Children In Need
We’ve had such a fun day celebrating Children In Need.
Odd Socks Day
To kick off Anti-Bullying Week next week, we are taking part in Odd Socks Day. All you need to do is come to school wearing odd socks! This will help us celebrate what makes us all unique!
Children In Need
It’s Children In Need this Friday and we are celebrating it by having a non-uniform day – the first one for Foundation!
Children can come to school in their own clothes.
Please remember that we enjoy getting messy in Foundation so make sure your child still comes to school in suitable clothing and footwear.
Our First Week Back
Foundation have had a great first week back!
Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of their half-term activities and adventures. It was lovely to see what you got up to! Please continue to send in home learning moments – they are really useful.
Literacy
This week, we’ve been reading The Three Little Pigs. The children have enjoyed acting out the story in every area of the classroom! They used different vocal expressions especially when being the big bad wolf. In the construction area, the children built new houses for the pigs. We talked about the different materials the pigs used and why the stick and straw house blew over straight away. 
On Thursday morning, the children found footprints near the writing area. We used magnifying glasses to look closer. Throughout the day, they found other clues.
“Look Miss Marsden! There’s scratches on the ceiling.”
“There’s a hole – the wolf must have done it.”
“There’s another scratch here. Wolves have really sharp claws.”
After spending the morning investigating, we all came to a conclusion and agreed that the footprints belonged to the big bad wolf. The children made wanted posters to stick up around the classroom.
Bonfire Night
We had lots of fun making and creating things to help celebrate Bonfire Night. We made fireworks in the playdough area, rockets at the creative table, moved like fireworks in PE and printed fireworks using bubble wrap.
Lunchtime
The lunch menu has changed and the children are loving the new choices!
Maths
This week, we have finalised our learning on number two. The children know what 2 is and what it looks like in the everyday environment.
On Thursday, we made number two stories.
Here’s an example…
First, there was one frog sat on a log.
Then, another frog joined him on the log.
Now, there are two frogs sat on the log.
We also went on a number one and two hunt. The children compared the pictures and explained why it was one or two.
On Friday, the children played hide and seek with Sammy St James to help them understand prepositional language.
“Sammy is hiding behind the shed.”
“Sammy is hiding under the table.”
“Sammy is next to the Miss Marsden.”
Phonics
F2 have started to write captions in phonics. When we are writing we….
1. Think of a caption or sentence.
2. Say it out loud.
3. Count the words.
4. Segment the words.
5. Write the caption or sentence.
6. CHECK!
F1 Group Time
Every morning the F1 children have their group time. This is what they’ve been up to this week…
On Monday, they had a talk time session all about Bonfire Night. The children loved drawing what they might see and hear.
Careful counting on Thursday.
Home-Link Challenge
Have a lovely weekend!
Nursery Rhyme Week
16th – 20th November 2020
World Nursery Rhyme Week is fast approaching and we are delighted to confirm we will be taking part. The initiative, which was launched in 2013, promotes the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development and education with a particular focus on how nursery rhymes boost early language and literacy skills.
We have a number of activities planned throughout the week including: making a cup of tea using little teapots, building a wall for Humpty Dumpty, hopping like the Five Little Speckled Frogs and helping Incy Wincy Spider. We will be doing lots more activities linked to other nursery rhymes!
Singing nursery rhymes is a wonderful activity you can enjoy doing together at home and all of the resources are available for you to download. You can access all of the free resources at: www.worldnurseryrhymeweek.com
Thank you!
Miss Marsden
The Three Little Pigs
This week, we’ve started our first focus story for this half-term.
Today, Foundation practised retelling the story using actions.
Check out our amazing story telling here!
Story Maps
The F2 children drew their own story maps and were really good at remembering the structure of the story.
Parental Partnership Presentation
Click on this link to view the Parental Partnership Presentation.
If you have any questions after reading the presentation, please email or chat to me on the gate.
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Christian Value: Friendship
This half term, our Christian Value has been friendship.
We have thought about how we can be a good friend and what we can learn from the Bible about friendship. We learned that Jesus teaches us to be a good friend to all – he told a story about how the good samaritan was a friend to someone who was supposed to be his enemy.
In our reflection areas, we had two challenges: a friendship flower and how to be a good friend.
For our friendship flower, we thought about who was a good friend or someone we were thankful for and wrote or drew a short thank you thought or prayer for them.
We took the friendship finger challenge and thought about all the things that make a good friend. We thought about how we could be a better friend.
Foundation stage have also been learning all about our Christian value of friendship. They’ve created a friendship tree and friendship stones whilst thinking about the qualities they would like in a friend.
Look out for next half term’s Christian value: perseverance.
Home – Link Challenge
Here’s the home learning moments sheet for the half-term home-link challenge.
You can either print it off and fill it in or send the home learning moments electronically.
Potion Commotion
As always, Foundation have had another fantastic week!
This week, we entered into a wonderful world of wizards and witches.
At the writing table, the children created their very own potions. Some of the children had a go at writing a list of ingredients.
In Literacy, we’ve been reading Potion Commotion by Peter Bentley. When reading the story, the children were great at listening for the rhyming words – it is a book full of rhyming words! The book is about a little witch called Betty. She ends up making a big mess when putting just about everything into her cauldron to make a potion. Betty’s potion grows and grows and spreads all over the town!
Talk to your child about the story and see if they can remember what happened at the end.
Linking to the potion theme, we decided to be scientists and make our very own hubble and bubble potions.
We did four experiments using five ingredients: oil, water, bicarbonate soda, energy tablets and vinegar – the classroom spelt lovely!
The children observed what happened and recorded their findings.
Ronan – “It’s bubbling.”
Connor – “It’s fizzing.”
Daisy – “It looks like a tornado.”
Beau – “It’s not bubbling.”
We talked about what a chemical reaction is and that bubbling is a sign of a chemical reaction.
In phonics, we’ve learnt more sounds: m, d and g.
Here’s a link to the Jolly Phonics songs.
The children are doing really well in phonics and love doing the drum roll before I show them the new sound – it creates a lot of excitement! Some of the children are starting to segment and blend cvc words, for example, sat, mad and pin.
The children went on a sound hunt around the classroom. They were encouraged to say the sounds when they found them.
F2 – Please remember to practise the sounds in their sound book and their words in their word passports.
In maths, we’ve continued looking at number 2. On Thursday, I dropped all of the counting bears all over the floor – silly Miss Marsden! The children had to collect two bears and put them on their ten frame. The children moved the bears around on their ten frames and checked that it still showed two. After half term, we will finalise our number 2 learning and move onto number three.
F1
The F1 children have also continued with their phase one phonics activities. On Tuesday, they had to watch carefully to different body sounds and pass it around the circle.
On Wednesday, the children went on a musical instrument hunt around the outdoor area. When a child found an instrument, they talked about its sound and compared it to the other instruments.
What else have we been up to?
We made playdough spiders.
In the sensory area, the children enjoyed melting the frozen hands!
Next half-term, we will become story tellers and look at some traditional tales. The children will come up with actions to help them retell the stories. We’ve chosen traditional tales because they usually follow a typical structure and include lots of repeated phrases. Here’s a clue to help you guess one of the books we will be looking at… It will help with our number three learning.
Here are some pictures of the displays in our classroom…
Foundation Parents
A Parental Partnership presentation will be uploaded onto the class news page on Monday 2nd November.
I hope you all have a lovely half-term break!
Home-Link Challenge
