Dear Parents and Carers,

Wow! What a busy week it has been in Foundation Stage! The children have encountered so many ‘firsts’ - first swimming lesson, first phonics session, first PE lesson, and first visit to the woodland camp. The children have approached all of these new situations with excitement and enthusiasm. We are incredibly proud of them!

Our Curriculum - ‘Marvellous Me’

This half term our learning experience is ‘Marvellous Me’. We love exploring new vocabulary and talking about it’s meaning and this week we have introduced the word ’unique’ to the children. We have been talking about how there is only one of us in the entire world and how that makes us so special. Some of the children have had the opportunity to share their ’special box’ with their classmates, and we have enjoyed learning more about each child and their interests and their family. Please bear with us if your child has not had the chance to show their box yet—we are working our way through them as quickly as we can!

Read Write Inc

We have started learning our phonics sounds. This week we have practiced the ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘s’  and ‘d’ sounds.

Each session consists of :

(i) SAY THE SOUND - hearing and practising saying the sound, e.g. mmmmm (please note this is NOT the letter name pronounced ‘em’ or with the ‘uh’ sound added to the end ‘muh’, but as the pure sound ‘mmmm’.

(ii) READING - showing the picture card, e.g. Maisie mountain mountain, and looking at the letter shape

(iii) WRITING - practice writing the letter shape in the air first and then writing the letter with a pencil in our books.

Today we have given each child a Read Write Inc (RWI) booklet. Please help your child to practise their letter writing of the sounds which we have covered this week.

We have also been playing some ‘oral-blending’ games. This is a vital pre-requisite step in readiness for starting to read and spell words. Please look at the seesaw activity which explains oral blending in more detail.

Woodland Camp

Puffins and Penguins were very excited this week as we put on our mud suits and wellies and went on our first visit to the woodland camp. The children loved exploring the different areas of the camp with their friends. They had fun building dens, making potions in the mud kitchen, looking at minibeasts and going on the tyre swing! We look forward to many more wonderful adventures in there as the year goes on.

Swimming

Puffins and Penguins were so excited to start their swimming sessions in our outdoor pool this week. They listened so well to instructions and every child had a huge smile on their face! We have posted a photo on Seesaw of your child enjoying their time in the pool. We are incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to swim onsite, and we are sure you will agree, swimming is an important life skill, particularly living on the coast. A reminder that we will be swimming every Tuesday until half-term.

PE

The children have enjoyed taking part in PE lessons this week. We have begun practising for Sports Day, which is in a couple of weeks time.

Mathematics

In Maths lessons, we have been talking about key times of the school day and class routines. We use a visual timetable to help the children to look at what activity comes next. We have also been talking about positional language, e.g. under, in between, next to, on top of. This has helped us when we are tidying away our toys and equipment. We have also used the language in our PE lessons to help us to learn where to stand, where to put the bean bag, etc.

Messages

· Please continue to contact the school office by email admin@preston.torbay.sch.uk or phone 01803 607075 with any questions or queries. There is also lots of useful information, as well as event dates and term dates, on our school website  https://www.preston.torbay.sch.uk/

· Please ensure your child is wearing full school uniform at all times. This includes a shirt (not a polo shirt) and a tie. Please can   children with long hair have their hair tied back. A full school uniform list can be found in the welcome booklet on the school   website or, alternatively, e-mail the school office for details.

· Please ensure your child brings a drinks bottle to school daily. Can we please ask that they are only filled with water, not squash.

· We have children in school with peanut and kiwi allergies. We request that these products are not put into your child’s packed lunch as the children will be eating in the same environment. Thank you.

If you have any queries regarding the messages above, please contact the class teacher.

Dates to remember

· Swimming—Every Tuesday until half term.

· Tempest photographer - individual and sibling photographs, Wednesday 22nd September.

· Trip payment deadline— Friday 24th September.

· Sports Day—Thursday 30th September— Unit 1 (Puffins and Penguins) 2:00pm - 3:15pm.

· Last day before half term  - Friday 15th October.

· School returns after half term  - Monday 1st  November.

· ‘Stickman’ Theatre Trip - Friday 5th November

Home Learning

· Enjoy sharing your new library book.

· Practise the ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘s’ and ‘d’ pages in your new RWI (Read Write Inc) phonics booklet.

· Watch and join in with the oral blending video on Seesaw.

· Every Friday we will assign a story on Seesaw for the children to watch and enjoy for pleasure. This week Miss Lewis is reading Topsy and Tim go swimming.

· Enjoy the positional language activity on Seesaw.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague, and the Foundation Stage Team