foundation stage Tag

It has been such a pleasure welcoming all the new little faces to Reception Year this week. They all came to school excited to meet their teachers, make new friends and tell everyone their holiday news. Everyone enjoyed sharing and hearing about the fun things their families did together during the holidays.

We start our learning journey in Reception with practicing to write their names and numbers. It is such a privilege seeing the pride the little ones take when they are able to show what they can do. We look forward to a fun filled and exciting year in the Foundation Stage.

Monique Meyer
Reception Year Teacher

It was with great excitement that we hosted our annual Foundation Stage Recognition Ceremony last Friday. Unfortunately, this year we couldn’t share our special day with our parents in person, but we were lucky enough to live stream the event to all our friends and family at home.

Each little one received a certificate special to them and their accomplishments this year.  As teachers we are exceptionally proud of all our students and it is with great excitement and a bit of sadness that we send our little ones on to the next year group.

We would also like to thank all the parents who have been there to encourage and support our students and teachers.

This year has been especially challenging, but we can definitely learn something from the students who still come to school with big smiles. They have shown great dedication and perseverance, setting a good example to all of us.

Monique Meyer
Foundation Stage Teacher

We have been learning about birds this week in Foundation Stage.

The students have really enjoyed learning about different birds and how their bodies are different according to where they live and what they eat.

We completed a Bird Busy Booklet this week with various bird themed literacy and numeracy activities. As part of our art activities, we have made some lovely hanging bird cages with colourful birds inside, which have decorated the class beautifully.

We have also learnt some songs about birds, which we have listened to daily. One of our favourite songs is “What is a Bird?” by Pancake Manor. Please follow the link to enjoy the song at home:

Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher

During the last two weeks we have been learning more about pets in Pre-Reception. Pets encourage self-esteem, responsibility and nurturing by handling, caring for and in some cases, playing with the pet.

There are many benefits to having a pet in the family. Pets teach students very important life lessons. Students and pets enjoy playing as well as having a cuddle during nap time. Students need to understand the responsibility to look after a pet. A pet gives unconditional support when a student is sad, angry or upset. A pet can teach the student to trust the pet. When the student takes care of the pet, they learn to be kind to others through taking care of the pet’s basic needs.

Other skills students learn includes respect when they learn the boundaries when the pet is eating or sleeping. Students would also learn to be patient when teaching their pet a new trick. Students growing up with a pet do so with more empathy towards animals and more empathy in general. When pets show their unconditional love, it boosts the student’s self-esteem.

To supplement the theme of learning about pets, we did various art activities and the students had the opportunity to draw their own pet or a pet they’d like to have. We also did a numeracy activity where we had to count the pets.

Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher

The Nursery students have been learning about Space. We are learning amazing songs like ‘8 Planets in the Solar System” in order to learn the names of the planets: Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Mars, Pluto, Earth, Saturn and Venus. We are also discovering where you can find the planets and what colour they all are.

The students enjoyed our art activity where we stuck red tissue paper on our rockets. We will be adding many different colours to our rockets throughout the coming week.  We really like making our colourful collages!

The students had fun with our sensory activity, where we made red play dough. We learned about measurement and mixing ingredients and were amazed to see how play dough is made. We then tried to make rockets out of our play dough, strengthening our fine motor muscles while we play.

The Nursery is looking forward to learning more about Space next week.

Jacky Billings
Nursery Teacher

In Reception Year we have been learning all about the farm. This theme is always a favourite as the students have lots of stories about their own personal experiences in visiting different farms, from milking cows to collecting eggs. We asked the students to tell us some of their favourite things about the farm.

This is what they shared:

“I like the horses because whenever I see them I want to ride them. I love it!’ (Daniel Beer)

“My favourite is the cows because they make milk. I like milk” (Muhammad Zaeem Allie)

“My favourite is the pigs because they are funny when they roll around in the mud.” (Olu Mbeki)

“I saw all the different animals but I like the cows because I like milk” (Aubrey Moodley)

“I like the baby goats because they are also kids” (Cayden Floor)

“I like the sheep because they can make t-shirts with their fur’ (Kirby Melvin)

Monique Meyer
Reception Year Teacher

For the next two weeks, Pre-Reception students are learning about THE FARM, not only about the animals but also the vegetables and fruit grown on farms.

The students enjoyed the various activities planned around this theme especially planting some seeds in their own container and learning how to take care of the seedlings. They are very excited to observe their little seedlings grow.

I asked some of the students what their favorite farm animals are and why. This is what they answered:

Larsen Fulton (4 years old) – “Sheep, because it is extra soft.”

Ori Monyai (5 years old) – “Horse, I like riding them and they go fast.”

Jan Pani (5 Years old) – “Turkey, they can be in the mountains and forests.”

Arye Shaik Mahomed (5 years old) – “Cow, because you get milk from a cow and I drink it.”

Ingelam Mabona (4 years old) – “Piglets, are cute and splash in the mud.”

Juliet Cronje (4 years old) – “Dog, because it is so nice and fluffy.”

Jadey Howes (5 years old) – “Sheep, when I feed them they are so soft when they eat their food.”

Don Mwenda (5 years old) – “Horse, they go super fast!”

Aaron April (5 years old) – “Dog, we have a dog at our house.”

Naleli Tsietsi (4 years old) – “Cow, because it is my favourite.”

Cindy Nunan
Pre-Reception Teacher

During the week the Pre-Reception students came together for our theme discussion to explore what we knew and what we still wanted to know about the sea.

Using our shared ideas, we started our investigation discovering life under the sea. We used books and online research, including videos and information to gain new knowledge about sea animals.

The Aquarium is a great way to teach students about the animals under the sea. We went on a virtual tour with Blippi to the Aquarium. We discovered facts about sea animals, the purpose of coral and a very important topic, pollution. We learned that the oceans cover 70% of the Earth and that it is our responsibility to protect the oceans.

Here are a few things that we can teach our students to do in order to help protect our oceans:

• Buy recyclable products
• Pick up any litter
• Stop using plastic as much as possible

For art, we created beautiful pictures to represent our knowledge and understanding and in numeracy we had to colour in a rainbow fish following a colour code.

This week has taught us we can all make a difference, no matter how big or small.

Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher

In Reception Year we had lots of fun making play dough words to recap on our knowledge of the blended letter sounds. First we went through some letter sounds on the board and thought of some words with a particular sound in it. We then sounded out each word and wrote them on a white board. The teacher drew a picture of each word on the board from the words we had previously written. We had to use our memories to try and make the word for each picture out of play dough.

It was so much fun and we couldn’t wait to pose for a photo so that we could share the fun we’d had with everyone.

Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher

• We learned about spiders, whilst enjoying singing “Incy Wincy Spider”.
• We also discovered that caterpillars turn into butterflies! We enjoyed reading the “Very Hungry Caterpillar” at story time.
• A great class activity was finding different insects hidden in the sand during their Sensory play this week and trying to name them all.
• For Art we made Butterfly handprints! They found it so funny and exciting to have their hands painted.
• We also enjoyed going for a walk out in our special garden to find insects.