Foundation- Magpies
Summer 2010
For the curriculum overview for the Summer term, please click here.
Potato Day.
The Magpies harvested their potatoes on Wednesday 23rd June. At first we couldn’t find any potatoes in the planter but after emptying out all the soil we found 18 potatoes lurking at the bottom. Luckily there were 18 children in the class that day so each child got to hold a potato!
Before harvesting the potatoes we estimated how many potatoes we thought would be in the planter and estimates ranged from 5 to 100! After harvesting the potatoes we lined them up in order of size and then weighed two of the potatoes to see which was the heaviest.
Just for fun we sang the one potato, two potato song and played with Mr. Potato Head. Later we cooked the potatoes and ate them with a little butter. Yum! Most children came back for seconds. Everyone had a lovely time.
A Visit to the Police Station.
The Magpies visited the Police station on Tuesday 22nd June. They looked inside a police van, listened to the siren and watched the flashing lights. Then we went to the CCTV room to check everyone in Bideford was behaving themselves. The Magpies then had their fingerprint taken so the police can keep tabs on them in the future. Everyone got to try on police hats and had a lovely time.
Spring 2010
For the curriculum overview for the Spring term, please click here
Creative Development.
This term the children will be creating collages and props to link with our theme of Pirates. We will also be using our feet to create an artwork on the theme of ‘walking the plank’!
During Continuous Provision the children will be provided with a range of media and mark-making materials in the Creative Area. The children will have the opportunity to experiment with these materials and talk about how they used them and what results they have achieved. Some of these sessions will be adult led when specific creative skills or use of media will be concentrated on.
The children will be singing various Pirate songs and will be making up new verses to songs they already know, considering rhyme and rhythm.
This term we will also be including access to musical percussion instruments as part of our Continuous Provision, organised during a session when disruption to other classes will be minimal! The children will be making up drumming rhythms to well known Pirate sayings “Aye, aye, Captain”, “Pieces of Eight”!
Communication, Language & Literacy.
In Phonics this term we will consolidating all we have learnt in Phase 2 and will be introducing new Phase 3 sounds. Phase 3 will include learning sounds that use 2 (digraph) or 3 (trigraph) letters to make one sound. For example ‘sh’ in ship, ‘oa’ in boat and ‘igh’ in night. Parents are encouraged to speak to the class teacher if they are unsure of any Phase 3 sound or for guidance and advice on how to help their child with reading and writing.
The children will be learning to spell the ‘tricky’ words they learnt to read last term (I, no, go, to, the) and will have a new set of tricky words to learn to read (he, she, we, me, be, was, you, they, all, are, my, her). We will continue to blend and segment words to help children with their early reading and writing in Phonics and also in our guided reading and writing sessions.
Our Role Play area this term will be themed around Pirates and we will be encouraging the children to immerse themselves in story characters and settings as they help create and then play in the Role Play.
The children will be encouraged to write labels and captions for the Role Play area and our Pirate art displays.
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
During this term the Foundation Stage children will be helping to organise fund-raising activities for Marie Curie Cancer Care. These activities will revolve around the daffodil bulb “Little Pots of Care” the children planted and took home to look after last term. We will be talking about how the children have cared for their bulb and extend this to caring for others.
Our theme this term is Pirates and we will be taking the opportunity to discuss right and wrong when talking about the action and behaviour of Pirates! We will also help the children to understand how their own actions/ behaviour impact on themselves and people around them.
We will be using circle time to think about what makes us all special and celebrate the things we like about our friends in school. We will also be playing games that involve turn-taking.