The F2 children will continue to learn the phase 3 sounds in phonics and we will be moving onto number 10 in maths.
Finally a little message from Miss Marsden…
You have all had a wonderful half-term. I am so proud of how well you have all settled back into school life. It has been lovely to have you all back together and I can’t wait to see where the summer term takes us. I hope you all have a fantastic half-term and a lovely Easter.
Happy Easter Foundation!
Easter Service
Thank you to all of the parents and carers who joined to support our Easter service today. It was lovely to see so many of you on zoom.
For those who were unable to join, here is a recording of our service.
Well done to all those children who took part and for all the wonderful singing that was heard around school.
The learning continues in Foundation…
This week F2 have been learning all about the number 9. We watched the Numberblock 9 video and noticed that Numberblock 9 is a square – it has “3 rows of 3.” We made our own versions of Numberblock 9 using cubes. We then made different shapes using our 9 cubes.
To also help with our number 9 learning. Some children counted 9 movements. They used chalk to mark how far they travelled and compared the distances they travelled doing the different movements. We tried 9 giant steps, 9 tiny steps, 9 jumps and 9 hops.
R – “I went the furthest!”
E – “I only got to here doing the tiny steps.”
G – “I went further!”
I – “The tiny steps made us go the shortest.”
Next, week we will finalise our learning on number 9. After half-term, we will move onto learning all about number 10.
F1 Group Time
This week, the children practised oral blending by playing Toy Talk. The children listened carefully to the puppet segmenting the sounds in simple cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant) words and they had to try blend the word together. Oral blending is a key skill which will help them get ready for phase 2 phonics in F2. We will continue to practise oral blending in group times.
On Thursday, the children practised their counting skills. They were given different Numicon pieces and had to count that many Easter eggs. We observed some wonderful counting – well done F1!
PE
When I walked into the hall on Wednesday, I thought I saw lots of dinosaurs! The children used their imaginations and went back in time. The school hall had a prehistoric atmosphere. They talked about different dinosaurs – we had some dinosaur experts! After, the children experimented with different movements and how they might have moved.
Click here to watch our dinosaur movements.
Home-Link Challenges
Forgiveness
This half-term our Christian value is forgiveness. Last Friday, the children did an activity called ‘Fizzy Forgiveness’. The children dropped their tablet in the water and watched it fizz. When doing this, the children thought about a time where they might have had to forgive someone or somebody might have needed to forgive them.
A sunny week in Foundation
What a glorious week we’ve had in Foundation. The sunny weather has allowed us to be outside every day and the children have loved it! We’ve been using our imaginations to make up role-play situations in the pirate tuff tray. A group of children helped Miss Marsden plant some bulbs and vegetable seeds. On Tuesday, the children loved getting wet. They used different containers, tubes and pipes to make the water travel down the pipes and into other containers. They were pouring squeezing, filling and splashing all morning. The children were that engaged, we nearly ended being late for lunch – oops!
In PE, the children continued to develop their throwing and catching skills. However, this time they used balloons! Look how excited and eager they were to catch the balloons. Next term, we will continue to learn key skills and start playing small team games.
At the end of the week, it’s our maths focus days. This week, we consolidated our learning on numbers 6, 7 and 8. The children chose a number and drew a picture to represent that number using two groups.
For example, “There are 4 red flowers and 3 yellow flowers. There are 7 flowers altogether.”
The children outside made a number track using hoops and chalk. They rolled two dice, counted the total number of spots, and jumped that many spaces on the number track. It was great to see the children praising their peers when they won.
F1 Group Times
On Monday and Tuesday, the F1 children focused on alliteration in phase one phonics sessions. The children listened carefully to Mrs Rippon saying initial sounds. For example, “Can you find something that begins with sssss?” On Wednesday, the F1 children discussed the different seasons and what changes we might see. After the discussion, they sorted some picture cards into each of the seasons.
Here are some more highlights from this week…
In the construction area, the children explored how to make the remote control cars work and drew roads for them to drive on.
Phonics Learning
Home-Link Challenges
I hope the sun keeps shining and you all have a lovely weekend!
See you on Monday for another fun-filled week.
Our first week back
Foundation are back and what a fantastic first week we’ve had! The classroom is back to being a busy learning environment – just how we like it. I am so proud of all the children. On Monday, they all came straight into school eager to explore the classroom and see their friends. I was so impressed that they all remembered the morning routines and our regular handwashing.
This week, we’ve spent a long time settling in, remembering our school rules and finding out feet again. The children have loved exploring all the areas of the classroom. We’ve seen some amazing learning this week!
In Literacy, we’ve been reading The Worrysaurus by Rachel Bright. The book is about an anxious dinosaur who overthinks and ends up having lots of worries. He uses his happy tin to help his worries fly away. Talk to your child about the story and see if they can remember what happened in the story. The anxious dinosaur used a happy tin to help his worries disappear. Therefore, after reading the story, we discussed what things we would put in a happy tin.
We will be continuing to look at The Worrysaurus book next week.
Spring is almost here!
On the creative table, the children did some observational paintings of daffodils. Some of the F2 children wrote a sentence about daffodils.
As always in Foundation, we try and plan according to the children’s interests. This week, lots of children have been playing schools – they were even sitting on my chair and shouting, “3, 2, 1 stop!” So, on Thursday, the children were so excited when they saw that they had their very own ‘mini’ St James’ Primary School.
The children love PE Wednesdays! This week, the children practised their throwing and catching skills.
F2 Parents
Your child will have brought home a new reading book. Please make sure you read with your child on a regular basis. Daily reading supports writing skills, creativity and communication skills.
Home-Link Challenge
Finally, I would like to thank all of our Foundation parents for your support through Lockdown and for doing the home learning with your child.
Have a lovely weekend and I will see you all next week.
Welcome back!
We’re so excited for Monday! We can’t wait to open the classroom door and welcome you all back into Foundation.
We know that most of you will be feeling very happy about returning to school. However, some of you may be feeling a little nervous and this is fine. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be spending lots of time settling in, getting used to our daily routines and getting to know each other again.
Reminders!
- Your child needs to bring a NAMED water bottle. Please ensure the bottle only contains water – no juice please!
- PE is every Wednesday – your child needs to come in their PE.
- At the end of the day (3.00pm), please remember to stand opposite the Foundation classroom.
- Please make sure your child’s school jumper/cardigan is clearly NAMED.
- Please return all reading books on Monday. Your child will be given a new reading book on Friday.
- Don’t forget to encourage independence when your child is getting ready for school!
Click here for a sneak peek of the Foundation classroom. Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing lots of smiling faces on Monday!
F1 Home Learning: Week 8
This week is one of our favourite times in Nursery as we get to read so many of our favourite stories! Don’t worry though, we’ll continue with our World Book Day celebrations in Nursery next week when we all return. There’ll be lots of fun activities to look forward to, all linked to some of the most popular stories in Nursery. There are often lots of live story telling sessions during the week, so have a look at the World Book Day website for more details and ideas.
Look out for a video tour of the Foundation classroom on the Class News Page next week. Next week, I’ll be busy preparing the Foundation classroom for everyone to return and I’ll post the video as soon as I can. We hope that you enjoy watching the virtual tour to familiarise yourself with the classroom again, before we welcome you back next week. We can’t wait!
In Nursery, we usually choose lots of stories to read, however for our home
learning this week, we’ve probably chosen one of the MOST popular children’s books of all time… The Gruffalo. If you don’t have a copy of the story at home, click on the link to watch and listen to the story.
Don’t forget to join the World Book Day Zoom session on Wednesday! For this week’s session, you can come dressed up as your favourite character.
| Reading · Before you read the book, talk about what the children can remember if they’ve heard the story before. Who does the mouse meet? Where does the story take place? Can you remember what happens when the mouse meets the Gruffalo? · If you have a copy of the book, look at the illustrations on each page and talk about what is happening in the story. Some children may be able to re-tell the story in their own words if they are familiar with it. · As you read the story together, pause at some parts and see if your child can finish the sentence, especially when there’s a word that rhymes with the previous one. E.g. Where are you meeting him? Here by this lake and his favourite food is scrambled _____? |
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| Phonics Aspect 4 of our Phase One phonics learning is all about ‘Rhythm and Rhyme’. This week, you’ll need a drum or a pan and spoon to join in with Mrs Gosper as she plays some rhythm patterns on her drum. Use your listening ears to listen carefully to Mrs Gosper and then wait for your turn to copy her patterns. Rhythm patterns with drums video When you’ve finished, have a go at tapping some of your own patterns and take turns to copy each other. Remember to LISTEN first, and then LISTEN again, and then have a try to copy it yourself. |
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| Mark-Making · What’s your favourite book? Draw a picture and talk about your favourite story. We’d love to hear about it – send us an email of your picture and write down a few of the comments that your child made. · Can you remember how Mouse describes the Gruffalo? What does he have on his nose? What about his back? In our group times in Nursery, we always enjoy drawing on an outline of a Gruffalo and then using different colours and lines to add in his features. Have a go at home – you might need to help your child by drawing a rough Gruffalo outline first but without any details. Here’s one to copy or print at home. Can you add the following things to your Gruffalo outline?
· For those of you with a printer, here’s a Gruffalo colouring sheet available to download. |
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| Mathematics Playing ‘track games’ is a great way for children to practise lots of different maths skills such as recognising dice patterns and counting with one to one correspondence (as they move spaces).  This week, have a go at creating your own game together. Your child will need help with the general outline of the track, but they can then add in their own drawings for the houses and trees etc.1) Draw some circle stepping stones across the paper to create a ‘track’ through the woods. 2) Next, draw on the animal homes that the mouse found including an underground house, a log pile and a tree top house. You could add a river and some of your own ideas too. 3) Make or find 2 counters and borrow a dice from another game. 4) Roll the dice and move your counter forward the correct number of spaces. 5) The first mouse to make it through the forest to the end of the path wins! |
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| Extension ideas · Make up some of your own rules. Perhaps you could draw some purple prickles in a few spaces and if you land on a prickle, you have to go back one space. You could also draw a nut in some other spaces and if you land on a nut, move forward a space. · If you don’t fancy making your own game, find a board game that involves a similar concept, such as snakes and ladders. They’re a really great way for children to practise counting skills whilst having fun. |
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| Creative · Make some puppets or find some props to help you re-tell your favourite story. We’d love to see a video of your show! · Can you make a cave/den home for the Gruffalo? He might enjoy having a tea party in his cave… · We’ve explored printing with lots of items during lockdown such as cans, boxes and forks. This week, if you have some plastic animal/dinosaur toys, have a go at printing with them and talk about the prints that they make. Once you’ve finished dipping their feet in water, make sure you help to wash it off before the paint dries. · If your child loves to role play in their kitchen, play ‘cafes’ and order some special items from the menu including roasted fox, scrambled snake, owl ice-cream and Gruffalo crumble. · In Nursery, we sometimes enjoy trying ‘scrambled snake’ egg on toast. Ask your child to help you break the eggs and mix in some milk to make a ‘scrambled snake egg’ snack. Make sure they help you to spread butter on the toast too. · Are you ready for a snack and some quiet time on the sofa? We love this animated version of the Gruffalo on the BBC iPlayer. · You’ll be singing this song about the Gruffalo all week once you hear it! Listen at home and join in. · Julia Donaldson’s website has lots of Gruffalo themed games to join in, as well activities for her other books too. |
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| Understanding the World · Mouse met a few different creatures in the woods. Talk about other animals that you might find in the woods near your home. Where do they live? If you enjoy spotting things whilst out and about in your local area, have a look at this ‘Twig Spotter’ activity from the Woodland Trust’s website. How many can you find? · Can you spot any animal tracks? Look carefully to see if you can see any footprints in the mud. Here’s a few ideas of footprints to look out for on this ‘Animal footprint hunt’ – it might be very tricky to find some of them! |
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| Physical Development Funky Fingers To get your fingers moving this week, you’re going to need a pile of very  small items such as 1p/5p coins, buttons, beads, Cheerios… Draw some wavy lines, zig-zags and spiral patterns on pieces of paper and then ask your child to pick up the small objects and place them along the lines. This is a good way to develop their pincer grip and control.Movement We’re going to have a go at balancing, jumping and crawling in this activity. Clear a space on the floor and ask your child to gather some cushions and pillows from around the house. Place them on the floor like stepping stones and ask your child to step from one to the other. This is good way for them to practise balancing, especially as the cushions will be soft and move under their feet a little. Repeat the activity, adapting the challenge by putting the cushions further away or not in a straight line. If you have space and your floor isn’t too slippy, ask them to have a go at jumping from one to the other. Make sure you supervise your child and hold on to any cushions that may move as they jump! Finally, create a space for your child to crawl under. You could use a blanket/sheet over two chairs, or line some dining chairs up. Ask your child to slither like a snake on their tummies under the blanket or between the chair legs. Crawling is a very important aspect of early years play, helping to provide sensory feedback and developing many different things including the vestibular system (balance). |
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| Independence skills As we begin to prepare to return to Nursery, we’d like you to focus on ‘toileting’ again with your child. – Do they go to the toilet without reminders? Try and encourage them to recognise the signs that they need to go! – When they get to the toilet, are they able to undress themselves? Practise pulling trousers/leggings/tights up and down and remember your child needs to wear clothes that allow children to do this independently. – When they’ve finished, do they attempt to clean themselves and have a go at wiping? – Practise handwashing skills again – this is going to be very important on our return to Nursery. As always, we are there to help children if they need assistance, so please remind them to speak to their teachers if they need help next week. |
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| Key Worker activity and videos This week, we thought you’d like to be detectives! Listen carefully to each of your teacher’s clues about their favourite stories. Can you guess which book they love to read? Have a go at making some clues for one of your favourite stories and send us an email to see if we can guess! Key Worker video – World Book Day We’re so happy that we’re all going to be together again soon. It made us want to sing a song! Key worker song – If you’re happy and you know it |
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| Story time I don’t want to wash my hands! Read by Miss Marsden Click here to watch today’s story. Soap Experiment – watch and see how soap can stop germs! You will need: – a plate – ground pepper – washing up liquid – water Instructions: 1. Pour the water onto the plate. 2. Sprinkle the ground pepper onto the water. 3. Rub some soap onto your hand. 4. Put your hand in the water and see what happens. |
Week Commencing 01.03.21: F2 Home Learning
| Monday
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Book of the week- Click here to watch the story Jasper’s Beanstalk or read the book if you have it at home. Questions to discuss- 1. What do you think will be at the top of the beanstalk? 2. What different tools did Jasper use? 3. What plant have you got growing in your garden? 4. Do plants change during different seasons? 5. Do you know any other stories about beanstalks? |
| Phonics- ur Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Parents: For the final activity on the video, there are two possible sentences ‘See the cat lick his black fur.’ or ‘See the black cat lick his fur.’ Activity 1: Look at the picture. What can you see?  Write a word or sentence about the picture. (Sentence – He hurt his leg. Word – hurt.)Remember to use a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. Below are the steps we use to help us with our writing. 1. Say the sentence aloud. 2. Count the words. 3. Segment each word apart from the tricky words. 4. Read your sentence to check it makes sense! Activity 2: Play on Phonicsplay. Click this link. Choose phase 3, + ur |
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| Handwriting Practise- l, t, i Click here to watch today’s video. Click here to view the rhymes we use in school. |
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| Maths- Building with 3D shapes Click here to watch session 1. Click here for today’s activity. |
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| Tuesday | Phonics- ow Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Click here to hear the jolly phonics song for ow (at 10:38 in the video) Activity 1: Write words containing the ow sound (examples – cow, brown, now, owl and howl) Place them on the floor or around the room. Say a word for your child to find. Activity 2: Click here for a Read and Roll – ow |
| Handwriting Practise- u, y, j Click here to watch today’s video. Click here to view the rhymes we use in school. |
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| Maths- Matching 3D Shapes Click here to watch session 2. Click here for today’s activity. |
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| Wednesday | Phonics- oi Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Click here to hear the jolly phonics song for oi (at 10:52 in the video) Activity 1: Write the words; coin, foil, oil, boing Parents: read aloud for your child to write. ***challenge*** write your own sentence, using one of the words you have written. Activity 2: Click here to have a go at this oi word search. Either search on screen, or print it off (we recommend using page 1) |
| Handwriting Practise- e, f, z Click here to watch today’s video. Click here to view the rhymes we use in school. |
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| Maths- Print with 3D Shapes Click here to watch session 3. Click here for today’s activity. |
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| Thursday | Phonics- Tricky word – her Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Tricky Word Lucky Dip 1. Write each tricky word on a piece of paper. 2. Fold the pieces of paper up so you can’t see the words. 3. Dip your hand in and read the tricky word. Can you say the letter names? 4. Repeat until you have used all of the tricky words. Activity 2: Practise spelling the tricky words in flour or salt. Click here to watch Miss Marsden. Activity 3: Play a game of phase 3 tricky word snakes and ladders. Click here to download and play. If you do not have a printer, write down on a piece of paper each number you land on and follow on screen with your finger. You will need dice to play. Parents: If your child lands on a word we have not yet covered in class, you can support them by reading the word. |
| Handwriting Practise- v, w, x Click here to watch today’s video. Click here to view the rhymes we use in school. |
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| Word Passport Click here for this week’s word list. Remember to use your phoneme fingers when blending! |
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| Maths- Capacity Click here to be taken to today’s video. Today’s video is all about Capacity (the amount something can hold) and the language we use to describe capacity. Activity: Take pictures of the different measurements, when exploring the capacity of a container. It could be the stages of running a bath, filling a bucket or drinking a drink for example. Which words did you use to describe each measurement? |
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| Friday | Understanding the World with Professor Myers; British Science Week 2021- Structures Click here to watch this week’s video with Professor Myers. -Can you make a structure strong enough to support a toy? -Have a go at one of the experiments in the activity pack. -Send photos to show what you did. Activity Pack 1 Activity Pack 2 Activity Pack 3 Activity Pack 4 |
| Story time- I don’t want to wash my hands! Read by Miss Marsden Click here to watch today’s story. Soap Experiment – watch and see how soap can stop germs! You will need: – a plate – ground pepper – washing up liquid – water Instructions: 1. Pour the water onto the plate. 2. Sprinkle the ground pepper onto the water. 3. Rub some soap onto your hand. 4. Put your hand in the water and see what happens. |
Don’t forget to join the World Book Day Zoom session on Wednesday! For this week’s session, you can come dressed up as your favourite character.
Story Link activities to select throughout the week
Literacy
Keep a diary for the week just like Jasper. This could be about anything. What did you eat for breakfast? What did you see out in the garden? What toys have you played with? You could use this diary format click here, or create your own!
Understanding the World
Take a walk outside or in your garden. What can you find growing? You could take a pen and paper to draw what you find.
Maths
1. How tall are the people or toys in your house?
Use boxes, bottles, tins or anything else around your house to measure them. Talk about size difference – who is the tallest? How tall are they?
2. Write numerals on pots or paper. Count the correct number of beans to match the numerals.
Expressive Arts and Design
1. Paint, draw or build your beanstalk. How tall can you make it? How many leaves did you add?
2. Draw a picture to show what you think might be at the top of Jasper’s Beanstalk.
3. Use beans, pulses or any dried food you may have at home to create a mosaic style picture.
Physical Development
1. Sort beans, pulses or other small dry foods you have at home.
2. Collects some leaves and cut using scissors or other tools. You can also create you own leaves. Cut out of paper or card and fold to make the veins.
