Rainy Play, Hip Hip Hooray!
The weather this week has been very grey and drizzly but that hasn’t stopped Foundation showing some amazing child-led learning.
We’ve had rainy painting and phonics on the board and we’ve seen fantastic, imaginative construction – making dens, racing cars and helicopters. The children have also been making bottle-top boats, floating them in puddles and then on the tuff tray. They’ve been experimenting with ways to make them move faster.
Who says rainy days have to be dull?!
Welcome to Spring 1!
A warm welcome back to Foundation stage this week. Children have been full of beans talking and writing about all of their lovely, festive news!
It’s great to see that the children have come back ready to learn with fantastic attitudes. We’ve seen hairdressers, show performers, dogs and dinosaurs through their independent imaginative play this week, giving us lots of exciting planning ideas for upcoming learning.
We’re beginning to trial having snack times together in Foundation. We hope this will provide another opportunity for talking and learning together. It also has other benefits such as making sure the children all have their snack in the morning (keeping up those energy and concentration levels) and that they are using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in their daily interactions.
PE will start again next week for F2 children. If you’ve not done so already, please return a named kit to school by Tuesday 09 January. PE will now take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
A letter will be coming home with your child tomorrow about our next Stay and Play session. ‘Marvellous Maths’ will take place on Thursday 18 January at 2.30pm. We hope to see lots of you there 🙂
SATs in May
The Key Stage 2 tests (commonly called SATs) are in May:
- Monday 14 May: English grammar, punctuation and spelling papers 1 and 2
- Tuesday 15 May: English reading
- Wednesday 16 May: Mathematics papers 1 and 2
- Thursday 17 May: Mathematics paper 3
New style National Curriculum tests were introduced in 2016. This video lasts around five minutes and gives you a useful overview of the tests.
As always, speak with us if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
The Christmas Experience
Foundation children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in ‘The Christmas Experience’ on Tuesday. They took part in creative activities and role playing; enacting the Nativity and considering the true meaning of Christmas.
Who do you think you are?
Last week was a very busy week in Year 3/4. With a big focus on our identity, we began the week discussing and thinking about all the different things that make us who we are.
As well as identity, we thought about what the word community means and what different communities we belong to – local, nationally and internationally.
On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon at Sandringham Park – an important place for our local community. There we made bug hotels and learnt about the importance of looking after and valuing this and other parks and green spaces.
On Friday, we considered how diverse communities can be and how we should celebrate diversity in different communities. Children had the opportunity to become part of the para-athletic community and experience how different sport could be for those people with a physical limitation.
Chatter and Batter
As part of our themed week, we’ve been visiting people in our local community. ‘Chatter and Batter’ is an event organised by Wise, a charity supporting the elderly in Wetherby, and we went along to have a chat, eat dinner and host a quiz!
Community Week
As part of Identity week in school, Foundation have been thinking about our school community and the people who work here. Mrs Coster from the school office spoke to the children on Monday about her role and Mrs Philip spoke to the children this afternoon about the work that the lunchtime staff do to ensure the children have a healthy lunch. F2 children also went out in groups throughout the week to do some busy jobs with Mr Atkins and talk about the work he does in school and how it keeps us safe.
The children thought about the people who help us in the wider community. They have enjoyed our new ‘Doctor’s Surgery’ role play, our sensory firefighter’s play, our ‘dentist’ fiddly fingers tooth brushing experience and dressing up as police officers in the outdoor area.
We worked together this week to create a map of Wetherby – the community in which we live. We looked at aerial photographs of Wetherby and the children printed green paint to create the background. Later in the week we added roads, rivers and buildings. Today, the children added their own house with their picture on. Keep an eye out for how we use our wonderful map creation in our next themed role play area, coming soon!
A visit from a vicar
This week in Year 1 and 2, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Revd. Stroma, from St James’ church, as part of our Identity week.
We’re looking at the different types of identity that we have, both as an individual and as a school. One of our school identities that we have is that our church identity. We are lucky to have close links with our local church St James’.
The children enjoyed the session, looking at items from the church that make up part of the church’s identity. The children could retell lots of interesting facts.
- “We learnt about things about God and Jesus.” – McKenzie
- “We learnt about festivals and celebrations in the church.” – Fleur
- “Revd. Stroma told us about the stoles, when they wear them and why they wear them.” – Daisy-Mae
- “Yesterday, we learnt about the things that are in the church like the white, pink and blue candles.” – Nicholas
Self-esteem workshop
As part of our themed week and our Living and Learning statement ‘I know who I am,‘ Year 5 and 6 took part in a workshop, linked to the Dove self-esteem project. The children discussed self-esteem, body image and body confidence.
A Christmas Carol
Today, we read a section of A Christmas Carol by candlelight and howling wind sound effects. Creepy…
