Foundation Stage Weekly Newsletter
Puffins and Penguins Weekly Newsletter, 12th March 2021
Dear Parents,
It has been wonderful welcoming all of the children back to school, we have missed their smiley faces. This week we spent time playing, talking and reminding ourselves of the routines. The children have enjoyed one another’s company and have explored the learning environment.
Mother’s Day
We have been talking about Mother’s Day and the special things we could do for our mums to say thank you. The children have been busy painting, singing and creating. They will bring home some special artwork, and on Sunday there will be a link on Seesaw to a special video. We hope you all have a special day.
World Book Day
The children have had lots of fun celebrating world book day and we have had many rich discussions about which books they love and why. It is important that children are read stories so they hear new vocabulary that sparks their imagination. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and developing a love of books and reading inspires children to read for pleasure. Across the whole school we read the story ‘After the Fall’ by Dan Santat, a story about how Humpty Dumpty got back up again. He was determined to conquer his fears and be brave.
Another great story we shared was ‘The Runaway Pea’ by Kjartan Poskitt. It had lots of lovely rhyming and made us giggle the whole way through. As we were reading the story, all of the children had their own runaway pea! Thanks to BookTrust’s Time to Read campaign they will all be coming home with a copy of this book to keep. The campaign encourages families to make time to share stories and read together. We hope you enjoy the story.
You will also receive an email with a digital £1 World Book Day token. We encourage you to use this to purchase a new book to enjoy as a family.
Teamwork
Our school value for this half term is ‘Teamwork’. We learn our school values through dinosaurs, we would like to introduce you to ‘Teamatops’.
"I am Teamatops. I am very good at working with other people. I always listen to my friend’s ideas and enjoy working out how to solve problems together. I am great at sharing my ideas and know that we can achieve more by working as a team."
Over the next few weeks, we will be taking part in various activities to explore the skills of teamwork. Our new Lego programme is a great example of this.
First Lego League Discover - Playmakers
We are always looking ways to innovate our curriculum and the First Lego League Discover programme is a fun and exciting opportunity. The theme this year is called Playmakers. The children use Duplo and are tasked to design and create a new obstacle course for an outdoor space that can be used by lots of different people in the community. Over the course of 10 sessions, children will think and behave like engineers. The programme will enable children share and test ideas.
Children will be able to work in small groups to explore, design, create and evaluate. They will be using skills to communicate, problem solve, take risks and pose questions.
We want to share the many benefits of the First Lego League Discover programme with you and how the learning can be continued at home. We are starting the programme next week and will keep you updated with our progress. We will be sending out more information in the coming weeks. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask the class teacher.
Home Learning
We have assigned activities on Seesaw for the children to do at home. They enjoy sharing their learning with you at home and it is an important part of their development. This week there is a number scavenger hunt activity and a nursery rhyme activity. In response to the children’s positive feedback from remote learning, we are going to continue to record stories for the children to enjoy at home. These will be assigned on Seesaw every Friday to support our love of reading.
From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague, and the Foundation Stage Team