Foundation Stage 1 Updates

Spring 1

For our topic ‘Tales from around the World’, we invited Kuda, who used to live in Zimbabwe, to come and talk to us about her experiences in Africa.  She taught us a dance called ‘Making Melodies’, which involved us using some very unusual dance moves.  We learnt how to say Good morning in Shona, one of the languages in Zimbabwe, ‘Mangwanani’ and Good Afternoon ‘Masikati’. We also know that a lion is ‘shumba’; a giraffe is ‘twiza’ in Shona. We read the book ‘Walking through the Jungle’ and retold the story using actions in Talk for Writing.  We drew our favourite wild animal from Africa using oil pastels.

We celebrated the 2024 Winter Olympics by dressing up in our Winter sports gear.  We looked at bobsleighing, Alpine skiing, curling figure skating and tobogganing. We watched Torvill and Dean figure skating to Ravel’s Bolero in the 1984 Olympics.  After watching their winning routine we waved flags and danced to the music ourselves to celebrate.

Continuing our geographical journey, we learnt about the Polar Regions.  We watched an experiment to make realistic looking ‘fake’ snow from powder, slowly adding water and watched how it changed from one state to another and expanded – it felt cold just like real snow! We then separated the animals and created ‘small worlds’ of the Arctic (the top of the earth, where the Inuit people live) and Antarctica (bottom of the earth, where nobody lives because it is too cold).  Clever Kittens then decided which polar animal they wanted to paint.

Thank you to parents for helping the Clever Kittens with their home learning.  We have had a colourful display in the classroom of rain-sticks.

Autumn 2

Once upon a time … there was a class of children called The Clever Kittens and they began exploring different traditional tales.

They read about The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Enormous Turnip and retold the stories through Talk for Writing, using intonation in their voices for the different characters. 

They read an information book about Bonfire Night to discover why we celebrate the 5th November. Guy Fawkes and his friends tried to kill the King but the King’s soldiers stopped them just in time and put them in prison. We celebrated the festival by watching fireworks on screen, whilst sipping chocolate milkshake.  The Clever Kittens created fireworks pictures, which are, displayed in the classroom.

They discovered why people wear poppies in an introduction to Remembrance Day.  We had two minutes silence to remember and think about all soldiers, past and present, for their bravery and commitment to save our country.  We painted poppies in the style of the American modernist artist, Georgia O’Keeffe, who is famous for her paintings of flowers on a large scale. 

The Clever Kittens quickly got into the festive spirit and made the home corner into the Christmas home corner.  The dining table was set-up with the traditional turkey, Yorkshire puddings, carrots and the must-have sprouts.

Throughout the term, they have been learning about 2D shapes and using mathematical terms to describe them.  They created their own Christmas cards for their family using, circles, squares, triangles, rectangles and stars. Merry Christmas!

We made our own Christmas tree decorations from salt dough.  After they had baked in the oven the Clever Kittens painted and glittered them to sell at the Redscope Christmas Fayre.

After weeks of practise, the Clever Kittens performed their own nativity for their families, dressed up in various costumes. Finally, they celebrated together with a Christmas party and a visit from Father Christmas, so they must have been on his good list.

Happy New Year everyone!

The End.

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