Welcome to Foundation Stage!

Here you can find out about our learning and see what Early Years is all about.

Summer Term 2022

Our enquiry question this term is 'What can I learn from a book?'

We will be using different types books to explore what we can learn from them. We will be looking at fiction and non-fiction texts with a key focus on what we can learn from them. Our mini topics are Dinosaurs, Space, Transport, Superheroes and Traditional Tales. 

The Key Concepts we will be focusing on this term are...

Identity, Change, Power, Fairness

What can we learn from a book about King Charles? 
 

We’ve been busy learning about the King’s coronation, we focused on the clothing which King Charles would wear at the ceremony. We designed and made our own robe for him. We baked crown cookies, made vehicles for him and even painted portraits. 

Tyrannosaurus Drip 

We have been reading Tyrannosaurus Drip. We have learnt what a herbivore and a carnivore is. Drip is a herbivore so we made him a special lunch full of green vegetables. We left it out for him and he visited us whilst trying to find his real home! 

Spring Term 2023

Our enquiry question this half term is 'What food do we get from a farm?’

We will be learning about how farms work and what food we can get from them. We will be looking at life cycles and we will plant flowers and vegetables. We will also explore farming from the past. 

The key concepts that we will explore are 

Care, Change, Fairness.

Why is Easter so important to Christians? 

We have been learning about the Easter story in RE. We have had our own Last Supper and we made crosses using sticks to remember Jesus dying on the cross. 

Mr Wolf’s Pancakes 

We decided to be helpful neighbours and help Mr Wolf by writing pancake recipes for him to follow. 

Measuring sunflowers 

In Maths we’ve been looking at measuring, we have explored height and length. In groups we measured the pretend sunflowers in our garden using bricks. We then discussed which ones were the shortest and the tallest. 

Spring Term 2023

Our enquiry question this half term is 'Does chocolate grow on trees?’

We will be learning about where chocolate comes from and the journey it goes on before we can eat it. We will be focusing on life in Africa.

The key concepts that we will explore are 

Change, Power, Fairness, Care.

Charlie and Lola 

We read the story of Charlie and Lola where Lola thought real chocolate grew on trees, we found this very funny and we really wished it did!! We drew our own chocolate trees and labelled what chocolate treats would grow on them. We continued the story and found out that the main ingredient in chocolate does actually grow on trees, a cocoa tree. They grow in hot countries like Africa and it is mixed with milk and sugar to form chocolate. 

Chinese New Year 

We had a week focused on Chinese New Year. We learnt about why and how it is celebrated, we listened to ‘The Great Race’ story and found about what year we were born in. We tried Chinese food, wrote our names in Chinese and also went on a parade around the school! 

We love being in the outdoors!

This week we have really enjoyed using the chalk to create roads which lead all over the world! We drew pathways to Italy, America, Dedham and Colchester. We added a car park with numbered spaces and also road signs so we knew where we were going. 

New Years Resolutions 

We discussed what a New Years Resolution was and listened to a story all about a squirrel who couldn't think of one. We then decided on our own promises to ourselves and drew them on stars which have gone up in our classroom as a reminder to us. 

In Music we have been practising to use our singing voices. We have been trying to find the pulse in different songs, we used the drum to play the pulse on as we sang 'Someone special has got the drum.'

Autumn Term 2022

Our enquiry question this half term is 'What jobs keep our world moving?’

We will be learning about different types of jobs and the role they play in our world. We will be exploring these jobs through books, art and design, role play and real life experiences! 

The key concepts that we will explore are 

Identity, Power, Conflict, Care.

Our learning from Autumn 2…

Talk4Writing
Our talk4writing this half term has been ‘Clothes line clues for jobs people do’. We learnt the text and then innovated our own section. The children chose a job to focus on and then drew pictures and wrote their riddle. 

Chikdren in Need Pudsey Day!!

Doctors and Nurses

We were very lucky to have Doctor Ryan visit us. He explained what his job role was as a doctor and also some of the equipment he uses. We spent the week role playing Doctors and learning about Medicine safety. Our class text is currently George’s Marvellous Medicine so we wrote recipes and created our own Marvellous Medicines.

Circles and Triangles 

In Maths we have been learning about shape with a focus on circle and triangles. We use straight objects around the classroom to create triangles. We were inspired by Kandinsky to create circle and triangle pieces of art work. 

Remebrance Day 

We learnt about a soldiers job and why we lay our respects in Remebrance Day. We painted our own poppy pictures and also made a wreath which we laid during our schools two minute silence. 

Bonfire Night 

We had our very own Bonfire night on the field to practise firework safety in preparation for firework displays. We had sparklers and also roasted Marshmellows! It was SO much fun!!

Firefighters 

We had Manningtree fire team come and visit us. We learnt about how to keep safe on fireworks night, what a firefighter has to wear and we even got to use the hose! 

Fireworks

We designed fireworks using ‘Tate Paint’ on the iPads. 

Autumn Term 2022

Our enquiry question this term is 'Where have I come from and where am I going?'

We will be learning about our families, our friends, different types of home, our local community and people who help us. We will also look at how we can help look after our local environment and the world around us. 

The key concepts that we will explore are 

Identity, Change and Care.

Talk4Writing 

We have been learning the text ‘Naughty Bus’ in talk4writing. We learnt the story through a text map which we then adapted to create our own version. We created ‘The Cheeky Lorry.’ 

Gymnastics 

This half term we have been doing gymnastics in PE. We have thought about different ways of moving, how to hold a balance and how to jump safely. We then put them all together in a routine. 

Our houses…

We’ve been thinking about the homes we live in and compared these to different homes around the world. We then created our own semi-detached houses by using junk modelling. 

Mini collage people

We created mini versions of ourselves and thought carefully about what colour our school uniform is.

Self-Portraits

We thought very carefully about what facial features we needed to include on our self-portraits. We look in the mirror to check we were using the correct colours for our skin, eyes and hair. 

Summer Term 2022

Our enquiry question this term is 'What can I learn from a book?'

We will be using different types books to explore what we can learn from them. We will be looking at fiction and non-fiction texts with a key focus on what we can learn from them. Our mini topics are Dinosaurs, Space, Transport, Superheroes and Traditional Tales. 

The Key Concepts we will be focusing on this term are...

Identity, Change, Power, Fairness

What can we learn from books about Space? 

We learnt what planets where in our Solar System and produce some great artwork using pastels. 

Tennis with coach Matthew…

We had a very exciting visit from one of our Mummies who works at the UK Space Agency. She taught us about the different types of space shuttle take offs! We even got to take part is Level one astronaut training which we all passed. We got to try on spacesuits. It was an amazing experience and we learnt SO much! 

What can we learn from books about dinosaurs? 

We learnt all about the T-Rex! Using the measurements we found in a book we went outside and measured how big the T-Rex would have been on our playground. We were amazed that we could all fit inside! 

That’s not my dinosaur…

We explored ‘That’s not my…’ books and made our own version. We made them for the little people in our lives. We are so pleased with how they turned out! 

Look at our amazing story writing about Tyrannosaurus Drip! 

Tyrannosaurus drip 
 

We have been reading Tyrannosaurus Drip using a slow reveal. We have helped Drip by making a herbivore friendly packed lunch which we left out for him. He even visited us and made an awful mess! He was looking for his home but realised he couldn’t live at school. We are going to help him get back to his real home!