Category: News

Stringman’s adventures continued this week with different areas being tied up with string.

On Monday the children talked about their weekend with a partner. Following this the children drew a picture and wrote about their weekend as part of the days learning mission. Before lunch the children made a friendship web, where they chose a friend to roll the ball of string to and then they said something they liked about that them. After lunch the children listened to the Supertato story and they learnt about the Evil Pea!

On Tuesday  the children received a note from Stringman saying how the children will not be able to stop him. The children’s learning mission was to write a letter to Stringman and some children used their creativity to think of different superheroes who they could ask to help them, one of which was Scissorman so that he could cut through Stringman’s traps. After lunch the children practised their handwriting for the letters d, a, b, p, g and wrote the tricky words ‘go’ ‘are’ ‘they’. To end the day the children looked at their knock, knock book and the child who’s picture was revealed came up to the front of the class and shared something they had been doing at home. It was wonderful to see the children’s confidence to speak in front of a familiar group. The children are developing their ability to ask questions using who, what, where, why and how question words.

On Wednesday the children explored subtraction using Evil Peas. The children counted how many Evil Peas were on a plate and then a child was chosen to take away some Evil Peas, the children counted how many had been taken away and lastly they used a numberline to count back to find out how many Evil Peas were left on the plate. After lunch the children talked about why Evil Pea was unkind and talked about what they can do if they see someone being unkind. The children talked about kind words and kind hands and the importance of being kind to their friends. The children enjoyed going to watch 1J’s class assembly at the end of the day on Wednesday and they are excited about doing their class assemblies after half term (FSF -13.6.18 and FSR – 27.6.18 ).

On Thursday the children learnt how to write an invitation and their learning mission was to write an invitation for a superhero party. Before lunch the children recapped which learning superheroes they have been during the week. After lunch the children practised their handwriting and tricky words. It was lovely to see the parents coming into the Foundation Stage to look at their child’s Learning Journey at the end of the day. The children showed great pride in showing their parents what they have been doing at school.

On Friday the children received a coded message from Stringman, they explored the outdoor area to hunt for letter clues and then they tried to crack the code. Before lunch the children had a class discussion about what Stringman’s message said. The children ended the week with celebration assembly. During this week’s PE the children warmed up doing various superhero actions and then they explored the trim trail equipment on the field and had superhero races. To cool down before returning to the classroom the children played sleeping superheroes. When the children went to the ICT suite this week they played a game where they had to make a healthy lunchbox http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Activity.aspx?siteId=1&sectionId=61&contentId=56.

The children have engaged in a variety of superhero themed activities throughout the week during their independent learning, some of which included: Superhero word mats and writing templates; vegetable weighing; vegetable measuring using unifix cubes and rulers; making supertatoes; make lolly stick superheroes;  Supertato vegetables speech bubble writing; making superhero hide outs; getting Evil Peas out of the sand using tweezers; making water slides using guttering and metal stands; superhero threading; vegetable printing; painting superheroes; and looking at superhero stories in the book areas.

We hope the children have an enjoyable and restful half term and come back to school ready to learn on 4^th June.

When the children arrived at school on Monday they found that some of their toys had been tied up with string! When the children came into the classroom they found a letter from the person who had trapped the toys but the children were still not sure who had done it. The children were challenged to crack the code by finding letters hidden in the outdoor area to reveal who the baddie was. There were gasps of excitement as the children realised it was Stringman! The children explained Stringman’s super power is that he can tie things up and trap things with string. During the week Stringman has returned with more messages and has trapped toys in different places in the outdoor area. The children have engaged themselves in the superhero theme and have written messages back to Stringman.

On Monday the children developed their understanding of subtraction as counting back using a number line. The children read a subtraction and then they circled the first number and jumped back the second number in the subtraction. Lastly they circled the number they landed on and recorded the answer to the subtraction. It would be lovely to see the children practising this at home to consolidate their learning.

During story time on Monday the children listened to the story Superworm by Julia Donaldson and then they talked about Superworm’s adventures and how he saves people.

On Tuesday the children looked at different superheroes and thought about who could help protect their outdoor area from Stringman. The children’s learning mission was to create a superhero passport.

On Wednesday the children learnt how to write a letter to a superhero asking for their help. The children were shown how to write super sentences which included using phonics to spell words, finger spaces, full stops and capital letters. Following this the children’s learning mission was to independently write a letter to a superhero asking for their help.

On Thursday the children were introduced to learning superheroes which linked to the Characteristics of Effective Learning. The children’s mission was to be a learning superhero and plan which superheroes they will be during the morning, afternoon and evening. Before lunch the children played tricky word splat. The children listened to an adult saying a tricky word and then they had to splat the word on their bingo mat. During this activity the children read and identified the following words: no, go, I, into, the, to, back, but, mum, big, dad.

On Friday the children learnt how to draw a story map for the Superworm story and then watched an adult modelling how to write sentences about the Superworm story, remembering to use their phonics to spell words, leave finger spaces between words, include full stops at the end of a sentence and using capital letters at the start of the sentence and for people’s names. The children’s learning mission was to order superhero pictures according to their size.

This week’s handwriting has focused on the letters v, w, m, k, and p. The children have been learning about tricky words and have been reading the words the, to, no, go, he, she, we, my, me, was, they, are. It has been great to see the children recognising common irregular words (tricky words) in their reading this week. Parents can help their child to learn common irregular words by watching the following videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMyssfAUx0 (phase 2) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R087lYrRpgY (phase 3).

During this week’s PE the children warmed up by taking big superhero steps around the field. Then they developed their ball skills by throwing, rolling and kicking a ball to a partner. The children enjoyed participating in team races where they ran, jumped and weaved in and out of cones. To cool down the children laid in a superhero pose on the ground and listened to their heartbeat as it slowed down after exercise.

This week’s PSHE focused on how words and actions can hurt others and how to deal with conflict when interacting with their peers. In addition to our busy week the children have been engaging in a variety of activities during their independent learning. Some of which include: designing a superhero costume; superhero writing frames with superhero word mats; writing secret messages using the wax resist effect; using numicon to make a superhero skyline both indoors and outside; making superhero masks, walkie talkies and bracelets in the creative area; making stick superheroes; playing in the superhero cave and hideout; magnetic and non-magnetic sorting; building a superhero den or bat cat using construction materials; making a superhero obstacle course; making mini sand castles in wet sand; action men in slime; superhero threading; and looking at superhero themed books.

This week the Foundation Stage children have been learning about the months and seasons. On Tuesday the children talked to a partner about what they had been doing during the hot and sunny bank holiday weekend and then the children wrote their weekend news during an adult-led activity. During their independent learning the children were supported to make their own Stick Man using sticks, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. At the end of the day the children listened to the Stick Man story and talked about the different adventures Stick Man went on during the book.

On Wednesday the children ordered the months of the year,  learnt a months of the year song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5enDRrWyXaw and engaged in a whole-class discussion about how many months there are in a year; which month we are in now; which month we will be in next; which month their birthday is in; and we talked about what the weather is like during the different months of the year. The children were challenged to use their Stick Man to find classroom objects which were longer than, shorter than or the same length as their Stick Man. It would be wonderful to see the children demonstrating this at home and for parents to upload these observations onto Tapestry. This week’s PSHE discussion focused on feeling lonely and what the children could do if they saw someone looking lonely, which led on to a discussion about how to be a kind friend. The children have enjoyed watching the Stick Man animationhttp://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ki25z during this week’s story times. Wednesday’s adult-led activity focused on sequencing the Stick Man story, in addition to this some children wrote which season linked to each picture and some children wrote about what Stick Man did for the different seasons, e.g. In Winter Stick Man was used as a snowman’s arm.

On Thursday morning the children recapped their previous learning about the four seasons and looked at which months were matched to which season. Following this the children had to guess which season was being revealed by looking at parts of a picture and then the children matched picture clues with their corresponding season. Thursday’s learning challenge was to write a letter to the stick family from Stick Man asking for their help to save him from his adventures. Before lunch the children acted out the rhyme ‘15 Little Stick Men’ and discussed there being one less each time and counting back. During Thursday’s adult-led activity the children were asked to write about an adventure Stick Man could go on next. It was great to see the children using their imaginations to think of new adventures. We have been supporting the children to use their phonic knowledge to spell words, use finger spaces between their words, using full stops at the end of their sentences, starting sentences with a capital letter, reading what they have written to check it makes sense and trying to sit their letters on the line. Throughout the week it has been excellent to see the children’s writing abilities progressing.

On Friday morning the children explored the concept of addition using Stickmen. The children used their fingers to count on and find out how many Stick Men there were altogether. Friday’s learning challenge was to draw a map of Stickman’s adventures and to write annotations on their map to explain what is happening in their pictures. Before lunch the children explored the concept of addition and counting on using number lines.

This week’s handwriting has focused on the letters b, n, h, r and j. The children have been learning about tricky words and have been reading the words the, to, no, go, he, she, we, my, me, was. It has been fantastic to see the children starting to use common irregular words (tricky words) in their writing this week. During this week’s PE the children acted out Stick Man’s adventures using apparatus e.g. balance along a bench; climbing table with a mat to jump onto; log rolls on a mat; weaving in and out of cones with a bat and a ball; climbing on apparatus. The children ended their PE lesson by playing sleeping sticks.

In ICT this week the children have been using 2Simple 2Paint a Picture to draw a picture of Stick Man and his family. In addition to our busy week the children have been engaging in a variety of activities during their independent learning. Some of which include: Writing about their favourite season; making mini-books; writing tricky words on the chalk board outside; adding with sticks; counting natural objects outside; dress Lecky game on Interactive Whiteboards http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html; cut and stick dress a child for the right season; creating suns and clouds to hang in the outdoor area; exploring the giants castle role play area; investigation table – looking at tadpoles, chrysalis, sunflowers and cress; Stick Man story tray; building a house for Stick Man and his family using sticks; ordering sand castles by height; bottles and funnels in the water tray; painting a seasonal picture; painting with sticks outside; and looking at different Julia Donaldson stories in the reading area.

The children have enthusiastically immersed themselves in our space topic and it has been wonderful to hear them sharing the information they have learnt about the planets, the phases of the moon and what it is like in space. On Monday the children learnt about star constellations and how joining stars together can make pictures. The children discussed the differences between day and night and the different events that occur during different parts of the day.  On Wednesday the children learnt that the aliens had returned and started to build the spaceship. The aliens had left a letter for the children asking them to make designs for their new rocket. During their independent learning the children were challenged to design their own rockets and it was wonderful to see some children labelling parts of their rocket. The children are making good progress during their super sentence writing sessions, where they have been learning about using finger spaces, full stops and capital letters when writing sentences. They are developing their ability to segment sounds in words, using their ‘Fred fingers’ and then blend them together. This week’s handwriting has focused on correctly forming the letters c, a, d, g.

This week’s Maths has focused on 2D and 3D shapes as well as addition and subtraction. On Monday the children revisited the names of 2D and 3D shapes and during an adult led activity the children went on a shape hunt around the Foundation Stage area, looking for 2D and 3D shapes. On Tuesday the children learnt about the concept of addition using an alien adding machine. They read a number sentence (e.g. 5+3=), then they put the first amount in the first tube (e.g. 5) and the other amount in the other tube (e.g. 3). Then the children had to open the aliens mouth and see how many objects it had eaten, lastly they recorded the answer to the addition by counting how many altogether. The children have enjoyed making their alien addition machines in school and it would be fantastic to see observations of them using their alien adding machines at home. On Wednesday the children looked at pictures of everyday objects and were challenged to identify and name the shapes they could see. After that the children worked with a partner to find a given shape within the Foundation Stage environment. On Friday the children talked about their routines and demonstrated their ability to sequence events.

During this week’s PSHE discussion the children have been talking about how they exercise and what happens to their body when they exercise. Many children were able to talk about the importance of exercise and it was lovely to hear the children talking about the various physical activities they enjoy participating in. The children continued these discussions on Thursday when they talked about healthy eating and how to look after their bodies. During this week’s PE the children ended their music and movement space journey. They listened to space themed music  to move in ways which showed the aliens space craft malfunctioning and the aliens having to leave the space craft.  Another highlight this week was when the children opened the outdoor sand pit for the first time! It was fantastic to see the children working together to remove the sand pit cover. The children have thoroughly enjoyed making cakes and sandcastles. During the week the children have been busy making a surprise for their mummies, we hope you like it.

The children’s journey into space continued this week amongst the snow and ice. They have been looking back at that the mind maps they made last week and learnt how information can be found in books and using technology.

The children used non-fiction books to find out facts about space and the planets and they also learnt how to search for information on the internet using a computer.

Following this the children recorded their own facts about space and the planets during an adult-led activity.

The children have enjoyed listening to the story Aliens Love Underpantsand have engaged in activities linked to the story during their child-initiated learning time. There were gasps of amazement as the children watched some of Tim Peaks space adventure to find out what life is like in space. During a class discussion the children learnt about the phases of the moon, they were asked “what happens to the sun at night?” and “what happens to the moon to make it change shape?”

The children actively explored the moons phases with one children standing in one place being the sun (holding a torch) while another child walks around the sun being the Earth. The Foundation Stage staff explained that sometimes the sun is shining on the moon, but sometimes the Earth is in the way and causes a shadow so we cannot see the whole moon. It would be wonderful if the children could look out for the different phases of the moon at home.

This week’s Maths has focused on weight and making comparisons between the weight of objects. First the children were given two different sized moon rocks and were encouraged to use mathematical vocabulary to compare them, using words such as lightest, heaviest. Following this the children put their moon rocks into some weighing scales and watched what happened, making comments such as “It’s gone down because it’s heavy.” Then the children used everyday objects to make weight comparisons e.g. a bag of sugar and a bag of cotton wool, a bag of potatoes. Lastly they have been learning how to use non-standard measures (e.g. cubes) to weigh objects by exploring and how many they need to make the scales balance with an object.

During this week’s PSHE the children have continued their discussions about healthy eating and being hygienic. They considered why they need to look after their bodies and how they can do this, as well as exploring why some foods are not good for us by sorting healthy and unhealthy food.

The children played ‘Guess my sport’ using clues and then discussed the sporting activities they participate in both inside and outside of school. The children were asked if they had ever won a trophy, certificate or a badge for a sporting activity, encouraging them to recognise their strengths and achievements. This led onto a discussion about why we need to exercise and what happens to our bodies when we exercise. The children continued their journey into space through music and movement during PE, where they imagined that they were astronauts floating in space  and exploring the inside of the space craft.  

The children have thoroughly enjoyed being outside in the snow this week and carried out their own ice investigation where they made ice gloves. The children were amazed when they came into school the following day and cut open their ice gloves to see the ice they had made.