Lots to celebrate.

This week, we have learned about the origins of Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in addition to learning about and celebrating our patron saint St Piran on St Piran's Day. 

It was lovely to welcome our parents and friends into our class. Together, we joined in with a range of activities linked to St Piran. 

With World Book Day coming around once more, don't forget to spend your vouchers. Worth the usual £1 or a special addition WBD book!

Don't forget to also visit the Book Fair in the library before and after school. Plenty of goodies to be had by all.

Friday 28th February

The first week back to school is over already! What a quick week!

The children have amazed us at how well they come back to school enthused and ready to learn!

Our big question this half term is: Who Made These Footprints?

This week we have been exploring the life of Amelia Earhart. The children explored how she brought her own plane at the age of 22 and called it the Canary- it was yellow! The children loved learning that Amelia was the first lady to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

The children have been creating planes from pasta, colouring in the canary plane, learning how to make paper airplanes and flying them outside, learning how to draw a plane step by step and so much more.

In English this week we started to read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk; we all loved this story! We read a few different versions and even watched a musical version too! The children learnt the story through role play and a story map and then used their own story maps to sequence and retell the story using amazing oracy skills!

In maths this week we have been combining two groups. The children have worked so hard and progressed so well with their early addition stories. We also continue to sing our 2-, 5- and 10-times table songs daily.

The children’s reading has been fantastic this week in phonics. We have been learning digraphs /or/ and /ur/.

In outdoor learning this week we had outlines of footprints and we collected daisy's, grass and leaves to fill the footprints in, we then went on a footprint hunt around the edge of the school field! 

Next week we look forward to pancake day, St Piran’s Crafternoon with the parents and World Book Day!

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team

Who made these footprints? 

We have had a lovely first week back in Foundation / Year 1.

We have begun our learning on our new big question which is: ‘Who made these footprints?’ We have set up a palaeontology lab for our role play and we have been working as fossil hunters! We have been brushing fossils and using magnifying glasses to take a closer look.
In our big question this term Year 1 will look at the idea of ‘footprints’ as who has had an impact and made significant change in society. In History, we will focus on the first plane and the Wright Brothers as well as looking at Neil Armstrong and the moon landings.

In Maths, Foundation have been combining two groups to make number. They have used lego bricks to help them. Year 1 have started their new unit: Addition and Subtraction to 20. We have begun our learning by using base ten and numicon to add together numbers within 20.

In English, our new learning journey is focused on Jack and the Beanstalk. We have started our learning journey by learning the story through actions. We have also begun to sequence the story and write key words or sentences linked to the pictures!

Some messages:
Our PE days are still Tuesday and Wednesday for this half term.

Please remember to order lunches on a Thursday for the next week.

Please make sure your child has their book bag/book on a Friday for book changes.

Thank you!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

Thursday 13th February

Wow, here we are again at another half term! What a wonderful Half term it has been, jammed packed with amazing learning and progress!

This week we have some very exciting things in class. To finish our big question: What Can I Explore Today? We had two very special visitors for us to explore in class.

Firstly Mrs. Gregory was kind enough to bring her little pug Hugo into school for a short visit. Mrs. Greogry told us all about Hugo and showed us how he uses his scratch box to keep his nails short and how she brushes his teeth. The children explored Hugo by asking so many brilliant questions!

We were then lucky enough that Miss Chapman was kind enough to bring in her bearded dragon to explore. Buzz was very comfortable hugging Harvey from Year 5 (who the dragon belonged to also). Harvey told us amazing facts about Buzz and the children asked so many brilliant questions again!

It was great exploring these wonderful animals as an end to our question. We are really looking forward to the next half terms question? Who made these footprints?

The lady from the Education Library Services visited us too this week, she read one of our favourite stories: Owl babies. She also brought along some owl teddies to act out the story, we loved it!

We have explored and learnt so much this half term and it is really showing in the children’s progress. We are halfway through the year already and we cannot wait to explore the next half and to continue seeing so much wonderful progression form all the children.

Have a wonderful half-term break and we look forward to seeing everyone back to school on Monday 24^th February.

The Foundation Team 

Friday 7th February 

This week the children have been practicing lots of letter formation, in English. We have followed the story of Christopher Nibble and used pictures to identify key words and initial sounds. We then used those initial sounds to write letters using the correct formation.

In maths we have been exploring 6,7, and 8. We have been exploring 1 more and 1 less and also the composition of these numbers. The children are getting really great at learning what parts make a number!

In phonics we have explored the sounds oa and igh. /igh/ is our first trigraph and the children did amazingly well at reading words with this phoneme in.

As we still have our big question of: What can I explore today? We were lucky enough to explore Mrs Gregory’s giant African land snails this week. We looked at them closely and felt their shells. Mrs Gregory taught us so much about them.

On Thursday we had our Speak out, Stay safe assembly session. We explored ways in which we could be hurt and who we can speak to if we are scared and worried.  We explored this using the NSPCC and ‘buddy’ the speech bubble!

Today was Times Table Rock Star Day! Although the children in Foundation do not need to be able to recite their tables we do learn our 2’s ,5’s and 10 times table through song and chant them in class daily. We did this with an extra whoosh today in our rock star clothes and it was great!

Next week is our last week before half term. Next Friday is an INSET day.

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team 

Learning all about Chinese New Year! 

We have had a great week in Foundation / Year 1.

We were very lucky to have Eva come and talk to us all about Chinese New Year. We listened to songs and learnt about traditions and Chinese food. We then made lanterns out of card and paper. We loved making the lanterns so much we made them all week! As it is the year of the snake, we made snake puppets, coloured in pictures and used our cutting skills to cut out a snake. We learnt lots and felt very lucky to have such a special visitor!

In our learning, we have been focusing more on minibeasts this week. Outside, Foundation labelled different minibeasts and talked about how they are similar and different. We have been learning about growing plants too, and what we need to grow a plant. Foundation have also been writing initial sounds using their phonics that are focused around our gardening story Christopher Nibble. Year 1 have begun planning their own gardening stories and will begin writing these next week.

We have had another wonderful week and I cannot believe we only have one week of half term left. This half term is really flying by!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

Food Food Food

Photos:
A visit from the Royal Cornwall Show to talk about and discover where our food comes from. 

A maths biscuit project to enhance our skills with money and maths.

Friday 31st January

This week the children have been working so hard!

In English this week , we started a new story called: Christopher Nibble! Christopher is a guinea pig who loves eating dandelions BUT they run out!

The children have really enjoyed learning this story. They explored the structure of a story by learning the beginning, middle and end. They sequenced the pictures and wrote key words to match the pictures.

In maths this week we have been exploring 6,7 and 8! The children have used ten frames to represent these numbers and have been AMAZING! We have also continued to learn/sing/chant our 2’s, 5’s and 10 times tables.

In phonics we have explored two diagraphs this week: ai and ee. The children’s reading is progressing so well and during phonics lessons Miss Hughes is always so impressed.

The children have been exploring gardening and mini beasts this week. They have matched vegetables to Christopher Nibble’s garden, dotted, painted and coloured gardening pictures, made minibeast from pipe cleaners and so much more!

Today we were lucky enough to have a community visitor in class that explained all about Chinese New Year. Ava spoke to us about what the celebration means to her family and what they do to celebrate it. She then showed us how to make the most beautiful Chinese lanterns. As Eva came into see us all of our activities were based around Chinese New Year! It was so much fun.

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team 

Growing and exploring!

This week, we have focused our big question ‘What can I explore today?’ on exploring minibeasts and things that grow.

In English we have started a new learning journey focusing on the gardening story ‘Christopher Nibble.’ The Year 1 will be writing their own stories at the end of the journey and Foundation will be focusing on writing CVC words and captions.

We have also had an assembly this week all about climate change and what we can do to help the Earth. This has linked in well with our growing plants conversation and we have talked about eating a little bit less meat, and growing our own plants. We have even started this with carrots this week!

We have been exploring vegetables and minibeasts this week too. We have used our funky fingers to create minibeast pictures, we have matched the vegetables to their names in a garden patch puzzle and lots of other activities. The children have been brilliant at discussing what they know already, and what they would like to learn.

In Maths, Year 1 have begun exploring numbers up to 20. We have been practising counting forwards and backwards as well as where the numbers belong on a number line.
Foundation have been exploring the numbers 6,7 and 8. They have been identifying these numbers but also identifying numbers that are not 6, 7 or 8.

It has been another great week. Well done Foundation and Year 1.

Foundation/ Year 1 Team

Friday 25th January

This week has included the special visit from The Royal Cornwall Showground. They spoke to the children about lots of interesting farm facts and where our food comes from and then the children were able to join in with fantastic activities, they loved exploring and learning.

In English the children have been drawing a labelling parts of a penguin. The children have been using their initial sound and phonics knowledge and it has been amazing to see their progress.

In maths we have been exploring 1 less and the composition of 5. The children really are progressing so well.

In phonics we have learnt the digraphs sh/th( unvoiced like moth) th( voiced like ‘feather’ and ng/.

The children are really growing and progressing, and we are so proud of all they achieve.

Have a wonderful weekend

The Foundation Team 

Early Islamic Art

Our focus for the first part of this term is the Early Islamic Empire and the influences that came from this fascinating period of history. We have looked at how Early Islamic art used geometric shapes and repeated patterns to create vibrant and interesting art work that can be adapted and used in carvings, wall hangings, fabrics and tiled areas. 

The children used step by step instructions to draw detailed shapes and imagery linked to the Early Islamic style. These designs will now be used as a basis to make soap carvings and stained glass windows.

Lots of learning and fun!

The Spring Term has well and truly started. Please enjoy 4 photographs that tell the story for these first couple of weeks of 2025.
We have enjoyed a visit from the Dog's Trust, taken part in a Stone Age DT/Forest School project 'living in the stone age' where the children planned and made a stone age meal and used different early caveman survival skills. We have had The Royal Cornwall Show come and deliver a workshop all about where our food comes from. Finally, on Monday 20th January, we went to Kents Cavern to link our history projects from Autumn to Spring Terms.

What a great start to the year. Please do ask your children about the things they have taken part in. 

Any questions about the term ahead, please do email.

Miss Pittas

Dear all

We have had a lovely week all around!  Last Friday, we began our Basketball unit where the children played various warm-up games and then practised some Basketball skills.  The children practised dribbling the ball and tried to get past their partner!

We continued our Art unit by drawing a sketch of a "Cubist Tree".  The children used rectangles, triangles, ovals, circles and various other shapes to create beautiful designs.  We will be working in groups next week to extend this idea further.

In English, the children have planned their own versions of their Jungle Book Story.  I am hoping that by the end of next week, they will have finished and published their books that will come home when they are ready!

In French, we have learned the names for the different rooms in a house!  The children remembered lots from the previous lesson so I hope that they have shared this with their parents!

We also had some lovely activities on Monday including a workshop from The Royal Cornwall show, music (playing Ukeles with Mrs Butlin) and decorating biscuits with chocolate spread and sweets for our maths lesson!

The children have also been learning a "street dance" in class which they are enjoying - and so are the adults!

Take care all!

Mrs Brewer, Miss Masters and Mrs Collings

22nd January – Royal Cornwall Workshop!

We were very lucky to have the Royal Cornwall Workshops this week. We learnt all about seafood and where it comes from. We then explored lots of activities all about farming and how to use the land. We filled in puzzles, dressed up as farmyard animals, looked at the life cycle of a flower, talked about healthy eating and lots more! We had so much fun.

In our learning, we have continued finding out about Emperor Penguins. Foundation have been exploring penguins in their choosing time. They have labelled penguins, talked about where they live and made penguins on our playground out of chalk! Year 1 have started writing their non-chronological reports about Emperor penguins. We have gathered our facts together and now we have started writing our sentences. We are going to share our information with Foundation at the end of the week.

In Computing, we have been learning more about algorithms. We were talking about bugs in algorithms this week and how with a bug, our algorithm won’t work properly! We have explored this through a dice game making monsters and seeing what happens when we roll the same number. Lots of our monsters ended up with two heads or four arms! We then talked about the importance of getting our algorithms right.

Well done Foundation / Year 1, another great week!

Foundation / Year 1 Team