This week, we welcomes Open the Book again into school. It was great to see some of the children acting along with the story and, as usual, they made the Easter Story interactive for the audience.

Watch out for the Roman shields.... coming to a home near you this week!

The children have really enjoyed the history and geography topics this year. It has been so helpful to learn about history in a chronological order. After the holiday, we will be linking the end of the Roman era to the Anglo Saxons.  Please feel free to do some research at home. We always celebrate and display these sorts of projects in class.

We return back to school on Tuesday 22nd April.

Have a lovely holiday!
Miss Pittas and the Year 3/4 team

Spring has sprung in Foundation / Year 1!

We have had a great week in Foundation / Year 1.

Our activities have been all about spring this week. We have decorated easter eggs in different ways such as with pastels, collaging and colouring. We have used our funky fingers to pinch pom poms and add paint to a cherry blossom tree and lots of other lovely activities. We have also talked about the signs that Spring is here and my favourite was that ‘daffodils are popping up everywhere!’ Foundation also did some outdoor learning where they collected daisies and added it to their ‘vase of flowers.’ They looked beautiful!

In English, Foundation have continued their learning on Jack and the Beanstalk. This week, they have been drawing their own picture from the story and used their phonics to label the picture. Year 1 have been writing their own Acrostic poems about space. We have been coming up with some brilliant adjectives to describe space and have included them in our poems.

In the Wider Curriculum this week, we have been learning about materials in Science. We discussed the best materials for a piece of furniture and then designed this in our books.

Just a polite reminder that Friday is our Easter Crafternoon. Please feel free to pop up from 2:15 and you are welcome to take your child home at 3pm. Please do not worry if you can’t make it, they will still be able to do the lovely activities.

Thank you!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

Friday 21st March

Some of this week’s learning adventures!

In English this week the children have been showing Miss Hughes their hand strength, pencil grip and letter formation by drawing pictures of their favourite parts of Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have then been writing small sentences to go with the picture they have drawn using their phonic knowledge.

In maths this week we have exploring doubles to ten and also odd and even numbers within ten! The children have been working so hard with their maths knowledge.

In outdoor learning we wanted to make our own footprints! We tried to set the activity up outside and oh my goodness the wind!!! So our outdoor learning became squelchy, squidgy indoor fun instead! We all took our shoes and socks off and stood in a tray of paint! We then walked down a long piece of paper to make our class footprints! This was so much fun and the vocabulary the children used to describe the feeling of the paint on their feet was spectacular!

In phonics this week we have finished learning all the level 3 phonemes. This week they were /ure/ and /er/ . The children have been progressing so well with their reading skills. For the next two weeks we review all of level 3 sounds before we assess the children’s knowledge and understanding. After Easter we begin level 4, where we explore adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words containing all of the level 2 and level 3 phonemes!

Another amazing week in Foundation class!

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team 

St Patrick's Day and Jack and the Beanstalk stories! 

On Monday, we celebrated St Patrick’s Day. We talked about who St Patrick was and where it is celebrated. We also talked about what people do, such as eat Irish food, Irish dancing and Irish parades. We then did lots of St Patrick’s Day activities.

In English this week, Year 1 have finished their Jack and the Beanstalk stories. We were so proud of them that we got the English Lead, Mrs Marshall, to come and read our stories. Year 1 have worked so hard to include all the features of traditional tales and have produced some fantastic work. Well done Year 1. Foundation have also been drawing a picture from the story and then writing key words/captions to match. We have really enjoyed our Jack and the Beanstalk learning that we’ve even made our own Beanstalk in the classroom!

Just some updates:

Comic Relief on Friday. Children can come dressed in their own clothes for a donation of £1.
Easter Crafternoon on Friday 28th March. An email has been sent with information about this.

Thank you!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

Learning about aeroplanes and watching our tadpoles grow!

We’ve had another great week in Foundation/ Year 1.

We have been particularly excited the past few weeks as Mr Liddiment has set up our own tadpole tank in the classroom! We have learnt a little bit about the life cycle of a frog and how they change and have enjoyed watching these changes ourselves.

In the curriculum this week, Year 1’s History has been focused on the Wright brothers and the first aeroplane flight. We have been creating freeze frames of the first flight, with one of us being Wilbur Wright, one of us as Orville Wright, one of us as the plane and then an eyewitness. We focused on how the eyewitness would feel to be witnessing something so important. We then talked about what makes an event significant and how certain events have changed people’s lives. Foundation have also joined us by creating their own aeroplanes out of bricks outside. We then used our role play skills to pretend to fly the aeroplanes.

In English, Year 1 have begun to write their own versions of Jack and the Beanstalk, using the features of a traditional tale. I can’t wait to read them when they have finished. Foundation have started learning about adjectives and have begun writing different adjectives in their books to describe the characters in Jack and the Beanstalk.

Well done Foundation / Year 1, another great week of learning.

Foundation / Year 1 Team

Friday 7th March

What a busy week we have had in Foundation! So much learning and so much fun!

In English this week we have been writing captions to match pictures from Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have been making huge amounts of progress with their writing and it has been lovely to see them use their sound mats and phonics knowledge to write small words.

In math’s this week we have been exploring 9 and 10. We have looked at combining two groups to make 9 and 10 and how we can represent these numbers too.

In outdoor learning this week, we made the most wonderful dinosaur skeletons from twigs and sticks. We continued to work on our teamwork, and we were in pairs collecting the right size a sticks to make the pictures!

On Tuesday afternoon, we explored why some families celebrate Pancake Day / Shrove Tuesday. Janet explained to the class that she would be giving up chocolate for Lent. We then had so much fun making and eating pancakes in class! They were yummy!

On Wednesday it was St Piran’s Day. In the morning, we had a wonderful singing assembly as a school and the children sang Cornish songs and our favourite ‘Looe My Home’ which is an adaptation on ‘Cornwall My Home’. In the afternoon some parents were able to come to our Crafternoon and it was amazing. The adults and children made bunting, St Piran’s flags, collaged flags, crimped playdough pasties and made Cornish patterns! It was lovely!   

Thursday was World Book Day, the children looked amazing in their costumes. Our activities for the day were all based on a book. We explored: Room on the Broom, Tiddler, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Super Worm and The Rainbow Fish. Each table had the book and corresponding fun activities to go with it. The children made puppets, masks, fingerprinted, designed book covers and drew their favourite characters!

It’s been a super busy week but super amazing too!

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team

St Piran's Day and World Book Day! 

We’ve had a very busy week in Foundation / Year 1.

On Tuesday, it was Pancake Day! Foundation made pancakes in the afternoon and talked about the process of making them, and what toppings they would have.

On Wednesday, we celebrated St Piran’s Day. We learnt about the history of St Piran and what it means to be Cornish. We had a wonderful singing assembly where we sang Sea Shanties, and our favourite, Looe My Home. We then had our St Piran’s afternoon and did lots of activities like: crimping pasties out of playdough, making Cornish bunting, collaging Cornish flags and more. Thank you to those of you who came for our afternoon, it was lovely to see you and spend time celebrating Cornwall together.

On Thursday, it was World Book Day, one of Miss Bolger’s favourite days of the year! We dressed up as our favourite book characters and did lots of reading. We read The Tiger Who Came to Tea, The Smeds and the Smoos, The Gruffalo’s Child and more books! We also used our crafting skills to complete book-related activities. We made puppets, collaged Rainbow Fish, designed a cover and more. We had a really great day celebrating reading and it was lovely to talk about our favourite books as a class and get the children excited about reading!

What a great week.

Well done Foundation / Year 1 for being absolute super stars.

Foundation/ Year 1 Team

Lots to celebrate.

This week, we have learned about the origins of Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in addition to learning about and celebrating our patron saint St Piran on St Piran's Day. 

It was lovely to welcome our parents and friends into our class. Together, we joined in with a range of activities linked to St Piran. 

With World Book Day coming around once more, don't forget to spend your vouchers. Worth the usual £1 or a special addition WBD book!

Don't forget to also visit the Book Fair in the library before and after school. Plenty of goodies to be had by all.

Friday 28th February

The first week back to school is over already! What a quick week!

The children have amazed us at how well they come back to school enthused and ready to learn!

Our big question this half term is: Who Made These Footprints?

This week we have been exploring the life of Amelia Earhart. The children explored how she brought her own plane at the age of 22 and called it the Canary- it was yellow! The children loved learning that Amelia was the first lady to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

The children have been creating planes from pasta, colouring in the canary plane, learning how to make paper airplanes and flying them outside, learning how to draw a plane step by step and so much more.

In English this week we started to read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk; we all loved this story! We read a few different versions and even watched a musical version too! The children learnt the story through role play and a story map and then used their own story maps to sequence and retell the story using amazing oracy skills!

In maths this week we have been combining two groups. The children have worked so hard and progressed so well with their early addition stories. We also continue to sing our 2-, 5- and 10-times table songs daily.

The children’s reading has been fantastic this week in phonics. We have been learning digraphs /or/ and /ur/.

In outdoor learning this week we had outlines of footprints and we collected daisy's, grass and leaves to fill the footprints in, we then went on a footprint hunt around the edge of the school field! 

Next week we look forward to pancake day, St Piran’s Crafternoon with the parents and World Book Day!

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team

Who made these footprints? 

We have had a lovely first week back in Foundation / Year 1.

We have begun our learning on our new big question which is: ‘Who made these footprints?’ We have set up a palaeontology lab for our role play and we have been working as fossil hunters! We have been brushing fossils and using magnifying glasses to take a closer look.
In our big question this term Year 1 will look at the idea of ‘footprints’ as who has had an impact and made significant change in society. In History, we will focus on the first plane and the Wright Brothers as well as looking at Neil Armstrong and the moon landings.

In Maths, Foundation have been combining two groups to make number. They have used lego bricks to help them. Year 1 have started their new unit: Addition and Subtraction to 20. We have begun our learning by using base ten and numicon to add together numbers within 20.

In English, our new learning journey is focused on Jack and the Beanstalk. We have started our learning journey by learning the story through actions. We have also begun to sequence the story and write key words or sentences linked to the pictures!

Some messages:
Our PE days are still Tuesday and Wednesday for this half term.

Please remember to order lunches on a Thursday for the next week.

Please make sure your child has their book bag/book on a Friday for book changes.

Thank you!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

Thursday 13th February

Wow, here we are again at another half term! What a wonderful Half term it has been, jammed packed with amazing learning and progress!

This week we have some very exciting things in class. To finish our big question: What Can I Explore Today? We had two very special visitors for us to explore in class.

Firstly Mrs. Gregory was kind enough to bring her little pug Hugo into school for a short visit. Mrs. Greogry told us all about Hugo and showed us how he uses his scratch box to keep his nails short and how she brushes his teeth. The children explored Hugo by asking so many brilliant questions!

We were then lucky enough that Miss Chapman was kind enough to bring in her bearded dragon to explore. Buzz was very comfortable hugging Harvey from Year 5 (who the dragon belonged to also). Harvey told us amazing facts about Buzz and the children asked so many brilliant questions again!

It was great exploring these wonderful animals as an end to our question. We are really looking forward to the next half terms question? Who made these footprints?

The lady from the Education Library Services visited us too this week, she read one of our favourite stories: Owl babies. She also brought along some owl teddies to act out the story, we loved it!

We have explored and learnt so much this half term and it is really showing in the children’s progress. We are halfway through the year already and we cannot wait to explore the next half and to continue seeing so much wonderful progression form all the children.

Have a wonderful half-term break and we look forward to seeing everyone back to school on Monday 24^th February.

The Foundation Team 

Friday 7th February 

This week the children have been practicing lots of letter formation, in English. We have followed the story of Christopher Nibble and used pictures to identify key words and initial sounds. We then used those initial sounds to write letters using the correct formation.

In maths we have been exploring 6,7, and 8. We have been exploring 1 more and 1 less and also the composition of these numbers. The children are getting really great at learning what parts make a number!

In phonics we have explored the sounds oa and igh. /igh/ is our first trigraph and the children did amazingly well at reading words with this phoneme in.

As we still have our big question of: What can I explore today? We were lucky enough to explore Mrs Gregory’s giant African land snails this week. We looked at them closely and felt their shells. Mrs Gregory taught us so much about them.

On Thursday we had our Speak out, Stay safe assembly session. We explored ways in which we could be hurt and who we can speak to if we are scared and worried.  We explored this using the NSPCC and ‘buddy’ the speech bubble!

Today was Times Table Rock Star Day! Although the children in Foundation do not need to be able to recite their tables we do learn our 2’s ,5’s and 10 times table through song and chant them in class daily. We did this with an extra whoosh today in our rock star clothes and it was great!

Next week is our last week before half term. Next Friday is an INSET day.

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team