Community Week
We have had a great week thinking about our local and school communities, about the people who keep us safe and look after us and about our own personal identities.
Some of the people who work in our school community shared the work that they do with Foundation…
Children shared their favourite places from their local community…
and their special items that identify them and make them unique…
and we had a special, exciting visit from Wetherby Fire Station where we asked lots of questions and got to explore the fire engine! We are so grateful for the people who keep us safe in our community.
We have learnt to value and be proud of the places and people in our community this week. Thank you to everyone who makes our community the wonderful place it is.
Fun, fun and more fun in Foundation!
Community Week
As part of Identity week in school, Foundation have been thinking about our school community and the people who work here. On Wednesday, all Foundation children went out in groups to help Mr Atkins and talk about the work he does in school and how he keeps us safe.
Mrs Walshaw is visiting Foundation tomorrow to discuss her role in school and what she does to help us.
Fantastic Learning!
This week, Foundation have all shown an interest in books. They have enjoyed reading with adults, on their own and in groups which is marvellous to see. Encourage your child to read a range of things at home. This can be non-fiction, fiction, labels and magazines.
In the construction area, a group of children worked together to create an amazing model! They showed great enthusiasm when sharing and listening to ideas.
The F2 children went on a phonics hunt. This involved the children working together to find pictures around the classroom and match them with the CVC words. The children did some fantastic segmenting and blending!
The F1 children have had a great week exploring the movement area. A group of children used the musical instruments to play games and sing songs. In their key worker time, they have played counting games, tuned into different sounds and listened to stories.
Have you seen the new area in the classroom?
The role play area has turned into Santa’s Workshop – a popular area this week! The children have loved wrapping presents and writing labels to help Santa.
Christmas Production – this isn’t one to miss!
Foundation have been very busy practising the Christmas production. The children are very excited to perform on stage and show off their amazing singing!
Home-Link Challenge
It’s December on Sunday – Christmas is nearly here!
Visiting Santa in the next few weeks?
Bring in or send us a photo.
F2
Write a letter to Santa with your child. Encourage them to do this independently and use their amazing phonic knowledge.
F1
Draw a picture for Santa.
What will you draw for him?
Music day
Year 5 and 6 enjoyed a whole day of music, where they all learnt how to play some basic chords on the guitar and keyboard. By the end of the day, they played six well-known songs to the rest of the school. It was fantastic to see the focus and concentration the children had when playing the songs and how well they all played together as a group. Thank you to Fran and Sarah from Artforms, who ran the day.
Our visit from Councillor Lamb
This week, we had a visit from Councillor Lamb, who spoke to us about the planned housing developments around Wetherby. This is part of our geography topic: Where in the world am I? We looked at some huge maps of the local area, which clearly showed the places where housing has been proposed. The children asked some great questions about the negative and positive impact of the new housing developments and they have gathered lots of information for them to write a balanced argument in English.
Meerkats and More!…
This week, we have been focusing on the story Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett. The story encouraged some great discussion about habitats, maps, travel and days of the week. F2 wrote their own postcards to someone they know, using their imaginations to pretend they had gone on their travels.
F1 have been practising their Maths, Phonics and Language skills in their key worker time. One way we are encouraging the children to broaden their vocabulary, is through discussions on selected pictures taken from pobble365.com We call these sessions ‘Picture Talk’. The website is a great way to explore language and understanding both at school and at home as it is full of interesting and unusual imagery.
Have a go at discussing one of the pictures with your child and let us know how it goes- what did they say? what features did they notice?
The VERY wet weather has made it a little tricky to put out some of our outdoor activities this week but fab Foundation always find ways to explore and learn no matter what the weather is doing. This week we have enjoyed using powder paint to paint the puddles and paths- great for our gross motor skills!
In our reflection time on Friday, we thought about our Living and Learning Statement: I know we’re all the same and we’re all different. We spoke about our similarities and differences and how to respect and value each other even if we are different or have different likes and interests. This discussion also links to the British Values of tolerance and respect.
Talk to your child about how they are the same and different to their friends.
Home-Link Challenge
Next week is Community Week at St. James’.
We would like Foundation to join the rest of the school by taking a photo in their local area of Wetherby, somewhere recognisable for their friends to guess where they are! Please bring in or email your photo to the EYFS email address.
Please also bring in just one special item that is important to your child or unique to them, for identity day.
Thank you.
Living and Learning: Anti-bullying Week
The whole school had a creative homework task to show how we can stop bullying. Here are some examples the children in Y5/6 showed in our homework review this week.
Orienteering
As part of our ‘Where in the World’ topic, we need to be able to identify map symbols as well as be able to use maps. Last week, we did just that by orienteering around the school grounds. We had to find 10 control points dotted around the area. To do this we had to use a map of the school and know what all the symbols meant in order to find our way around.
Once we had visited all of the control point we had to unscramble the letters we found to make a piece of our topic vocabulary. It was – Ordnance Survey – the company who make maps.
Lilly said, ‘I was so out of breath running round trying to find the places as fast as possible’
Harley commented, ‘I really had to think hard when using the map and persevere!’
A very important week…
This week has covered many important topics:
Remembrance Monday
The children were shown an animation explaining why we wear poppies and took part in a discussion. We have been painting poppy fields which are now displayed in the window by our water tray. Thank you to the families that worked together to create poppy pictures and models at home, for our home-link challenge.
Anti-Bullying Week- Odd Socks Tuesday
On Tuesday, we wore odd socks to celebrate our differences and to show we respect each other. We spoke about this during our Living and Learning circle time, about what bullying looks like and what we should do to STOP it.
STOP
Bullying is: S Several T times O on P purpose
We should: S Start T telling O other P people
Well done to Lily who received the Living and Learning certificate for sharing some important facts, such as “You should tell a teacher”
Children in Need Friday
Wow!- what generous children and parents we have! Thank you so much for all of your donations, taking part in non-uniform day and bringing in or making cakes for our bun sale.
We started the day by sitting down and talking through the important work Children in Need do, through the website’s Early Years- friendly presentation. We also had some Pudsey fun painting and dot-to-dots to choose.
What else have we been up to?
PE Thursdays- In our first half term, the children have shown they can find a safe space in the hall, hop, skip, gallop and side step to travel. This half term we are working on small-base balancing and jumping in direction including jump-turns.
Physical Development at lunch time- In Early Years, we think of developmental aspects that support children both in and outside of the classroom. A really tricky self-care and fine motor skill is the ability to cut up our food. We are encouraging all of the children to ‘have a go’ at cutting their food before helping and we are already seeing huge development in their confidence and ability to do so.
Please continue encouraging your child to ‘have a go’ at cutting their food at home.
Here is some great food-cutting in action!
Phonics Superhero- Each day we have started to choose a ‘Phonics Superhero’ who has wowed us with their skills. They get to dress up in a special cape and mask for the rest of the day!
A very muddy Friday- Our class really love the mud! The more rain and muddy puddles the better. This week’s muddy collaboration was to build “a swimming pool for the ants and caterpillars” This sparked some good conversation about how deep the water could be for it to be safe for a small insect. We will carry this interest into next week and do some fact finding to answer our questions.
Home-Link Challenge
F2- This week the children were introduced to 3d shapes. Can you find an object or package around the home that is a 3d shape we can put on our display?
F1- Please bring in or email a photo of your weekend, whether you are at home or out and about. We will use the pictures for our ‘talk-time’ key-worker session.
Thank you.
Well Done!
Well done to Freddie, Chloe and Leo for their amazing home-link challenges this week!
We were very impressed with your creations.
Keep sharing your lovely home learning moments with us.
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Living and Learning: I know how to stop bullying
This week Living and Learning statement has been linked to anti-bullying week. This year’s theme is ‘Change starts with us’. As a class we discussed what this meant. We had some good suggestions
‘We can all do something to stop bullying’ – Daisy-Mae
‘Even if you aren’t being bullied you can help somebody who is’ – Nicholas
We all then reminded ourselves what the definition of Bullying was :
Several Times On Purpose
If we are going to make a change and it starts with us then we have to remember the points that Daisy-Mae and Nicholas made. We have to
Start Telling Other People
‘If ever I see bullying I will tell an adult’ – Isobel