Welcome to Foundation Stage 2

Autumn 2023 

Wow! what a busy Autumn Term we had in Foundation. The children settled into their new classes really well. We learnt about our new school and explored the school grounds. We learnt about the signs of Autumn as well as celebrations such as Diwali, Harvest, Bonfire Night and Sukkot. 

We made our very own poppies for our Remembrance service, taking time to reflect on things we were thankful about. We learnt about each others families and how our families can be different and special in so many ways.

We read many books including the 3 Little Pigs, Ruby's Worry, Stickman and Tiddler to name a few. We learnt about our town Rotherham and walk around out local area. We even became performers during our Nativity, visited and Church and learnt about the Christmas Story. 

We also learnt to about Enterprise and made products to sell at the Christmas Fayre. 

We developed our numeracy skills by learning about numbers up to 5. We looked at how these numbers could be made and different ways to make these numbers. We explored rectangles, circles, triangles and squares. 

You can see some of our activities in the photos below.

During the Spring term the children in Foundation Stage had the opportunity to engage with and explore a range of magical stories. We read ‘Winnie the Witch’, ‘Room on the Broom’ and ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’. The children produced lots of fantastic pieces of writing and were involved in some wonderful art work and role play. They were especially excited to see Winne the Witch at school and asked her some interesting questions. 

We also read and re-told the story 'The Gingerbread Man' and made our very own gingerbread people, which all the children agreed were yummy. The children had to listen carefully and follow the instructions according to the recipe. 

We read the 'Runaway Chapati' which is an adapted version of ' the Gingerbread Man' and created our own innovated versions of the story. Other stories we shared included 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', 'Beware of the Bears' and 'The Little Red Hen'. As part of our learning about The Little Red Hen we made our own bread, the children agreed that the bread smelled and tasted delicious!

We celebrated our love for reading on world book day by coming to school in our pyjamas or lounge wear and had a day filled with fantastic stories. In addition we engaged in a range of activities relating to our favourite stories including going on a 'bear hunt!'

In Numeracy during the Spring term the children continued to develop and deepen their knowledge. The children continued to build numbers within 10 and practise their number bonds to 5.

We compared the weight of different objects as well as ordering objects according to weight. The children enjoyed using the bucket scales to weigh a range of different objects that they found around the unit. In addition we compared the lengths of different objects we found in the classroom as well as in our forest area.

We explored 3D shapes and learned the names of the shapes as well as their properties. We went on a 3D shape hunt around the unit looking for everyday objects that were made of or had 3D shapes within them. We also sorted the shapes according to their properties.

We re-visited or learning about repeating patterns we created repeating patterns using colours, sounds, actions and shapes.

We received a very special letter from ‘Rainbow Fairy’ she asked us to make a magic potion that had some very unusual ingredients including ‘bat juice, frog slime and dragons blood!’ We had to follow the recipe carefully and use our knowledge of capacity to prepare the potion. The children were super excited to receive the letter and in the following weeks the children sent and received several letters from Rainbow Fairy. She asked us to write out a spell for her friend Flutter Fairy and in return she made us some rainbow rock that tasted lovely! 

We explored the theme ‘let’s connect’ during children’s mental health week. We shared a lovely story called ‘the invisible string’ that explores the connections we have with people that are dear to us when we can’t see them. We shared the connections we have with our family, friends and pets. Following on from this we thought about the connections we have with the other children in our class and created a web of connections. Lots of children created their own pictures to show the connections they have.

In P.E the children learned how to use a golf club, practising handling the club correctly and controlling the swing. They also took part in gymnastics, this was a challenging experience as children learnt to use their body strength to balance themselves on the beams and perform a variety of point balances. 

The children were very excited to welcome a new addition to Foundation, we got a pet tortoise named Engelbert, Bertie for short! The children were fascinated by him and spent time watching him settle into his new home. The children had lots of questions about Bertie and have learned some interesting facts about tortoises. 

During the Spring term we learned about Ramadan and what makes it a very special month for Muslims. We completed a ‘Ramadan kindness calendar’ which meant that we had a different challenge to complete each day. We learned that Muslims usually break their fast with a date and drink of water so we decided to taste some dates. Our date tasting was a great success! The children described the dates as feeling, sticky, squashy, squishy and bumpy. They described them as tasting sweet, yummy and soft. 

We invited parents and carers to join us for an afternoon of creating Spring crafts. The children loved sharing their learning with their grown ups and it was lovely to see everyone getting involved with the activities. 

28.11.22

This week the children have been super busy, they have continued to make their products for the Christmas Fayre as well as learning about time and the days of the week.  They have been developing their understanding of daytime and night-time and routines of the day.  

They have also been reading the book 'Ruby's Worry' and talking about their own worries and ways we can make the worries disappear. 

On Thursday we had a special visitor come to school to talk about Christmas. We were honoured to have Rev. Karen visit the children and talk about the Christmas Story and Advent. 

Below you will find links and pictures of the learning. 

21.11.22

The children have been super excited this week as we have been preparing our products for the Christmas Fayre. We have been discussing how much to charge for our product and making them too. 

We have also been learning about positional language, using words such as next to, on top off, under.   

We learned about how Children in Need helps children all around the UK and helped raise money for the charity by dressing up in spotty clothes and bringing a donation to school. The children enjoyed taking part in activities relating to children in need throughout the day. 

This week the children have been learning about how weddings and birthdays are celebrated around the world and in different cultures. The have learnt about the similarities and differences of how each is celebrated. They have also helped plan a birthday party for each of their class teddies. We will share photos of the celebration soon. We have also been on a shape hunt, finding circles and triangles around our school. 

This week we have worked hard to create poems about fireworks. We began the week by sharing our experiences of bonfire night, lots of children enjoyed a firework display over the weekend. We watched videos of firework displays and thought hard about words to describe the fireworks. We thought about the way they looked and the sounds we could hear, some of the words we thought of were:

red   green   orange   blue   yellow  

 purple  gold  pink   silver

sparkle  shine  bright

bang   whizz   whoosh   sizzling

pop   boom   crackle

31.10.22

This week the children have been learning about Diwali and Bandi Chhor Divas. These 2 festivals are celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs respectively. The children have been learning about the similarities and differences between these celebrations and celebrations they have had in the past. We have also been making Rangoli patterns and play dough diva lamps. 

07.10.2022

This week we have been learning about the festival of harvest. We thought about the food we eat and where it comes from. We found out that some of our food is grown at farms and when it is ripe and ready to eat the farmers harvest the crops. We spent some time thinking about our favourite fruits and vegetables before sorting them. We also sorted foods according to whether they grow above or below the ground.  

The children created some lovely pieces of art, they looked closely at the fruits and vegetables and thought carefully about the colours they needed. We also had some fabulous painting of tractors.

We used our senses to explore a range of fruits and vegetables the children thought of interesting words to describe the look, feel, smell and taste of each fruit and vegetable.

29.09.2022

This week we have been learning about ourselves and our families. Below you will find some pictures of the children putting their learning into practise. The children have also begun to make and read words using m a s t d