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Preston
Primary School
Academy

Foundation Stage Weekly Newsletter

Puffins and Penguins Weekly Newsletter, 11th March 2022

Once Upon a Time…

Our learning experience this half term is called ‘Once Upon a Time’. We will be exploring and enjoying many traditional tales, igniting the children’s curiosity, creativity, and love of learning. We will discuss the key characters and events of the stories and learn new vocabulary. Through drama, songs, reading, art and writing we will explore narratives, illustrations, and characters. Children will be learning the following key knowledge.

1.Know some traditional tales and be able to retell the stories through mapping and performance.

2.Understand the role of authors and illustrators.

3.Understand the structure of a story and common principal characters (hero and villain). Develop confidence in storytelling.

4.What are fiction and non-fiction books?

Some of the stories we will be reading are: The Three Little Pigs, The Gingerbread Man, The Magic Porridge Pot, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Ugly Duckling, The Elves and the Shoemaker, and Little Red Riding Hood.

This week the children discovered a variety of story props and characters in the woods. They were looking for clues to link the props to stories. The woods were filled with rich language, excitement and wonder. The children were retelling the stories, identifying missing characters and sharing their favourite parts of the stories. It was wonderful to see and hear the children sharing their love of stories.

Literacy – Oi Frog

This week we read the story ‘Oi Frog’ by Kes Gray and Jim Field.

The children found the story very funny and enjoyed joining in with the rhyming. Whilst reading the story the children guessed what the animals would be sitting on, they had some amazing ideas. We also discussed the characteristics of the frog and the cat. This is what they said:

"The frog asks lots of questions." "The frog is funny." "The frog is happy."

"The cat is bossy." "The cat is rude." "The cat is grumpy."

We played a rhyming game with the animals in the story and the children drew and wrote their own ideas. We also had some fun rhyming with their names, Jake sits on a snake, Alayna sits on a banana, Daniel sits on a spaniel. We will continue to explore rhyming over the next couple of weeks. Please support your child to understand rhyming, have fun rhyming at home. We have set a rhyming activity for your child to complete.   

First Lego League Discover – Session 6 : ‘Let’s Explore Jobs’

In Lego Discover this week the children tried a six brick team challenge. They made a Duplo cube package and had to pass it to their team members in different ways. The children were very creative and collaborated well.

The build task this week was to create tools and equipment that people use in their jobs to transport and deliver packages. The children talked about the different jobs people have in the community, and how they transport packages and the types of tools they use. They wrote their ideas and drew their designs in their ‘Engineer Notebook’. They created forklift trucks, cranes, drones, trollies, and winch arms. Some of the children had to work in different teams this week and they really impressed us with their flexibility and teamwork skills. In life there are occasions where people have to work with different people and Puffins and Penguins are already demonstrating these skills. Well done, you impress us every week.

Recommended Reads

These are the books your friends would like to recommend this week. We hope you enjoy them.

‘Ultimate Princess Treasury’

recommended by Mia

I like this story because there are loads of stories with princesses and I like their dresses. They have crowns and I would love to have a crown.

‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett

recommended by Edie

I would like to recommend this book because my favourite bit is when Mary finds the key. The key opens the door to the secret garden. I hope you love the book.

‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson

recommended by Grace

This is my favourite story. I love the long broomstick at the end of this book. I also like the dragon!

Home Learning

  • Enjoy the Seesaw story ‘There’s a Wocket in my Pocket’ read by Miss Lewis.
  • Complete the rhyming activity on Seesaw.
  • Check Seesaw and your book bag for this week’s RWI books and activities.
  • Use Ten Town to practice numbers 1-10
  • Look on Seesaw for this week’s ‘Six Brick Challenges’. We would love to see some photos of you completing the challenges and hearing your thoughts.
  • Enjoy sharing traditional tales with your family.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team

Address
Preston Primary School Academy
Old Paignton Road
Torquay
Devon
TQ2 6UY

Phone
01803 607075