Beechwood Primary School

Foundation Stage Blog – 22 June 2018

This week the children have been learning all about sharks! On Monday morning the children listened to the storyShark in the Dark. After listening to the story the children had to think about how the fish could have scared the shark away. Following this the children developed their knowledge about sharks by looking at facts and the different types of sharks. During their independent learning the children wrote their weekend news. Before lunch the children sang some sea themed songs. After lunch the children listened to the story The Fish who Cried Shark! The story shared the same message as ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’, the children talked about why the animals didn’t listen to the fish when he cried shark at the end of the story. The children developed their understanding of the importance of always being honest.

On Tuesday the children were shown how to write facts about sharks, remembering to use: finger spaces; full stops; capital letters; tricky words; and making phonetic spelling attempts. Following this the children engaged in a variety of shark and sea animal activities: Activity 1 – writing shark facts; Activity 2 – writing words to describe sharks; Activity 3 – looking at non-fiction books about sea animals; Activity 4 – fish and sea creatures in the water tray (FSR) making shark hats (FSF); Activity 5 – children to drew and labelled sea animals. After lunch the children practised their letter formation for the sounds k, l, m, n, o and practised writing the tricky words ‘she’ ‘are’ ‘all’. To end the day the children looked at their knock, knock book and the children talked in front of the class to develop their self-confidence.

On Wednesday the children were shown some sentences about sea animals with some mistakes, for example, missing finger spaces between words, no full stop or full stop in the wrong place, no capital letter. The children were challenged to identify the mistakes and correct the sentences. After lunch the children watched a video about sharks swimming in the sea and further developed their knowledge of sharks. At the end of the day the children attended singing assembly. FSR’s class assembly is next Wednesday (27th June) at 2:30pm.

On Thursday the children developed their understanding of doubling by doubling groups of shells. The children were asked to explain what doubling means and how they double a number. During their independent learning the children explored some Maths activities: Activity 1 –doubling groups of shell shaped pasta; Activity 2 –halving and sharing fish for the shark; Activity 3 – fish size ordering; Activity 4 – which fish is the heaviest? Weighing fish using cubes and recording their results; Activity 5 – which container holds the most? (FSR) buying fish with 1p coins (FSF). Before lunch the children sang a song to develop their understanding of doubling (1 and 1 is two, bend down and touch your shoe; 2 and 2 is four, bend down and touch the floor; 3 and 3 is six, do some finger clicks; 4 and 4 is eight, stretch up really straight; 5 and 5  is ten, we’re going to start again). After lunch the children practised their handwriting and tricky words.

On Friday the children explored halving and sharing fish for the sharks to eat. The children shared fish biscuits between two sharks and were asked to explain what halving means and how they can halve a group of objects fairly. Following this the children were challenged to share a group of fish fairly between 3 sharks. Before lunch the children sang sea themed songs.

During PE this week the children warmed up by playing ‘stuck, stuck, shark’ (adapted version of stuck in the mud) and then they engaged in team games which included: throwing a bean bag into a hoop; running races; and an obstacle course. During ICT this week the children use the software 2Simple 2Paint a Picture to create an underwater scene using the pen tools. To end the week the children attended the whole-school celebration assembly.