Welcome to the Foundation Stage

Creating a positive start to your child's journey at school is crucial. At Woodland Grange we want our children to be active, independent learners from their very first day with us.

• We encourage them to be curious and imaginative.
• We teach them to ask and answer questions — find things out & explain to others.
• We want our children to be aware of the world around them.
• We encourage them to be independent.

Forest School and outdoor learning is a big feature at our school. This helps the children develop their physical skills and core strength, which is vital for everyday life at school and beyond. It also provides many open-ended learning opportunities, which in turn creates team work, problem-solving and allows the imagination to flourish. 

Our PE day is on a Friday- Please remember to send your child into school wearing their PE kit.

Please ensure that children have their waterproofs and willies in school all year round, as well as a set of spare clothes.

Here is the menu for 2023/24. As a school we are option 1 & 3, please click here for the menu.

Dates for the Diary 

• Friday 3rd May - Colour Dash

 

 

Week Beginning 22nd April 2024

Focus Text : Clean Up - Nathan Bryon

Phonics

This week the children will be learning two new digraphs: ar and or

The common exception words are some, one and said

Maths

This week, the children will consolidate their understanding of the composition of 5 and practise recalling the parts of 5 when 1 part is not visible. A key representation of the composition of 5 will be the fingers of 1 hand, and the children’s attention will be focused on both the fingers that are ‘up’ and those ‘folded down’, connecting this to a rhyme about 5 kittens jumping ‘down’ from the bed. They will also be encouraged to subitise when an arrangement does show 5, and when it does not.

In addition, the children will have an opportunity to build on previous work on the composition of 6 and 7 as ‘5 and a bit’, and see that both 8 and 9 can be composed as ‘5 and a bit’. A range of representations in which 5 is visible as a clear part will be used, including fingers, the double dice frame and the 10-frame. Discussing and comparing these representations will enable children to generalise that each of the numbers 6 to 9 can have 5 as a part.  

Connections

The children will already have lots of experience of using their fingers to represent quantities in efficient ways. This week’s focus will encourage them to use their fingers not just to represent numbers, but also to explore the composition of numbers within 5. The children will have previously used double dice frames to represent numbers to 7; they will develop their understanding this week by using the same representation to explore the composition of 6 to 9 as ‘5 and a bit’ and by making links between the double dice frames and finger representations. The children will also be encouraged to make further connections to a different representation – the 10-frame. Supporting the children to develop an understanding of 10 will help them as they begin to use rekenreks in Year 1.

Making connections and developing skills in mathematical thinking will help to support the children’s future mathematical engagement and understanding. When the children can represent, compose and flexibly de-compose numbers mentally, they will become more fluent in their knowledge of number bonds and will be able to use them efficiently when calculating in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

 

In the classroom you will see...

As we continue our under the sea topic, this week we will be learning about how to be environmentally friendly and look after our planet. We will be looking at beach pollution and how to care for our beaches and oceans. We will be looking at what the dangers are of sea pollution and how it can damage our planet and hurt the sea creatures. The children will be creating posters to encourage others to look after the environment. The role-play area has been transformed into a recycling facility, fully equipped with a range of different bins and materials for children to sort through.  Children will be using recyclable materials in the creative area to make their own collages. In the maths area, children will be securing their knowledge of 2D shapes by creating a range of different sea creatures using tangrams. This will support children to use their problem-solving skills and encourage them to discuss the properties of the shapes they are using. Outside, the children will be helping to keep our school tidy by having a go at some litter picking and sorting items to go into the correct bins.  The children have really enjoyed some 'hot seating' activities in the past couple of weeks. This has encouraged them to use their drama skills and step into the role of a character. This week they will be pretending they are a sea creature in an ocean full of plastic and have a go at taking on that role to describe how they are feeling. 

Other areas of the curriculum....

RE - Places of worship and what makes them special

Music - We will be beginning a unit on Pitch

Topic - Looking at the similarities between jellyfish and plastic bags to show children how easy it can be for sea creatures to mistake the two.

PSED - Using a range of different mindfulness activities - blowing our worries away

PE - To follow instructions and move safely when playing tagging games. In this unit, children will practise and further develop their fundamental movement skills through a range of different themes. Children will learn and develop these skills by playing a variety of games. They will also learn how to work as a team, take turns, keep the score, play against an opponent and play by the rules.

 

Week Beginning 15th April 2024

Focus Text -  The Singing Mermaid - Julia Donaldson

Phonics

This week the children will be consolidating the digraphs/trigraphs we have learnt recently. These are the following ai, ee, igh, oa, oo (voiced and unvoiced)

The common exception words are all and are

Maths

This week, the children will continue to develop their subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) in increasingly complex arrangements. Some arrangements are easier to subitise than others – e.g. a set of 6 dots arranged in a structured die pattern that exposes the double-3 pattern is easier to recognise than a random arrangement of 6 dots. A key focus this week is to use the children’s developing understanding of doubles to support their subitising skills. By moving away from counting for sets that can be subitised, the children will develop their abstract understanding of number, which will help to support future calculation strategies. This week’s sessions will also continue to encourage the children to consider when they can subitise and when they might need to use counting as a strategy.

Another key focus this week is the ongoing development of visualising skills: encouraging the children to look carefully at structured arrangements, such as those shown on dice and 10-frames, and then to close their eyes and explain what they see. Using spatial language and hand gestures to describe sub-groups within these arrangements will deepen the children’s understanding of part–part–whole relations and allow them to further consider composition (the numbers within numbers).

Connections

Subitising is an essential feature when developing number sense. It can support the children’s understanding of cardinality (the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether), and it will also help them to identify groups and units in a repeating pattern.

The children will already have lots of experience with perceptual subitising and with making collections of small amounts. The use of 10-frames to support their developing sense of numbers to 10 will help to foster a deep understanding of the composition of some of these numbers. This understanding will support their increasing fluency with number bonds and will help them to develop efficient and flexible calculation strategies in Key Stage 1 and beyond.

In the classroom you will see... The children are enjoying their new topic- Under the sea. We have been looking at pirates and mermaids and are using the focus text to explore different features of a pirate. We will be using our drama skills to pretend we are pirates and have a go at writing about what we can see. We will be using our fine motor skills to make a starfish using a variety of different materials. We will be getting messy in some blue slime to recreate the ocean. Our role-play area will be set up with a beach scene this week with our very own pirate ship. Outside, we will be enjoying a range of activities which mirror the indoor provision, as well as creating treasure maps and having our own treasure hunts.