What have we been up to in Foundation 1?

Please check this page for updates of activies which we have taken part in this week at school.

At forest school we have noticed some signs of spring. We saw some blossom, buds on trees, daffodils and bird nests. We learnt in class that birds lay their eggs in spring, which is why eggs are a sign of spring. Also lots of animals give birth in spring, like sheep give birth to lambs and hens give birth to chicks.

Today we had a special visit from the author Jude Lennon. She read us some stories which we all helped to recreate by adding actions and joining in with repeated phrases.

Happy World Book Day!

The children (and teachers too) dressed up as some of the favourite story book characters. We saw The Gruffalo, Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Hungry Caterpillar and many more.

We have been reading the story "Matisse's Magical Trail". They children used a white wax crayon to draw an invisible trail on a piece of paper. We then sprinkled with powder paint and sprayed water over the top. Which produced fabulous, colourful pieces of art.

Alongside learning about snails, we have also been learning about the artist Matisse. He produced a piece of artwork called "The Snail". He used a technique called "painting with scissors". The children all tried to replicate his work. Firstly we paintly vivid colours onto big pieces of paper, then the children cut the paper into smaller pieces and lastly they followed Matisse's design to create their own masterpieces.

The children returned to school after half term to discover we had pet snails! The children were very excited.

They learned what snails like to eat, where they like to live and lots of interesting facts about snails. 

We have been reading the book "Mr Wolf's Pancakes". In this story Mr Wolf asks his friends to help him make some pancakes but they are all rude and shut the door in his face. He eventually makes the pancakes "all by himself." He friends they try to eat the pancakes instead of Mr Wolf. We have been learning how important it is to help our friends.

The children have decorated pancakes with their favourite toppings, created stick puppets of all of the characters from the story, practiced our counting skills by counting pancake toppings and we also followed Mr Wolf's recipe and made our own pancakes, they were very yummy.

We have been learning all about China and Chinese New Year. We looked at the globe to discover where about China is compared to us, we made some traditional Chinese crafts, learnt all about The Great Race, performed a Dragon dance and also ate some yummy chinese food.

Which birds can you see in the garden? We have been learning about 4 different garden birds - Robin, Blackbird, Bluetit and Magpie. Outside we have been using our bird watching station to look for birds.

In Design Technology we have been exploring hats. We read the book "Whose Hat is This?" We explored different materials, different styles, fastenings. The children then designed their own hat and followed the design to create their hats.

We had two exciting craft afternoons. We decorated baubles for our Christmas tree, made reindeer hot chocolate cones, threaded pipe cleaner decorations and decorated biscuits with icing to look like baubles.

This Christmas time we have had some special visitors. Father Christmas and two of his Elves came to visit and share exciting stories with the children.

At forest school we have been using our big muscles to dig the soil, explore the hidden tunnels and build dens.

Greer from Jackson's Animal Sanctory came to visit us to teach the us about how to keep hedgehogs safe.

We have been exploring the number 2 and what makes a pair. We matched socks, wellies and gloves. We also designed our own socks.

Our Learning hero this half term in the Colour Monster because he learns about his different feelings and Empathy is about understanding our feelings. In maths we have used the Colour Monster story to explore our colours.

This week we have been learning about the role of a fire fighter, who to ring in an emergency and how to keep safe around fires.

We have been learning all about dots and spots and circles. We have linked this to the artist Yayoi Kusama. We explored different spots, dots and circles and how Yayoi used these in her art work, including on pumpkins.

Mr Cassidy came to visit us today, he told us all about himself and read us a lovely story which we enjoyed listening to.

For mental health day we all wore yellow, we enjoyed joining in with yoga and breathing techniques

Spooky week - we have been rhyming, tracing, and exploring pumpkins

This half term we have been learning about Resilience. The Little Red Hen shows lots of resilience as she continues to ask her friends to help her. We loved learning all about the story which meant that we could retell the story using a story map, sing a bread song and even made our own bread.

There is lots of exciting activities in our outdoor area. We have made messy creations in the mud kitchen, explored how objects travel down ramps, played with bubbles and completed obstacle courses.

We have had lots of fun during our first week in school. We have explored our classrooms and made lots of new friends.