Role-play- I can show, what I know!
Our new role play area is up and running this week and wow do we have some enthusiastic little travel agents, tourists, customers and ice-cream sellers!
The children have been working together, using their prior experiences to create scenarios in the ‘Travel Agents’ and ‘Ice-cream parlour’. They have shown great communication, sharing their ideas and listening to the ideas of others.
The ‘Travel Agents’ features real-life holiday pictures of the children to inspire their role-play and the wonderful writing that F2 have worked so hard on this week.
Come and take a look at their postcards, or browse their travel brochure. Anyone fancy visit to “Unicorn Land”, “Starry Seaside”, or “Magic Town” this Summer? 🙂
This week in foundation…
We’ve read the story of The Very Busy Spider, continuing our ‘Minibeast’ theme.
We’ve been making character lists and using our imaginations to write our own versions of the story. We’ve had ‘The very fluffy rabbit’, ‘The really fast lion’ and ‘The very cute ladybird’ to name just a few!
F2 have also been using ‘spider legs’ to practise their doubling skills and they are just brilliant at it!
Ask your F2 child to tell you the doubling number facts they know.
All of Foundation enjoyed their first gymnastics session on Tuesday. We look forward to seeing their gym skills develop over the next few weeks. F2 children are also continuing with their ball skills in PE. This week we have been working on rolling the ball in different directions and chasing it.
We welcomed in the 2018 World Cup with a new small world interest table. The children have chosen a team in a ‘lucky dip’ draw and the child with the winning team will get to take home their very own World Cup medal, when the tournament has finished.
F2 children have been reading the ‘World Atlas Encyclopedia’ with Mrs Allen-Kelly, to find out facts about their World Cup country. They have used their phonics skills to record the facts.
Ask your F2 child if they can remember the special name we give to an information book.
Next week, we have a seaside theme as we look more at holidays and the Summer season.
Wetherby Library
Wow! What an exciting afternoon F2 have had at Wetherby Library today.
We were treated to a story time of The Great Pet Sale and A Busy Day For Birds. The children got to hold many animals, both cute and cuddly and small and spiky, in an experience hosted by Lion Learners.
We held rabbits, a bearded dragon, a tarantula, guinea pigs, a snake and giant snails!
As a special treat to celebrate the launch of National Bookstart Week 2018 , the children were sent home with their very own copy of A Busy Day For Birds.
The children were all exceptionally brave and brilliantly behaved, both during our careful walk from school to the library and throughout the session. They were a real credit to our school and should feel very proud of themselves, as we are of them.
Take a look at our fun-filled video of our visit below:
Butterflies
On Thursday, Foundation successfully launched three little lives into the world. Watch them go!
We watched our caterpillars grow, saw them spin their chrysalis and had their beautiful butterfly transformation with us for two days, before setting them free. We’ve had so much to talk and write about. Our focus story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has been a great link to our learning.
In other ‘growing’ news, our plants are doing brilliantly thanks to the children’s vigilant care of them. We’ve been talking lots about not over-watering and discussing the changes we can see.
- Ask your child what they have learnt during our ‘growing’ topic.
- Which has been their favourite life-cycle?
- Which living things have they enjoyed observing the most?
A letter was sent home with the children on Friday about our upcoming topic. We will be looking at the Summer season, holidays and different countries across the world. Please bring in your holiday photos (this can be either at home or abroad) on the first day back or email them to the address found in our last class news post.
Have a wonderful (and hopefully sunny) half-term, Foundation. We can’t wait to hear what you have been up to!
The Royal Wedding
What a beautiful day for a royal wedding!
On Thursday, Foundation enjoyed celebrating the occasion by creating crowns, flags and wedding invitations. We had some beautiful brides and grooms at the dressing-up area! We also had a special snack time with napkins and jam scones.
The celebration opened up some lovely discussions about weddings and their traditions, our flags and the royal family. We took a look at the map to see how far Meghan and her family will travel from America to England.
What can your child tell you about today’s royal wedding?
If you’re going to any special events or taking part in any street parties to celebrate the wedding today, we’d love to see your photos so please do bring them in.
You can also email any photos and learning from home at any time! Send to: stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Have a lovely, sunny weekend Foundation! 🙂
Funky Phonics
Thank you to the parents who were able to join us for our ‘Funky Phonics’ stay and play yesterday. The children made us very proud, showing their grown-ups how they use phonics skills in their reading and writing.
Supertato, Super Learning!
Supertato took over the classroom this week and the children have just loved exploring this story, written by Sue Hendra. 
We’ve been re-telling using our veggie characters, creating story mountains, mini-books and ‘wanted’ posters to find the “Evil Pea” after he sneakily tied up our vegetable friends!
The children used some great adjectives to describe him and wrote descriptions of how Supertato was going to capture him. We were all relieved on Friday, when there was a happy ending (just like in the story); Evil Pea was captured in the jelly on our sensory table! Phew!
In Mathematics, F2 children have been focusing on numbers 10-20: recognising the numbers by sight, counting forwards and backwards from 1-20 and identifying ‘1 more’ and ‘1 less’ than a given number.
Please continue to work on these skills at home.
F2 children have enjoyed practising various PE skills by racing through an obstacle course- jumping, weaving, throwing to target and catching!
F1 children enjoyed their own mini PE session, too… Practising hula-hoop skills, throwing bean bags to target and working together in parachute games.
A reminder that our ‘Funky Phonics’ Stay and Play session is taking place for parents and carers of F2 children this Wednesday 16 May, 3.15-4.15pm. We look forward to seeing you there!
Have you seen…
…the new areas and displays in our classroom?
We have a new ‘Garden Centre’ role play area and discovery areas linked to our growing theme.
We also have a new ‘Star Writers’ board, featuring extra special pieces of writing that demonstrate great effort and achievement. The children receive a special reward if their writing is chosen. Be sure to check whether your little star has made it onto the rocket!
We love it when parents are able to stay a little while in the mornings to take a look at our learning on the walls and in the classroom, so please remember that you are always welcome to do so. The children’s learning journey folders are also available to access at any time and are now located right next to the signing in / self-registration area.
- What work can your child show you in the classroom that they have recently created?
- Can they take you to an area they enjoy using this week?
Sunshine, Sizes and Stories!
Our first beautifully sunny week back in Foundation has been packed full of learning fun!
We’ve been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. F2 have been writing their favourite parts of the story and using their imaginations, sharing ideas of what they would like to find at the top of the beanstalk.
Can you spot the beanstalk that has grown in our classroom from all of our ideas?
We’ve been planting beans in cups so that we can observe the roots develop. Have a look in our ‘growing area’ to see how they are coming along!
This week we will continue the ‘growing’ theme, planting some carrots and radish in the Foundation garden area. Thank you to all of the parents/carers who brought seeds into school. We’ll be planting them all over the next few weeks.
The theme has been perfect for working on size and measurement in mathematics (F2). We have been comparing and ordering objects by size and measuring using smaller objects.
Ask your child:
- What the important things to remember when measuring?
- Where do we start?
- How should our measurement line look?
We’ve been outside enjoying the wonderful weather: learning in our outdoor area, having PE outside and going onto the field to play parachute games. We’ve been talking about how to stay safe in the sun and making sure we wear our hats and sun lotion outside.
Thank you to the parents who were able to attend our ‘Parent Partners’ drop in sessions on Thursday, to look at learning journey folders and talk about your child’s learning. We’ve created a new board in the classroom to display the children’s achievements from home. Please remember that you can come to us at any time to let us know about these and fill in one of the special stars to add to the board!
Parent Partners
Welcome back, Foundation! We hope you’ve had a brilliant half term and have come back excited and ready for all of the lovely learning we’ll enjoy over the Summer term!
This Thursday our Parent Partners drop in sessions are taking place. Please join us at either 8.30-9.30am or 3.20-4.00pm to discuss your child’s learning, take a look at their journey folders and ask any questions you may have about your child’s learning and development.
We really value the partnership we have with parents and carers and this is a great opportunity to discuss achievements both at school and at home. We look forward to seeing you all then.