It has been another busy week in Foundation. Our knowledge-rich curriculum is both broad and balanced and fosters our school aims: Love to Learn, Be a Good Citizen and Ready for Work. We are always looking for new and innovative experiences for our children and this week they were spoilt for choice. We were visited by a firefighter, an author, and some children visited the beach to have their maths lesson.

Firefighter Visit

To build on our previous learning experience ‘When I grow up’ we had a visit from local firefighter, Mr Clare. He came to talk to the children about his role as a firefighter and explained to them that both men and women can be firefighters. He also educated the children on fire safety. Mr Clare talked to the children about what to do if they saw a fire and what information they need to know when calling 999. He gave the children some home learning, to learn their home address and check their smoke alarms. He also talked about all the different ways the fire service helps the community and how firefighters use our school values every day. Mr Clare brought in his uniform to share with the children and Mrs Bastin put it on to demonstrate! Next week we will be looking back in time to compare current firefighter uniforms and fire engines with those from the past. We will be recapping the vocabulary past, present and future.

We were very impressed with the children’s knowledge and curiosity. Thank you, Mr Clare for an inspiring and informative talk.

At the end of the week, we had an exciting visit from Sara Louisa, author of the book ‘Bettie Honeybee’. It was wonderful to have a book brought to life and for the children to meet an author and hear her experiences. 

Sara read the book to the children (in the wonderful location of our Woodland Camp) and talked about the key messages of the story. Bettie bee is a happy and cheerful buzzy little bee until one day her favourite flowers go missing! The book raises awareness of the importance of habitats and encourages children to take responsibility for nature and be a good citizen by putting things in place to protect and care for bees.

The children then had the opportunity to take part in lots of activities around the story. They drew their own bee characters and flowers, tasted British honey, made posters and booklets on how to protect bees and planted some flowers on our patio area for the bees.

Thank you, Sara, for a very creative and informative visit. You have truly inspired the children to protect our wonderful world and have opened their eyes to the potential of becoming an author. It is wonderful to share our love of reading and bring stories to life.

www.saralouisastories.co.uk For every copy sold a £2 donation is made and shared equally between Plantlife and The British Beekeepers Association. If you would like to meet Sara, she will be at Paignton Library this weekend, on Saturday 19^th March at 12.15pm. She will have copies of the book available to buy and she will be reading the story and answering questions, sharing her love of nature with the community. It could also be a good opportunity to borrow some books from the local library, it is free to join.

Beach Maths

In maths this week, some children had the opportunity to take their lesson to the beach! It is important for children to be able to make links in their learning and for it to be meaningful. We thought it would be a wonderful experience for the children to visit the local beach and have a maths lesson outside. Using everyday objects and environments encourages children to see all the mathematical opportunities around them.

The children took part in a variety of activities including, finding shapes in the environment, counting steps, shells and pebbles, practising 1 more and 1 less using sandcastles, creating repeating patterns and subitising. It was a pleasure to see all the children excited about their learning and engaged in practical activities. There was lots of creativity and collaboration. After the success of this week’s trips, we hope to give all of the children an opportunity to have a maths lesson on the beach. We will tailor the lessons to the needs of individual children, the mathematical possibilities of the outdoors is endless.

First Lego League Discover – Session 7: ‘Lets Use Ramps’

In Lego this week the children were challenged to use ramps to help them transport packages quickly and safely. They answered the following questions.

• What is the purpose of ramps?
• Where are ramps in our community and what purpose do they serve?
• How does it feel when you go down a hill?

They were introduced to the vocabulary gravity, ramp and speed. They built ramps and vehicles to safely transport the packages. They explored the effects of gravity and speed and had to make sure their packages did not crash and break at the bottom of the ramp! The children enjoyed testing their ramps and used collaboration and critical thinking to solve problems.

Recommended Reads

These are the books your friends would like to recommend this week. We hope you enjoy them.

‘There’s a Dragon in your book’ by Tom Fletcher

recommended by Elliot

I like this book because at the end of the story there are so many eggs and all the dragons come out.

‘What the ladybird heard’ by Julia Donaldson

recommended by Esme

I would like to recommend this book to my friends. My favourite part of the story is when the robbers go to jail because they tried to steal the fine prize cow. I hope you love the book.

‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson

recommended by Layla

I love this story because I like all the bugs. I am dressed as a bee because I love the bees in the story.

Celebration of Learning

Every Friday Puffins and Penguins will come together with the rest of the school to celebrate their achievements of the week. A few children from each class will be named for their commitment to their learning and demonstrating our school values. One child from each class will take home the achievers trophy for the weekend (please could it be returned on the Monday morning). This is a great opportunity for the children to hear about all the wonderful learning happening across the school.

Woodland Camp

In the woods this week the children have been looking for signs of spring. They went in to the Woodland Camp and observed any changes. They noticed some buds on the trees, some new green leaves have appeared and flowers have begun to grow. They noticed we have some beautiful flowers growing in our outdoor learning environment. They enjoyed using the iPads to take pictures. After being inspired by the book ‘Bettie Honeybee’, the children would like to plant more flowers and create a flowerbed. If you have any seeds, plants or cutting you would like to donate we would be very grateful. 

Mother’s Day Shop

On Thursday 24^th March, our PTA (FOPPS, Friends of Preston Primary School) will be running a gift shop in school. All children will visit the shop in class groups during the afternoon, to purchase a gift for their mum or special person. All gifts will be priced at £1 – please send your child in to school with a maximum of £2 in a sealed and named envelope. In case anyone needs to visit the shop with a parent, FOPPS will keep the shop open in the Hall until 3:45pm.

Home Learning

• Enjoy the story on Seesaw.
• Check Seesaw and your book bag for this week’s RWI books and activities.
• Use Ten Town to practice numbers 1-10
• Look on Seesaw for this week’s ‘Six Brick Challenges’. We would love to see some photos of you completing the challenges and hearing your thoughts.
• Enjoy sharing traditional tales with your family.
• Learn your address and check the smoke alarms in your home.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team