Week Commencing 11.07.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Practised the sounds ch, sh
- Practised the tricky words come, some, do, so, said.
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words such as belt, print, slept, stop.
- Played ‘whats in the bag. We made a list of items that we pulled out of a bag including chest, shark, brush.
- Read sentences such as ‘The chickens cheep at the sheep.’ and ‘He went down the plank.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Subitised numbers to 5.
- Created collections of 6 objects in formats we could subitise within provision.
- Joined in with counting to 10.
- Recognised and showed numbers from 5 to 10 in ‘5 and a bit’ arrangements.
- Remembered to stop counting at the end of a set of up to 10 jumps, claps or hops.
- Counted twenty objects.
- Practised saying the tricky teen numbers.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared poems from ‘Commotion in the Ocean’.
- Continued to use books, videos and information gathered from the internet to research sea creatures. On Monday we learnt about candy crabs, did you know candy crabs have great camouflage skills. They can change their colour according to the coral reefs around them! On Tuesday we learnt about Mimic octopuses, did you know they can change their colour, shape and behaviour to trick predators into thinking they are a venomous or bad tasting creature so they won’t be eaten.
- Identified a candy crab is a crustacean and a mimic octopus is an invertebrate.
- Had a go at writing our own fact books independently in provision about one of the sea creatures we have researched.

In R-time this week we have…
- Talked about road safety. We discussed how we stop at the side of the road, look and listen to see if any cars are coming, Wait until any vehicles have gone, look and listen again before crossing the road while holding an adults hand.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the one armed robot lowercase letters.
On Wednesday we visited our new year 1 classes. We loved getting to know our new teachers and playing with all of the toys. They all looked so smart and grown up. Mrs Chamberlain and Miss Brown were very impressed.
On Thursday we had our very first sports day. We practised in the morning and did the real thing in the afternoon. Everyone participated, tried their best and had lots of fun. Well done to all teams!

Week Commencing 04.07.22

Hello all,
In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Practised the sounds ee, or, th, ch, sh.
- Practised the tricky words with, his, into, this, they.
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words such as sweet, green, street, shrimp, chair etc.
- Played ‘missing digraph’. We had a word with a missing digraph and had to write the complete word on our whiteboards e.g. fork, cheek, think etc.
- Read sentences such as ‘The jeep went down the street.’ ‘I can see a thorn in the bush.’ ‘The shell is on the sand.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Used our fingers to make and represent double facts.
- Represented 5 on a die frame.
- Explored addition facts.
- Used fingers, dice frames and ten frames to represent ‘5 and a bit’.
- Used fingers to represent ‘1 more than/ 1 less than’ a number.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared poems from ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ and identified rhyming words.
- Used books, videos and information gathered from the internet to research sea creatures. On Tuesday we learnt about great white sharks, did you know a great white shark can smell a single drop of blood from up to 536m away- that’s the same length as five football pitches! On Wednesday we learnt about bottlenose dolphins, did you know bottlenose dolphins communicate with eachother through squeaks and whistles? Each dolphin has a special whistle that it creates soon after it is born which is used as identification, just like a name. On Thursday we learnt about blue whales, did you know that blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth? They are even bigger than dinosaurs! On Friday we learnt about lion’s mane jellyfish, did you know that a lion’s mane jellyfish can glow in the dark and it’s tentacles can grow up to 30 metres long?
- Identified whether a shark, dolphin, whale and jellyfish is a mammal, fish or invertebrate by comparing them to criteria such as ‘has a backbone’, ‘uses lungs to breathe’ etc.
- Had a go at writing our own fact books independently in provision about one of the sea creatures we have researched.

In R-time this week we have…
- Discussed ways we can keep ourselves safe around water. Such as ‘Stay Away From the Edge’. We also looked at signs that we might see around water and flags that we might see at the beach and what they mean.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the one armed robot lowercase and capital letters.

This week has been a bit different as we have had some new starters visiting Foundation. On Tuesday and Thursday morning Ladybirds and Butterflies went into the hall to learn and play. We also got to use the big playground! The children were absolutely amazing and coped really well with the change. We had lots of fun writing fact books, making playdough sea creatures, playing maths games (feed the shark/ match the fish), setting up an ‘under the sea’ small world with material and sea creatures, playing with Year One’s trainset and engaging in craft activities to make our own collage sharks and 3D blue whale puppets. We also measured 30 metres on the big playground with chalk to see just how big a blue whale is. Some of us even laid down alongside it to measure how many children it would take to get from the head to the tail. I believe it was around 26!

The Foundation Team

 Week Commencing 27.06.22
Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Practised the sounds ow, oi, ng
- Practised the tricky words be, he, she, we, was
- Played what’s in the bag? We pulled a picture out of the bag and then had a go at writing/ reading words e.g. cow, down, clown, frown.
- Played fastest finger. We sounded out a word e.g. foil, soil, coins and then quickly tried to find the matching picture.
- Played time challenge. We underlined all the digraphs,trigraphs and clusters that we could spot in 15 words in 2 minutes. We then timed how quickly we could read all 15 words as a class. Our personal best is now 2 minutes 2 seconds!
- Read sentences such as ‘The clown is on top of the cow.’ ‘He hid coins in the soil.’ ‘The cat likes the long string.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Practised subitising numbers up to 5.
- Learnt how to use a rekenrek correctly.
- Used ‘one finger, one push’ to move a number of beads all at once.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Practised our super sentences by writing a recount of our trip to the farm. First we got on the bus to go to the farm. Then we saw the snake and the lizard. Next we fed the sheep and the goat etc.
- Shared the story ‘What the ladybird heard at the seaside’. Our ‘adventure is out there’ topic has now taken us from the farm to the seaside!
- Looked at photographs of seaside holiidays in the past and in the present. We compared the similarities and differences.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the zigzag monster lowercase and capital letters.

Today we had a surprise ‘beach themed day’ to kick start our adventure of learning about the sea and what lives in it. In provision we made icecreams with shaving foam and pom poms, searched for buried treasure in the sand, played a pirate matching game, hooked fish with a magnetic rod, cut out shells to decorate a sandcastle, coloured seaside pictures, created playdough sea creatures, played with sea animals in the water tray, had a dip in the paddling pool outside (some of us quite literally…whoops!), used sand moulds, set up a seaside themed small world, and played games with a beach ball. The weather today has also perfectly depicted a typical seaside holiday in Britain.

What a busy fun-filled week!

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 20.06.22

Hello all,
 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Practised the sounds ar, igh, ear, ure, air. 
- Practised the tricky words are, my, me, they, all.
- Played changing seats. We sounded out a word e.g. park, farm, star, scarf and then swapped seats with another child who had the same picture. 
- Read the words stair, spear and flight. We then segmented to spell the words pair, fear and bright.  
- Played fastest finger. We sounded out a word e.g. beard, tear, cure and then quickly tried to find the matching picture. 
- Played around the room. We sounded out a word and then had to stand by the trigraph in that word air or igh. 
- Read sentences such as ‘The farmer went to the market.’ , ‘He is near the manure.’, ‘I can see lightning at the fair.’
- Wrote the sentence ‘The frog jumps up high in the air.’ 

In Maths this week we have…
- Identified missing numbers when counting to 5/ 10.
- Ordered towers of cubes.  
- Used the language of ‘more than’ and ‘less than’ when describing positions on a number track.
- Played a simple track game. 

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared our new focus book ‘What the Ladybird Heard’.
- Discussed the setting and characters in 'What the Ladybird Heard' and compared this to ‘Handa's Surprise.’ 
- Identified onomatopoeia words. We revisited our previous learning of onomatopoeia words in ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ and applied this to our new text to identify words such as ‘splash’, ‘oink’ and ‘nee nah’.
- Discussed what a map is and what it is used for. We spoke about what a birds eye view is and then some of us created our own maps of the classroom to find the ‘fine prize cow’. 
- Created our own map to help find places and things from the story.  

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the curly caterpillar lowercase and capital letters.

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 13.06.22

Hello all,
 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Practised the digraphs ai, oa, ur, er and oo. 
- Played what’s in the bag. We passed around a bag containing words e.g. train, snail, tail and took turns pulling them out. We then sounded out the word and tried to find a picture to match. 
- Were given a time challenge to underline digraphs in 15 words as quickly as we could. We then timed how long it took us to read all the words as a class. 
- Played fastest finger. We sounded out a word e.g. toad, roast, loaf and then quickly tried to find the matching picture. 
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words such as ‘wood’, ‘spoon’ and crossed the river if we had the corresponding picture.
- Read sentences such as ‘The snail is on the rail.’, ‘The boat can float.’, ‘The big turnip is stuck.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Matched 10 frames with fingers and numbers.
- Showed 10 and 9.
- Explored and showed ways of making 10.
- Decided when to subitise and when to count amounts. 
- Showed the different ways that 10 can made. 

In R-Time this week we have…
- Discussed our similarities and differences. We found out things we had in common with each other and things that made us unique. 

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Tested different fruits from the story Handa’s Surprise. We tried pineapples, mangos and bananas. We then created a word bank of describing words such as soft, sweet and juicy. 
- Independently had a go at writing sentences about the story. We used words from our word bank to make them more interesting. E.g. The monkey took the soft, yellow banana. 
- Spoke about the season Summer. We discussed signs of Summer and then compared it with other seasons. 
- Wrote sentences about our favourite fruit. 
- Drawn self-portraits of ourselves. We thought carefully about adding features sure as eyes, nose and mouth. 

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the curly caterpillar lowercase and capital letters.

We have had lots of fun in the sun this week and have been keeping ourselves safe by regularly going in the shade, wearing sun hats and drinking lots of water. Luckily, we also received an ice lolly treat from Super Bea today (for being excellent attenders) which the children really enjoyed. We also had a little ‘paddling pool’ outside this afternoon by filling up a tuff spot with water and taking our shoes and socks off. 

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 06.06.22

Hello all,

We hope you had a lovely half-term holiday and enjoyed celebrating the Platinum Jubilee. We loved hearing the children’s news about all the fun things they got up to. This week we have started our exciting new topic ‘Adventure is out there’.

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Learnt the new tricky words ‘like’ ‘have’.
- Practised writing the tricky words ‘said, has, be, are, with’ by creating them with magnetic letters first and then writing them down.
- Segmented to spell the words cure, chair, right, clear, gear.
- Spotted the missing digraphs within words. 
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words such as ‘bark’, ‘paint’, ‘chick’ and crossed the river if we had the corresponding picture.
- Played bouncy blending. We sounded out as we bounced through the hoops and then blended together to reveal the words at the end. E.g. swim, pram, crash, spark 
- Read sentences such as ‘It is a clear night.’, ‘It has brown spots and a long neck.’, ‘I can see a cub in the grass.’, ‘We bump up and down in the truck.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Sang the nursery rhyme ‘5 Little Monkeys’
- Used our fingers to make doubles patterns.
- Used our fingers to represent numbers within 5. 
- Used drawing and models to represent numbers within 5.
- Matched ways of making 5.
- Explored representing 5 on a tens frame. 
- Practically found different ways of making and showing 5 e.g. 2+3= 5, 3+2=5 and 4+1=5. 

In R-Time this week we have…
- Discussed what makes a good friend. We thought a good friend would listen, make us laugh, play with us and share.
- Created our ‘Hand of Friends,. We thought of 5 children in Ladybirds or Butterflies who are our close friends and placed them around our fingers. 

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Read the story Handa’s Surprise.
- Discussed where the story is set. We found out that it is set in the savannah in Kenya which is in the continent of Africa. We then located these on maps and atlases. 
- Researched facts about the characters from the story. We learnt that Handa and Akeyo were both part of the Luo tribe. We then used a contents page to locate pages containing facts about the tribe including what language they speak, where they live, what they wear and what they eat. We explored similarities and differences between our life and theirs. 
- Found out facts about different animals that live in the savannah. Did you know elephants throw sand and mud onto their backs to stop them getting sunburnt? Did you know a group of zebras is called a ‘dazzle’?
- Created a story map.
- Wrote sentences about our favourite animals. 
- We have also looked at our Westdale Infants ‘Passports to Life’ which show all the fun things we hope to do before we leave school. We enjoyed looking at these and discussing what we can already tick off such as ‘meeting an owl’, ‘ playing in the snow’, ‘seeing a fire engine’ and ‘ being in a show’. The children can look at their passports at any time and love recalling the different things they have done. 

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the one armed robot lowercase and capital letters.

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 23.05.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes.
- Learnt the new tricky words ‘some’ ‘come’
- Practised writing the tricky words ‘he, you, my, me, was, is’ by creating them with magnetic letters first and then writing them down.
- Segmented to spell the words queen, chain, shark, thorn, swing, float using phoneme frames.
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words such as ‘sight’ ‘curl’ ‘ring’ and crossed the river if we had the corresponding picture.
- Read sentences such as ‘The frog jumps in the pond.’ ‘It is fun to camp in a tent.’ ‘A crab went into a crack in the rock’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Visualised, made and described spatial arrangements of 6.
- Practised subitising to 6.
- Counted actions and sounds.
- Related double patterns on our fingers without counting.
- Subitised double amounts shown on 10 frames.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Given Goldilocks advice by writing sentences such as ‘You need to knock on the door and wait to be let in.’ ‘You need to ask for food before you eat it.’
- Discussed the key features of a fairy tale and reflected on how many of these are included in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and ‘Goldilocks’.
- Shared part of the book ‘Once there is a Queen’ and the story ‘The Queen’s Knickers’. We talked about the Queen’s life and the Platinum Jubilee.
- Finished our ‘bear hand puppet’ designs and then created our puppet using felt, glue and googly eyes!
- Been expert porridge tasters. We selected a topping (jam, cinnamon, sugar) and described how it tasted. Some of us ate the whole bowl of porridge just like Goldilocks!

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised the curly caterpillar letters and learnt how to write them as capitals.

We had a wonderful trip to the library on Tuesday and really enjoyed celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at our picnic this afternoon. The children were gifted a book about the Queen's Jubilee, a bookmark, a key ring and a flag today. They have also taken their wonderful, handmade bear puppets home. Hopefully, they will enjoy using them to tell stories!

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 16.05.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the digraphs ar, ur, er, oa, ow, or, ff, th, sh, qu, ee.
- Recapped reading phase 2, 3 and 4 tricky words.
- Learnt the new tricky words so and do.
- Practised writing the tricky words said, his, to, he, with by working out the missing tricky part.
- Played cross the river. We sounded out a word e.g. hard, mixer, turn and then crossed the river if we had the corresponding picture.
- Were given a time challenge to underline digraphs in 15 words as quickly as we could. We then timed how long it took us to read all the words as a class.
- Segmented to spell the words howl, torn, road.
- Identified and wrote the missing digraphs in words e.g. turn, train, storm.
- Selected the correct tricky word to complete a sentence e.g. It is too soft he (said).
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘I can see flowers on the farm.’, ‘He went on a path up the cliff.’ And ‘Can a sheep quack?’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Counted sounds and actions.
- Revisited rules for how to count.
- Discussed and practised strategies for counting larger sets by moving objects.
- Counted things that cannot be seen.
- Made and represented collections of larger objects.
- Counted on from a given number.
- Practised strategies for counting larger amounts that cannot be moved.
- Sorted odd and even Numberblocks independently.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Read the story ‘Goldilocks’
- Sequenced events from the story.
- Joined in with speech. We worked on our expression to put on voices for Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear.  
- We wrote speech bubbles for Goldilocks including ‘It is too hot. It is too cold. It is just right.’ and ‘It is too hard. It is too soft.’ It is just right.’.
- Pretended to be Goldilocks and wrote a sorry letter to the three bears.
- Designed a bear hand puppet which we will hopefully make next week!

In R time this week we have…
- Discussed how Goldilocks’ actions impacted on how the bears felt.
- Reflected on what Goldilocks could do to show she is sorry for her actions.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Recapped the one armed robot letters r, b, n, h, m, k, p and the capital letters R, B, N, H, M, K, P.
- Practised correctly forming the curly caterpillar letters c, a, d
- Learnt how to correctly form the capital letters C, A, D

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 09.05.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the phase 3 phonemes ng, oi, oo, igh, ear, ai, or.
- Recapped reading phase 2 and 3 tricky words. 
- Learnt the new tricky words one and little.
- Practised writing the tricky words was, you, all, has, are by working out the missing tricky part.  
- Chunked longer words e.g. moonlight.
- Played around the room. We sounded out a word and went to the correct pronunciation long sound oo e.g. moon or short sound oo e.g. book.  
- Were given a time challenge to underline trigraphs in 15 words as quick as we could. We then timed how quickly we could read these as a class.  
- Played what’s in the bag. Wrote a list of items that were in the bag e.g. coin, fang. 
- Identified and wrote the missing digraphs in words e.g. train, storm.  
- Selected the correct tricky word to complete a sentence e.g. The pig ___ a pot. (has)
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘He stood on the roof.’, ‘I can turn on the bright light.’, ‘I can wait in the fort.’

In Maths this week we have…
-. Recognised ways in which objects are similar or different from each other.
- Talked about different attributes e,g. colour, size, shape etc.
- Sorted objects according to attributes.
- Used our fingers to show doubles and not doubles.
- Described attributes of the Numberblocks.  
- Sorted Numberblocks into odd blocks and even tops.  
- Investigate patterns of doubles in models of the Numberblocks.  
- Independently circled doubles in pictorial representations and completed missing stem sentences e.g. Double 2 is ___ , Double __ is ___

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Wrote simple sentences using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We wrote ‘First he blew down the straw house with one puff.’, ‘then he blew on the stick house and it tumbled down.’, ‘Next he blew on the brick house but it stood firm.’, ‘Finally he fell into the pot and the pigs cheered.’ 
- Independently had a go at writing sentences describing the big bad wolf e.g. He is mean, He is sly. 
- Discussed where different materials come from.  
- Sorted materials by considering what they are made of e.g. plastic, glass, wood, fabric, metal.  
- Built houses for the three little pigs. We selected our materials (straw, sticks, bricks), reflected on how to join them together and then tested their strength by blowing on them like the big bad wolf.  
- Independently drawn and labelled our beanstalk shoots.  

In R time this week we have…
- Identified signs of feeling sad and angry. 
- Discussed strategies for managing these emotions e.g. taking deep breaths, having a drink, exercising, drawing a picture, talking to someone, doing something that makes you happy.  

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the one armed robot letters n, h, m, k, p.  
- Learnt how to correctly form the capital letters N, H, M, K, P. 

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 03.05.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the phase 3 phonemes ur, oi, oa, ng, ch, ar, or, ee
- Recapped reading phase 2 and 3 tricky words. We also learnt the new tricky words ‘said’ and ‘like’.
- Played ‘fastest finger’ by segmenting and blending to read a word and then pointing to the corresponding picture as fast as we could.
- Played ‘bouncy blending’. We jumped in hoops to segment and blend words such as thing, bench, smart.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘She hurt her hand.’ ‘The chick went cheep.’
- Practised writing the tricky words of, has, with, said, be, you by correcting mistakes.
- Segmented to spell words such as thorn, cheek and shark.
- Selected the correct tricky word to complete a sentence e.g. I go to the park ____ her. (with).

In Maths this week we have…
- Used conceptual subitising strategies to derive dice patterns to 8.
- Used our fingers to show 2 and 4 as doubles.
- Used the stem sentences ‘2 is made of 1 and 1, double 1 is 2’ etc.
- Investigated when a pattern is, and when it is not, a double.
- Made doubles patterns with our fingers.
- Used objects to make doubles patterns and described where we can see the patterns of doubles. 
- Used positional language to describe spatial arrangements of objects.
- Visualised double patterns to 5 and 5.
- Independently sorted images based on whether they show 7 or not 7.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared our new focus book ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and discussed how there are different versions.
- Discussed vocabulary in the text such as ‘heap’, ‘bare’, ‘clung’, ‘tumbling’.
- Sequenced images from the story and used this to help with retelling.
- Described what the big bad wolf looks like and how he acts/behaves to create a bank of describing words.
- Had a go at writing sentences to describe the big bad wolf e.g. He has sharp claws. He has a long snout.
- Practised writing independent sentences about a picture from the story e.g. I can see three pigs. I can see a heap of straw.
- Independently designed and labelled a house for the three little pigs.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming all the long legged giraffe letters l, i, u, t, j, y and some one armed robot letters r, b.
- Learnt how to correctly form the capital letters L, I, U, T, J, Y, R, B.

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 25.04.22

Hello all, 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the phase 3 phonemes ear, ure, er, or, ow, ur, air, oo, igh.
- Recapped reading phase 2 and 3 tricky words.
- Practised writing the tricky words is, he, the, as, was, no by correcting mistakes. 
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words with ur and air and crossed the river if we had the corresponding picture.
- Played a phonics themed game. We took turns to roll a dice and then move around a game board. When we landed on a space, we had to read the word e.g. sort, town, horn, growl.  
- Read the words hear, pure, fern, good, fright, boom and the challenge word compost. 
- Segmented to spell words such as near, cure, herd, shook, night and room.
- Selected the correct tricky word to complete a sentence e.g. __ kid went to sleep.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘He is near the herd of cows.’ and ‘The turnip is stuck in the soil.’  

In Maths this week we have…
- Used skills of conceptual subitising to describe parts of a whole set.
- Visualised arrangements and described numbers within a whole set.
- Investigated ways of making 7 with two parts.
- Described 7 as ‘5 and 2 more’ using our fingers.
- Noticed when towers are made of 7 or NOT 7.
- Worked out the missing part of 7.
- Explored how 7 can be composed in different ways.  
- Explained our understanding of the composition of 7.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Wrote simple sentences using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We wrote ‘First Jack went up the beanstalk’, ‘Then Jack went into the castle’, ‘Next Jack took the hen and the harp’, ‘Finally Jack hit the beanstalk.’ 
- Discussed features of a plant. We had a go at labelling the stem, the flower, the roots and the leaves. We spoke about what plants needed to grow including light, water and the correct temperature.  
- We have also been busy this week planting our own beans. Hopefully they will soon grow into our own beanstalks! 
- We wrote sentences informing others of they need to grow a plant e.g. You will need a pot, You will need a seed, You will need light, you will need soil. 

In R time this week we have…
- Read the story ‘Have you filled a bucket today’. 
- Discussed what we can do at home and at school to spread kindness and happiness.    

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the long legged giraffe letters l, i, u, t, j.  
- Learnt how to correctly form the capital letters L, I, U, T, J. 

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 19.04.22
 

Hello all,

We hope you had a lovely Easter half-term holiday, the children were buzzing with excitement to share news about their adventures. This week we have started our new topic ‘Once Upon a Time’ and have enjoyed sharing stories and acting them out with the small world/puppets.

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the phase 3 phonemes th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar.
- Recapped reading phase 3 tricky words. 
- Practised writing the phase 2 tricky words I, go, no, into, the, to.
- Played cross the river. We segmented and blended to read words and crossed the river if we had the corresponding picture.
- Played around the room. We segmented and blended to read words and went to the matching picture.
- Selected the correct tricky word to complete a sentence e.g. The hen went ____ the hut.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘I can see a bee on a tree.’
- Segmented to spell words such as ‘hood’, ‘root’ and ‘harp’. We also had a go at writing a short sentence e.g. ‘The owl can hoot at night’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Subitised arrangements of 6 and NOT 6.
- Ordered Numberblock images to 8.
- Represented 8 as ‘5 and 3 more’.
- Described how to place the numbers 1 to 8 in order.
- Explained how to order quanitites to 10.
- Reasoned about which numbers are ‘more than’ others.
- Consolidated our understanding of 8 as ‘5 and 3 more’.
- Worked in groups to order numerals 1-8, create collections and match pictoral representations.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared our new focus book ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and discussed how there are different versions.
- Discussed vocabulary in the text such as ‘gigantic’ ‘whacks’ ‘compost heap’.
- Sequenced images from the story.
- Described the characters and created a bank of words.
- Had a go at writing a sentence about Jack.
- Looked at the signs of Spring in our playground.
- Practised sentence writing by looking at a Spring image e.g. I can see a butterfly. I can see a chick.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised correctly forming the zigzag monster letters z, v, w, x.

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 28.03.22

Hello all, 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the phase 3 phonemes j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, ai. 
- Played what’s in the box. We passed around a box and then pulled a word out of it. We robot talked this word and then matched it to a picture. 
- Played fastest finger.  We sounded out a word and then had to quickly point to the corresponding picture. 
-  Segmented to spell the words shell, chop, quiz.  
- Segmented and blended to read the words sheep, chick, queen. 
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘The king sang in the rain’, ‘My fish sand chips are on a dish’ and ‘I can see six yaks’.  

In Maths this week we have… 
- Practised counting aloud.  
- Revisited the principles of counting.  
- Explored ‘5 and a bit’ ways to make numbers between 6 and 10. 
- Described the ‘5 and a bit’ composition of numbers 6-8 e.g. 5 and 2 more is 7.  
- Investigated the 1 more and 1 less relationship of numbers to 10. 
- Ordered numbers between 1 and 10 noticing the ‘5 and a bit’ structure. 

In English/ Topic time this week we have… 
- Innovated the story ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. As a class we created our own obstacle for the characters to go through. We thought carefully about the descriptive language and onomatopoeia.  
- Wrote a sentence about an innovated story. We had a go at writing ‘We are going on a ____ hunt.’ changing the bear for different creatures including dragons, dinosaurs and unicorns.
- Learnt about Easter. We discussed who celebrates it, why they celebrate it and how it is celebrated.  

In R-Time this week we have… 
- Reflected on how we can have a healthy diet. 
- Explored the eat well plate and learnt that we should have more of some types of foods than others. 
- Talked about how we should have at least 7 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. 
- Discussed our favourite kind of fruit. 

On Tuesday to celebrate the end of our Topic ‘If you go down to the Woods Today’ we hosted a Teddy Bears picnic. The children had a lovely time making jam sandwiches , cutting up fruit, designing a healthy picnic, creating bear puppets and writing invitations. In the afternoon, we had lots of fun finding all the teddy bears who came to join us. We then set up our picnic and enjoyed the delicious food while watching Winnie the Pooh.  

On Thursday we had a visit from the Easter bunny and the Easter chick. They set us some challenges to carry out. We designed our own easter eggs using repeating patterns, created easter shopping lists, used our super subitising skills to match numbered carrots to their representation and wrote our own letters and stories. On Friday, we read the story ‘We’re going on an egg hunt’. We were shocked to find out that Mr Peat and Miss Potter had discovered eggs in our playground! We raced outside and set ourselves the challenge of finding all 30 eggs. The Easter bunny and chick then rewarded us with a little chocolate treat at the end of the day!

Have you have a lovely half-term holiday,

The Foundation Team 
 

Week Commencing 21.03.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the rest of our phase 3 phonemes and all the phase 3 tricky words.

-  Segmented to spell the words thin, wing, rain.

- Segmented and blended to read the words thick, hang, sail.

- Had a go at writing a caption or sentence about a picture e.g. sing a song, The man can sing. The man can sing a song.  

-  Played changing seats. We sounded out a word and if we had that word, we swapped seats with another child that had the same picture.

- Played fastest finger.  We sounded out a word and then had to quickly point to the corresponding picture.

- Played a special phonics game. We rolled a dice and moved forward that many spaces. We then had to read the word we landed on e.g. now, turn and foil.

- Identified the missing digraphs and trigraphs ear, air, ure and er within words. 

- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘You can cook the corn.’, ‘I put coins in my pocket’ and ‘I can see a pair of boots.’

In Maths this week we have…

- Used ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ to describe quantities.

- Said when they can see that someone has more or fewer of the same kind of object.

- Learnt that it is quantity- not colour, size or type of object- that determines if 1 set has more or fewer of the same type of object than another.

- Used the words “an equal number” to say when there is the same number of items in 2 sets.

- Practised identifying when there is an equal number.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…

- Shared our new focus book ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and joined in with repeated refrains.

- Discussed what onomatopoeia words are and listened for them in the book e.g. splash splosh!

- Sequenced key events and used the images to help us retell it.
- Created actions.

- Enjoyed watching a video of the author Michael Rosen telling the story. We loved his expressions and story voice!

- Created a picnic blanket for a teddy bear by weaving paper over and under.

In R-Time this week we have…

- Reflected on how we can keep our teeth healthy.

- Sequenced pictures to teach the Gruffalo how to brush his teeth.

- Discussed our experiences of going to the dentist.

- Explored cleaning fake teeth in provision.

This week we have also enjoyed showing off our fantastic Easter bonnets, having our first class photo taken and raising money for Ukraine by having a non-uniform day on Friday.
 

Thank you for attending Parents Meetings this week, it was lovely to see you all and to celebrate your child’s achievements with you.

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 07.03.22

Hello all, 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes air, ure and er and the new rainbow words they, all, are (See phonics booklet). 
-  Wrote a list of items found in the teddy bears lair e.g. hair, pair (of socks), chair.  
- Played around the room. We sounded out words containing the ure trigraph and had to go and stand by the matching picture.  
- Played bouncy blending. We jumped through hoops to decode words containing the ‘er’ digraph e.g. kerb, herb, herd, fern, perch.  
- Played cross the river. We sounded out a word and if we had that word we could cross the river e.g. hair, pure, cure, herb, fair,  
- Spotted the missing letters in tricky words such as you, the, into, was.  
- Chose the correct tricky word to complete sentences such as ‘she sat on the bed’. 
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘She had fair hair.’, ‘It will cure him.’, ‘Her cat is all wet’. 

In Maths this week we have… 
- Shown numbers to 5 using our fingers.  
- Used cubes to explore how 5 can be partitioned into 4 and 1, 3 and 2, 2 and 3., 1 and 4. 
- Sang counting songs such as 5 little speckled frogs.  

In English/ Topic time this week we have… 
-Shared our new focus book ‘The Gruffalo’.  
-Joined in with repeated refrains. 
-Created a class story map.  
-Looked at the speech in the story. We created an action to show when certain characters were talking e.g. making ears for a mouse. We then wrote a speech bubble as a class for one of the characters and had a go at writing our own independently in provision.  

In Rtime this week we have… 
-Discussed the differences between and upstander and a bystander.  
-Considered how we can be an upstander in different situations e.g. talk to a grown up, model good choices.  

Today was our House colours day. This afternoon Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 all got into their house Teams and carried out games on the big playground. Foundation had a carousel of activities such as hurdles, ladders, target throw and balancing a bean bag. Meanwhile Year 1 and Year 2 had a dodgeball tournament. All the children participated and showed great team spirit while also having lots of fun. 

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 28.02.22 

Hello all, 

This week we have been very busy celebrating pancake day, world book day and our 100^th day of school!  

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes ow, oi, ear and the new rainbow words you, that (See phonics booklet). 

-  Wrote about where the teddy was and what he was doing. We completed phoneme frames to write the words owl, cow, town and down.  

- Read words written on Mr Wolf’s Pancakes. We then flipped our pancakes over to see if we were correct.  

- Played around the room. We sounded out a word such as hear, near, fear, tear and then found the picture that matched it.  

- Played a special world book day themed phonics game. We had to help the book characters get to the finish line by sounding out words such as wow, boil and fear. 

- Spotted sounds that were hidden behind the teddy bears muddy paw print. We wrote down the sound and then wiped away the mud to see if we were correct.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘He took the coin’, ‘I can hear an owl hoot’ and ‘Can you hear me near the shed?’ 

In Maths this week we have… 

- Recognised the numerals 1-5. 

- Ordered numbers 1-5. 

- Matched numerals to quantities in order. 

- Built towers in order from 1-5.  

- See the staircase pattern and recognise each number is 1 more.  

- Noticed when we have ‘1 more’ and when we do not have ‘1 more’. 

- Matched numerals to representations.  

- Found out about the number 100. We found 100 objects to represent every day that we had been in school and some of us even had a go at filling out our own 100 square with the numbers to 100.  

In English/ Topic time this week we have… 

- Read the story “The Wolf’s Pancakes” 

- Discussed what pancake day is (Shrove Tuesday) and why we celebrate it.  In provision some of us then had a go at creating our own pancake recipes and creating ‘pancakes’ out of playdough.  

- Explored the non-fiction book ‘Toys and games’. 

- We identified the different features of a non-fiction text including the contents page, the index and the glossary.  

- Found out facts about Teddy bears. Did you know Teddy bears were named after Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt after he saved a bear cub from hunters? We were also amazed to find out that they used to be filled with wood shavings. We decided that we would not like to hug those teddies! 

- Thought of vocabulary we could use to describe old and new bears. We looked at photos and discussed how the older bears looked rough, fragile and threadbare whereas the newer bears were soft, fluffy and colourful.  

- Looked at famous bears throughout history e.g. Winnie the Pooh, Pudsey, Paddington Bear. We discussed our favourite bears and plotted when these bears first appeared on a timeline. 

On World book day we…  

- Shared who we had come dressed as and why. 

- Read the book ‘Paddington Bear’. We thought about who our favourite book characters are and some of us even had a go at writing about them.  

- Enjoyed looking at all the extreme places where our friends have been reading!  

- Met the author Amanda Stevenson. We loved listening to her story ‘Frank’s discovery’ and meeting the sausage dog Frank.  

- Held our first book café. We ate our yummy treats while sharing stories with our friends.  

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 22.02.22

Hello all,

We have had an exciting first week back in school starting our new topic ‘If you go down to the woods today’. We’ve had lots of teddy bear themed fun. On Monday, we discovered a crime scene. Unfortunately, while we were off school a certain (very cheeky) teddy bear decided to throw a party and make a mess in our classroom! The children became detectives/ investigators to work out exactly what happened and police officers to remind the teddy bear what he should/shouldn't do. Luckily, he listened to our ideas and cleaned it up! This led to our ‘Bring your teddy to school’ day on Friday. We were happy to discover they weren’t as cheeky as our 'crime scene' bear.  

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all of the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.
- Played around the room. We became digraph detectives and had to spot the digraph in each word and then go and stand by the corresponding digraph. 
- Helped the teddy bear be reunited with his owner by segmenting and blending to read words such as tight, thick, march, jazz and sort.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘The king and queen had a fort’ and ’She can fix a rocket’.  

In Maths this week we have… 
- Used our fingers to quickly show quantities on one hand.  
- Recognised the numerals 1-5. 
- Developed our conceptual subitising skills up to 5 dots. 
- Matched numerals and quantities for 1-5. 
- Visualised and described arrangements of dots on a die.  
- Used die to link subitised amounts with one-to-one counting.  
- Recognised die arrangements.  

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Read the story “I’m afraid your teddy has been in trouble today’. 
- Discussed our favourite parts. 
- Made predictions about the text. 
- Thought about what the teddy might do next.  
- Wrote a sentence about what the teddy has done. We all had a go at writing ‘He jumped on the bed’ and some children challenged themselves to write ‘and broke it’.
- On Thursday we also had the pleasure of meeting Mr Singh. He taught us that it does not matter what we look like or who we are, we are all special. He showed us pictures of himself growing up with his family. We discussed bhindis, Kara, hair coverings and how both boys and girls can have long hair. We looked at a book about visiting a Gurdwara and learnt about what people do there. We discussed how important it is to say thank you and be thankful for what we have. He also helped us count to 10 in Punjabi!  
- On Friday we practised our speaking and listening skills by sharing our special teddies. 
 
Have a lovely weekend,

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 07.02.22

Hello all, 

This week we received another letter from Jack Frost. He explained that thanks to the ‘Found posters’ we created he discovered Pip and Pop’s brothers who have now come to the school to take them back home to Antarctica. Jack Frost also taught us a special poem that he uses as a magic spell to turn water into ice. The children spent lots of time rehearsing it and after performing to each other on Friday the magic spell worked! The only problem was our toys were all frozen in the ice! We had a fantastic time investigating how to free the toys by breaking it with a hammer, melting it using warm water or wrapping it in tissues. 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes oo, ar, or, ur and the new rainbow words my, with, this (see phonics booklet).
- Played around the room. We sounded out a word and tried to spot whether it had a long oo like in moon, or a short oo like in book. We then had to go find the corresponding picture.  

- Played ‘bouncy blending’. We had three hoops with phonemes in. We took turns to jump into each hoop to sound out the word and then blend it back together at the end. 

- Played ‘changing seats’. We segmented and blended to read words containing oo, ar, and or. If we had the corresponding picture we had to switch seats with another child. 

-  Played a game with Jack Frost. He hid parts of a word behind ice and we had to write down the missing digraphs. 

- Segmented to spells words such as book, hook, wood and foot
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘She had a red hood’, ‘The moon is too big’, ‘We go to the park with the dog.’ and ‘His coat got torn on a thorn.’  

In Maths this week we have… 

- Practised subitising numbers to 5.  

- Ordered numerals 1 to 5. We used our knowledge of bigger and smaller numbers to help us organise a mixed up selection. 

- Matched numerals to subitised amounts.
- Practised counting to 10 and back from different numbers.  

- Created a repeating pattern using different actions including clapping, jumping and stamping our feet.  

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Practised reciting ‘Cold’ poem by Shirley Hughes. 

- We drew pictures and made actions to go alongside the poem to help us remember it.  

- Some children even had a go at writing the poem independently.  

In R Time this week we have…
- Discussed Safer Internet Day. We spoke about the importance of asking a grown up before you go online and asking for help when you are unsure.  

- Shared what we did online e.g. watching YouTube or TV, playing games. 

- Read the book ‘Websters Friend’. We discussed how we should all be kind online and in person.  

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised writing our name.
- Continued to practise forming the curly caterpillar letters c, a, d, o, s, g, q, e, f.

We can’t wait to begin our next topic ‘If you go down to the woods today’ after half term! We will be opening our topic with a bring your teddy to school day on Friday 25^th February. Also, just a friendly reminder that Monday 21^st is an INSET day. 

Enjoy your holidays!

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 31.01.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes ai, ee, igh, oa and the new rainbow words was, them, then (see phonics booklet).
- Played bag of words. We passed a bag around the class and pulled words out of it. We sounded out each word, blended the sounds together and then tried to match them to the correct picture e.g. jail, rain, nail, tail. 
- Played ‘cross the *frozen* river’. We segmented and blended to read words containing igh, ai and ee. If we had the corresponding picture we could attempt to cross the river.
- Segmented to spell words that Jack Frost likes to freeze in ice such as seed, jeep, sheep, teeth and words matching his frost drawings e.g. toad, road, boat, coat. 
-  Played a game with Jack Frost. We had to read a list of words such as night, wait, boat and sheep to make it all the way to the end. Some of us were then inspired to create our own games as well.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘Sam got wet in the rain’, ‘I go to sleep at night’, ‘I can see a weed in the mud.’, ‘I can see a sail on the boat.’, ‘I can see a goat in the rain’.

In Maths this week we have… 
- Practised counting to 10
- Represented numbers on our fingers.  
- Discussed that the last number tells us how many altogether.
- Begin to recognise the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. 
- Developed our understanding of equal amounts.  
- Represented amounts by clapping and jumping.   
- Discussed the properties of 2D shapes.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Learnt about Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year). We discussed who celebrates it, when, why and how it is celebrated.  
- Compared Chinese New Year to other celebrations like Christmas and Diwali.  
- Found out why each year is named after a different animal. Did you know that 2022 is the year of the tiger? 

- In provision some of us have practised writing numbers to 10 in Mandarin, created our own Chinese lanterns, created paper chain dragons and created tigers out of 2D shapes.  
- Read the story ‘Jack Frost’ 
- Listen to and answered questions about our new focus text. 
- Identified speech in the story.   
- We had a go at writing a speech bubble for part of the story.  
- Recalled different parts of the story. We played charades and had to guess what our friends were acting out.  

In R Time this week we have…
- Discussed what makes a good friend.  
-We thought a good friend is kind, has looking eyes and listening ears, smiles, takes turns, plays with other children and lets them join in, loves you and says kind things etc. 
-  Reflected upon how we can do this in our play.  

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised writing our name.
- Practised forming the curly caterpillar letters c, a, d, o, s, g, q, e, f.

This week we have completed a Phonics assessment with each child. The children have all been fantastic at remembering all of our new sounds and rainbow words. We so proud of their progress! 

The Foundation Team 
 

Week Commencing 24.01.22

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes ch, sh, th, ng (see phonics booklet).
- Practised our speedy segmenting. We had to read a word that appeared on a train before it pulled out of the station e.g. chin, chop, chat, chill, rich.
- Created a shopping list for the penguin. We had fun thinking about what he was going to use a fish, a ship, a bush and a shell for!
- Played ‘bouncy blending’. We had three hoops with phonemes in. We took turns to jump into each hoop to sound out the word and then blend it back together at the end.
- Sorted snowflakes which had different sounds on them. We segmented to spell words using these e.g. wing, ring, song, fang, long.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘He had to check on the chick.’, ‘She fell in a thick bush.’ ‘We can sing a song.’, ‘The king had a ring.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Investigated ways to compose and decompose sets of 3, 4 and 5.
- Explored how 1 and 2 are parts of 3.
- Explained that different parts can make the same whole.
- Used spatial language to describe parts of a whole.
- Used positional language to describe where the penguin is.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared our focus book ‘Lost and Found’.
- Ordered pictures to create a story map.
- Retold the story using our story map.
- Discussed the key criteria to use when writing a sentence (say the sentence, write on the line, use a capital letter at the start, finger spaces and a full stop at the end).
- Had a go writing the sentence ‘He had a hug’. Some children decided to challenge themselves by extended their sentence which then became ‘He had a big hug’ or ‘He had a big hug with the penguin.’
- Found out about real life Antarctic explorers. Did you know, in 1911, the British explorer Robert Scott and his team set off when the goal to become the first people to reach the South Pole? However, once they arrived they found out the explorer Roald Amundsen and his team had beaten them too it! We also found out about Preet Chandi. She was the first women of colour to complete a solo expedition in Antarctica finishing at the beginning of January this year!
- Considered the difference between a polar expedition then and now. We discussed how they travelled, what food they took with them and the equipment they used e.g. maps, phones, laptops etc.
- Continued to work in small groups to create a moving vehicle for the penguin out of junk modelling.

In R Time this week we have…
- Discussed Richie Resilient’s special power ‘Managing Distractions’.
- Found out how we can help to manage our distractions e.g. keep focusing on what we should be doing, try to ignore the distraction, move away from the distraction, ask them politely to stop or put away what is distracting you.
- Discussed how we could manage our distractions when given different scenarios.

 
In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised writing our name.
- Practised forming the curly caterpillar letters c, a, d, o, s, g, q, e, f. We have to remember these sounds all have a curve!

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 17.01.22
Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes y, z, zz, qu (see phonics booklet).
- Played ‘silly soup’ with things starting with ‘y’. Would you like some yak, yoghurt soup? Is it yucky or yummy?
- Created a list of words from Sid and Squeak’s picture clues including zip, yum, zap.
- Played ‘digraph detectives’. We read a word and went to one end of the room if it had a ‘z’ in it and the other end of the room if it had a digraph ‘zz’ e.g. buzz, fizz, zig zag.  
- Helped feed the penguins by writing a word that matched the picture clue on their belly e.g. quit, quiz, quick.
- Played ‘swapping seats’. We read a word and swapped seats if we had the corresponding picture e.g. quack, jazz, yell.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘Dad had to yell “no!”, ‘He can fix a zip.’ ‘Can a web buzz?’, ‘The duck quacks.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Identified the ‘whole’ when shown 1 part of a picture.
- Identified that parts are still visible when they are assembled to make the whole.
- Heard the language ‘whole’ and ‘parts’.
- Investigated ways to compose and de-compose sets of 2, 3 and 4.
- Explored using non-standard units of measure to measure penguins.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared our focus story ‘Lost and Found’.
- Answered how and why questions about the story.
- Used visuals and actions to help retell parts of the story.
- Discussed new vocabulary from the book such as ‘delighted’, ‘lonely’ and ‘discovered’.
- Engaged with mark making activities in provision linked to our story such as making ‘Found’ posters for our penguin, creating a suitcase of things to take to Antarctica, designing a house for a toy penguin out of LEGO, and writing about what mode of transport the penguin might have used to travel from the South Pole.
- Started working in small groups to create a moving vehicle for the penguin out of junk modelling (thank you so much for all your donations). This will continue next week so that everyone gets a turn.

In R Time this week we have…
- Shared the story ‘Magical Yet’.
- Reflected on how the character in the story showed resilience.
- Discussed what we find difficult and how we could be resilient.
- Learnt that “I can’t do it yet but if I keep trying one day I will do all the things I can’t do today”.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised writing our name.
- Continued to practise correctly forming the one armed robot letters r, b, n, h, m, k, p. These are particularly tricky as we have to remember to always start at the top of the letter and bounce back up!

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 10.01.22

Hello all,

First of all let’s start with an egg update as I am sure you have been waiting to hear. Each day the children eagerly inspected the egg to see whether it had hatched. On Monday we discovered a small crack, which the children were very excited about. The crack got bigger each day until…. it finally hatched! We are now the proud owners of a penguin chick.

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all of our Phase 2 phonemes.
- Recapped our tricky words a, as, is, go, no, I, into, to, the, his, of.
- Learnt the new Phase 3 phonemes j, v, w, x (see phonics booklet).
- Played ‘speedy snowman’. We had to read a set of words before the snowman melted e.g. jam, jig, jet, jug.
- Played ‘bouncy blending’. We had three hoops with phonemes in. We took turns to jump into each hoop to sound out the word and then blend it back together at the end. If we blended the word correct we could throw a snowball at Jack Frost!
- Played ‘cross the *frozen* river’. We segmented and blended to read words containing j, v, w and x. If we had the corresponding picture we could attempt to cross the river.
- Segmented to spell words by writing a list of what was in Jack Frost’s bag and making words with snowflakes that have letters on them.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘Jack can jog up the hill.’ ‘I can jog to get fit’. ‘The fox is in a van’. ‘Jack will get wet’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Practised subitising dot patterns.
- Played a game of ‘who has more?’ and ‘who has fewer?’
- Compared groups of objects by matching them one to one.
- Explored making groups of objects equal.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Explored the story ‘The Emperor’s Egg’.
- Learnt about the habitat for Emperor Penguins. We researched Antartica and found out that it is the coldest and windiest continent on Earth! Did you know that it is home to an active volcano called Mount Erebus? We enjoyed looking at maps in provision.
- Discussed the appearance of an Emperor Penguin. We learnt how they are adapted to live in Antartica. Did you know that an Emperor Penguin is the tallest species of penguin?
- Discussed the diet of an Emperor Penguin. We know that they have a hooked beak and barbs on their tongue to help them catch squid, krill and fish.
- Learnt about the life cycle of an Emperor Penguin.
- Been news reporters! We had a go at writing what has happened to our egg this week to update everyone around school.

In R Time this week we have…
- Helped Cyril and Bruce (the squirrels who squabbled) resolve their conflicts in different scenarios such as not sharing toys and not allowing others to join in with games.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised writing our name.
- Practised correctly forming the one armed robot letters r, b, n, h, m, k, p. These are particularly tricky as we have to remember to always start at the top of the letter and bounce back up!

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 04.01.22

Hello all,

We have had a wonderful first week back and are very excited to get started with our new topic ‘Winter Wonderland’. On Thursday we received a letter and a special parcel from Jack Frost. He informed us that whilst he was sprinkling some frost on the floor in the morning he discovered some lost eggs. Unfortunately, he is far too busy during the Winter months to take care of lost eggs so he asked his friends in the North Pole (Elfie and Buddy the elves) what he should do with them. They suggested sending the eggs to Ladybirds and Butterflies to look after! So, Ladybirds and Butterflies are now the proud owners of two lost eggs. We don’t know what they are, or where Jack Frost found them but we are keeping them safe. Some children even made blankets and cushions to keep warm! Currently the eggs haven’t hatched although, some children are convinced they heard noises coming from them today! We are eagerly awaiting the day that they hatch, watch this space!

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all of our Phase 2 phonemes (next week we will be moving on to Phase 3).
- Recapped our tricky words a, as, is, go, no, I, into, to, the, his, of
- Played ‘swapping seats’. We segmented and blended a word and then the children with the corresponding picture swapped places.
- Played ‘bouncy blending’. We had three hoops with phonemes in. We took turns to jump into each hoop to sound out the word and then blend it back together at the end.
- Played ‘box of words’. We passed a box around the circle. When the song finished we picked out a word, read it and then matched it to the corresponding picture.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘The kid fell into the mud.’ ‘The man put his cap on’. ‘The sun is up.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Played ‘simon says’ to practise accurately counting actions e.g. clap three times, jump 4 times, touch your nose 2 times etc.
- Learnt a counting song.
- Practised representing numbers using our fingers in different ways.
- Created collections of objects by accurately one to one counting.
- Explored five frames and learnt that 5 and 5 make 10.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Identified the seasons and discussed the signs of Winter.
- Had a mysterious egg delivered to our classroom.
- Shared books about eggs including ‘The secret of the egg’, ‘Guess what’s growing inside this egg’ to help inform our ideas.

In R Time this week we have…
- Practised our speaking and listening by sharing news about our 2 week break.
- Discussed New Years Resolutions and reflected on what we want to get better at this year.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised writing our name.
- Practised correctly forming all the long-legged giraffe letters l, i, t, u, j, y.

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 13.12.21

Hello all,

First of all, can you believe that the children have been in school for a whole term?! That is 64 full school days. Time really does fly when you're having fun. It has been a joy to see how the children's confidence has blossomed, friendships have been formed and new learning milestones have been reached already. We can't wait to see what they achieve in the New Year.

In summary, this week we have...
worn brilliant Christmas outfits, ate special food, sang Christmas carols, played with festive small world characters, made toys and cards in the elf workshop, created maps of the classroom to help Santa collect the elves, been given a present from Santa, had a Polar Express day, read lots of Christmas advent books, made heart-felt presents and cards for our families and PARTIED! 🎅🎄

Finally, and most importantly, we just wanted to say an enormous THANK YOU for your very thoughtful words, cards and gifts and also for your support so far this year. 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Foundation Team
 

Week Commencing 06.12.21

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped all of the Phase 2 phonemes.
- Recapped all of the tricky words we have learnt so far.
- Practised our segmenting and blending by playing lots of games! We have read words on presents and put them onto the sleigh if it was a real word or into the bin if it was a silly word. We have read words on baubles when the cheeky elf knocked them off the tree so we could put them back on again. We have also played ‘quick draw’ where we segmented a word and then had 20 seconds to draw it to show we had blended it back together again e.g. p-i-g, b-e-d etc.
- Segmented to spell words such as hat, log, red, cup.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘A man in a hat.’ ‘Put it on top’. ‘Get into bed’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Learnt about 2D shapes (circle, triangle, square, rectangle).
- Been on a shape hunt around the classroom to see whether we could spot shapes in everyday objects.
- Learnt about 2 part repeating patterns.
- Explored, continued and created 2 part repeating patterns using colours, Christmas pictures and actions.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Continued to chant our Christmas story ‘We’re Going on a Baby Hunt’.
- Discussed how to keep our teeth healthy by brushing them twice a day, going to the dentist, drinking water/ milk and eating healthy food.

In Music this week we have…
- Practised singing our Christmas songs and performing them on stage.

Today we performed our Christmas show ‘We’re Going on a Baby Hunt’. I am sure you will agree that the children were absolutely amazing! They sang beautifully, remembered lots of words/ actions, and were super brave on stage. I speak on behalf of all the adults in Foundation when I say we were bursting with pride. We would like to say another BIG thank you to all of you for your support with the costumes. The children were really excited about their outfits and they looked absolutely brilliant. Also thank you for coming along to see our show, it was lovely to be able to welcome you into school and celebrate together. We welcome any feedback (positive or constructive) regarding the Christmas performance as it is helpful when planning future events.

The Foundation Team

 Week Commencing 29.11.21

Hello all, 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the phonemes l and ll, ss (which are digraphs as they are two letters that make one sound).
- Learnt the new tricky words ‘his’ ‘of’.
- Practised segmenting and blending the high frequency words ‘back, if, off’
- Played ‘silly soup’ by only including items that started with the ‘l’ sound e.g. lion, letter, lamp, lolly etc.
- Played ‘fastest finger’. We segmented and blended a word then pointed to the corresponding picture as fast as we could. All of the words contained our new ‘l’ and ‘ll’ phonemes e.g. doll, leg, bell, lip.
- Played ‘digraph detectives’. We had to underline all the digraphs we could spot in a list of words before the timer ran out.
- Played ‘cross the river’. We segmented and blended a word and if we had the corresponding picture we could try and cross the river.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘The dog is on the log.’ ‘ A doll in a cot.’ ‘It is a mess.’

In Maths this week we have…
- Compared 2 sets of objects and said which has ‘more’ and which has ‘fewer’.
- Continued to practise showing numbers on our fingers in different ways.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Started to learn our Christmas performance story ‘We’re going on a baby hunt’. Each day we have focused on a different part of the story to chant while doing actions.
- Had a go at saying parts of our story while also singing our Christmas songs in between. We have even been on the stage in the hall a couple of times to do it.

In R time this week we have…
- Shared the story ‘Peace at Last’.
- Discussed night-time routines and helped order what Baby Bear should do to prepare to go to sleep instead of playing with his aeroplane!

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Practised correctly forming all the long-legged giraffe letters l, i, t, u, j, y.
- Started to learn the one-armed robot letter ‘r’.

This week we were very excited to get started with advent. Each day in Ladybirds and Butterflies Class we have received a wrapped up Christmas themed book to read at home time. We also currently have Santa’s elves ‘Elfie’ and ‘Buddy’ getting up to all sorts of mischief in our classrooms. Although, they did set up an elves workshop for us to play in so I suppose we can forgive them! (photos to follow).

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 22.11.21

Hello all,
 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the phonemes h, b, f and ff (which is a digraph as it is two letters that make one sound).
- Learnt the new tricky words ‘no’, ‘go’, ‘I’. 
- Practised segmenting and blending high frequency words e.g. mum, had, him, but, big.
- Played ‘silly soup’ by only including items that started with the ‘h’ sound e.g. hammer, house, hat.
- Played ‘cross the river’. We segmented and blended a word and if they had the corresponding picture they could cross the river e.g. hot, bus, hug, back. 
- Played ‘stand up segmenting’. We segmented a word and blended it before standing up to indicate the correct picture. 
- Played ‘across the room’. We had to be super spotters to see whether a word contained a single ‘f’ or a digraph ‘ff’ then go to the corresponding phoneme in the room e.g. huff, puff.
- Helped the owl mother get back to her babies by reading words. Each time we read a word correctly she got a bit closer to them. 
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘I got off the bus.’ ‘The hen can dig.’ ‘The bat had a hat’.
 

In Maths this week we have…
- Practised subitised 2, 3 and 4 by saying the number of sounds that they can hear (drum beats) without needing to count. We have also subitised by looking at small quantities. 
- Looked closely at a small selection of objects and discussed whether the quantity had changed or only the arrangement. 
- Represented quantities in different ways by using a number of fingers on one hand. 
- Represented and described 4 in different shapes e.g. 3 in a line and 1 on top, 2 blocks on top of another 2 blocks etc. (This will help develop their understanding of part-whole). 

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Continued our learning around the story ‘Owl Babies’.
- Created actions for the story and acted it out using visual cues. 
- Made our own owl babies story map to recall key events from the beginning, middle and end.
- Learnt about nocturnal animals (foxes, badgers, bats, hedgehogs, owls). 
- Shared a non-fiction book ‘Owls and Owlets’ in small groups. We used the contents page to choose what we wanted to research and found the correct page number. 
- Watched videos about Barn Owls flying silently and a White-Faced Scops Owl transforming when it is frightened. 

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Learnt some of the long legged giraffe letters l, i, u, t. 

Today we had a wonderful visit from Bob the owl expert. We met Archie the Barn Owl and Gizmo the White-Faced Scops Owl. He taught us lots of interesting facts about what they look like, what they eat and how they hunt. We did an experiment where we closed our eyes and listened carefully to see if we could hear the Barn Owl flying. It was completely silent which is why it is often referred to as the ghost owl! Some of us had a go at putting out a gloved hand for the owl to fly and perch on. Owls don’t always do as you want them to though… some highlights included Bob getting pooed on by Gizmo and Archie landing on Miss Boultby’s head! We also got the opportunity to sketch the owls as they stood on their perch. We tried our best to include all the important features of an owl such as their eyes, beak, wings, feathers and sharp talons. It was an amazing, unforgettable experience so thank you for your support with this.

The Foundation Team

 Week Commencing 15.11.21

Hello all, 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the phonemes e, u, r and ck (which is a digraph as it is two letters that make one sound).
- Learnt the new tricky words ‘to’ ‘the’ ‘into’.
- Practised segmenting and blending high frequency words e.g. get, up, put, mum
- Played ‘around the room’. We had to look carefully at words to see whether it had a ‘c’ a ‘k’ or a ‘ck’ in it and then go to the correct phoneme in the room. If it was the digraph then the item could be put into a rocket e.g. duck, sock, rock etc.
- Played ‘fastest finger’. We segmented a word and blended it before pointing to the correct image on a sheet of paper as fast as we could.
- Played ‘bouncy blending’. We created words using 3 hoops with a phoneme in each one. As we jumped into each hoop we said the sound and then once we got to the end we blended them back together e.g. m-u-d = mud
- Played ‘cross the river’. We segmented and blended a word and if they had the corresponding picture they could cross the river.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘A rip in the rug’, ‘A kid can kick’, ‘Get a pen’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Explored the composition of 2, 3 and 4 by making collections using a variety of objects (including different colours, sizes and types).
- Used stem sentences such as “1 and another 1 is 2”, “1 and 1 and 1 is 3”, “3 and 1 makes 4”.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared the story Owl Babies.
- Joined in with repeated refrains such as ‘I want my mummy!’ and ‘all owls think a lot’.
- Created a class story map by reflecting on what happens in the beginning, middle and end.
- Discussed what ‘Children in Need’ is and what we can do to help. We explored lots of things in provision such as cutting out cakes to design a cake stall, designing an Autumn outfit for Pudsey, carefully counting/ sorting pom poms with tweezers and delivering them to the different numbered Pudsey bears, doing a colour by number of Pudsey’s face and making spotty patterns. Everyone also received a special Pudsey sticker at the end of the day.

In R Time this week we have…
- Discussed Anti-Bullying week by celebrating what makes us special and unique, sharing our odd socks and reflecting on how we can use ‘one kind word’ to make a big difference. We created our own odd sock designs within provision.
- Learnt the two STOPs (Several Times On Purpose and Start Telling Other People).
- Created our own ‘helping hand’ by reflecting on the different people at home and at school that we can talk to if we need help.

In Handwriting this week we have…
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.
- Made patterns such as spirals, left to right orientation, waves, joining straight lines, diagonal lines and lazy eights.

You may have noticed that we now have morning missions when we come into school as we are so smart! On a Monday we have a pen disco where we make marks to music on big piece of paper. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we practise writing our name in our special books and on a Friday we have lots of fun fine motor activities to choose from and get busy with. This will help us to become super writers!

Today the children were all given a special role in our Christmas performance. These were carefully selected based on the parts they voiced an interest in, so everyone got to be something they liked. We have placed a letter into book bags that outlines what they are and possible costume ideas. If your child’s letter has been lost, then please let us know and we can send you a message.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 08.11.21

 Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the phonemes g, o, c, k. 
- Practised reading the tricky words ‘a’, ‘as, ‘is’.
- Practised segmenting and blending high frequency words e.g. got, not, on, can.  
- Made a silly soup with things that start with ‘g’ 
- Helped Ollie the octopus sort items by finding the correct sound around the room. 
- Practised segmenting and blending words by matching the word on the letter to the picture to post them, reading words off kites and playing cross the river.  
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘a pig in a pit’, ‘cat and dog’ and ‘a nap in a cot’.

In Maths this week we have…
- Sang the nursery rhyme 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive 
- Explored how the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’. 
- Practised counting an object using one to one counting.  
- Explored counting things we can’t see (claps, stamps etc). 
- Recorded the results of our counting using our fingers.

In English/ Topic time this week we have…
- Shared the story Leaf Man 
- Found out about the Sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. We discussed what natural materials he used to make his sculptures and reflected on what we liked about them. We then created our own art using natural materials outside inspired by him.
- Named the four seasons focusing on Autumn in particular. We discussed what happens to the trees, the weather, the animals, what we celebrate and spoke about the days becoming shorter in Autumn.   

In Handwriting this week we have
- We have practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp.  
- Made patterns such as loops and bridges, angled patterns, eights and joined straight lines.  

Thank you to everyone who attended out Phonics Meetings last night, we hope you found it informative and useful. For those unable to attend, the PowerPoint is on our class page on the website to look at. We have also placed a phoneme mat and rainbow words mat in your child’s bag. This shows all the sounds and rainbow words they will learn by the end of the year. An electronic copy of these resources are also on our class page.  

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 01.11.21

Hello all,

After a 2 week half term the children have all settled back into school brilliantly. We have loved having them back in the classroom and are excited to begin our new topic 'Light and Dark'.
 

In Phonics this week we have….
- Recapped the phonemes s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d and the tricky words a, as and is.
- Practised segmenting and blending high frequency words it, in, an, and, dad.
- Practised our segmenting and blending by reading words on bottles to create a potion, jumping into hoops containing letters to create words and reading words on fireworks to set them off.
- Read short sentences and captions such as ‘tip it in’, ‘it is a pip’ and ‘sit and sip’.
 

In Maths this week we have…
- Practised subitising within 3 looking at different arrangements.
- Represented quantities on our fingers in different ways.
- Identified 1, 2 and 3 within large groups.
 

In Topic time this week we have…
- Shared the story Shubh Diwali.
- Discussed how people celebrate Diwali and  compared similarities and differences between other celebrations.
- Watched videos on CBeebies to find out how Jessica prepared and celebrated Diwali.
- Learnt about firework safety such as wearing gloves while holding a sparkler and standing back from a firework or bonfire.
- In provision we have drawn pictures of what we dressed up as for Halloween, made Diwali cards, designed Mehndi and Rangoli patterns, created fireworks pictures and made firework patterns in sparkly glitter.
 

In R time this week we have...
- Discussed how we celebrated Halloween.
- Practised our speaking and listening skills to share news from half term.
 

This week we have also started Handwriting. In Handwriting we have...
- Warmed up our bodies and our hands before mark-making patterns such as dots, straight lines and crosses, circles and waves.
- Practised holding our pen in a tripod grasp. 
 

It was lovely to see you all at Parents Evening and share your child's achievements with you. Thank you so much for attending.
 

We hope you are all enjoying your 3 day weekend,

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 11.10.21

Hello all,

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the phonemes i, n, m, d.
- Learnt the rainbow words is (tricky) it, an, in, dad, and (high frequency).
- Made silly soup with things that start with 'i'.
- Helped Sid and Squeak the squirrels find items beginning with 'n' in their net.
- Played 'around the room'. We listened to a word and went to the initial sound that was on the wall somewhere in the classroom e.g. map.... go to the 'm'.
- Played odd one out. Most of the words started with 'd' but one didn't. We had to listen really carefully to spot the sneaky one that was trying to trick us e.g. dog, duck, sun.
- Practised segmenting and blending to read words on a pumpkin such as tin, dim, man.

In English this week we have….
- Learnt about the importance of shop workers and farmers.
- Discussed where food comes from and how it is grown and harvested.
- Shared the story 'Oliver's vegetables'.
- Created a shopping list by drawing pictures and having a go at writing the initial sounds e.g. a for apple, p for pumpkin, s for strawberry etc.

In Topic time this week we have…
- Learnt that we have 5 senses; sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.
- Explored one sense each day by investigating fruit and vegetables. We created a class word bank of vocabulary to describe them.
- Looked carefully at a pumpkin, aubergine, courgette, potato, lemon and orange. We tried to spot something about it that no one else noticed and looked at it close up on our visualiser.
- Smelt lemon, orange, ginger, cinnamon, onion and mint. We discussed which ones we liked/ disliked and why.
- Tasted blueberries, lemon, orange and pepper. We compared the taste and said which one we preferred.
- Felt pumpkin, orange, aubergine, lemon, courgette and potato.
- Listened carefully to mystery jars that were secretly filled with rice, beans, water and an apple.

To commemorate World Mental Health Day we have...
- Completed a challenge each day to help keep our minds healthy.
- Learnt a new skill. We became artists and learnt how to draw a self-portrait.
- Been active! We completed a fun fit obstacle course mission outside.
- Connected with others. We tried to play with somebody new and invited others to join in with our games.
- Given to others. We made friendship bracelets and gave them to each other.
- Slowed down and focused on something. We did some mindfulness colouring and calming yoga.
- Showed off our fantastic outfits that make us happy!

In R time this week we have...
- Learnt about what Harvest Festival is, how people celebrate it and why it is important to help others.

On Thursday Ladybirds and Butterflies class went into the hall with Year One and Year Two for a special Harvest Festival Assembly. It was very exciting as it was the first time we have been into an assembly. We performed our song '5 little seeds' and we got to listen to the Year 1's and the Year 2's special songs. Then we all sang songs together such as 'big red combine harvester' and 'you can pick a little bean'. The children were very brave and sang beautifully. All the adults were beaming with pride and the children absolutely loved it! It was a lovely way to celebrate all together.

We have had a SUPER first half-term at school. The time has absolutely flown by as we have had so much fun. We can't wait to start our new topic after the 2 week break.

Thank you so much for all your support. We hope you have a relaxing half-term holiday filled with special memories,

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 04.10.21

 Hello all,

Today we had a very short visit from some fire fighters. They came to tell us about their important job and to show us their fire engine. However, before we had the chance to do anything they got called away on an emergency. Fingers crossed we will be able to reschedule this visit so the children can experience it properly.

In Phonics this week we have….
- Learnt the phonemes s, a, t, p.
- Met Ned and Norma the gnomes who taught us their rainbow words as, a (tricky) at (high frequency).
- Made silly soup with things that start with ‘s’ and ‘p’. Would you like to eat a salt, sock, sandwich soup or a pirate, pumpkin, pie soup?
- Helped sort a very muddled bag of pictures based on whether they started with ‘s’ or ‘a’
- Carefully selected birthday presents for a troll who only likes things that start with a ‘t’. A train, teddy and tractor was very gratefully received!
- Helped Fireman Sam rescue a cat from a tree by robot talking and blending to read words such as sat, pat, tap, sap. Each time we read a word successfully Fireman Sam moved up on the ladder.

In English this week we have….
- Shared the story ‘Real Superheroes’ by Julia Seal.
- Focused on a different ‘real-life superhero’ in our community each day. We have played with themed small world and activities in provision.
- Been introduced to the important job that doctors, nurses and paramedics do. We had our very own teddy, doll and dinosaur hospitals in Ladybirds and Butterflies Class. We made special badges to show our role and filled out patient forms.
- Learnt about police officers and created police badges to use in role play.
- Discussed what postal workers do and had a go at writing our own letters to post into our class post box.
- Briefly met some real fire fighters. We talked about what they do, what they wear and where they work. We designed our own fire engines and put out chalk fires using spray water bottles.

In Topic time this week we have…
- Identified parts of the body including wrist, elbow, thumb, chest etc.
- Labelled a willing friend using word cards.
- Independently had a go at applying this knowledge via a cut and stick activity in provision.

In Maths this week we have…
- Met the number blocks 4 and 5.
- Learnt that 4 is one more than 3 and 5 is one more than 4.
- Discussed that 4 can be represented in different ways, including in the shape of a square.
- Practised ordering numbers 1-5.
- Learnt the three rules of counting…. Count everything once, say the numbers in the right order, the last number is how many.

Next week we will be learning about more superheroes within our community with a focus around harvest.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Foundation Team 

Week Commencing 27.09.21

Hello all,

We kick started our week with our Superhero Dress Up Day, as mentioned in the previous post. We had lots of fun and looked amazing in our costumes.

In Phonics this week we have….
- Sang ‘Old Macdonald’ but with a twist. The children had to blend the animal back together to work out what it was e.g. p-i-g = pig!
- Played ‘I Spy’. Ron the robot sounded out a word and the children had to find that item in the room e.g. p-e-n = pen!
- Played ‘Changing Seats’. Each child had a picture, when Ron the robot sounded out a word the children with that picture had to swap places.
- Played ‘Around the Room’. We had a variety of images around the room (boat, path, fish, shell, wing, queen etc). When Ron the robot sounded out a word we had to go to correct picture.

In English this week we have….
- Created a class story map of Supertato.
- Used the story map to retell Supertato in our own words.
- Discussed our favourite part of the story and had a go at drawing it.
 

In Topic time this week we have…
- Learnt that fruit and vegetables keep us healthy, and we should try to eat ‘Super 7’ a day.
- Some foods have a lot of sugar, salt and fat in that are unhealthy and although we can have some as a treat, we can’t eat them all the time or we would feel bad.
- Helped Supertato to sort food into healthy and unhealthy after Evil Pea mixed them all up!

In Maths this week we have…
- Met the number blocks 1, 2 and 3.
- Learnt that 2 is one more than 1 and 3 is one more than 2.
- Practised recognising different representations of 1, 2 and 3.
- Learnt that 1 and 1 make 2 and 2 and 1 make 3.
- Ordered numbers 1-3.

Today we received a letter from Supertato thanking us for rescuing him and his friends on Monday. He also said he was inspired by our ideas to trap Evil Pea and from this he had created a successful ice trap which Evil Pea got stuck in. Miss Potter discovered that Evil Pea is now a block of ice in our staffroom freezer! The children couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw him and told us to quickly put him back in the freezer where he belongs before he could escape again.

Next week we will be learning about real-life superheroes in our community.

The Foundation Team

Superhero Dress Up Day- 27th September

Hello all,

Wow, what a super day we have had! We had so many different superheroes in school today from Bat Girl and Spider Man to the children's own original creations. They loved sharing their outfits with their friends and talking about their favourite superheroes. Thank you so much for your help and support with the costumes, they all looked absolutely amazing.

Following our learning around the story 'Supertato', this afternoon we received a letter from Evil Pea that said he had hidden all of the fruit and vegetables. He even captured Supertato! Luckily, we had a classroom full of superheroes who worked together as a team to rescue them all. Thankfully, they were returned safe and sound. Evil Pea is very sneaky though and has currently evaded capture. Keep a look out! Maybe we will need to make some traps or write a letter back to him.

We have also been very busy within provision. We have designed our own superhero mask and capes, traced dots to uncover superhero words, untied stuck superheroes, created our own paper 'Supertato' by carefully cutting out and we also created a Numicon city for all of our superheroes. Mr Peat took the children into the hall this morning for some superhero training...they all passed with flying colours of course!

Also, we have counted up each child's dojo points from last week (Monday 20th- Sunday 26th). Thank you to everyone for signing your child's diary to support this. We will be assigning points on dojo as follows. If your child has read once last week then they will have 1 point added onto dojo, 2 times they will have 2 points etc. Our first dojo prize is awarded at 8 points (8 reads) so your child may already be close!

Finally a friendly reminder that we will be having individual SCHOOL PHOTOS tomorrow (TUESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER). Please ensure your child is wearing full school uniform. We will hopefully be having our photos taken first to prevent children getting too messy. Fingers crossed we do not have more torrential rain in the morning.

We are all looking forward to the rest of the week!

The Foundation Team

Week Commencing 20.09.21

Hello all,

Can you believe we have been Ladybirds and Butterflies for 15 full school days now?! Time is flying by.

This week the teachers have been completing the government baseline assessments with the children (information about this is on our meet the teacher slides). The children have been absolutely amazing and have loved having some one to one time with their teacher. Often asking when it was their turn and if they could do it again!

In English this week our learning has been based around the story 'Supertato'. We looked at the book cover and discussed what it might be about. We then listened to the story and joined in with parts, their version of an evil 'mwah ha ha ha' was particularly brilliant. On Thursday we created a character description of Evil Pea by reflecting on what he looks like and how he acts. The children came up with some wonderful ideas including 'cruel' and 'heartless'. On Friday Supertato sent us a message to let us know that Evil Pea had escaped from the freezer again. Supertato asked us to create 'WANTED' posters to inform everyone of his escape. These are currently decorating our classroom so everyone in school is aware.

In Phonics we have been practising our oral segmenting and blending (listening to the sounds in words and putting them back together to make the word e.g. t-a-p = tap). Ron the robot taught us how to robot talk (segment) and showed us lots of fun games to play to practise putting words back together again (blending) including 'what's in the box', 'changing seats', 'what's missing?' and 'cross the river'.

In R time we practised our speaking and listening skills.
We faced our partner, introduced ourselves and then took turns to tell them something. This week we talked about our favourite colour. Once we had both had a turn we shared with the class what our partners favourite colour was to show that we had been a super listener. We also shared a story called 'I'm like you, You're like me' and we reflected on how we are similar and how we are different and that's what makes us all special.

In the afternoons this week we have met even more school superheroes. Captain Responsible set up a learning power battle of 'class versus teacher'. If the children did things all by themselves such as tidying toys away and remembering all of their home time things they received points but if an adult had to do it then they got the points instead. On Friday we awarded a trophy to the team with the most points. This week Ladybirds got 34 points and the grown ups got 26 points. Ladybirds won the trophy and were very pleased about it! A victory cheer could be heard from miles away I am sure. The battle will commence again on Monday to see if I can earn my trophy back! We also met Richie Resilient who taught us about the power of yet. We don't say "I can't do it" we say "I can't do it YET!". He also showed us how sometimes we might get into the learning pit but there are things we can do to get ourselves out such as asking a friend, asking an adult or using things around the room to help. The most important thing is 'don't give up, you can do it!'. Finally we met Professor Reflective who encourages us to reflect on our learning and achievements as well as our behaviour.

We will be continuing our learning around the story 'Supertato' next week.
This will start off with our SUPERHERO DRESS UP DAY on MONDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER. We can't wait to have lots of fun.
Also, please remember to sign your child's reading diary if they have read at home and ensure they bring them to school in their book bag everyday. On Monday 27th we will be counting up the dojo points for the previous week (Monday 20th - Sunday 26th) and awarding points accordingly.

The Foundation Team.

Week Commencing 13.09.21 

Hello all,

We have completed our second full week of school. It has been super busy and lots of fun.

In English this week our learning has been based around the story 'Super Duper You'. We introduced the book by looking at the front cover, the title and the blurb and then we read through it together. Following this, we focused on one aspect of the story each day to base our discussions on. On Wednesday we reflected on ‘What makes you super?’, on Thursday we considered ‘How have we grown?’ and on Friday we had a brilliant chat about ‘What do we want to do when we are older?’.

In Phonics we have been learning all about alliteration with the super sound squirrels Sid and Squeak. We played ‘I spy’ and listened for children whose names began with the same sound. The squirrels told us about their trip to the zoo and we sorted animals based on whether they started with the same sound e.g. bear, badger, beaver, penguin, panda, pig. We had to listen really carefully to spot the odd one out e.g. sock, sausage, snake, cat. Finally, we made another silly soup which could only include things with the same sound. We ended up with possibly the silliest soup of all time including a boat, a bear, a ball, a beetle and a button!

In R time we met ‘Super Soap’. He has a very important mission… to teach children about germs and how to wash them away. We discussed that germs are so small that you can’t see them, so we used some pepper as pretend germs. We poured the pepper ‘germs’ into some water and watched with amazement as a finger with soap on made the ‘germs’ move away. We then sang a song “Over, under, round and through. Don’t forget to add soap too. Clean, clean, clean and then you’ll know. Down the sink the germs will go. Over, under, round and through. Don’t forget to dry them too” (to the tune of twinkle, twinkle). The children practised their excellent hand washing before lunchtime and super soap was very impressed.

In the afternoons this week we have carried out two practise fire alarms. Fireman Sam told us about smoke alarms and why we have practise fire alarms at school. We learnt that although smoke alarms make very loud noises that aren’t very nice it is important for it to be loud so that everyone can hear it. We acted out stopping what we were doing, walking into a line to go straight outside and then following the grown up all the way to the big playground. We also watched ‘Woolly and Tig’ to show that having a practise fire alarm at school isn’t scary.
We met ‘Super Skipper’ the penguin who taught us all about how to keep safe online. We discussed what we use technology for whether that is playing games on phones and tablets or watching a video on a laptop. We then considered what to do if something pops up that we don’t know or if something makes us feel unsure or worried. We learnt a chant ‘Before you tap and click, you need to stop and think, and TELL SOMEONE!’. Finally, we met our school superheroes ‘Ready Boy and Ready Girl’. We learnt about how to use our listening muscles to do whole body listening and how to use our imitation muscle to copy good choices.

In P.E. this week we got fully changed into our P.E. kit for the first time. We were super independent! We also had a fantastic music lesson with Mrs Watkins where we have been learning lots of new songs about harvest time and we also got to play the claves.

All children should now have a book and a reading diary in their book bag. From today could you please record each time your child reads at home on the left page in their reading diary. Each Monday, starting with Monday 27th, we will count how many times your child has read at home. This will include Monday- Sunday of the previous week e.g. Monday 20th – Sunday 26th. If they have read every day they would receive 7 points, if they have read 3 days, they would receive 3 points and so on. Points lead to prizes!

Thank you to everyone who attended our ‘Meet the Teacher’ meeting on Thursday. We hope this was valuable and included some useful information. We will let you know when the powerpoint is on the website for you to view.

Next week we are very excited to be focusing on the story ‘Supertato’.

The Foundation Team.

Week Commencing 06.09.21

Hello all,

We have had an exciting and tiring first full week at school.

This week has been purely focused on settling the children in, getting to know each other, making friends, learning new routines and having lots of fun!
It has been a joy to see how the children have already gained confidence in their new school environment. They have loved exploring the provision whether that is making potions in the water tray, finding fossils in the sand or making beautiful creations with a variety of materials.

Each morning we have come into school super smiley, put our things away all by ourselves and found something to play with. We then sat on the carpet to talk through the calendar and say good morning for the register. After this we did a quick phonics game. This week we have learnt all about rhyming with Rhyming Rabbit. She set us little missions each day such as creating silly soup with rhyming words (fox, box, socks, rocks) and trying to spot the odd one out (pig, wig, dig, tree). Following this we played inside and outside with Ladybirds and Butterflies altogether. While playing we refuelled by visiting the snack table to have our milk and fruit once we had washed our hands. Before lunchtime we all sat on the carpet for English where we shared the story 'The Colour Monster'. During this time we have explored facial expressions, talked about our feelings and reflected on strategies to help manage them. At lunchtime we have lined up so smartly, had a go at using knives and forks and have been brave enough to try new foods. In the afternoon we have calmed down by doing some self-massage and deep breathing. We met Captain Responsible who told us about special jobs we could volunteer for in school these included 'Class Ambassadors', 'School Parliament', Eco Team' and 'Smile Team'. Two children were selected for each job although everyone can help out as we are all a team. We have also reflected on what we can do to make sure our classroom is a happy and safe place to learn. Through discussions we created our own 'Class Promise' which we all signed to show we agree to be kind, take care and have fun!
Once we finished on the carpet we had some more time to play indoors and outdoors before story and home time.

This week we have also met Pantosaurus who taught us the PANTS rule. We know how to behave in the toilets and that privates are private. If you would like to read more about the PANTS rule you can visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

Next week we will be starting our topic 'Super Duper You'. This will begin with us celebrating what makes us super special.

The Foundation Team.