Author: Mrs Allen-Kelly

Congratulations Foundation Class on a wonderful first half term!

It was lovely to share Foundation 2’s learning with you all at parents’ evenings this week. Thank you for attending.

A little reminder that Foundation 2 will need their PE kit, with all items named and in school, by Wednesday 01 November. To see the skills we have been developing this half term in our PE sessions, take a look at the picture above!

Have a fantastic week and we look forward to seeing you all when we return on Monday 30 October.

We’ve seen many examples of fantastic learning over the past few weeks. However, one thing the Foundation 2 children have shown lots of enthusiasm for is our weekly ‘Squiggle while you wiggle’ session. These sessions focus on gross motor movements that will develop strength in the muscles we use in our writing. Movements are made to exciting music or songs that we sing together. We then move on to using our fingers to ‘squiggle’. So far we’ve squiggled in shaving foam, with chalk on the playground, with pen and paper and with our paintbrushes. Can your child sing the movement song to you from this week’s session? (clue: dragon!)

All of Foundation have opportunities to work on their physical skills all day, every day. We have outdoor and sensory exploration alongside daily ‘dough disco’. We also have our ‘fiddly fingers’ table, which has a new activity on each week. These activities are designed to work on fine motor skills, specifically working on finger muscle strength.

We’d love to see any pictures you have of your child demonstrating their physical skills at home. This could be gross motor movements (for example: running, jumping, hopping, skipping, kicking a ball, catching) or fine motor movements (for example: using scissors, writing/ drawing, threading, using tweezers). These will be used on our movement play display board, to show all their friends some great examples of how to get our bodies moving!

Our fabulous Foundation class have been looking at a new author and book this week- Julia Donaldson‘s The Gruffalo. They have all shown lots of interest in reading with adults, on their own and in groups which is marvellous to see. We’re looking forward to sharing each child’s favourite book from home with them over the next two weeks, when they’ll take a seat in our ‘magical’ story-teller’s chair!

Next week, we’ve lots of Gruffalo themed sensory activities planned; making ‘owl ice-cream’, ‘scrambled snake’ and ‘Gruffalo crumble’. We’ll also continue our Autumn theme linked to the story. Please continue to bring in any objects you find on your own nature walks at home.

 

 

This week, F2 children have started phonics. We’ve had fun learning new sounds and writing letters in a range of different ways, such as salt writing with our pencils and mirror writing with our whiteboard pens!

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the reading meeting this week. All F2 children are excited to bring their first reading book home with them tomorrow.

The F1 children have had a great week exploring natural objects on the sensory table, including seeds, leaves, conkers and pine cones. They have enjoyed making bubbles in the water tray and playing with the wild animals in the small world area. In their key worker time, they have been singing, listening to stories and thinking about the rules and routines of our classroom.

As always, this week’s planning is all based on the children’s interests so expect to see lots of Autumn, wildlife and bubbly fun on Monday morning!

It’s been wonderful to see more smiling, happy faces as we welcomed our Foundation 1 children this week. Foundation 2 have been fabulous at lunchtimes and all of the class are settling well into school life. We are very proud of them.

We’ve been spending time talking about our favourite toys and activities both at school and at home, getting to know each other and continuing to explore our exciting classroom and outdoor space. The children have been adding their own artwork to the walls in the form of self-portraits and wowing us with their brilliant ideas and imaginations.

We now have a space on our Parent and carer notices board which gives a snapshot of the current week’s learning through photos and comments, so be sure to take a look at what your child has been up to!

Just a reminder that as the weather continues to trick us with sunshine mixed with heavy rain showers, it would be helpful if your child could bring in a pair of named wellies for the outside area (if they’ve not done so already). We go outside in all weathers and would like to look after those smart school shoes as best we can!