Foundation Stage Weekly Newsletter
Puffins and Penguins Weekly Newsletter, 7th January 2022
Happy New Year
Welcome back to an exciting new term. It has been wonderful to have the children back in class. They have been very excited and have shown great commitment to their learning. Thank you for your support last term, we look forward to sharing all the wonderful and exciting learning in Foundation Stage this term. We will continue to publish regular newsletters, and please continue to regularly check Seesaw for home learning tasks and updates.
Learning Experience – ‘When I Grow Up’
This half term our learning experience is titled ‘When I Grow Up’. We will be talking to the children about some of the many opportunities they have in the future workplace. We will be linking the learning to our school aim ‘Ready For Work’ and looking closely at how our school values and the 4Cs (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity) are important future skills.
We will talk about a variety of jobs and how they are important in our lives. We will focus on a few jobs in particular to answer the following questions.
- What jobs do people have? Develop an understanding of people’s jobs and how they support us in our lives.
- How have some jobs changed over time?
- What will you be when you grow up? Develop an understanding of the broad life options. Expand on and challenge stereotypical assumptions.
We have high expectations for every child, and it is important that they feel confident in their abilities and are aspirational.
Before the Christmas break, we were lucky to have a visit from two Vets and their puppy. They talked to the children about their role as Vets and our responsibility to care for animals. The children spoke about how they look after the school animals and used a stethoscope to listen to the guinea pig’s heart. The children asked about how they could be a Vet when they were older and were very interested in going to ‘vet school’.
We will be having other visits from people in the local community to talk about their jobs with the children.
PARENT HOME LEARNING!
It would be lovely if you could share your own career experiences with the children. If anyone would like to create a one page A4 profile about their job, or a job they have done in the past, we would love to share these with all the children and possibly create a folder to put on our book shelf. You could include a photo and detail your job and the role you have. Your favourite part of the job, any special equipment you use, if you wear a uniform and any training you had. If you can link your job to our school values that would be wonderful. This is of course optional, but it would be very special for the children. You could send in a paper copy or submit an electronic version via e-mail foundation@preston.torbay.sch.uk or Seesaw. Thank you for your support.
‘Frozen II Enchanted Journey’ Sound book and interactive flashlight
recommended by Muirin:
This is my favourite book because this book is about Elsa and she freezes the fire and it has a tornado. This book is special to me as my Nanna gave this book to me when she visited from America.
‘Hurry Santa Hurry’ a pop-up storybook
recommended by Grace:
I enjoyed this story at Christmas, and I think my friends would like it because it is funny. His sleigh breaks and he uses a helicopter and all his presents fall out and get soggy. At the end the elves make Santa a new sleigh as his present for Christmas. You can actually see the real Father Christmas in the book.
‘Ten Little Elves’ by Mike Brownlowe
recommended by Effie
I enjoyed this book at Christmas, it is one of my favourites. I like the bit when Santa cries ‘help the reindeer are feeling ill’.
Independence
Our school value this half term is Independence. In Foundation we learn the school values though dinosaurs. The children were introduced to ‘Independasaurus’.
“I am Independasaurus. I like to have a go at doing things by myself and I am able to concentrate and focus really well. I am good at having a go and trying out different ways, even if I find things tricky because this is when I am learning the most. I know that it is fine to make mistakes as this is how I learn new things.”
The children spent an afternoon exploring how they can be independent and why it is important. We talked about how being independent doesn’t mean you cannot ask for help, it is about trying yourself first. The children took part in a carousel of activities talking about and demonstrating independence. This included dressing up, singing songs, listening to and talking about the story of Zog, and colouring in a picture of Independasaurus and writing how they use independence in school. We will share some of this on Seesaw.
Maths
In Maths this week we have been recapping our learning on the number 5. We talked about the composition of the number being 4 and 1 more and represented this using double sided counters on different images. We also had fun making different arrangements with five cubes and were inspired by the ‘Stampoline’ Numberblocks episode and created our own artwork. In another session we used 5 small identical toys and threw them into a tray to see where they landed. The children then talked about the patterns they could see and used subitizing to help them. Noticing patterns within a number, and using different representations, is important for a child’s mathematical fluency and special awareness.
Ten Town
We have been using Ten Town to support the children with number recognition and formation. Please continue to access this at home, we will be unlocking more numbers in the coming weeks.
Woodland Camp
It was great to be back in the Woodland Camp this week, the children love the outdoor learning environment. This week we talked about observational drawing and what that means. We made close observations of the shapes of leaves. The children found their own leaf and sketched their observational drawing (without drawing around the leaf). We reminded the children that art is very personal and what one person sees may be very different to another, they were very respectful. It was a hard task for some children as they were worried about the drawing not being perfect. For others they found it hard to see the shape of the leaves and transfer that onto paper. This was all part of the learning experience, and they all achieved some wonderful artwork. We are very proud of all their achievements.
Literacy
This week the children have been finding examples of writing in their learning environment. We talked about the importance of writing and how it is one way of communicating with others. We walked around the school looking for text and talking about its meaning. The children found this very exciting and inspiring. In class they had great fun labelling lots of objects. They used their Fred Fingers to help them spell words. This is a link to help explain Fred Fingers. https://youtu.be/absSgYIPCns
Messages
- Please remember that you can also view this newsletter on the school website where you can also see any photographs that we include.
- Please could all PE kits be in school by Monday 10th January
Home Learning
- Check your book bag or Seesaw for this week’s RWI activity.
- Enjoy listening to the story on Seesaw.
- Talk to the adults in your family about their job.
- Can you label some objects around your home? Send us a picture on Seesaw.
- Use Ten Town to practice numbers 1-4.
From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team