Welcome to Foundation Stage 2!

The team is Mrs Readford, Mr Sharples, Miss Gyte,  Mrs Hussain& Mrs Haq.

Summer 1

Most children have settled happily into FS2 and are beginning to make friends. The children have enjoyed their first term and are becoming more independent in their learning. 

Please make sure that all school uniform is clearly labelled with your child’s name, especially jumpers and cardigans. 

Learning Journey 

This Half terms theme is…Beans and Beasts – do we really need them? 

Global Theme: Sustainable development  

This half term we will be learning about Sustainable Development. We will be answering the question; Beans and Beasts – do we really need them?

We will be planting various seeds to make our own garden and learn about the key features of growth. We will taste different vegetables and learn about a healthy diet.

In RE we will learn about, and celebrate EID Il-Fitr. In science we will investigate the signs of Spring, mini-beast lifecycles and habitats. In geography we will look at maps explore drawing information from maps. In history we will learn about the King’s Coronation.

In PE we will develop basic gymnastic skills through the topic of 'traditional tales', using 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. Children will explore basic movements, creating shapes and balances, jumps and rolls. They will begin to develop an awareness of space and how to use it safely. They will perform basic skills on both floor and apparatus. They will copy, create, remember and repeat short sequences and begin to understand using levels and directions when travelling and balancing.

Maths

We will continue deepening our understanding of numbers to 10 and then 20. We will build numbers beyond 10 and explore number patterns beyond 10. We will match, rotate and manipulate numbers and shapes.

We will be learning addition and subtraction using numbers to 10 then 20. We will compare and measure too.

Books to support Maths at home

Phonics and English

We will continue our Phonics Journey using Little Wandle and will be starting Phase 4. We will continue to revisit Phase 2 and 3 sounds. Practicing these phase 2 and 3 sounds at home is important, especially if your child is finding it hard to recognise, remember or form their letters.  The children will continue to increase their bank of tricky words and begin to write using capital letters and full stops to show the beginning and end of their sentences. At this stage, we will be looking for children to leave gaps (finger spaces) between each word so that both they and others can read their writing back easily. We will have words of the day that reflect our learning and increase or vocabulary. We will continue to study how books work, what makes them enjoyable and use drama and discussion to express our opinions and feelings.

Our core books, ‘‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Mad about Mini-beasts’, will be used as the stimulus. The children will sequence the story and repeat key phrases. They will also begin weekly formal handwriting lessons.

Books to support Literacy at home

Butterflies – In Week one we will be receiving caterpillars into the classroom. The children will have the opportunity to watch the caterpillars grow and change into butterflies. They will document each stage of the lifecycle in a class diary.

Drawing Club – Greg Bottrill’s Drawing Club is a true adventure. Based around the Golden Blend of picture books, tales and animations, it involves a short period of Time Together as a whole class followed by time with children exploring their ideas and creativity.

Diary Dates

• Monday April 15^th – School starts back
• Monday 22^nd April – Earth Day
• Tuesday 23^rd April  St George’s Day
• Tuesday 30^th April to Thursday 2^nd May – Join us on a mini-beast hunt! (more information to follow)
• Monday 6^th May – Bank Holiday
• Week commencing 13^th May – KS2 SATs Week – No Readmore or PE this week
• Week commencing 13^th May – Mental Health Awareness week
• Week commencing 20^th May – Walk to school week
• Monday 20^th May – World Bee Day
• Friday 24^th May – Last day of Summer 1
• Monday 3^rd June – School returns for Summer 2

Please keep your eye on Dojo too as more events will be added for this term.

Most children have settled happily into FS2 and are beginning to make friends. The children have enjoyed their first term and are becoming more independent in their learning.

Please make sure that all school uniform is clearly labelled with your child’s name, especially jumpers and cardigans.

Learning Journey

Following on from our ‘How do we know dinosaurs existed?’ topic we will be exploring the question ‘Where will your next adventure take?’ alongside the story of ‘The Invisible and lots of other key stories. We will use persuasive texts to argue our thoughts and ideas and continue our studies of the author Julia Donaldson.  During our topic on Mythical creatures, we will be exploring sub sections on Space, Jungles, Under the Sea, Traditional Tales, Dragons, Dinosaurs, and Adventurers & Explorers. We will use a range of media to help us. We will also endeavour do answer the question ‘Do we all have the same rights?’.

Maths

We will be starting the term by looking at measures. The children will explore capacity and time while playing games. We are continuing to follow the mastering Number curriculum and will be focusing on activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. The children will also begin to understand the word pattern and we will embed this within most of our number names, the children will also be given opportunities to practise counting beyond 20. They will use practical contexts to sort objects according to different criteria. They will be encouraged to notice different attributes in groups of objects – such as colour, size or function – and to describe what they notice. These skills also support problem solving and the development of data analysis.

Books to support Maths at home

Phonics and English

We will continue our Phonics Journey using Little Wandle and will be revisiting Phase 3 sounds. Practicing these phase 2 and 3 sounds at home is important, especially if your child is finding it hard to recognise, remember or form their letters.  The children will continue to increase their bank of tricky words and begin to write using capital letters and full stops to show the beginning and end of their sentences. At this stage, we will be looking for children to leave gaps (finger spaces) between each word so that both they and others can read their writing back easily. We will have words of the day that reflect our learning and increase or vocabulary. We will continue to study how books work, what makes them enjoyable and use drama and discussion to express our opinions and feelings.

In our writing we will investigate persuasive texts and how we can use the power of persuasion in our own work.

Books to support Literacy at home

Other activities in the classroom in Spring 2

Dough Disco - To promote fine motor skills we watch the 'Dough Disco' on YouTube. If you would like to do this at home with your child you will need a small ball of Playdough!   

Squiggle While You Wiggle – Squiggle while you wiggle is an activity to engage children in developing the motions needed to prepare them for writing. They learn to write by doing circles, semi-circles, horizontal lines, and the vertical lines they will use to write a letter whilst dancing along to our favourite music. This also helps focus on developing their gross and fine motor skills to imitate lines and circles to write each letter of the alphabet.

Helicopter Stories - Helicopter Stories involves scribing stories from children and supporting them to act out their narratives. While simple, this approach seeks to nurture and enthuse children of all backgrounds and abilities, using the power of story. This approach also enhances speaking and language skills, and an increased eagerness to write.

Show and Tell –Show and Tell is on a Thursday. Your class teacher will send a little list of when it is your child’s turn. Show and tell sets the stage for children to become comfortable when speaking in public. In addition, show and tell can be a great tool to help English Language Learners, giving them a chance to practice academic vocabulary, pronunciation, and other basic skills they need to succeed. Show and tell will start in Week 1.

Draw with Rob – Draw with Rob is a guided drawing program that allows children to develop their pencil control skills. If you want to do this at home too, you can. All you need is a paper and pencil!                          

PE

For your information

• PE is on a Wednesday
• Correct PE uniform must be worn to school that day: plain white top/plain black bottoms                    

Home Learning

• Reading 5 times a week and record it in the planner.
• Practise counting forwards and backwards to 20 starting at different numbers.
• Number bonds to 5 and 10
• Phonics play online (free resources)
• Spelling Shed/ Spelling Frame
• Name writing
• Check dojo for more home learning activities.

Please speak to Miss Gyte if you need log in details.

Tooth Brushing Club

Every year there are 60,000 school days lost to tooth extractions and poor oral health. Tooth decay affects a staggering 25% of 5 year olds. It remains the leading cause hospitalisation in children aged 5-9.

We are taking part in an NHS funded tooth brushing club.

Every child will be given their own new toothbrush each term, which is stored under controlled conditions All children are supervised while brushing their teeth.

Children need parental permission to join the club. Speak to your child’s teacher for more information.

Diary Dates

• 19^th February –School starts back
• WC 4^th March – Parents evening
• 7^th March – World book day (join us from 2:55pm for a story)
• WC 8^th March – World Science Week
• 10^th March – Mother’s Day
• 11^th March – Ramadan Starts
• 15^th March – Comic Relief (Red Nose Day)
• 18^th March – Class Photo Day
• 21^st March – World Poetry Day
• 28^th March – Last Day of school
• 15^th April -  School Starts back

Please keep your eye on Dojo too as more events will be added for this term.

Happy New Year! It has been such a positive start to the school year.

Most children have settled happily into FS2 and are beginning to make friends. The children have enjoyed their first term and are becoming more independent in their learning.

Please make sure that all school uniform is clearly labelled with your child’s name, especially jumpers and cardigans.

Learning Journey

Following on from our ‘How does the world celebrate?’ topic we will be exploring the question ‘How do we know dinosaurs existed?’ alongside the story of ‘Dear Zoo’ and lots of other key stories. The children have many exciting opportunities this half term, including a special concert with the Concerteenies.

Maths

This half term children will use their perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) in increasingly complex arrangements, moving from dots in a line and arrangements of two, to a focus on standard dice arrangements. A key focus will be on developing skills of visualising; the children will be encouraged to look carefully at arrangements of dots and then to close their eyes and explain what they saw. Using spatial language to describe sub-groups within these arrangements will deepen the children’s understanding of part–whole relations and allow them to further consider composition (the numbers within numbers). They will then be encouraged to notice when quantities are equal or unequal and will begin to consider how they can manipulate the number of objects in two sets to make them equal.

Books to support Maths at home

Phonics and English

We will continue to revisit our Phase 1 oral blending and segmenting. We will be continuing to build on our phonic knowledge to read and write new words using Little Wandle.

Over the half term we will look at lots of different stories and re-read books to build up confidence in word reading, our fluency and understanding and enjoyment of books. We will read individual letters by saying the sounds for them, read simple phrases and sentences and a few common exception words.

We will begin to write some letters accurately, forming lower-case and capital letters correctly, writing our names, and short sentences. We will learn to re-read what have written and check for sense.

Books to support Literacy at home

Other activities in the classroom

 Concerteenies – We are participating in a musical stories program. Click the picture to find out more.

Dough Disco - To promote fine motor skills we watch the 'Dough Disco' on Youtube. If you would like to do this at home with your child you will need a small ball of Playdough!

Squiggle While You Wiggle – Squiggle while you wiggle is an activity to engage children in developing the motions needed to prepare them for writing. They learn to write by doing circles, semi-circles, horizontal lines and the vertical lines they will use to write a letter whilst dancing along to our favourite music. This also helps focus on developing their gross and fine motor skills to imitate lines and circles in order to write each letter of the alphabet.

Helicopter Stories - Helicopter Stories involves scribing stories from children and supporting them to act out their narratives. While simple, this approach seeks to nurture and enthuse children of all backgrounds and abilities, using the power of story. This approach also enhances speaking and language skills, and an increased eagerness to write.

Show and Tell –Show and Tell is on a Thursday. Your class teacher will send a little list of when it is your child’s turn. Show and tell sets the stage for children to become comfortable when speaking in public. In addition, show and tell can be a great tool to help English Language Learners, giving them a chance to practice academic vocabulary, pronunciation and other basic skills they need to succeed. Show and Tell will start in Week 1.

PE

For your information

• PE is on a Wednesday
• Correct PE uniform must be worn to school that day: plain white top/plain black bottoms     
• Please make sure that your child has a water bottle in school.
• Please make sure your child has a coat.

Home Learning

• Reading 5 times a week and record it in the planner.
• Practise counting forwards and backwards to 20 starting at different numbers.
• Number bonds to 5 and 10
• Phonics play online (free resources)
• Spelling Shed/ Spelling Frame
• Name writing
• Check dojo for more home learning activities. Please speak to Miss Gyte if you need log in details. Please speak to Miss Gyte if you have any questions.

Tooth Brushing Club

Every year there are 60,000 school days lost to tooth extractions and poor oral health. Tooth decay affects a staggering 25% of 5 year olds. It remains the leading cause hospitalisation in children aged 5-9.

We are taking part in an NHS funded tooth brushing club.

Every child will be given their own new toothbrush each term, which is stored under controlled conditions All children are supervised while brushing their teeth.

Children need parental permission to join the club. Speak to your child’s teacher for more information.

Diary Dates

Monday 8^th January – School return at 8:35am

Monday 15^th January – Parent and child event – all about maths 2:15pm – 3pm (Refreshments provided)

EVERY Wednesday is Readmore@Phillimore 8:35 – 9:05am

Tuesday 23^rd January – National Handwriting Day

Wednesday 24^th January – Robin Hood Pantomime

Friday 26^th January – Concerteenies in

Week beginning 29^th January – Fit4School Assessment

Monday 29^th January – Parent and child event – all about stories 2:15pm – 3pm (Refreshments provided)

Friday 9^th February – last day of school

Monday 19^th February – School returns at 8:35am

Please keep your eye on Dojo too as more events will be added for this term.

Year group expectations

It has been such a positive start to the year.

Most children have settled happily into FS2 and are beginning to make friends. The children have enjoyed their first half term and are becoming independent in their learning.

Learning Journey

Following on from our ‘Who are we?’ topic we will be exploring the question ‘How does the world celebrate?’ alongside the story of ‘The gingerbread man’ and lots of other key stories. The children have many exciting opportunities this half term, including baking!

Maths

We will continue to recite numbers from any given number to up 10 and from one number to another number, starting and stopping at the correct number within 10.

We will deepen our understanding of recognising (subitising), making (composition) and counting to 5.

We will use the language AB, ABC, AAB, ABB

etc to describe repeating patterns, recognise and name a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon and hexagon. By the end of the term we will begin to understand and use the positional language in, next to, on top, underneath, above, below, in front of, behind, above and below; as well as use the directional language up, down,

forwards, backwards, turn, left and right.

Books to support Maths at home

Phonics and English

We will continue to revisit our Phase 1 oral blending and segmenting. We will be continuing to build on our phonic knowledge to read and write new words using Little Wandle.

Over the half term we will look at lots of different stories and re-read books to build up confidence in word reading, our fluency and understanding and enjoyment of books. We will read individual letters by saying the sounds for them, read simple phrases and sentences and a few common exception words.

We will begin to write some letters accurately, forming lower-case and capital letters correctly, writing our names, and short sentences. We will learn to re-read what have written and check for sense.

We are taking part in World Nursery Rhyme Week. Follow the link to look at some of the activities we will be completing.                       

Books to support Literacy at home

Other activities in the classroom

Dough Disco - To promote fine motor skills we watch the 'Dough Disco' on Youtube. If you would like to do this at home with your child you will need a small ball of Playdough!

Squiggle While You Wiggle – Squiggle while you wiggle is an activity to engage children in developing the motions needed to prepare them for writing. They learn to write by doing circles, semi-circles, horizontal lines and the vertical lines they will use to write a letter whilst dancing along to our favourite music. This also helps focus on developing their gross and fine motor skills to imitate lines and circles in order to write each letter of the alphabet.

Helicopter Stories - Helicopter Stories involves scribing stories from children and supporting them to act out their narratives. While simple, this approach seeks to nurture and enthuse children of all backgrounds and abilities, using the power of story. This approach also enhances speaking and language skills, and an increased eagerness to write.

Show and Tell –Show and Tell is on a Thursday. Your class teacher will send a little list of when it is your child’s turn. Show and tell sets the stage for children to become comfortable when speaking in public. In addition, show and tell can be a great tool to help English Language Learners, giving them a chance to practice academic vocabulary, pronunciation and other basic skills they need to succeed. Show and Tell will start in Week 2

PE

For your information

• PE is on a Wednesday
• Correct PE uniform must be worn to school that day: plain white top/plain black bottoms

• Please make sure that your child has a water bottle in school.
• Please make sure your child has a coat.

Home Learning

• Reading 5 times a week and record it in the planner.
• Practise counting forwards and backwards to 20 starting at different numbers.
• Number bonds to 5 and 10
• Phonics play online (free resources)
• Spelling Shed/ Spelling Frame
• Name writing
• Check dojo for more home learning activities.

Please speak to Miss Gyte if you need log in details.

Please speak to Miss Gyte if you have any questions.

Tooth Brushing Club

Every year there are 60,000 school days lost to tooth extractions and poor oral health. Tooth decay affects a staggering 25% of 5 year olds. It remains the leading cause hospitalisation in children aged 5-9.

We are taking part in an NHS funded tooth brushing club.

Every child will be given their own new toothbrush each term, which is stored under controlled conditions All children are supervised while brushing their teeth.

Children need parental permission to join the club. Speak to your child’s teacher for more information.

Diary Dates

31^st October – Pumpkin Disco (children can bring party clothes or a costume to change into)

3^rd November – Fireworks Display for children

WC 6^th November – Parents evening (more information to follow)

6^th November – Parent workshop (all about phonics)

11^th November – Remembrance Day

WC 13^th November – World Nursery Rhyme Week

13^th November – Parent workshop (Supporting communication)

17^th November – Children in Need

20^th November – Road Safety

24^th November – INSET (school closed to children)

WC 4^th December – Book Fair in the main hall

6^th December – Winter wonderland 2pm – 3:30pm

13^th December - Christmas Jumper Day

21^st December – School breaks up

8^th January – School return at 8:35am

Please keep your eye on Dojo too as more events will be added for this term.

Year group expectations

I promise to always try my best

I promise to always have kind hands and feet

I promise to listen

I promise to share

I promise to say please, thank you and sorry when I need to

Welcome to Foundation Stage 2. We are really happy that all of the children have settled in to Foundation Stage 2 really well and are eager to learn. Miss Gyte, Mrs Hussain, Mr Sharples, Mrs Readford and Mrs Haq are looking forward to getting to know you more over the next few weeks and are excited to be your teachers.

Learning Journey

Our learning journey this half term will be to look at who we are, who we want to be and our heritage. During our topic, we will be discussing the question ‘Who are we?’ Through this question we will be developing many of the children’s personal social skills, including building confidence when talking in groups, talking to friends about own wants and needs and developing the children’s vocabulary to talk about their own homes and communities, likes and dislikes. We will also be exploring seasons and are starting with autumn and Harvest.

Maths

In maths, we will be matching and sorting objects and numbers and comparing amounts, sizes, mass, capacity and patterns. We will also begin looking at representing and understanding numbers up to 10. We will be focusing on circles, triangles, and positional language too.

Phonics and English

We will be using the Little Wandle scheme and be revisiting our Phase 1 oral blending and segmenting of the letters and sounds scheme. These skills are the foundation for all future reading and writing. 

Over this half term, both you and your children will be learning a lot of new skills and vocabulary through reading and through imaginative play. We will encourage children to act out their story ideas and together we will begin to write our own class stories using all of their wonderful imaginative language.

We will also be looking at books that are written by Julia Donaldson and will study vocabulary, rhyming words, characters as well as enjoy the story lines.

PE

PE is on Wednesdays.

Correct PE uniform must be worn to school that day: plain white top/plain black bottoms. No jewellery allowed.

Home Learning

• Reading 5 times a week and record it in the planner.
• Practise counting forwards and backwards to 20 starting at different numbers.
• Number bonds to 5 and 10
• Phonics play online (free resources)
• Spelling Shed/ Spelling Frame
• Name writing
• Literacy Planet
• Check dojo for more home learning activities.

Log in details will be sent in Week 3.

Please speak to Miss Gyte if you have any questions.