Foundation Stage 1
Welcome to Foundation Stage 1
Our Class
Welcome to FS1! My name is Mrs Thompson and I am the FS1 class teacher. Miss Giansante and Mrs Johnson are the FS1 Teaching assistants. In FS1, we support each child to make progress through effective environments, engaging experiences and high-quality interactions with enabling adults. Each child is valued and respected and has opportunities to make decisions and choices. Children’s views are sought, and their interests considered when provision is planned. We follow a 'planning in the moment' ethos following the children's interests and all provision and learning opportunities promote the characteristics of effective learning: playing and exploring, active learning and thinking critically. Resources are thoughtfully and sensitively planned, providing a wide range of authentic items, loose parts and open-ended play opportunities for children. Staff in FS1 have extensive knowledge of child development and each child is supported on their own individual path. Children are able to try things out at their own pace and take some risks in a safe but challenging environment. We aim to fully prepare each child for their school journey, supporting each child to develop a love of learning, independence, personal and social skills and a good level of literacy and numeracy skills that will form a strong foundation for their lifelong learning. Most importantly, we have lots and lots of fun, and we look forward to making lots of memories together!
All children will need to bring a coat each day. We love to play outside, even in the rain, and will enjoy a forest school session every week. Children will also need to bring a pair of name wellies to leave in school.
Please ensure children have spare clothes (including socks) everyday. These can be left in school if easier for any time a change of clothes is needed.
Our routine
Our timetable is planned to ensure all children have the time and space to achieve a high level of engagement with the learning resources in our indoor and outdoor environments.
Children will settle in on the carpet with a book when they arrive at school. After together time and collective worship, the children will be in the learning environment accessing provision. We come together again during the morning for phonics, reading and enjoy together time again before lunch. After lunch, the children access provision in the indoor and outdoor environments. Teacher-led activities will be planned throughout the week based on the children's interests and what is happening in the wider world. Forest school sessions will also be held every Tuesday morning.
Snack
We provide children with a variety of healthy foods and drinks for snack, and children are involved as much as possible when preparing and making snacks. We will be doing lots of cooking and baking with the children. The children have 'continuous snack'. This means they can choose when to go for their snack, so they can really get into meaningful uninterrupted play and learning. This also helps children to develop a sense of independence and the opportunity to take responsibility for their own needs.
Our Mission Statement
Keeping Jesus at the heart of everything we do.
School Prayer
Spring 2
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The children will learn through hands-on, practical activities. They will learn about Desert to Garden through the lenses of hear, believe, celebrate and live and will deepen their understanding of the season of Lent and the Easter story through sensory learning opportunities. The children will have opportunities to listen to stories, see pictures that will promote awe and wonder and take part in outdoor learning activities. The children will have opportunities to embed their learning through small world provision, songs and whole school events and celebrations and they will be encouraged to start thinking of questions about their learning to add to our class wonder wall. Through the children's work in our Catholic social teaching lessons, the children will think about why community is important and what they can do to help the communities they belong to.
Writing
Children will continue to recognise their own name in different contexts and make marks to represent letters from it, creating marks with different materials. They will be encouraged to talk about the marks they make. Children will enjoy pen and dough disco's where they will use movements and music to practise pre-writing shapes and strengthen their gross and fine motor skills.
Reading
We love to share stories in FS1 and the children enjoy choosing their own books and spending time in our reading area. We read stories together every day as a class and the children also take home a book to share with their families. Each week we will explore a book and enjoy practical activities based on some of the vocabulary. Some of our books this term will include:
We use drawing club in FS1 to develop children's oracy and literacy skills and to nurture a love of books. Drawing club allows the teaching of many concepts through shared stories and pictures and supports children to talk confidently, use new vocabulary, listen and to share ideas. It also supports fine motor development and mathematical skills. Above all, it is great fun and the children love these sessions!
Phonics
We follow the 'Little Wandle' phonics programme. We will continue to learn initial sounds this half-term through recognition of the images that represent the phonemes. We will be learning the sounds d,g,o,c,k,e We will learn one sound per week through a series of activities focusing on sounds and oral blending. Our phonics work will continue to be supported with daily rhyme time activities, focusing on tuning in to initial sounds, recognising syllables and rhyming words.
Mathematics
The children will continue to join in with adults, counting up to 10 in everyday routines and in rhymes and number games. Children will continue to count up to 10 objects and respond to instructions such as 'please give me 5'.
Through playing in our classroom areas, the children will use vocabulary related to shape, size, capacity, length, height and weight, such as empty, full, short, tall, heavy, light longer, shorter'.. The children will continue to develop their understanding of the daily routines at school, talking about the days of the week, months of the year and the date.
As well as the above, maths learning objectives this term are:
Learning experiences
Through classroom areas and experiences, along with teacher-led activities, the children will continue their learning about seasons by exploring signs of spring. We will be looking at Spring flowers and enjoying lots of planting activities. We will learn about animals that are born in Spring and start to look at lifecycles of some plants and animals. Through Forest school sessions, children will enjoy exploring nature and noticing changes in the environment as the seasons change. The children will continue to learn some basic bush craft skills and will have opportunities to develop their teamwork skills and resilience.
We will observe the festivals of Lunar New Year, St David's Day and St Patrick's Day, enjoying activities around these. We will continue to learn about the passing of time by reflecting on photographs from earlier in the year and observing changes in our growth. We will start to learn about our senses. Children will continue to take part in weekly music lessons where they will learn about different genres of music. They will use different instruments to explore the beat and rhythm.
All provision in the indoor and outdoor environments is planned in line with the early years curriculum and guidance documents and will support:
Communication and language development
Personal, social and emotional development
Physical development
Children's skills and understanding in Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the world and Expressive arts and design.
Nursery Rhymes
We sing nursery rhymes and songs every day in FS1 and the children all have their favourite rhyme! We always join in with different actions and sometimes even add in our own verses. Here are some of the rhymes and songs we will be learning this term:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zkpp7nb
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zm7rf4j
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/znpj47h
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zhn7kmn
PSHE
Children will continue their 'My happy mind' journey and this half-term will be all about relating their learning to everyday actions. The children will learn about listening skills and how listening helps us to learn, what makes a good friend and why it is important to follow rules.
myHappymind is all based around helping children to understand how their brain works and to support them in developing positive skills and habits to be their very best selves! myHappymind is delivered in schools by class teachers through a series of interactive lessons and then the children apply these learnings throughout the day.
The children will also continue to be exposed to 'The Zones of Regulation.' A trusted, evidence-based framework that builds emotional regulation and behavioural skills for life. Children will be introduced to the zones, enabling them to express their feelings to staff members through non-verbal actions.
Helpful websites
If you have any questions or would like any further information, please contact the school office and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I look forward to working together.
