Welcome to Foundation

Foundation Staff

 

Autumn Term 1 – All About Me  

Monday 5th October – Friday 9th October

Phonics

This week, we have continued our Read Write Inc. phonics journey by revisiting all the sounds we have learnt so far and introducing the new sounds b, f and e. The children enjoyed practising saying each sound clearly, recognising the letters and having a go at forming them correctly.

We had lots of fun listening for our new sounds at the beginning of words and thinking of different words that start with b, f and e. The children are becoming increasingly confident at identifying sounds, joining in with phonics activities and using their growing knowledge during our daily sessions.

It has been wonderful to see the children's enthusiasm and confidence continue to grow. Please keep practising all of the sounds we have learnt so far at home: m, a, s, d, t, i, p, n, g, o, c, k, u, b, f and e. Regular practice helps to build confidence and supports early reading and writing development.

Reading

This week, we loved starting our new book, The Invisible String by Patrice Karst. We talked about what the word "invisible" means, helping the children understand that even if we can't see something with our eyes, we can still feel it in our hearts.

We had so much fun imagining how far our own magic strings could reach! The children shared wonderful ideas about who they are connected to, talking about how their strings stretch all the way to their mums, dads, grandparents, friends, and even pets.

It was lovely to hear the children talk so warmly about the people they love and miss during the school day. They showed so much enthusiasm and are becoming really confident at talking about their feelings and sharing their ideas with the group.

Writing

This week, we were so excited to begin our brand-new whole-class book, "All About My Family"! Just like our last book, this is going to be another special project where every single child gets their very own page to celebrate the people they love.

We haven't started working on the inside pages just yet, but we had a wonderful time hosting an "ideas party" to gather all of our thoughts! The children had so much fun sharing stories about their homes, their favourite things to do together, and all the special people in their lives.

To get our book ready, we worked together to create our fantastic front cover. The children showed amazing enthusiasm as we kicked off this new project, and they are so excited to start writing and drawing on their official pages next week!

Maths

This week, we had so much fun starting our brand-new White Rose Maths unit, "It's me 1, 2, 3!". The children loved playing games to spot these amounts quickly without even counting them, which is a superpower maths skill called subitising!

We used lots of fun toys, counters, and pictures to explore the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in all sorts of different ways. The children enjoyed matching groups of objects to the right number shapes, looking at dot patterns, and telling lots of fun number stories with our classroom resources.

Through all of our playful activities, the children have been brilliant at seeing how these numbers are made up—like discovering that a group of 3 is actually made of a 2 and a 1 hidden inside! They showed amazing confidence when talking about what they could see and are doing a fantastic job building their early maths skills.

Big Picture

This week, we had so much fun learning all about Autumn and watching how the season is changing the world around us! We spent time exploring the beautiful autumn colours and talking about what happens to the trees at this time of year.

The children had a wonderful time playing with real autumn leaves, having lots of fun blowing them around to see how they drift and float. We turned this into a beautiful art project by taking photos of the children looking like they were blowing the leaves, and then they added real autumn leaves to finish their pictures!

We also looked closely at other exciting things we find in autumn, like squashes, pumpkins, acorns, and conkers. The children worked incredibly hard on their fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick out tiny pumpkin seeds, and they loved using mallets to hammer golf tees into the hard pumpkins! We have also been sharing some lovely autumn stories and learning a fun new song called "Leaves are Falling Down".

We will be continuing our autumn celebrations next week, when we will be learning all about hibernation and how animals get ready for winter!