Foundation Parents
In the most recent guidance that has come out this week, it specifically mentions that schools in Tier 3 shouldn’t perform in front of an audience. Even though we had planned to sing outside to parents/carers, we feel we should follow this guidance in the strictest way.
We will still send you a video of our Christmas performance taken place in school that you can share with family members.
Thank you for your understanding.
The Christmas theme continues…
Foundation have been very excited for Christmas this week. I think it is because we got to start opening our Class Advent Calendar.
On Tuesday, Beau opened the first door for coming into school with a big smiling face.
On Wednesday, Vinnie opened the second door. He was chosen because he is trying really hard in phonics.
On Thursday, Mrs Small chose Amelia for working hard all day.
Today, Bobby opened the fourth door. He is trying really hard to be independent at home time.
Gabriel and Jacob were chosen to open the 5th and 6th doors for trying really hard in maths.
On Tuesday, the F1 children got to decorate the school Christmas tree. Mrs Small said, “They are were really sensible and helped each other when putting the baubles on the tree.”
Phonics
The F2 children finished learning all of the phase 2 sounds last week! So, this week we’ve been recapping all of the sounds in our phonics sessions. The children love phonics and are all phonics superstars! After Christmas, we will start phase 3.
Here are some of the phonics activities and challenges the children have been doing this week… SPLAT the phoneme!
Playing phase 2 Snakes and Ladders with our friends. The children needed to blend the words they landed on.
Musical Blending – The children danced around to the music. When the music stopped, they jumped on a word and blended it. This is an easy game to do at home.
Tricky Word Twister – The same rules as Twister. However, each coloured spot had a tricky word on for the children to read. The children were also encouraged to practise writing the tricky words on the chalkboard wall. 
Finding phoneme baubles in the tinsel and making cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant) words with them. 
F1 Group Time
On Wednesday, the F1 children made up silly rhyming stories about their puppets. Mrs Small started the story and paused at different points to see if the children could think of a word that rhymed.
For example,
Are you poorly Lizzy? Oh dear.
Fizzy, Wizzy, Lizzy is feeling sick and dizzy.
Bob is very excited. Today he is going to be a builder. Hob Tob Bob has got a new job.
Home-Link Challenge
While poking, rolling, and squishing playdough, children develop the small muscles in their fingers and hands to help them become amazing writers! When you play with the playdough at home with your children, you’ll discover the most important reason of all: it’s fun!
F2 Parents – Please encourage the children to segment the sounds independently. Remember, it is okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound encourages them to use their own skills – rather than copying an adult.
Have a lovely weekend!
Virtual after school clubs
Aimed mainly at primary-aged children, a different theme has been assigned for each day of the club – Adventure Monday, Tuesday Play, Wild Wednesday, Thinking Thursday and Fun Friday.
Find out more: https://www.youthsporttrust.org/AfterSchoolSportClub
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
This week, we have started to get into the Christmas spirit.
We wrapped presents for under the tree.
A group of children decorated the Christmas tree.
We wrote Christmas wish lists in the home corner.
We’ve made our calendars. The children will be bringing them home at the end of this half-term.
Next week, we will continue to get into the Christmas spirit. The home corner will turn into Santa’s Workshop and we will be making our Christmas cards. On Monday, we will also be doing a dress rehearsal of our Christmas sing-a-long. Foundation are fabulous singers and dancers! The video will be posted week commencing Monday 14th December.
Maths
We’ve started to learn all about the number 4. This week, the children learnt that the number 4 is a square number. We watched the Numberblock Four video and played a game with the cubes. At the start of the game, the children made a square using four cubes. When Miss Marsden shouted change, the children had to change the shape of their cubes. Occasionally, Miss Marsden shouted square and the children had to make their cubes back into a square.
- We also sorted 2d shapes that show four and don’t show four. The children were really good at using the correct mathematical language when explaining.
“This is a square. It has four sides and four corners.”
“It has one round side.”
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. This shape has six sides and six corners.”
Literacy
Our new focus story is the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The F2 children drew a story map and remembered what happened at the beginning, middle and end. Outside, the children made a bridge and acted out the story with their friends- we saw some great acting skills!
The F1 children made bridges in their group time on Monday.
In the maths area, the children used cubes to measure and compare the size of the goats hooves. They also had a go at measuring the length of their own feet.
On Thursday, the F1 children measured their feet. They carefully drew around their shoe and counted the cubes to measure the length.
Some more great snapshots of the week…
F2 Parents
Today, your child will have brought home a learning pack. The pack has lots of resources we use in school on a daily basis. The pack includes: a whiteboard pen, wipe, number line, ten frames, part- part whole model, phase 2 sound mat, handwriting practise and phoneme frames. Please use your pack on a weekly basis to support your child’s learning. Send photos of your child using the pack to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org.
Home-Link Challenge
Our New Role-Play Area
Christmas has definitely arrived in Foundation!
Check out our new role-play area. The children were so excited when they saw it this morning.
Nursery Rhyme Week
We’ve had so much fun this week celebrating Nursery Rhyme Week.
Take a look at all the things we’ve been doing…
Singing Five Little Ducks and Five Little Monkeys with our friends.
We sang twinkle, twinkle when painting Starry Night pictures in the style of Vincent Van Gough’s famous paint.
At the sensory table, we made cups of tea and sang I’m a Little Teapot.
At the playdough table, we sang Pat-a-Cake and pretended we were bakers.
We used ‘cement’ and wooden blocks to build a wall for Humpty Dumpty.
Literacy
Our focus story this week was Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. It is a fantastic book with simple rhyming text. It also has engaging illustrations encouraging children to look at the book carefully to find the next fairy tale and nursery rhyme character. Some of the characters we found in the book were Mother Hubbard, Cinderella and Tom Thumb.
We went on a ‘ I Spy’ hunt looking for illustrations from the book which were dotted around the outdoor area. We had lots of fun remembering the characters names and using the language from the story.
The F2 children also went on a hunt around the classroom for other nursery rhyme characters. They picked a character to draw and wrote a sentence describing where the character was in the classroom. E.g. I spy Incy Wincy Spider on the wall. This writing activity also linked nicely to the prepositional learning we did last week in maths.
Maths
In maths, we continued learning about the number 3. We learnt all about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd). To help us learn about this, we played racing games and handed out medals to our friends.
We also played the ‘Three Billy Goats’ game. The children made three goats out of cubes. The little Billy Goat was one cube tall, the medium-sized Billy Goat was two cubes tall and the biggest Billy Goat was three cubes tall. They then took turns to roll the dice (1-3). The children were encouraged to subitise* the dots on the dice and work out which Billy Goat needed to cross the bridge.
F1 Group Time
This week, the children drew their own versions of some famous nursery rhyme characters. At the start of every group time, we ask the children to find their name in the middle of the circle – they are getting very quick at recognising their names!
Odd Socks Day
It was lovely to see almost all of Foundation in odd socks on Monday!
Home-Link Challenge
Next week, our focus story is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We will be talking about size and learning all about measuring. To help your child get a head start, have a go at these challenges at home.
* The ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them.
Finally…
Thank you to all the parents who do the home-link challenges with their children at home. It is always lovely to receive so many emails of amazing home learning!
PS – I have seen so many Christmas decorations up already and I’m sure some of your will have already put yours up! Send me pictures – I love CHRISTMAS!!
Nursery Rhyme Day
What a fun day we’ve had! You all looked fantastic dressed up as nursery rhyme characters.
We had a mini talent show. Check out how confident and amazing Foundation are at singing nursery rhymes!
Incy Wincy
Little Bo Beep
Five Little Monkeys
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Another Little Bo Beep
We also had an original song called Flower Garden.
Foundation Parents
Reminders!
- All F2 children need to make sure they bring their reading record and book into school everyday.
- PE is every Wednesday. Your child should be wearing a white t-shirt, navy shorts or tracksuit bottoms and pumps or trainers.
- On Friday, your child can come to school dressed as a nursery rhyme character. Please remember that we enjoy getting messy in Foundation so make sure your child still comes to school in suitable clothing and footwear.
Thank you!
Phonics Home Learning
To support children’s phonics learning, we use a variety of online resources on a weekly basis.
One of the main phonics websites we use is Phonics Play.
The website is really simple to use and has lots of fun games for each of the phonics phases. Before playing the games, you can select which letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) you want your child to focus on.
If you are unsure on which sounds to select, just look in your child’s book bag or sound book – they bring home new phonemes each week.
The login details are Sphere (user name) and Spher3 (password).
Other useful resources…
We also use the Jolly Phonics Songs when introducing a new phoneme. At home, you could listen and sing-a-long to them when tidying up or making tea.
The BBC Bitesize website has lots of phase 2 videos. These are short clips focussed on the phonemes taught in phase 2. Again, these can be watched at home to help boost your child’s phonics skills.
Phonics Bloom – another website full of simple, fun and exciting phonics games.
F1 Parents
Phase 1 concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills. It supports tuning into different sounds and gets them ready to begin oral blending and segmenting skills. Phonics Play and Phonics Bloom have lots of phase 1 games. Please play these games at home.
FANTASTIC FOUNDATION
Here are some highlights of another fantastic week in Foundation:
PE
On Wednesday, the children made safe risks when climbing and travelling on the big apparatus – Mrs Small was very impressed! They showed great determination and perseverance especially when climbing the ladder.
Living and Learning
Speaking of perseverance, it’s our Christian value for this half-term. Last Friday, Foundation made some perseverance stars in their Living and Learning session. They drew a picture of something they’d like to get better at. We discussed how we could achieve our perseverance stars.
Literacy
On Monday and Tuesday, F2 were authors and planned their own versions of the Three Little Pigs. The children changed the title, the characters, the materials and the ending. Check out their amazing planning!
Remembrance
On Wednesday, it was Remembrance Day. To celebrate the day, we made a poppy wreath. You might have seen it on our window next to the classroom door. The children also made poppies at the playdough table. Throughout the week, the children have shared their own knowledge and understanding about Remembrance Day.
Some more highlights of this week…
In Foundation, we love to observe children doing child-initiated writing. Here’s some great examples!
“I’m drawing my family. Now I need to draw my daddy.”
“I’m drawing the brick house.”
“I’m drawing the straw house.”
“I’m drawing the stick house.”
This week, the maths challenge involved counting and recognising numerals to 10. The children used 1:1 correspondence when counting their cubes to match each of the numbers. For the star challenge, they had to put(add) two towers together to find the total.
F1 Group Time
On Monday, they designed new houses for the three pigs.
On Tuesday, the children continued with their phase one phonics learning. They were asked to listen to the different percussion instruments and match the sounds with some animal puppets. E.g. Castanet sounds like a horse trotting.
Home-Link Challenge
Next week, is Nursery Rhyme week. Your child will have brought home some nursery rhymes. To help us great ready for next week’s learning, please practise these at home.
Nursery rhymes boost vocabulary and language development. They also support children’s literacy and early numeracy skills.