Foundation 2
Welcome to Foundation 2
Chestnuts & Oaks
Foundation Stage Teachers: Miss Priddle, Mrs Pickup & Miss Lloyd
Teaching Assistants: Miss Lawson & Miss Williams
Meet the Team
Key Information
Reading - Please read with your child 5 times a week and record this in their reading diary. Your child will experience lots of reading opportunities in school, reading individually, in a guided reading group and through shared reading. Diaries will be collected in every Monday morning and the number of reads counted, which contribute towards different incentives and rewards.
Set Words & Bear Words - Your child will be given a special folder in which they will keep set words and their bear word booklet. Bear words are the challenging words that can not be blended and need to be learned by sight, set words are mainly words that the children can blend to read, which is a skill the children learn in phonics. Children's set words are checked weekly. If your child has learnt their set words before they are due to be changed, see if they can learn to write the words or start some sentence building.
PE - Will be on a Monday for both Chestnuts and Oaks. Please ensure that your child's PE kit is in school from the beginning of the school year. PE kits will be sent home at the end of each half term to be washed. Children need black shorts, white t shirts and plimsolls.
Water bottles - Please make sure water bottles are clearly labelled with your child's full name. Please only fill your child's bottle with water.
Names in uniform - Please ensure that all of your child's uniform and PE kit is clearly labelled with their full name.
Dates for your diary 2019- 2020
| Autumn Term | Spring Term | Summer Term |
|---|---|---|
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Friday 30th August - INSET DAY Monday 2nd September - INSET DAY Tuesday 3rd September - First day of school Wednesday 11th September - Meet the Teacher meeting Thursday 26th September - Supporting at Home workshop Thursday 3rd October - One Day Wonder (Basford 50) Friday 4th October - INSET DAY Tuesday 15th October - Phonics workshop Friday 18th October - Story Session 2.45pm |
Monday 6th January - INSET DAY Monday 3rd February - One Day Wonder
|
Thursday 7th May - One Day Wonder (VE Day) Friday 8th May - BANK HOLIDAY |
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Week beginning 18th November - OBS Anti bullying week Week beginning 9th December - Show week |
Thursday 5th March - World Book Day / World Maths Day Wednesday 18th March - INSET DAY
|
Friday 5th June - One Day Wonder (World Environment Day) Friday 19th June - INSET DAY Friday 26th June - Enterprise Day Friday 24th July - INSET DAY
|
Topic Overview
2019-2020
| Autumn 1 - Ourselves & People who help us | Spring 1 - Dinosaurs | Summer 1 - Traditional Tales |
| Autumn 2 - Seasons & Celebrations | Spring 2 - Space | Summer 2 - Changes |
Overviews & Curriculum
Our current topic is…
Ourselves
Splish, splash!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
We have been learning all about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We had our very own class caterpillars! We watched them grow big and fat as they ate up all their food. They made cocoons...nibbled their way out and.....they became beautiful butterflies!
Today we let them go so they can fly free outside! Good-bye butterflies! We will miss you!
The great release!
The Chestnuts retelling The Hungry Caterpillar
This half term we are going to be finding out about changes to our environment and to living creatures. We will be discovering how frogs and butterflies start their lives and how their life cycle works.
We will also be doing some lovely transition work to prepare for moving to Year 1 in September.
Oak Class retelling the story of the 'Teeny Weeny Tadpole'
For our current topic changes, we have been looking at the seasons and how the weather changes. This week might be a but wet for summer but we still made the most of it!
There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes!
Summer 1 - Dinosaurs
Chestnut's Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaur Rumpus
Oaks Retelling Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaur Rumpus
Our visit to Manor Farm
Farm Photos
We were so surprised on Tuesday to find two eggs in the foundation garden. First we thought they may have been left by the Easter Bunny, but they weren't made of chocolate! We wondered if they had been laid by a chicken...but they were too big and heavy!
After some investigation and a little help from a search engine, we found out they are possibly dinosaur eggs.
During this topic we are going to get so knowledgeable about dinosaurs we will all soon be palaeontologists!
Dinosaur Message
One Day Wonder - Careers Day 3rd May 2019
We have had a fantastic day learning about lots of different careers and also thinking about what we might like to be when we are older! The children looked amazing in their outfits!
We were also joined by Chris White who talked to us about how he became an author and illustrator. He then gave us a master class in drawing a dinosaur that we have called Sparklesaur! Please see the gallery below for all the wonderful illustrations.
Chris White Visit
Our Dinosaur Gallery
The Gingerbread Man
Photos taken by the children on our Wow day. They had to use the clues that were left to work our new topic.
Spring 1 - Space
What a fantastic first two weeks we have had learning about space and and planets. We have been so impressed by the number of children who have been so keen to write to Zog and respond to the three messages he has now sent us!
We have used our joining and fixing skills to make aliens with moving parts and ended our week by making alien biscuits!
We are looking forward to Zog and his friends Tig and Zag visiting us soon. They set us a challenge of making them a home to stay in when they arrive; the children have been busy box modelling to make them a special place to stay.
Look at all the wonderful writing we produced when we sent messages back to Zog!
Photos of our topic so far
Message from Zog
Reading Challenge
Well done to Chestnut Class who won the termly reading challenge (by 10 reads!) They celebrated with a tea party hosted by Miss Priddle. We will run the competition again next term.
The Acorn
Rehan's story
Loki's story
Christmas Celebrations
As part of our 'Understanding the World' curriculum, we have been learning about different celebrations and festivals including Diwali and Christmas.
We concluded our topic with a wonderful Christmas show called 'Angel Express' - the children were all outstanding in their roles, they sang beautifully and the children with speaking parts excelled themselves. We are so proud of each and every one of the children. We also performed to three care homes who brought residents along to watch an extra performance.
We have also had a party, met Santa and spent time singing Christmas songs and exchanging cards with our Year 5 amigo's.
Children In Need
Well done to all the children who dressed in something spotty or as something spotty to raise money for a very important cause. Thank you to all the parents and carers for your support with this and for donating to our bake sale.
Odd Socks Day
We celebrated anti-bullying week by wearing odd socks to school. This was to celebrate that we are all unique and different and we should celebrate this.
Celebrations
We started our new topic with a 'wow' day! We learned all about Bonfire Night and about Guy Fawkes. We built our own class bonfires, enjoyed chocolate coated apples and had bread stick sparklers to eat!
We're Going on a Bear Hunt!
....We're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day! We're not scared!
The Chestnuts and Oaks have been on their very own bear hunt! We caught the tram to Nottingham to build our class bear! Thank you so much for all the volunteers that helped make the visit so special.
We hope you enjoy looking at the photos!
Music - Dynamics
This half term we have been learning about the musical element 'dynamics' in our music sessions. Dynamics means loud and soft sounds in music. The children have been learning the different technical vocabulary-
piano - soft forte - loud crescendo - building the sound to create effect
notation - representing the musical notes
conductor - leading the music composer - making the music
The children have been creating their own musical scores.
Composing wonderful music with loud and soft sounds.
Composing and Conducting!
Phonics Workshop
A massive thank you to all parents that attended our phonics workshop. We appreciate your support and we know the children just love having you in school and learning alongside them.
Enjoying our first few weeks of school!
2 BUILD A PROFILE - LEARNING DIARIES
We track your child's progress throughout the Early Years and use a personal learning diary to keep evidence of their learning through photographic evidence and notes. We invite parents to contribute information from home. Please see the examples of evidence for ideas.