Welcome to the Foundation Stage Page
The Beginning of an Educational Adventure
This year our annual theme will focus on: Stewards of the Earth; Guardians of God’s Gift, as well as continuing with the BRW Spirit Strong we have embraced over the past few years.
Miss Chapman, Miss Matthews , Mrs Hudson and all of the staff in the Foundation Stage offer a very warm welcome to our new children starting this term, and, of course, a warm welcome back to our existing children.
Our topic this term is – Marauding Explorers!
This term, we will focus on dinosaurs and pirates! We will be reading different fiction and non-fiction stories linked to these topics, making our own stories and poems: creating artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, and practicing our drama skills on our pirate stage! We will also be creating our own resources to develop our role play, investigating ice balloons and learning about events that took place in the past.
As always, our Come and See topics will be woven tightly into every area of learning. We will be thinking about:
Good News – knowing that Penetcost is when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.
Friends – knowing and understanding how we make friends and what Jesus tells us about friendships.
Our World – recognising that the world we live in is a special place and we need to look after it.
How you can help support our topic……
Please read the following stories at home with your child:
Ten Little Dinosaurs: 10 Little Dinosaurs Animated Book | Caper Corner Story Time – YouTube
The Night Pirates: The Night Pirates – YouTube
Use the following websites to find out about dinosaurs and pirates and, as a challenge, come up with games and activities that will inspire your child’s imagination and play. Read fiction and non-fiction text, use these to inspire your child to create some artwork or write about the information you have read together, bring this into school to share with friends and teachers! Here are some useful links for you to explore together:
Fossils and Dinosaurs (lgfl.org.uk)
20+ Pirate Activities for Kids – Taming Little Monsters
Play Swashbuckle The Great Pirate Games game on CBeebies. – CBeebies – BBC
Helping at Home: Reading
Reading at home is very important, it supports your child to grow in confidence, it allows them to explore and share stories with you and practice what they have learnt at school at home.
Here are some top tips for sharing a story book with your child at home:
Read regularly with your child, most people find before bed to be the easiest time to do this, but it can be any time of the day. Get comfortable read together somewhere free of distractions. Ask questions about the story this could be at any point for example before you read the story together show them the cover and ask what they think the story could be about, mid-way through the book you could ask them what they think might happen next, at the end of the story you could ask them what they enjoyed about the book, asking questions about the book you are sharing together supports their comprehension skills. Read favourites, children will be more engaged if they love the book or characters you are reading about.
FS2 top tips to support your child with their reading:
Little and often is the best approach, make sure you read in a comfortable place free from distractions, be positive and try not to interrupt them, work it out together help your child to decode the words, talk about the story ask questions and share the joy of reading together. You can access resources from Little Wandle here:
For parents | Letters and Sounds
More ideas
A quick and easy playdough recipe so that you can help your children develop strong fingers and wrists, creative skills, communication skills as they talk about the changes they see and make and social skills as they play together with you.
List of useful websites for EYFS
For parents | Letters and Sounds (littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk)
Phonics play
Lots of phonics based games for children to play
Top marks
Lots of different maths activities for children to play
CBeebies
Lots of interactive stories and games for you to play
YouTube is great to watch the following on:
- Numberblocks – this helps children to understand numbers up to and beyond 10 by using different characters
- Tricky word song – these help children with reading and spelling words such as; I, go, to, he, she etc
- Jolly Phonics songs and actions – these help children read and say different sounds
- Alphablocks – these shows help with segmenting and blending sounds in words
- Cosmic Kids – yoga suitable for young children
Further Information – Early Years Development Matters Curriculum Guidance 6.7534 DfE Development Matters Report And Illustrations Web 2 FS Summer Newsletter 2024