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.
Pics, Mix and Three Little Chicks!
This week, Foundation learnt and re-told the tale of The Little Red Hen.
Linked to the story, we’ve been baking bread- just like our main character! The children had a go at measuring and adding the ingredients, mixing them together and kneading the dough. We hope you enjoyed them 🙂
On Friday, Foundation had a fun afternoon- a Spanish lesson with Miss Castro and a sports session with Five Star, which they thoroughly enjoyed.
Can your child tell you some of the new Spanish words and phrases they have learnt?
The most exciting part of our week by far has been the arrival of our new fluffy friends. Our chicks began hatching on Wednesday and by Thursday we had welcomed three new lives into the world. The children have named them Rosie, Anna and Peter. On Friday they each had a turn to hold a chick. The chicks have bought some fantastic learning opportunities: discussions on the life cycle of a chicken, growth and how to care for living things. F2 children have been writing name ideas for the chicks and describing them. Most importantly, the children have gained so much pleasure and joy from observing the chicks, it has been wonderful to watch their faces light up when they see them. Take a look at our video of pictures which really captures how the children feel about the experience.
You may have noticed that there has not been a second reading book change this week for F2. Due to the many lovely events taking place throughout this busy week, we have practised our rocket words and letter sounds as an alternative and will change all reading books on Monday.
Sport Relief 2018
Thank you for your donations supporting Sport Relief. The children had a fabulous time this afternoon taking part in different sports alongside KS1 and KS2 children.
The Gingerbread Man- Super Story-tellers!
This week in Foundation, our focus story has been the traditional tale of The Gingerbread Man.
We’ve enjoyed making messy mixtures, using gingerbread playdough and designing our own gingerbread men.
Gingerbread men have also been used as a counting tool in the maths area and as objects for our fiddly fingers tweezer challenges.
Foundation have looked very closely at the story throughout the week; writing about our favourite parts, creating story boards and using ‘Talk for Writing‘ to map out the story and prepare for re-telling. As a class, we decided on the actions we would use to tell our story and by day 2, the children were able to recite the story independently using their picture prompts!
This method is great for learning how stories are structured and it enables children to develop literacy skills that will help support their own creative story-telling and writing.
Take a look at Foundation’s fantastic story-telling video of The Gingerbread Man!*
*Please note this video is unlisted on YouTube and does not appear in any searches made by the public on the site.