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.
Year 2 and Year 6 assessments
The STA has published an information leaflet and two videos for parents/carers of children in Year 2 and Year 6 about national curriculum assessments. The purpose of these materials is to help you understand more about the end of key stage assessments that will be administered in primary schools in May. (The end of Key Stage 1 is Year 2; the end of Key Stage 2 is Year 6.)
The materials provide basic information about the purpose and format of the tests, how parents can best support their children and how results will be reported.
Cannon Hall Farm Fun
What a fantastic trip we had!
This week, we visited Cannon Hall Farm for our end of term trip. The children enjoyed seeing lots of different animals and impressed our guide Darrell with their life cycle knowledge.
The highlight of our day was seeing two lambs being born. The children were captivated watching Farmer Robert deliver the lambs. The general consensus was “that was awesome but gross”.
Eureka!
On Friday, we had a great trip to Eureka in Halifax. Here are the highlights!
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.
The life cycle of a frog…
This week, we’ve learned all about life cycles in our Life Forces topic.
First, we learned about the frog life cycle. The children were shocked at how many eggs a frog lays!
Have a look at our learning below of the life cycle of a frog.
We were very excited to see the newly hatched chicks in Foundation and learning about a life cycle of another animal. We’re looking forward to going to see them next week and holding a chick.
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.
What does it mean to belong?
This term during RE lessons, Year 1 and 2 have been looking at what it means to belong to a church or a mosque. They’ve looked at the similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.
To support their learning, Year 1 and 2 had a visit from Nabilah from Leeds Grand Mosque. The children learned what it meant to Nabilah to belong to a mosque and she shared some of the traditions she follows as a Muslim.
