Snack time in Foundation
If you didn’t already know – Foundation is all about space!
Take a peak in our classroom to check out what your child will be learning about in the coming weeks.
During snack time, we had space fruit (OK – fruit wrapped in tinfoil). Unwrapping our fruit is a great way to improve our fine motor skills and the children were adamant that space fruit tastes different to normal fruit!
We also spent time watching how astronauts aboard the ISS do daily tasks like brushing their teeth. The children were fascinated by the effect of no gravity.
Be sure to chat to your child about what they’re getting up to!
Foundation goes to… Space!
At the end of last half term, the children expressed an interest in learning about space. 
So to kick off our space theme, we’ll be reading Nick Sherratt and Pippa Goodhart’s You Choose in Space. The You Choose books are great – the choices the children will make will create a different story each time.
You Choose in Space will promote good speaking and listening skills when deciding where we will go, what we will wear, what will make etc. Our maths learning will also be considered when choosing the most popular or least popular options.
Be sure to ask your child about this week’s book. I wonder if they could make their own at home…
Home learning link
We hope you are all having a lovely half term.
Just a little reminder that our new topic will be SPACE! Our home-learning link is to make a rocket from bottles, boxes and other used packaging. Adding labels would be even better!
Be sure to send any photos of this, or other activities and outings to:
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Thank you.
Staying Safe homework
This week, the homework relating to staying safe was brilliant! Here are some examples:
Olivia created a fantastic ‘gaming’ story, similar to our class novel- The Forest of Doom, although her story related to bullying. She also made a spinner using an electrical circuit to decide what happens in the story. A fantastic mixture of Living and Learning, English and Science!
Outdoor Phonics
After a chilly and frosty morning yesterday, we were blessed with glorious sunshine all afternoon 🙂 We took our phonics session outside and had some fun in the sun…
A special mention this time for L and R! Check out L’s fantastic jolly phonics action and how well R is emphasising his sound…
We moved on to chalk writing, practising how to form our letters correctly. Look at our fantastic concentration!…
What a lovely last day- Well done Foundation!
Mr Wonka’s Challenge
Last week, we received a letter – or challenge should we say – from Mr Wonka himself. It turns out he is trying to make a chocolate bar that wouldn’t melt in children’s pockets. He thought the best people to test this would be children themselves.
So we set about: collecting different samples of chocolate; heating them up; observing when how long and at what temperature they melted; and then recorded our results.
During this investigation, we focused on making sure we were carrying out a fair test. We used the same amount of chocolate, the same cups etc and only changed the type of chocolate.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe
Recently, we had a theme week all about staying safe. We thought about all the times and places that we needed to stay safe. We first considered the classroom and how we could make it a safe place. We had brilliant suggestions about keeping the room tidy as well as how we can make people who are feeling upset feel safe.
We also had workshops from the Police about stranger danger and how to recognise adults who can help us. Our road safety workshop was especially interesting. We learn all about the need for wearing a seatbelt and the consequences of what can happen in you don’t.
Leeds Playhouse Workshop
This afternoon, we had an exciting visit from Leeds Playhouse. The workshop was based on our class novel – Katie and the Dinosaurs. Using our creative minds we put ourselves into the shoes of our story characters. We walked through a magical door to the land of the dinosaurs.
Survival skills were essential in preparation for our journey with the dinosaurs.
Our senses helped us to become immersed in the magnificent jungle where the dinosaurs roamed.
This was a brilliant experience that will help us to add more excitement to our writing.
Class Novel
In years 5 and 6, we are thoroughly enjoying our class novel: The forest of doom.
We have battled and escaped many creatures in the forest and we have written non-chronological reports about our own Fighting Fantasy creatures.
In order to battle, we had to roll two dice to create a stamina, skill and luck score. Fortunately, our stamina score was high and it has helped us throughout our adventures.
In PE, we have been working on our own stamina! We hope to see our stamina improve over the next half term by practising the same skills each week.
In Art, we have developed our drawing skills to create our own creature, which we are going to build into a sculpture using Modroc.
We’ve looked at well-known sculptures and shown our own appreciation of art by researching, discussing and writing about them.
Staying Safe: Wetherby Fire Station
It was 2 pm on a regular Friday afternoon in Foundation, when what should we see slowly making its way past the school fence on Hallfield Lane but a big, red, shiny…. “Fire engine!” (shouted the children)
We were so excited to explore it! The children were able to climb into the cab and look at the special protective clothing, the camera that can see through smoke, the breathing equipment and more.
Around the back of the engine, the children were fascinated by the large hoses, axes and other tools that help the firefighters do their job.
When we got back into the classroom, we were super impressed with all of the facts that Foundation could remember.
Ask your child if they can tell you about one piece of equipment they saw on the fire engine.
The children described the experience today as “Amazing” and “Awesome”.
