☀️ Foundation Stage Summer Term 1

This half term has been bursting with creativity, curiosity and confidence as children explored exciting new themes through hands-on learning and imaginative play. Across all areas of the curriculum, children continued to grow as independent learners, showing resilience, teamwork and enthusiasm in every challenge they encountered. Our Summer 1 themes Around the World, Materials and Making and Patterns in Nature and Culture inspired the children to become explorers, artists, scientists and storytellers as they discovered more about the wider world around them.

🌍 Summer 1 Around the World

📚 Phonics

This half term, children continued their exciting journey through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme as they consolidated and applied their growing phonics knowledge with increasing confidence and fluency. They revisited and mastered Phase 3 graphemes and phonemes while developing greater accuracy when reading longer words, tricky words and simple sentences independently.

Children enthusiastically practised reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and longer vowel sounds through engaging games, partner work, sentence building and interactive storytelling activities. They became increasingly confident in segmenting words for spelling and blending sounds automatically when reading unfamiliar words.

A fantastic achievement this term has been the childrens growing stamina and independence in writing. They used capital letters, finger spaces and full stops with increasing consistency and proudly applied their phonics knowledge during independent writing opportunities across the classroom environment.

Children also consolidated their recognition of tricky words including said, so, have, like, some, come, love, do and were, using them confidently within both reading and writing activities. Many children demonstrated increasing fluency when reading aloud and showed real pride in becoming successful readers and writers.

🌎 Understanding the World Geography Around the World

Children became global explorers as they discovered different countries, cultures and environments from around the world. Using maps, globes and interactive discussions, children learned about continents, oceans and famous landmarks while comparing life in different places to their own experiences.

The children were fascinated by learning about homes, transport, food, weather and celebrations from around the world. They explored colourful photographs, listened to traditional music and enjoyed stories from different cultures which sparked thoughtful conversations and questions. Children particularly enjoyed role-playing journeys using passports, aeroplanes and travel tickets in the classroom travel agency.

These experiences encouraged children to develop respect and curiosity about the wider world while building rich vocabulary such as continent, country, ocean, journey, culture, climate, village and city.

🎨 Art Pattern Print and Collage

This half term children explored the exciting world of pattern, print and collage through a wide range of creative experiences. Inspired by patterns found in nature, fabrics and artwork from around the world, children experimented with colour, shape and texture to create their own unique masterpieces.

Children used sponges, rollers, leaves, stamps and everyday objects to create repeating printed patterns. They explored symmetry and shape while designing colourful artwork inspired by African prints, Aboriginal dot paintings and natural patterns such as shells, flowers and animal markings.

In collage work, children carefully selected and combined materials including tissue paper, fabric, foil, natural objects and recycled materials to create layered artwork full of texture and detail. These activities strengthened fine motor control, creativity and problem-solving skills while encouraging children to talk proudly about their artistic choices and ideas.

🔬 Science Materials and Investigation

Children became young scientists as they investigated and explored a variety of everyday materials. Through practical investigations and outdoor exploration, children examined the properties of materials including wood, metal, plastic, fabric, glass and paper.

They tested which materials were waterproof by building shelters for toy animals, explored which objects were strongest when constructing bridges and investigated which materials were best for floating boats. Children loved making predictions before testing their ideas and were excited to observe what happened during each investigation.

These scientific experiences encouraged children to think critically, ask questions and explain their discoveries using increasingly ambitious vocabulary such as transparent, waterproof, absorbent, rough, smooth, flexible, strong and fragile.

🔢 White Rose Maths

Maths learning this half term has been practical, investigative and full of excitement as children deepened their understanding of number, shape and problem-solving through hands-on exploration and play.

Children explored numbers beyond 10, developing confidence in counting, ordering and recognising number patterns. They investigated how numbers can be composed in different ways using cubes, counters, bead strings and ten frames. Through practical activities, children developed a deeper understanding of number bonds and automatic recall of doubles.

The children particularly enjoyed exploring sharing and grouping through real-life problem-solving activities. They sorted objects into equal groups, shared resources fairly and began to recognise odd and even patterns during games and outdoor challenges. Shape and spatial reasoning continued to develop as children created repeating patterns, built models and explored rotating and manipulating shapes. 

Children also explored measuring length, height and capacity using practical resources such as water trays, containers, ribbons and building blocks. They compared, estimated and explained their mathematical thinking with increasing confidence and enthusiasm.

Throughout the term, children demonstrated fantastic perseverance, collaboration and curiosity as they embraced mathematical challenges across all areas of the learning environment.