Wonderful Workshops
We were lucky enough to experience two wonderful workshops in Foundation this week.
The charity D:side visited us at the start of the week. Through a fun and interactive session, the children were taught different ways to keep happy, healthy and safe. They discussed ways to be a good friend, the foods and activities that will keep our bodies healthy and important information about medicines: who is allowed to administer it, where medicines should be stored and why we shouldn’t touch it.
Can your child tell you some facts they have learnt this week about keeping healthy and safe?
On Wednesday, the children enjoyed their first ‘Mini-Music’ workshop led by ArtForms – Wetherby Music Centre. They had a fantastic time learning percussion instrument names/ how they are played and playing along to a beat, stopping and starting on cue. They also sang songs and played along to the tunes with the instruments. We are looking forward to continuing the music sessions over the next few weeks and developing lots of new skills!
Marvellous Mathematics!
A big thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend the Marvellous Mathematics Stay and Play this afternoon. The children are always so excited to share their learning with you and we hope you enjoyed seeing our Maths in action!
Rainy Play, Hip Hip Hooray!
The weather this week has been very grey and drizzly but that hasn’t stopped Foundation showing some amazing child-led learning.
We’ve had rainy painting and phonics on the board and we’ve seen fantastic, imaginative construction – making dens, racing cars and helicopters. The children have also been making bottle-top boats, floating them in puddles and then on the tuff tray. They’ve been experimenting with ways to make them move faster.
Who says rainy days have to be dull?!
Welcome to Spring 1!
A warm welcome back to Foundation stage this week. Children have been full of beans talking and writing about all of their lovely, festive news!
It’s great to see that the children have come back ready to learn with fantastic attitudes. We’ve seen hairdressers, show performers, dogs and dinosaurs through their independent imaginative play this week, giving us lots of exciting planning ideas for upcoming learning.
We’re beginning to trial having snack times together in Foundation. We hope this will provide another opportunity for talking and learning together. It also has other benefits such as making sure the children all have their snack in the morning (keeping up those energy and concentration levels) and that they are using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in their daily interactions.
PE will start again next week for F2 children. If you’ve not done so already, please return a named kit to school by Tuesday 09 January. PE will now take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
A letter will be coming home with your child tomorrow about our next Stay and Play session. ‘Marvellous Maths’ will take place on Thursday 18 January at 2.30pm. We hope to see lots of you there 🙂
The Christmas Experience
Foundation children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in ‘The Christmas Experience’ on Tuesday. They took part in creative activities and role playing; enacting the Nativity and considering the true meaning of Christmas.
Community Week
As part of Identity week in school, Foundation have been thinking about our school community and the people who work here. Mrs Coster from the school office spoke to the children on Monday about her role and Mrs Philip spoke to the children this afternoon about the work that the lunchtime staff do to ensure the children have a healthy lunch. F2 children also went out in groups throughout the week to do some busy jobs with Mr Atkins and talk about the work he does in school and how it keeps us safe.
The children thought about the people who help us in the wider community. They have enjoyed our new ‘Doctor’s Surgery’ role play, our sensory firefighter’s play, our ‘dentist’ fiddly fingers tooth brushing experience and dressing up as police officers in the outdoor area.
We worked together this week to create a map of Wetherby – the community in which we live. We looked at aerial photographs of Wetherby and the children printed green paint to create the background. Later in the week we added roads, rivers and buildings. Today, the children added their own house with their picture on. Keep an eye out for how we use our wonderful map creation in our next themed role play area, coming soon!
This week in Foundation…
This week, the whole school have been thinking about how to STOP bullying – it was national Anti-Bullying Week. In Foundation, we’ve been thinking about what it means to be a kind friend and what actions may hurt other people or make them feel sad. Alongside discussing this with the children, they took part in a sorting activity where they had to decide which pictures showed behaviour of a kind friend and which pictures showed unkind actions.
This week we introduced ‘challenge cubes’ for the F2 children. Each week they will find their pictures in various areas across the classroom, where they will be expected to challenge themselves. When they have completed the challenge, they receive a cube. If they complete five challenges throughout the week they will earn themselves a special certificate. Can your child tell you which activities they have challenged themselves with this week?
Finally, thank you to everyone who donated buns and wore their spots today to help us support Children In Need– you all look fabulous! 🙂
A big thank you…
To all of the parents and carers who were able to attend our ‘Fiddly Fingers’ Stay and Play yesterday. The children loved sharing their learning with you and we hope that you all enjoyed the afternoon as much as we did! Thank you for your continued support; we look forward to seeing you all at our next Stay and Play sessions, later in the school year.
The wonderful world of witches and wizards!
Foundation have settled quickly back into school after their half-term break.
On Monday, the children took part in a ‘talk writing’ activity, where they shared news from home about their holiday week whilst mark-making, drawing and writing. It was lovely to hear their news and also to see how much their confidence is growing when speaking to and sharing ideas with adults and friends.
Inspired by current interests, our reading area has been transformed into ‘The wonderful world of witches and wizards’. This week we focussed on Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom , watching the film version to pick out rhyming words, writing spells in the mark-making area and re-creating scenes in the small world area. The water-tray ‘potion-making’ inspired some fantastic imaginative play, with children describing all of the magical things they could do!
Outside, we had some pirate fun! We searched for treasure (letter sounds and words) in the sand using magnets and used our counting skills when collecting shells for the pirate ship.
Next week’s learning is linked to this weekend’s celebration of Bonfire Night. The children have been showing lots of interest in celebrations, especially birthday parties. They have also been fascinated by the magnets we used this week. Have a look on Monday morning to see if you can spot where we have used these ideas to create more fantastic learning opportunities!
Happy Half Term!
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.