National Poetry Day 2019
To celebrate National Poetry Day 2019, this week Foundation 2 children have been discussing what a poem is;
A collection of words chosen carefully by the poet, to help us use our imagination and make us feel a certain way. The words are also chosen for the way that they sound and the rhythm that they create when read aloud.
We chose to read a rhyming poem called Autumn Days by Brenda Williams.
The children predicted some missing words from the poem by selecting a word that could rhyme- they did a fantastic job at guessing the correct words. Well done especially to Teddy, Leo, Chloe and Lily who were superstars at identifying rhyming words today!
Afterwards, we used our special Talk 4 Writing skills to come up with some actions to help us retell parts of the poem. Take a look at our great first attempt*:
*All videos set to UNLISTED on the video sharing website. They do not appear in searches.
This week in Foundation…
This week, we have been reading ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. The children have enjoyed acting out the story. They were able to use different vocal expressions especially when being the bad, ugly Troll. In the construction area, the children have been architects and designed their own bridges. We watched a video on how bridges are made. They then independently chose the resources to build their bridges. Finally, the children used the goats to test their bridges.
“Trip, trap, trip, trap.”
“Mine must be strong because it didn’t fall down.”
“Mine stayed up!”
“My bridge is made out of bricks.”
“Oh no! My bridge has fallen down and now the troll is awake!”
In maths, our focus number is 2. The children have helped Little Red Riding Hood pair up her socks on the washing line. They have been on a number 2 hunt around the classroom and recorded their findings.
We had a good discussion about number 2.
“What does 2 make you think of?” Miss Marsden asked.
“2 footballs”
“2 spiders”
“2 snakes”
This lead onto talking about pairs.
“a pair of eyes”
“a pair of legs”
“a pair of feet”
It was great to see the children thinking carefully, speaking clearly and listening attentively.
In phonics, F2 children have completed the first set of phase 2 phonemes.
s– Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss.
a – Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you, saying a, a, a.
t – Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t, t.
i – Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of noise and squeak i, i, i.
p – Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p.
n – Hold arms out at side, as if a plane, and say nnnnnnnnnn.
We have started the second set!
F1 children using the large paint brushes to make marks.
Some of the F1 children were determined to pick up the pom poms!
Challenges have been introduced this week. The children are eager to complete a challenge and get a coloured lollipop stick to make their rainbow.
Home- Link Challenge
The children will be able to share what they found during carpet time.
It’s been another fab week in Foundation!
To introduce traditional tales, our focus story is The Three Little Pigs. We have worked hard to become story-tellers, with everyone in F2 showing they can re-tell the story.
In maths, we completed our work on the focus number 1. We have been on number hunts and explored different representations of the number. Next week we will be moving on to number 2.
F1 have enjoyed their key worker time. They have been listening to stories, counting, constructing and sharing their thoughts, feelings and ideas.
Home-Link Challenge
Next week our focus story is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Find a picture of a bridge. It could be a photograph or a picture from the internet.
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
We will use your pictures in the construction area next week!
The Everywhere Bear
Monday 16 September
This week, our focus story is The Everywhere Bear. The children have enjoyed talking about journeys. “I went on a plane and it went really high.” “I went on a bus to Wetherby.”
The children created their own story maps – we have some super writers!
At home, talk to your child about the story.
Tuesday 17 September
The children took Sammy St James on a journey around school.
Come and have a look at our book in the reading corner.
Wednesday 19 September
The children used their imaginations to plan their own stories.
They came up with some great ideas!
We had stories about aliens, butterflies and even snowmen!
Home-Link Challenge
Can you spot a shape together in the environment?- it could be a circle shaped clock or a rectangle shaped TV for example. Send us a photo to:
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
We will use your pictures in next week’s learning!
Parent Partnership
Thank you to the parents who were able to attend the Parent Partnership session yesterday. We really appreciate your time and support.
To those who were unable to attend, we will be sending home the slides so that you can have the same information.
Please remember our door is always open for questions or a quick chat and you are welcome into the classroom each morning until 9am. Please come and complete the ‘Learn with me’ challenge with your child each week and keep sending in all those wonderful learning experiences from home.
Thank you.
Crime scenes, carrots and construction!
We soon had our police investigators on the case at our ‘Classroom crime scene’ yesterday. “A burglar has been in here and trashed the classroom” announced F.L before writing his crime scene report (amazing segmenting and writing!) He was soon joined by officers E.P and C.R with their magnifying glasses, who shouted “I can see footprints” as they trailed around the classroom.
Miss Feldman has been preparing the planting area with the children this week, for some new planting to begin. We found lots of teeny carrots in the soil, planted last year. The children were so excited to find them- it was like hunting for buried treasure! We heard lots of great size vocabulary; “I found a big one” said W.J whilst G.D told us “I found a tiny carrot”
After discovering the veggies, we soon found creatures who enjoyed living amongst them- a number of bright green caterpillars had made their home in the planter. F.L and C.H took such a liking to one of them that they made it a home in a stepping stone; “It needs leaves and grass, so it doesn’t die” they decided.
We really enjoyed being out in our lovely outdoor space in the sunshine this week.
We were so proud of how sensible and smart the F2 children were in their first achievement assembly yesterday.
Well done to Lily, Freddie, Christian and Mia on their special certificates.
Home-Link Challenge
We’ve only received a couple of family pictures for our Home Corner wall so far. We will therefore role the home-link challenge into next week. Please discuss with your child who lives in your home and either bring in or email a family photo to us, at:
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Parent Partnership
Please join us Wednesday 18 September 6.00-7.00pm, for our Parent Partnership meeting. It will involve a short presentation on ways to share your child’s learning experiences from home. After, there will be time to ask questions and speak to the class teachers should you wish.
We hope to see many of you there.
The classroom crime scene…
Child-led inspiration; a classroom crime scene.
This week, we’ve seen lots of role play involving “police”, “bad guys” and “jail”. The children have been using the construction hi-vis jackets and any space they can find to act out their scenarios.
Those police might just come in handy tomorrow because someone has left chaos in our home corner!
We’ve added police tabards, hats, magnifying glasses and evidence clipboards to ensure we have the right kit for the job. Watch this space to see where our investigations take us.
Welcome to Foundation!
We’ve had a wonderful morning getting to know our new F2 children and welcoming back the children moving up from F1. We’ve been busy painting, exploring outside, making food in the role play area, drawing and using our fiddly fingers to make dough cakes. We’ve seen lots of great numbers and letter sounds being used already too!
We’re really looking forward to seeing our nursery children this afternoon.
Home-Link Challenges
Today we have sent home our ‘All About Me’ bags for you to fill with your favourite things from home or photos if you wish.
We would also like you to bring in a copy of a family photo in your home for the role play area or you can email a photo to us at:
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Reminders
Please leave a pair of wellies at school for our muddy outdoor play.
Please bring a named water bottle to school every day. The bottle must contain water only- no juice please.
Please ensure all uniform, bags, shoes and personal items are named.
Please remember we will now be opening the gate at 3.15 and asking you to collect your child/ren from the classroom door.
If you are collecting from F1 at 11.30, we will continue to bring the children to you at the gate.
Thank you.
Craft Club 11.07.19- Slime!
We had a super- gooey, squishy time at our final craft club of the year on Thursday.
We made slime 🙂 Sorry grown-ups!
We had to be really careful when adding our activator to make sure we had the perfect consistency. We selected our colours and added sequins for a sparkly textured finish 🙂
Transition, pirates and picnics!
For F2 children, this week saw the first opportunity to spend time in their new classroom and with some old (now new) classmates. F1 have had their final stay and play with children joining us in September too. We have spent time talking about what we think might be different in September and discussing all the new experiences that we are excited for.
We used drama in Literacy to act out the thoughts of our main character in our story. In The Night Pirates, we met a group of “Rough, tough, little girl pirates” who manage to steal away treasure from the “grown-up” pirates! We made a ‘subconscious alley’ (or “thinking alley” for Foundation) where we said out-loud the thoughts of our character when he met the pirates. F2 then used these skills to write down some thoughts and speech of different characters from the story.
Junk modelling has been a returning favourite this week- we are always amazed at the imaginative, thoughtful models made in our creative areas!
We enjoyed our picnic outside Wednesday lunchtime:
Next week, our ‘Learn with me’ table top challenge is going to be to write your favourite memories from this year in Foundation Class. Please do visit the activity with your child to help them focus on the ‘reflection’ element of next week’s Living and Learning statement.
I know how to reflect and look ahead.
Notices for the final days next week:
-We will be sending PE kits home on Thursday after our final gymnastics session.
-Please return all reading books to school by next Thursday. We will be taking all of the books back in over the summer.
-Please bring in a large plastic carrier bag by next Friday to keep in your child’s drawer so that we can send home their things on the final day.
-On Friday afternoon, we will be having a ‘Writing Warriors’ linked end of year class party! No need to bring anything as we will be wearing school uniform 🙂