Foundation Stage Weekly Newsletter
Puffins and Penguins Weekly Newsletter, 26th March 2021
This week the children have been immersed in the stories ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘The Gingerbread Man’, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. Together we created story maps and the children have been collaborating to retell the stories. The children worked in small groups to sequence and act out the different stories. They demonstrated teamwork to organise roles, decide on staging and support one another. We are hoping to share their wonderful interpretations with you on Seesaw next week.
If you have any of these stories at home, please read them with your child and have fun talking about the characters and vocabulary and encourage your child to repeat some of the key phrases from the stories using different voices and expression. For example, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.”
This week in PE we have been doing yoga to help the children manage any anxieties and support their emotional regulation. It is important for children to be calm and have time to focus and concentrate on their bodies. Yoga is great for mindfulness and develops strength and flexibility. The yoga sessions were based on a story and the children had to listen to instructions and change into different positions. Some of them were quite tricky!
In the woods this week the children have been learning a new skill. They all had a turn at using a hand drill to make holes in the pallet. The children showed great independence and determination. They learnt how to use the hand drill safely and some were confident enough to explain and demonstrate it to their friends. They are now looking forward to using them again.
Lego Discover – Playmakers Session 2
As a warm up, each session starts with a six brick activity. This week the children had to build the tallest tower using six bricks. It was great to see the children problem solve and share ideas. After Easter we will be sending home some discover more sets which include everything you need to replicate the six brick activities at home. Before we send the packs home, we want the children to feel confident enough to teach you the activities at home.
It was wonderful to see the children having fun and working collaboratively this week. They worked together in teams to create a new play park to be used by the community. They talked about their favourite equipment in the park and had to design and create their own ideas. They made swings, slides, tunnels, seesaws, and zip lines. At the end of the session, they recorded their ideas in their own engineers notebook. It was a successful and very creative second session.
It was great to see that the children are already starting to think like engineers and use the skills they are learning in the Lego programme to create and design their own buildings during choosing learning time. Oliver built a wonderful park and was able to describe how it worked, well done.
In Maths this week we have been talking about the number three and noticing patterns in the stories; ‘Three Little Pigs’, ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. Are there any other stories that use the number three?
We have also been using teamwork to enjoy maths games. The children have been taking turns, subitising, adding, counting, and using numicon to find different ways to make numbers to 10 (for example you can make the number 8 by adding 4 and 4, 7 and 1, 6 and 2).
We really enjoyed your Gingerbread stories and you found so many 3D shapes around your home, well done. We have been celebrating home learning together as a unit and children have been moving up the learning ladder to reward their efforts.
This week we have assigned a Three Little Pigs sequencing activity.
For maths we would like you to play a game with your family using dice. This will help you practice turn taking and subitising. For those children who may not have a dice game we are sending home a paper copy of the game, Snakes and Ladders.
Mrs Clague has recorded a wonderful story for you to enjoy; ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’.
Please continue to read your Read Write Inc books at home. Next week, you will need to return your RWI books on Thursday so they can be exchanged for new books for the Easter holidays. Your Read Write Inc teacher may also assign extra tasks, but these will be detailed on Seesaw or in your red book.
Online safety is important, even at an early age. It is important that we talk to children about how to stay safe online. This includes the use of video games. We have noticed some children talking about particular video games and role-playing scenes during their play. It is important to monitor the appropriateness of online video games. Here are some links to websites you may find useful. The Net aware site will enable you to type in the app/game name and it will give you a summary of everything to look out for and tell you how to set parental controls. Another link enables you to check the age limit of games.
Online Safety for Children - Tips & Guides | NSPCC
If you have further questions do not hesitate to ask the class teacher or e-mail the pastoral team: email@example.com
Thursday 1st April – Last day of Term
Thursday 15th April – First day of the Summer Term
From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team