• Language

Westover Green Community School and Autism Centre

Foundation Stage

FOR LATEST HOME-LEARNING PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Welcome

Hello and a warm welcome to the Foundation Stage page on our website. My name is Mrs Gibbard; I am the Mulberry Class teacher and Early Years Foundation lead. Miss Robinson is the class teacher in Plum Class and together we work alongside Miss Hankinson, Miss Lock, Miss Plenty, Mrs Mullins. We are all passionate about the early years and love to learn whilst having fun.

A video message to our new Foundation Children:



Mulberry Class

Plum Class

Documents

Files to Download

EYFS Statement

Am I ready for School?

Curriculum Overview

Our Curriculum Overview explains our Learning Goals during the term.

EYFS- Curriculum overview- Autumn A

EYFS- Curriculum Overview- Autumn B

EYFS- Curriculum Overview- Spring A

EYFS- Curriculum overview- Spring B

EYFS- Curriculum overview- Summer A

Sharing Letters

We will regularly send home sharing letters to explain what we are learning. To view a copy of the sharing letters please click on the link below.

Letter for reading and attendance

Sharing letter 16.03.20

Sharing letter - Farm

Sharing letter 20.01.20

Messages

  • Our PE day will continue to be on a Tuesday for both Plum and Mulberry. We are very fortunate to be having Mr Hammond teach us PE alongside Mrs Gibbard or Miss Robinson.
  • If you have any concerns or questions please feel free to talk to your child's class teacher. If you are unable to speak with us you can always put a message in your child's reading diary as it is checked everyday.

Thank you for your continued support.

Home learning

During our phonics sessions the children in Plum and Mulberry have learnt their phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes and common exception words. You can support your child with their learning at home by using word bags (they can be found in book bags) to practise reading the cards in the 'I need to practise' pack. Alternatively, you could ask your child to write the words from their 'I know these words' pack.

Reading stories is so important for children and it benefits their learning in all areas of the EYFS. If you do not have books at home then oxford owl provides lots of stories for free.

You could ask your child to write a sentence using their common exception words or a sentence of their choice. When we discuss writing sentences at school we discuss the importance of a capital letter to start a sentence. We remind children to leave finger spaces between their words and to use their phonics. It is really important to encourage your child to say the sentence before writing and also to say a word before using their phonics to sound it out.

During our maths sessions the children really enjoy counting out loud and you could easily do this at home to ensure they are confident when counting, especially when saying the 'teen' numbers. You could talk about one more or one less within 20. We have also covered addition, subtraction, halving and doubling and therefore, you could ask your children about their understanding of this or to write you some number sentences.

We also look at shape, space and measure during maths sessions which includes discussing the time, money, shapes, length, height, weight, capacity, distance and patterns. Any discussions you have with your child regarding this will help their learning.

Other simple activities at home really benefit children's learning such as a trip to the park to develop their physical abilities or baking a cake which really helps learning within all areas of the EYFS.

Our learning

World book day

WOW! The children all looked amazing in their costumes for world book day on the 5th March. The teachers and teaching assistants dressed up as witches and wizards from Harry Potter. The children loved visiting the library to look at the 'book in a tray' which had been made. A couple of the children were able to guess some of the stories. Reading in the fairy tale tent was a dream come true for 'Horrid Henry' and 'Matilda'. I think you will agree that all of the children and adults looked fantastic.

The three little pigs

Plum and Mulberry have learnt the story of the three little pigs very well and can retell the story from memory already. We have been busy talking about how the pigs felt when their houses were being blown down by the big bad wold. The children's writing over the past couple of weeks has been amazing with some children writing stories and one child writing a blurb.

EYFS trip to Court Farm

Plum and Mulberry really enjoyed their trip to Court farm. Farmer Ed showed us the new lambs that had been born in the morning of our visit. We also got to feed the kids (baby goats) their milk. We all thought it was really funny how they wagged their tails when they drank the milk. The children then stopped for lunch before having a play in the barn. The children had lots of questions to ask farmer Ed and he was fantastic at answering all of our questions. We found out that the sheep have numbers on to match the mum to their baby.

New writing tablets

Our new writing tablets have created lots of interest with the children. They look like iPads but are for writing on similar to an etch-a-sketch and we love that they do not need to be charged.


Our superhero writing area

We have transformed an area of our classroom into a superhero writing area and the children have become superhero writers.

Jungle

Monkey puzzle

The children have really surprised us with their attention to detail and their love for learning whilst we have explored the jungle and rainforest environments. We have discovered lots of facts about animals over the last two weeks which the children have been keen to write about. A jeep was made using cardboard boxes and we were very impressed to see lots of negotiating skills taking place.

Under the sea

The Rainbow fish and The snail on the whale

We have taken a dive under the water and exploring the animals that live beneath the waves. Firstly, we look a tour of the world with the story of the snail and the whale before learning how to share with the rainbow fish. The children have enjoyed all of our activities this week but they have loved writing on the playground with the chalk and playing with the parachute. We have also finished our floor work in PE which means we will have the gym apparatus out next week, we are very excited.

Arctic/ Antarctica

We have been looking at our world and discussing cold places. The children were fascinated to look at google maps and they were very excited to see our school on street view. It was harder to zoom into places of snow on the map. Plum and Mulberry have been using the boats to find the penguins and have wrote a list of the items they would take on their adventures. Luckily, we have all found a friend.

The girl, the shoes and the Polar bear

The children were mesmerised by this story and have all discussed the importance of not saying we cannot do something and persevering when we face challenges. This story has also promoted further discussion towards animals that live in cold countries and where in the world the cold places are. We have also thought about items that would be sensible to wear in a cold place and items that might not be needed. Outside on the playground the children have loved playing the around the world game with Mrs Mullins and learning the names of different countries.

Christmas party afternoon

The children enjoyed their Christmas party by dancing the afternoon away before eating some of the party food. We were really pleased to see how many children enjoyed the fruit and vegetable snacks.

Christmas jumper day



Christmas activities

Christingle

Thank you for coming to support our Christingle service at Westfield Church. The children were so proud to show you our 'Jesus hunt' performance.


















Stickman

The children have been learning about stickman and talking about different family trees. They were keen to plant and grow something so we have been busy planting daffodils ready for spring. The children have also loved playing with kinetic sand which is really helping to strengthen their hands.

PE

Mulberry have been practising balancing in PE by trying to keep a bean bag on their head whilst crossing the balancing equipment. Despite it being tricky, the children showed great perseverance skills.

Our wonderful word day.

We were so impressed and 'flabbergasted' by all of the wonderful costumes the children were wearing on our wonderful word day to promote vocabulary. We had a range of words from inferno to creative which has helped us to learn new words. Here is a selection of pictures from our day:

The Gruffalo's child

Following the children's love of learning the Gruffalo we have been reading the story of his child this week. In the book we learnt that the Gruffalo was a dad and the child was his daughter. Similarly, the book related to our learning within phonics of understanding and reading 'he' and 'she' so we have had lots of discussion relating to the words we use when talking about boys or girls.

The little red hen

We love spontaneous learning in Plum and Mulberry and when we were asked if we would like the little red hen to visit we couldn't say no. We listened to the story of the little red hen before helping to feed the hen, she was very hungry. The children then helped Liz to make flour by grinding the corn. After, they all planted a seed of corn into the tray filled with soil. Plum and Mulberry had lots of questions during the session and were keen to learn lots from our experience. We are now keen to see if we can grow corn from our seeds and we will be keeping a close eye on the tray.

Gruffalo

This week we are reading the story of the Gruffalo and thinking about rhyme within the book. The children are really engaged with the characters and have tried to make them using playdough. Our tuff spot has also been enjoyed as the children have been retelling the story using the soft toys and discussing their different homes. Trying to unlock some of the characters, which have been locked with padlocks, has been tricky but the children have shown great determination to try and help unlock them.

PE

Today we mixed phonics with our PE session. We jumped through hoops and said the phoneme next to the hoop and at the end of the row we had to blend the sounds to say a word. The words changed every time we went around the playground track; it was great fun. We then moved in various ways such as, walking, jogging, running and jumping. The children then practised their throwing skills by throwing and catching a bean bag to each other. Most children became very successful at throwing and catching by the end of the session.

Children in need day

We have had a fantastic day in Foundation today and have really enjoyed taking part in Pudsey bear activities during the day. The children looked fantastic! Plum and Mulberry collected over £45, thank you. Here are some of our pictures from the day:

We're going on a bear hunt...

We went on a bear hunt, we went to catch a big one, what a rainy day, we weren't scared.....

Remembrance day 11.11.19

On the 11th Day of the 11th Month we remembered them.

Bear hunt

The children have loved the story of 'we're going on a bear hunt' by Michael Rosen and have all been really engaged with their learning this week. The children have added two groups of bears together to make a number sentence and also discussed addition. A couple of children chose to 'write' stories about the bear hunt and draw pictures of a friendly bear. On the playground children we have been making dens for the bears and also exploring jelly bath in the water tray which was 'deep and cold' just like the river in the bear hunt story.

PE

In PE we warmed up and discussed the changes to our body when we exercise. The children were quick to tell me that their heart rate and breath became faster and a lot of children asked for a drink!

We focussed on listening and attention skills to start with by playing 'rabbits' and moving to the 'rabbit holes' (cones) in different ways. We then worked in partners to copy the other persons movements without talking and then swapped over.

Great Britain

We have been learning all about Great Britain this week although, we are sure the children will be telling you all about 'our Queen'. The children have been really engaged with our activities during creative week and we have been making jelly, rice crispy cakes, sandwiches and also taking part in country dancing lessons.

Collectively, the children collected 10 plums for their tree in Plum and 10 mulberries in Mulberry class by working together as a class. It was decided that our reward should be a street party which took place on Wednesday afternoon. The children had such a wonderful time taking part in traditional playground games before enjoying their delicious creations.







Room on the broom

We have loved the rhyming in the book called 'room on the broom' just as much as we have loved the story. Our activities have been enjoyed by all, especially hammering the squashes with golf tees which will help to strengthen fingers and hands ready for writing. The Alpha blocks are popular and the children have been matching them to words and even spelling their names. We have also been racing our brooms across the playground.





PE

We have been playing a game in PE to practise our listening and attention skills called 'beans'. The children have had to make movements for runner bean, broad bean, French bean, stringy bean and baked bean.





Hickory Dickory Dock

The children have enjoyed learning our rhyme this week of 'Hickory Dickory Dock.' We have also enjoyed lots of different activities. The children have progressed really well with their phonics and are nearly at the end of phase 2 already. In our PSHE/ Jigsaw lessons we have been talking about our feelings and the feelings of other children. In RE we have been discussing items that are special to us and items that might be special to other people. We looked at the Bible and read a story. We then discussed that we might all have different beliefs and values but we can still be friends with people who think differently to us.





Technology

We have had a new addition to our class this week called 'code-a-pillar' the children have enjoyed adding the USB parts together to make new sequences and have predicted where he will end up. A child in Plum class asked "where do the batteries go to make him work?"



PE

We are learning how to throw a ball. We worked with partners to practise our throwing and catching skills. The children had lots of fun playing catch with their friends and some children accepted a challenge to increase the distance between themselves and still catch the ball.


Walter's wonderful web

This week we have been reading a story called Walter's wonderful web. Walter, the spider, loves to make shapes using his web. The children have loved singing Incy Wincy Spider and making up their own nursery rhymes. Mrs Mullins took groups of children on a spider hunt using magnifying glasses.


PE

We loved our first PE lesson this week and the children were brilliant at getting changed. We focussed on listening and attention skills. The children were asked to move around the playground whilst keeping distance between themselves and their friends. When they were asked to stop they needed to find a cone and stand next to it, this was the 'rabbit hole'. We moved in various ways such as, hopping, jumping, running and side stepping. The children enjoyed their first session and cannot wait until next week.


Think big Humpty

Plum and Mulberry have been reading a book called 'think big Humpty.' All of our learning, where possible, has related to the story this week. The book focuses on achieving more than you believe. Humpty Dumpty starts by wanting to be a boiled egg but, with the encouragement of his friends, he realises he wants to be an astronaut. Here are just some of the activities we have had available this week:


Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what can you see?

This week we have been reading a book called Brown Bear, Brown Bear what can you see? We love the colours in this book and our activities have been related to match our interests.

Our first week in school

The children have settled into school extremely well. The home corner has been a huge success and all of the children have loved playing in there. During 'choose our learning time' the children have access to both of the indoor classrooms, the outdoor classroom and the playground.