One of the stories we enjoyed this week was called ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson. The story is about a butterfly who tries to help a little monkey find his mum. There is a lot of trial and error as the butterfly misunderstands monkey’s descriptions and leads him to all sorts of unsuitable animals.

• In maths this week the children have continued to explore the composition of numbers within 10. The children compared and identified when 2 sets were equal or NOT equal. They saw a range of familiar representations including dice and fingers to explore the idea of ‘2 equal parts’, and then found the whole by combining these parts.
• For letters and sounds the children have revisited the phase 3 sounds and the tricky words- no, of, to, into, she, he and we. Please refer to the phonics guidance in our home learning where you can access helpful videos to help your child practise at home. We have been ‘chunking’ up longer words e.g. ‘fan/tas/tic’ and ‘hel/met’ as well as reading words ending in ‘er’ e.g. ‘farmer’ and ‘shorter’.
• The children have also enjoyed drawing detailed pictures and writing cards to celebrate their mum or a special person they are thankful for and who look after them.

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls (no toilet rolls please) and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you

Have a great weekend – The Foundation Stage Team 

What a busy week we’ve had in reception. One of the stories we enjoyed was a firm favourite called ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. The story is about a family that waded through the grass, splashed through the river and squelched through the mud in search of a bear! The children loved joining in with the chant and making up their own actions!

• In maths this week we have been investigating the numbers within 7. Through games and practical experiences, the children learnt that 7 is made up of smaller parts for example 7 can be made of 5 and 2.  
• For letters and sounds we continue to work on our phase 3 sounds. Please refer to the phonics guidance in our home learning where you can access helpful videos to help your child practise at home. We have been reading words with double letters such as ‘rubber’, ‘butter’, ‘dinner’ as well as chunking up longer words such as ‘rubb/ish’ and ‘tim/id’.
• For our cooking activity this week both our reception classes made cupcakes. We weighed out the ingredients, mixed them together and scooped the mixture into cupcake cases ready for the oven. The children really enjoyed munching them all up at the end of the day eating every last crumb!

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls (no toilet rolls please) and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you

Have a lovely weekend – The Foundation Stage Team

In the foundation stage this week we have been rather busy, as usual, and have had a fantastic week enjoying the cold but sunny weather.

• In maths this week we have worked on comparison. Specifically, we have looked at subitising (saying the number without needing to count the quantity) for larger numbers such as 6. We have also been talking about the relationship between each of the numbers from 1-8, recalling which numbers are ‘1 more’ and ‘1 less’ than a given number. The children have articulated their thinking very well and are able to order numbers, they have also been brilliant at understanding 8 as ‘5 and 3 more’.
• For letters and sounds we are working on our phase 3 sounds and reading word cards without ‘sound buttons’. The children have been fantastic and are beginning to flourish with both their reading and writing which is wonderful to see.
• We’ve been looking at ‘healthy me’ for our carpet times this half term and have talked this week about the importance of exercise and the positive effect it has on our bodies. The children talked about a wide range of exercise they enjoy and how it makes them feel. We played lots of games and enjoyed completing different forms of exercise including riding our balance bikes n our outdoor area which is a firm favourite!
• Finally, we celebrated World Book Day on Friday this week. The children had a wonderful time dressing up as their favourite book characters. Some of the older children paid us a visit in their costumes and spent some time reading picture books to our reception children which was a delight!

Have a great weekend – The Foundation Stage Team ?

We hope you all had a restful half term break; the children have settled back into our school routines and have enjoyed sharing their half term news with us all!

• It has been an assessment week for our letters and sounds so we have revisited and reviewed all the digraphs, trigraphs and tricky words we have learnt so far. Please refer to the phonics guidance in our home learning where you can access helpful videos to help your child practise at home.
• On pancake day each teacher demonstrated how to make the pancake mixture and we talked about why people celebrate pancake day. The children enjoyed visiting the nursery watching the adults cooking and flipping the pancakes in the kitchen. The children thoroughly enjoyed eating a pancake at the end of the day and described them as delicious! We also learnt a fun song about a pancake that ends up landing in many different strange places!
• In maths we have been working with numbers to 10, the children have been developing their understanding that each number has a value of ‘1 more’ than the previous number. We have used the Numberblocks, alongside the children’s own fingers, to represent ‘5 and a bit’ quantities. The children have continued to practise counting beyond 20 where we have focused on the repeating pattern of ‘1s’ i.e. twenty-ONE, twenty-TWO, twenty-THREE.
• In art the children have really enjoyed painting to music. We listened to a range of different tracks. We talked about how the music made us feel and we all got to dance to the music. Then children ‘danced’ with their paintbrush, moving it on to paper using long smooth strokes, short sharp dots, swirling and zig zags!

We hope you all have a super weekend – The Foundation Stage Team ?

Our final week of the half term has been another excellent one in our reception classes. We rounded off our very busy half term with more lovely stories linking to our garden theme and we have been branching out further ‘into the town’ which the children have really enjoyed.

• Longer words with multiple syllables have been the focus of our letters and sounds sessions this week. The children are now successfully decoding and reading words such as ‘sunset’, ‘pocket’, ‘magnet’ and ‘rooftop’. They applied their prior knowledge superbly to read these words in sentences.
• We have been busy with more cooking – we made oaty biscuits this week using the same ingredients as our jam tarts but this time using oats. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, measuring out the ingredients and building on the skills they learnt last time, it was another great success and the children’s favourite part was eating them during snack time!
• In maths we have enjoyed more work on comparison this week. The children have been been comparing different quantities with a focus on the number determining whether there is more/fewer (rather than colour, size or shape for example). The children have used their reasoning skills really well and were excellent and telling us ‘how they know’.

We hope you have a wonderful and safe half term break and we will look forward to seeing you all again when we return on Monday 20^th February.

The Foundation Stage team ?

This week we have enjoyed reading lots of stories about minibeasts. One of the stories was ‘Superworm’ written by Julia Donaldson. Superworm can fish Spider out of a well, and rescue Toad from a busy road. But who will come to Superworm’s rescue, when he’s captured by a wicked Wizard Lizard? Luckily, all of Superworm’s insect friends have a cunning plan…

• In our letters and sounds we have learnt the trigraph (three letters making one sound) ‘air’ (chair in the air) and the digraph (two letters making one sound) ‘er’ (a bigger digger). We have been spelling a variety of words, including tricky words (are, sure, pure) and reading sentences.
• In maths we explored ways to represent numbers using the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern). The children learnt about the pairs of numbers that make 5, and then used double dice frames to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’.
• On Thursday afternoon all the reception children had an exciting video call from another reception class at Marine Academy Primary school. We got to share what we have learnt about mini beasts through songs, detailed drawings and fun facts. Marine Academy were very impressed and gave us a big round of applause!

Have a great weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?

We have continued to explore our theme ‘into the garden’ reading a variety of stories. One of the stories we enjoyed was ‘Grumpy Frog’. In the story Grumpy Frog, he loves the colour green, he loves to hop, and he loves winning. But when Grumpy Frog doesn’t win, he gets very grumpy. Grumpy Frog learns about compromise and tolerance, friendship and the power of saying sorry.

• In our letters and sounds we have learnt the digraphs (two letters making one sound) ‘oo’ (zoom to the moon), ‘oo’ (hook a book), ‘ar’ and ‘or’ this week. We have been spelling a variety of words, including tricky words (was, you, they) and reading sentences.
• The children have been enjoying our daily dough gym and handwriting sessions. This week we have been learning how to write our cat family letters- c, a, d, o, e, f, g, s and q.
• Our junk modelling station has been very popular this week the children have been making all sorts of interesting creations such as pirate ships, jet packs, superhero capes and witch’s hats!

For your information:

The children will be making jam tarts to eat in school next week. The ingredients we will be using are self-raising flour, raspberry jam and dairy free margarine. Please let us know if your child is allergic to any of the ingredients listed above.

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you                                 

Have a super weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?

This was our first full week back after the holiday and the children are feeling refreshed and raring to go with their learning! We have begun exploring our theme for the first part of term, ‘into the garden’, this week which the children have really enjoyed. One of the many stories we enjoyed was ‘The Bog Baby’. In the story the children go exploring around a pond and find a little ‘Bog Baby’ which they take home and try to keep as a pet, however, the Bog Baby gets poorly and needs to return to the pond!

• In our letters and sounds we have now moved into Phase 3 and have learnt the digraphs (two letters making one sound) ‘ai’, ‘ee’, ‘oa’ and the trigraph (three letters making one sound) ‘igh’ this week. We are also focusing our attention on writing as well as reading this term and the children have began more formal guided writing in their literacy books, forming words and sentences!
• We had our first PE session in the hall using the climbing apparatus this week, the children had a fantastic time and showed plenty of strength and confidence!
• We have been thinking about ‘challenge’ this week and what to do when we are faced with a tricky task – we gave the children some very difficult tasks and we discussed with them what they could do to succeed! The children decided that they wouldn’t give up, we talked about the importance of perseverance and what it means to persevere.

Have a lovely weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?

The Foundation Team would like to wish you all a ‘Happy New Year’. We hope that everyone had a joyful and relaxing Christmas break. The children have been very keen to share what they got for Christmas. They have settled back into school life and routines well; enjoying working with their friends again.

• In letters and sounds we have continued to revisit all the phonemes and tricky words we have learnt so far. We have been reading words and sentences as well as spelling words on our whiteboards.
• The children have been enjoying our daily dough gym and handwriting sessions. This week we have been learning how to write our lollipop letters- l,i,t,u,j and y.
• In maths the children have joined in with counting songs, using their fingers to represent quantities to 5 and to begin to represent quantities to 10.

For your information

Each Tuesday, from and including the 10th January, children in Reception will have the opportunity to explore the climbing apparatus and P.E equipment, in the Early Years hall.  Each Tuesday, your child will need to come into school wearing jogging trousers/leggings so that they can move freely and in safety.

A request:

Our topic this term is called ‘into the garden’ and we will be exploring our outdoor environment. If anyone is a keen gardener and would like to come into school for a visit, we would love to hear from you! Please speak to your class teacher if you would be interested in coming into school to talk gardening with the children. Thank you.

Have a lovely weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?