Foundation Stage Unit
'Fsu'
Hello from the fabulous FSU! In this class we learn how to be excellent 'Bucket Fillers' - If we do something kind or help others, they feel good, but it also makes us feel good too! We love to learn through exciting lessons and activities and take part in Drawing Club, Helicopter Stories, Games Afternoon, Forest Schools, and PE Sessions weekly as well as daily phonics and mathematics lessons. During 'Busy Bee' time we learn by exploring resources, choosing to take part in inviting experiences and using provocations to stimulate our play and creations both inside the classroom and in our lovely outdoor area.
We also love visiting the library bus every other week!
Important Information
Paediatric First Aid Trained Staff
To view the long term plan for the foundation stage please head over to the curriculum page, or to find out more about our curriculum please contact either the Class Teacher or Head Teacher via the school office
What we have been up to...
June
Wow, June started off chilly but definitely warmed up! We have loved watching our beans finally grow after a slow start and look how tiny our frogs were - they were smaller than the tadpoles when they changed! Our 'Spa' was great fun to keep us cool in the hot weather when it arrived!
During our History lessons we have looked at how communication and household objects have changed through time exploring a typewriter, different telephones and cameras. We have also discovered how transport has changed noticing the differences between early planes, trains, cars and bicycles. The FS1 Children have explored objects that they might have used when they were babies and objects they might use when they are adults!
The FS2 had an amazing time at Burton Agnes Hall. During our tour around the house we learned a lot about how life was different a long time ago and saw some amazing art and paintings. Then we went to have a look around the gardens and managed to find our way through the maze! We also had great fun in the woodland play area and had a scrumptious ice-cream before we got the bus home.
We have also had great fun writing and acting out our own 'Helicopter Stories'. We had to listen very carefully to follow the instructions when practising for and taking part in Sports Day. This month we have also learnt about safety near water and roads and have been busy in the Garage and Car Wash in our outdoor area.
May
This month, we have continued to spend lots of time 'In the Garden'! Our focus story was The Enormous Turnip, through which we explored the theme of teamwork playing games such as the children having to work together to move a hoop around the circle. We also wrote a list of vegetables and Grandma Fantastic has supported in learning and using new vocabulary at each plot point in the story. We even had the chance to try some turnip, do you think it is delicious or disgusting?
We have also been learning about minibeasts (especially how important bees are) and have been so creative! In Busy Bee time we have been painting sunflowers inspired by Van Gogh, practising our scissor skills when collaging bees and making our vegetable people and creating playdough ladybirds. We have also explored painting to music—using brushstrokes to respond to sound such as long smooth lines or short sharp dots instead of dancing with their bodies.
During games afternoons, the children have carried on their Balance Bike Training and practised turn taking and subitising with dice playing games like 'Build a Beetle.'
April
There has been a porridge explosion in the classroom as we have been exploring the traditional tale 'The Magic Porridge Pot' in our The Write Stuff lessons. We have explored capacity through dry oats and gloopy porridge Through our The Write Stuff text 'The Magic Porridge Pot'. Through reading this and other traditional tales such as Cinderella we have discovered that some things were very different in the past, we even learnt some traditional games such as hopscotch, quiots and skittles. We have used some fantastic vocabulary linked to what has happened in the text with the help of Grandma Fantastic and even helped to sort foods that are healthy and foods that are a treat... in case Rose gets the chance to eat something other than porridge!
This month we also welcomed our tadpoles into the classroom and learnt all about the frog lifecycle, the children made some amazing creations to represent frogs. We also planted runner bean seeds, tucking them snugly into the soil and listening to lots of books to help us understand how seeds need water—and patience—to grow. In Busy Bee time we have been busy potting up and buying and selling items in the garden centre and have also really enjoyed exploring the scents of the herbs in our play.
We also kicked off our six-session balance bike program, where the children are developing their movement, handling, and road safety skills—all while building confidence.
March
What a super World Book Day we had - sharing the props that we had brought in and talking about which books they came from. Some of us also entered the story in a box competition and we all enjoyed looking at the amazing entries. Mrs Baldwin had some different items in Red Riding Hoods Basket, and we discovered that these belonged to the characters in the book 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes', we then enjoyed listening to this for our story of the day.
We remembered the ingredients Mr Wolf needed to make pancakes when we made our own 'red nose pancakes' for comic relief. We very carefully measured an equal amount of flour and milk, added egg and mixed the batter really well. Mrs Baldwin had to fry the pancakes, but once they were cooked we chose our own delicious topping to add... Yum!
During Science Week we learnt about push and pull forces exploring how different toys move and the FS2 children created their own Easter push & pull puppets. We met WOW the Owl and Scaredy Boo when learning about Light and Dark and loved having a turn in the Dark Den. We listened to the story The Wind Blew and loved watching the beautiful bubbles that we had blown being carried away with the wind! We became absorbed in the sensory experience of making our own lemon juice, this also develops our fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination. Some fantastic language and observation was also used during our whole school science afternoon and Explorify activities. We have also created journey sticks in outdoor learning and in Busy Bee time we have loved helping weed our outside area to get ready for spring and found lots of ladybirds and other creatures!
This term we have had great fun in Tigers Trust sessions developing our gross motor skills. We have also been working on our team skills, exploring different ways to move and our balancing skills - even playing a game of Hungry Hippos!!
To mark Easter, the children created beautiful Easter cards to represent the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We practiced our scissor skills while making the Easter cards and our rabbit hats for when we sang 'Little Easter Rabbit' in church. FS2 children wove their own baskets and in Busy Bee time lots of children chose to make amazing playdough chicks.
February
The Gingerbread Man stayed in our classroom a little longer so we decided to help him cross the river and make him a boat! First we experimented with the materials we might use. We explored floating and sinking when testing our materials and observed closely to see if anything else happened to the materials - the cardboard went soggy! Then we learnt about different types of boats, what they are used for and what some of the parts on some boats are called. We designed what type of boat we wanted to make and then carefully selected our materials to create it. We were so surprised to find the Gingerbread Man waiting to test out our boats! Some of them floated and some sank because they had holes in the bottom or were too heavy at the top but we had great fun trying them out.
We celebrated Lunar New Year, this year it is the year of the horse. We practised our scissor skills when creating our dragon masks and lanterns and during Busy Bee time we carefully copied Chinese symbols with paint and on magic water paper. We also demonstrated great fine motor skills when using the chopsticks in our role play and when using them to eat our Lunar New Year feast of prawn crackers, noodles, rice and sweet and sour vegetables... we were surprised to find out what was in our fortune cookie too!
After half term we were so excited to receive a delivery of different sized boxes! That week we read Dear Zoo; we discovered what animals were in the story, talked about the differences and similarities between zoo homes and our homes and enjoyed retelling the story with the soft animals. We became fantastic at describing the animals that were in each box using a great range of vocabulary.
We were also very excited when PC’s Steve & Adam came to visit us in school when learning about different careers, We discovered lots about the different jobs that the police do; they don’t just “catch baddies” but they have many other important jobs including helping people that are lost and saving dogs from hot cars. We asked some great questions and found out that there are lots of different jobs in the Police Force including cleaners and call handlers and nearly everyone that works there has a special number to use instead of or as well as their name. We tried on some of the hats that are used for different jobs and discovered why police cars have lights and sirens… the siren was very loud!!
January
We welcomed the new year with a chilly start! The snow fell thick in Beeford the first week back to school and we found a lost penguin in the classroom, the children were great at teaching the lonely penguin how to make friends. We talked about where the penguin might have come from and went on a polar adventure; the children decided that penguins only live in the South Pole because Father Christmas lives in the North Pole! In Busy Bee time we read stories to the penguin, explored the snow outside, made playdough snowmen and explored tone inspired by Frances Hatch painting provocations.
We met the penguin from Lost and Found again when we then went onto a journey into space with our next book The Way Back Home. This was our The Write Stuff text for this half term so we discovered lots of vocabulary with Grandma Fantastic, particularly how the boy might be feeling lost and alone on the moon. In Busy Bee time we created aliens from all sorts of different media and explored textures with the gloop.
We loved celebrating National Storytelling week. We listened to and read stories in the yurt and used props and puppets to retell and create our own stories. We particularly loved our focus text The Gingerbread Man and incorporating this into our play. We have matched amounts to numerals using buttons, developed our scissor skills when creating our own gingerbread people and the phrase 'Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man' has been heard frequently as the Children loved retelling the story. We even created bridges to help him cross the river and keep running!
Mini pedestrian training taught us some essential road safety skills and in Busy Bee time we have been looking after the babies making sure they stay nice and clean in the water tray, we have also been developing our vocabulary in our very busy supermarket!