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!
Living and Learning : NSPCC PANTS rule
We have been talking about pants again! Children love talking about pants and find them funny but we use it in school to deliver a serious safeguarding message. The NSPCC have created some fab resources for us, and you, to use when teaching our children how to keep themselves safe. Ask your child about the PANTS rule and sing along to the catchy song!
Living and Learning: Friendship is important!
This week our Living and Learning statement is “I recognise friends and family are important.” Here’s what Y3/4 think about friendship.
Friendship is important because…
you’re not alone.
if you didn’t have friends you would be alone.
if you have a friend they can cheer you up.
if you don’t have a friend you won’t have fun.
so that you are not lonely for your entire life.
you might get left out if you didn’t have friends.
so everyone will be included.
so that they can take care of you.
if you are an only child you can play with someone.
you will have people to play with.
you are loved.
We also looked at which values we think are more or less important within friendships.
Happy and healthy playtimes
Our new playtime equipment arrived today. The children were so excited to unpack it! Regular exercise has lots of health benefits for children such as providing an opportunity to socialise, increasing concentration and improving self-esteem.
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.
Living and Learning: I recognise emotions in myself and others
Recognising emotions is an important first step in helping us manage our emotions. For example, it’s ok to feel angry, as long as we try to manage it in a way that doesn’t negatively affect other people. It’s great to feel proud as long as it doesn’t lead to showing off.
This week, we played an emotions game with a friend. Whichever emotion we landed on, we had to talk about a time when we had felt like that. We followed this by creating our emotions wheel- drawing pictures or patterns to represent an emotion.
Living and Learning: I know how to STOP bullying
Our recent Living and Learning statement has been: I know how to STOP bullying.
STOP is a key message linked to bullying. In our school, STOP stands for two things:
- the definition: Several Times On Purpose
- the solution: Start Telling Other People
Recently, our school council (now called the Junior Leadership team) met to review our school definition of bullying and our child friendly anti-bullying policy. Thank you to the JLT for their valued contributions. As a result, our definition and policy have now been updated.
Child friendly anti-bullying policy
What is bullying?
In our school, this is what bullying means:
Bullying is where you hurt someone, physically or emotionally (including online), several times on purpose.
What might bullying look like?
If any of these things happen several (lots of) times, it is bullying.
- Hurting peoples’ feelings, for example, name calling, teasing, threatening, ignoring, leaving people out or spreading rumours
- Hurting peoples’ bodies, for example, hitting, punching or kicking
This could be in person or online (cyber bullying) and could be because of someone’s race, disability, gender, appearance, age or any other protected characteristic.
What could you do if you are being bullied?
Start
Telling
Other
People
Who could you tell?
- Miss Beatson, Mrs Bald, or Mr Roundtree (they are child protection staff)
- Any other members of staff
- Friends
- Someone in your family
- A trusted adult
- Childline (0800 1111)
- Write a worry slip and put it in your classroom Living and Learning Box or the whole school worry box
- Email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org
Our views on bullying
STOP bullying – bullying is wrong! We’re a happy and healthy school.
As part of our Anti-bullying week, we had creative homework where the children showed that they knew how to stop bullying. Thank you to those children who have sent their homework. We have enjoyed looking at it in our homework review and sharing our ideas. (send any completed homework to Stjamesy3y4@spherefederation.org)
History : What’s the artefact?
We’ve had some great history lessons this week. We looked at some artefacts (old objects) and tried to guess what they were. This one is a water squirt – used to squirt water on buildings during the Great Fire of London.
The children guessed what it might be before we talked about what it was used for. We were great historians!
It might be a ski.
It’s a gun.
It’s a needle.