Phonics Home Learning
To support children’s phonics learning, we use a variety of online resources on a weekly basis.
One of the main phonics websites we use is Phonics Play.
The website is really simple to use and has lots of fun games for each of the phonics phases. Before playing the games, you can select which letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) you want your child to focus on.
If you are unsure on which sounds to select, just look in your child’s book bag or sound book – they bring home new phonemes each week.
The login details are Sphere (user name) and Spher3 (password).
Other useful resources…
We also use the Jolly Phonics Songs when introducing a new phoneme. At home, you could listen and sing-a-long to them when tidying up or making tea.
The BBC Bitesize website has lots of phase 2 videos. These are short clips focussed on the phonemes taught in phase 2. Again, these can be watched at home to help boost your child’s phonics skills.
Phonics Bloom – another website full of simple, fun and exciting phonics games.
F1 Parents
Phase 1 concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills. It supports tuning into different sounds and gets them ready to begin oral blending and segmenting skills. Phonics Play and Phonics Bloom have lots of phase 1 games. Please play these games at home.
FANTASTIC FOUNDATION
Here are some highlights of another fantastic week in Foundation:
PE
On Wednesday, the children made safe risks when climbing and travelling on the big apparatus – Mrs Small was very impressed! They showed great determination and perseverance especially when climbing the ladder.
Living and Learning
Speaking of perseverance, it’s our Christian value for this half-term. Last Friday, Foundation made some perseverance stars in their Living and Learning session. They drew a picture of something they’d like to get better at. We discussed how we could achieve our perseverance stars.
Literacy
On Monday and Tuesday, F2 were authors and planned their own versions of the Three Little Pigs. The children changed the title, the characters, the materials and the ending. Check out their amazing planning!
Remembrance
On Wednesday, it was Remembrance Day. To celebrate the day, we made a poppy wreath. You might have seen it on our window next to the classroom door. The children also made poppies at the playdough table. Throughout the week, the children have shared their own knowledge and understanding about Remembrance Day.
Some more highlights of this week…
In Foundation, we love to observe children doing child-initiated writing. Here’s some great examples!
“I’m drawing my family. Now I need to draw my daddy.”
“I’m drawing the brick house.”
“I’m drawing the straw house.”
“I’m drawing the stick house.”
This week, the maths challenge involved counting and recognising numerals to 10. The children used 1:1 correspondence when counting their cubes to match each of the numbers. For the star challenge, they had to put(add) two towers together to find the total.
F1 Group Time
On Monday, they designed new houses for the three pigs.
On Tuesday, the children continued with their phase one phonics learning. They were asked to listen to the different percussion instruments and match the sounds with some animal puppets. E.g. Castanet sounds like a horse trotting.
Home-Link Challenge
Next week, is Nursery Rhyme week. Your child will have brought home some nursery rhymes. To help us great ready for next week’s learning, please practise these at home.
Nursery rhymes boost vocabulary and language development. They also support children’s literacy and early numeracy skills.
Children In Need
We’ve had such a fun day celebrating Children In Need.
Odd Socks Day
To kick off Anti-Bullying Week next week, we are taking part in Odd Socks Day. All you need to do is come to school wearing odd socks! This will help us celebrate what makes us all unique!
Children In Need
It’s Children In Need this Friday and we are celebrating it by having a non-uniform day – the first one for Foundation!
Children can come to school in their own clothes.
Please remember that we enjoy getting messy in Foundation so make sure your child still comes to school in suitable clothing and footwear.
Our First Week Back
Foundation have had a great first week back!
Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of their half-term activities and adventures. It was lovely to see what you got up to! Please continue to send in home learning moments – they are really useful.
Literacy
This week, we’ve been reading The Three Little Pigs. The children have enjoyed acting out the story in every area of the classroom! They used different vocal expressions especially when being the big bad wolf. In the construction area, the children built new houses for the pigs. We talked about the different materials the pigs used and why the stick and straw house blew over straight away. 
On Thursday morning, the children found footprints near the writing area. We used magnifying glasses to look closer. Throughout the day, they found other clues.
“Look Miss Marsden! There’s scratches on the ceiling.”
“There’s a hole – the wolf must have done it.”
“There’s another scratch here. Wolves have really sharp claws.”
After spending the morning investigating, we all came to a conclusion and agreed that the footprints belonged to the big bad wolf. The children made wanted posters to stick up around the classroom.
Bonfire Night
We had lots of fun making and creating things to help celebrate Bonfire Night. We made fireworks in the playdough area, rockets at the creative table, moved like fireworks in PE and printed fireworks using bubble wrap.
Lunchtime
The lunch menu has changed and the children are loving the new choices!
Maths
This week, we have finalised our learning on number two. The children know what 2 is and what it looks like in the everyday environment.
On Thursday, we made number two stories.
Here’s an example…
First, there was one frog sat on a log.
Then, another frog joined him on the log.
Now, there are two frogs sat on the log.
We also went on a number one and two hunt. The children compared the pictures and explained why it was one or two.
On Friday, the children played hide and seek with Sammy St James to help them understand prepositional language.
“Sammy is hiding behind the shed.”
“Sammy is hiding under the table.”
“Sammy is next to the Miss Marsden.”
Phonics
F2 have started to write captions in phonics. When we are writing we….
1. Think of a caption or sentence.
2. Say it out loud.
3. Count the words.
4. Segment the words.
5. Write the caption or sentence.
6. CHECK!
F1 Group Time
Every morning the F1 children have their group time. This is what they’ve been up to this week…
On Monday, they had a talk time session all about Bonfire Night. The children loved drawing what they might see and hear.
Careful counting on Thursday.
Home-Link Challenge
Have a lovely weekend!
Nursery Rhyme Week
16th – 20th November 2020
World Nursery Rhyme Week is fast approaching and we are delighted to confirm we will be taking part. The initiative, which was launched in 2013, promotes the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development and education with a particular focus on how nursery rhymes boost early language and literacy skills.
We have a number of activities planned throughout the week including: making a cup of tea using little teapots, building a wall for Humpty Dumpty, hopping like the Five Little Speckled Frogs and helping Incy Wincy Spider. We will be doing lots more activities linked to other nursery rhymes!
Singing nursery rhymes is a wonderful activity you can enjoy doing together at home and all of the resources are available for you to download. You can access all of the free resources at: www.worldnurseryrhymeweek.com
Thank you!
Miss Marsden
The Three Little Pigs
This week, we’ve started our first focus story for this half-term.
Today, Foundation practised retelling the story using actions.
Check out our amazing story telling here!
Story Maps
The F2 children drew their own story maps and were really good at remembering the structure of the story.
Parental Partnership Presentation
Click on this link to view the Parental Partnership Presentation.
If you have any questions after reading the presentation, please email or chat to me on the gate.
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Christian Value: Friendship
This half term, our Christian Value has been friendship.
We have thought about how we can be a good friend and what we can learn from the Bible about friendship. We learned that Jesus teaches us to be a good friend to all – he told a story about how the good samaritan was a friend to someone who was supposed to be his enemy.
In our reflection areas, we had two challenges: a friendship flower and how to be a good friend.
For our friendship flower, we thought about who was a good friend or someone we were thankful for and wrote or drew a short thank you thought or prayer for them.
We took the friendship finger challenge and thought about all the things that make a good friend. We thought about how we could be a better friend.
Foundation stage have also been learning all about our Christian value of friendship. They’ve created a friendship tree and friendship stones whilst thinking about the qualities they would like in a friend.
Look out for next half term’s Christian value: perseverance.