What have we been learning about in FS2?

Week beginning 15th April 2024

Our first week back and we set of with 3D shapes and a story about a group of animals who’s homes are disappearing. Take a look at our shape sorting and naming, you might want to practice the song at home to help you remember the names of the solid shapes.

We have been thinking about habitats and have worked creatively to make collages of different habitats such as land and sea and we also used our sand tray to make a forest for Orangutans, gorillas and even a few dinosaurs. 

Click on the link to read the story together 

Week Beginning 25th March 2024

What a week! It may have only been a 4 day week, but it's been a busy one, that's for sure! 

We have had lots of fun this week celebrating the festival of Easter.

We began the week by exploring the full Easter story and reminding ourselves of the song that Sarah shared with us when she visited from the church.

We had lots of fun exploring different Easter traditions together as a class. 

Week Beginning 18th March 2024

This week we have continued to delve a little deeper into the life of Handa and her family and community in Migoko in Kenya.

We explored the story Handa's Noisy Night and spent time exploring the characters and setting of the story.

We used props and instruments to retell the story and recreate the different animal noises from the story.

This week we have learnt all about nocturnal animals, in the afternoon we went up to forest school to see which animals we could spot that weren't nocturnal. 

Whilst at forest school we used our other senses to identify things that we could see, smell and hear. 

In our expressive arts learning we developed our clay skills from previous weeks and created our Easter baskets. 

Firstly, we rolled our clay into a ball. 

Then, we pushed our thumb into the middle to make a bowl shape. 

Next, we rolled another piece of playdough into a sausage shape to make a handle. 

After that we attached the handle onto our basket.

Finally, we painted our Easter designs onto our Easter Baskets.

Week Beginning 11th March 2024

This week we have delved a little deeper into the life of Handa and her family and community in Migoko in Kenya.

We explored the story Handa's Noisy Night and spent time exploring the characters and setting of the story.

We used props and instruments to retell the story and recreate the different animal noises from the story.

In maths we have been finding, subitising and representing the numbers 9 and 10. 

We have explored the different ways in which these numbers can be shown and practised lots of 1:1 counting.

Week Beginning 4th March 2024

Over the last two weeks, Bees and Caterpillars have been reading and exploring the story Handa's Surprise. 

Over the last two weeks we have explored the text in depth, looking at the descriptive language, the character's, the setting and linked it to our Understanding of the World learning and looked at what life is like in Kenya. 

We have then built on this and re-told the story in different ways, we created a story map at forest school, we ordered the pictures and we acted out the story. 

In provision we have explored building Handa's mud hut, making mud bricks in the mud kitchen, tasting all the 7 delicious fruits from Handa's fruit basket and making fruit baskets in the playdough. 

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day! 

We came to school dressed a character from our favourite stories, can you guess who we are dressed up as?

We enjoyed sharing and reading out stories with our friends. 

Week Beginning 29th February 2024

This week, Bees and Caterpillars celebrated Number Day with the NSPCC, and a little help from Fiona Five in Ten Town.

We stayed active in Fiona Five's gym - running 5 laps round the climbing wall, bouncing a ball on a racket 5 times and doing the hula hoop 5 times. 

We also found different ways to represent the number 5 using our large construction and loose parts.

We explored 5 new fruits and compared them by height, mass and size. We also explored fruits within a 5 frame - 1 piece in each square, making sure the five frame is full and looking at repeating patterns too. 

Finally we created healthy eating posters - practising our fine motor skills to choose and cut out 5 fruits and vegetables to remind people to eat 5 a day. 

Week Beginning 8th January 2024

Last week was a very exciting week in FS2, delving deeper into this half term's enquiry question "What is community?" we had some special visitors come into our school to meet us! 

Each day we were lucky enough to meet a different member of our community who helps us. 

On Monday we had a visit from a nurse and a doctor. They talked to us about the job they do and brought lots of resources and equipment for us to try and use. 

On Tuesday we had a visit from three police officers! They had a chat with us about how they help in the community and keep people safe. We were even lucky enough to try on their jackets, they were very heavy! 

On Wednesday Firefighter David came to visit, we learnt lots of new and interesting information about his job and his role within our community. We then got to look at his uniform, Miss Gregory even tried it on! 

Then finally on Thursday we had a visit from a paramedic. She brought lots of interesting equipment to show us and we even got to try them ourselves! 

To consolidate our learning from the week, on Friday we went on a school trip to the National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield. We got to see lots of emergency vehicles from the past and the present. We learnt lots of interesting facts, tried on different outfits and had so much fun!

Week Beginning 8th January 2024

What a jam packed first week back we have had! This week we have began exploring our new enquiry question for this half term "What is community?".

Our key text this week was 

"Emergency!" 

You can read it here:

On Monday when we returned back to school we found a present from Santa addressed to us! 

Inside was a new book for us to read, "Emergency!". 

Throughout the week we explored and discussed what a community is and used Google Maps to look at our own community. 

We identified lots of different buildings in our community, petrol station, doctors, supermarket, school etc. 

We then worked together as a team to match the correct person and vehicle to the building. 

We had lots of interesting discussions about which of the places in our community are part of the emergency services and which are not. 

In expressive arts and design we have begun to look at different emergency vehicles and design our very own. 

We looked carefully at different images, identifying the different features of each vehicle and thinking about the different materials we could use to create them.

We then spent lots of time drawing and designing our own emergency vehicle. 

Week Beginning 13th November 2023

Another celebratory week in FS2! So much so that our sticky sentence this week was...

We celebrate different festivals!

We reflected on last week's celebrations of Remembrance Day and Bonfire Night and begun the week by celebrating Diwali! We enjoyed sharing our own home experiences of celebrating Remembrance Day and begun learning all about Diwali.

We had lots of fun exploring the Diwali traditions, creating Rangoli patterns, Diya lamps and even trying some of the food they celebrate with!

Then in support of Anti-Bullying week we celebrated Odd Socks Day on Tuesday! We came to school wearing odd socks to raise money and celebrate all being unique and spreading kindness. We read the story "Simon Sock" and had a discussion all about how Simon might of felt being different and not being chosen. We shared lots of ideas about how we could help a friend if they are feeling sad. 

And finally on Friday we celebrated another exciting day where we celebrated Children In Need. 

We came to school wearing yellow/spotty clothes in support of raising money for the charity Children In Need. We also ran a bake sale to raise some more pennies for the amazing charity! 

Week Beginning 6th November 2023

Another celebratory week in FS2! So much so that our sticky sentence this week was...

We celebrate different festivals!

We reflected on last week's celebrations of Halloween and begun the week by celebrating Bonfire Night! We enjoyed sharing our own home experiences from the weekend and explored representing fireworks in many different ways, such as through mark making, music and movement.

We also enjoyed learning more about the upcoming Remembrance Day. We shared the experiences of Alicia and her family by watching My First Festivals and learned why the poppy helps us to remember the brave soldiers that fight in wars. We shared a lovely story called "A Day to Remember" and even took part in our own 2 minute silence of reflection, with the help of our cbeebies bunnies.

Week Beginning 30th October 2023

What a jam packed first week back we have had! This week we have had lots of fun learning all about how to keep ourselves safe. On Tuesday we started the week off by celebrating Halloween. We had lots of fun apple bobbing, carving pumpkins, and dressing up in scary Halloween costumes. We had a discussion about what we can do to stay safe at Halloween, lots of the children came up with some fantastic ideas on how we can stay safe. "Make sure you go trick or treating with your grown ups", "Use a small amount of water when apple bobbing and always have a grown up near by" and "When carving a pumpkin wear gloves and use tools which are not sharp". 

Following on from our Halloween learning we moved onto Road Safety and the importance of staying safe when crossing roads. We had a special visit from Mr Hewitt who came to talk to us all about Road Safety, he was even wearing his bright yellow coat and had his lollipop stick! Mr Hewitt set up a pretend road and we practiced crossing the road safely. The children had lots of ideas on how to stay safe when crossing roads, "Look left, look right, look left again", "Listen out for cars before you cross", "Always hold a grown ups hand when you cross the road" and "Don't run!". 

Then finally on Friday Mrs Rotherforth took us up to forest school for an adventure! We went up to forest school and had a fire where we cooked some bagels and learnt all about fire safety and the importance of staying safe around fires. 

Week Beginning 9th October 2023

This week, it was time to learn a little bit more about those dinosaurs! We learned that real dinosaurs lived in the past and we now live in the present. But how do we know that dinosaurs were real all those years ago? We found out that some people grow up to become Paleontologists, special scientists who study the life of dinosaurs in the past. They find fossils and bones to find out about different dinosaurs and what they might have looked like. Thanks to paleontologists, we know that in the past...

STICKY SENTENCE - All dinosaurs were different!

Many fossils and dinosaur bones are exhibited in museums, like the museum that our friend Andy from Cbeebies works with. In our literacy this week, we went on many Dinosaur Adventures into the past to learn about different dinosaurs.

To help us describe all the different dinosaurs, we read and listened to the story "Dinosaur, Roar!". We acted out the different dinosaurs and matched up the opposites. 

In maths, we have been spotting, copying and creating lots of different patterns! Patterns are everywhere, and we are getting really good at creating repeating patterns in different ways.

Week Beginning 2nd October 2023

Our "sticky sentence" of the week this week is...

"We can go to different places"

Our naughty dinosaurs that were causing lots of trouble last week have gone missing! After lots of clues we found out that the dinosaurs had made their way to the supermarket. Our dinosaurs must of been very hungry from all the trouble they caused last week.

At the start of the week we read and explored the story "Dinosaurs in the supermarket". 

Throughout the week the dinosaurs visited a different place each day! We were sent clues and pictures to help us identify where they were. They had lots of exciting adventures at the supermarket, the park, Miss Firth's garden, the amusements and the train station.

Where do you think the dinosaurs might go next?

We decided it would be a good idea to keep our very own "Dinosaur Adventure Books" to keep track of the dinosaurs whereabouts. We wrote the initial sounds for each place the dinosaur visited, focusing really hard on our pencil grip and letter formation. 

Week Beginning 25th September 2023

Our "sticky sentence" of the week this week is...

"We all enjoy different things!"

This week we have had some special but mischievous visitors in Bee's and Caterpillars. When we arrived at school on Monday, there was some naughty dinosaurs in our classrooms creating a big mess with the paints. We have dinosaurs in our school!! 

We read the story "Dinosaurs in our school" to find out if this was happening in other schools. The dinosaurs in the story were very naughty and the Bee's and Caterpillars were very concerned that they weren't making the right choice and following the golden rules, just like the dinosaurs in our school. 

We had a discussion as a class about what we should do with these dinosaurs. We came up with lots of fantastic ideas, we made the decision to make some posters to put around school to make everybody aware of the dinosaurs in our school. 

As the days went on the dinosaurs got up to more trouble each day, they made a mess with paint, they made a mess doing some baking, they spilt water all over the floor, they threw our colouring pens and pencils on the floor and then they thought it would be a good idea to play football inside! 

What naughty dinosaurs! 

Because the dinosaurs were so naughty, Millie and Milo tried tying up the dinosaurs to keep them from causing trouble! Unfortunately, that didn't work. 

We very kindly asked Mrs Tomlinson to check the cameras to see what the dinosaurs were up too when we went home from school, guess what she found...

The dinosaurs had lots of fun this week enjoying different things, just like us in Bee's and Caterpillars. 

We've had lots of fun this week exploring the dinosaur provision out in our classrooms. 

Week Beginning 18th September 2023

Have you asked us what we've been learning about this week? We're getting really good at remembering our "sticky sentence" of the week.

This week we have been learning...

"Everyone's home is different!"

Everyone's home looks different from the outside. Some homes are big, some are small. But we found that everyone's home was also different on the inside. 

To support us with our learning, we enjoyed reading and listening to the story "In Every House, On Every Street"

We've been little phonics stars this week, and have completed our first week of full Read Write Inc lessons. Almost all children are now confident in recognising the first 5 sounds (m,a,s,d,t) and all are having brilliant go at forming these letters on our handwriting lines. 

Please practise recognising these sounds at home. Links to the Read Write Inc lessons below.

In our literacy learning, Milo and Millie the Monkey have been taking us on a tour around their house. Each day, the two monkeys brought us different objects from a room in their home. Once we worked out which room they'd been playing in that day, we applied our newly learned phonics knowledge to match the objects to their initial sound. We even had a go at writing them!

To practise our fine motor skills, we also created some new wallpaper for Milo and Millie's house, by tracing the patterns using our "pinchy parrot" pencil grip.

When exploring outside, we had lots of conversations about our families and our homes. We worked together as a team to build our own street of houses. True to our sticky sentence this week, we made sure that every home was different!

To support our discussions about our homes and families, we enjoyed watching the first episode of "Bear in the Big House". Bear introduced us to who he lives with and took us on a tour around his Big Blue House. We then replicated these discussions with our peers, sharing which rooms we liked in our homes and why. 

Week Beginning 11th September 2023

What another fantastic week we've had this week! We have continued exploring our new classrooms and getting to know the rules and routines of FS2. 

In our literacy learning this week we have begun exploring our enquiry question "What makes me unique". Throughout the week we have explored and identified similarities and differences between ourselves and our peers. Our differences were easy to spot, such as our hair, eyes, height, families, houses etc. However, we found similarities a little bit trickier but after some discussion we found a few, such as 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 2 ears, some of us even had the same favourite colour! 

Also, in literacy we had a go at creating our own self portrait. In order to do this we had to look very carefully, using a mirror, to identify our features and the colours we needed to make it look accurate. At the end of the week we had a look at everybody's together and had a discussion about all being different. To finish off the week we read the story Elmer. This helped us to understand that being different is a good thing and it's okay!

Week Beginning 4th September 2023

Welcome to Bees and Caterpillars! And what a week we have had! We have had a fantastic week exploring our new classrooms and enjoying the beautiful weather (Even though it might have been a little too hot at times!)

In our maths learning this week, we have been singing lots of counting songs and rhymes. We also celebrated Milo and Millie the Monkey's 4th birthday. Milo and Millie wanted some buns for their birthday but the decorations were missing so we had to carefully count 4 smarties to decorate the buns - they were delicious too!!

We have also been working on getting our fingers nice and strong, and practising our scissor skills. We learned how to carry scissors safely and practised snipping art skills to add to our creative area.

Our Expressive Arts and Design activity this week was to paint our own self portrait. We had to think about which colours we needed to use and decide on whether we needed to use a thick or thin brush for each feature of our face.

And all that was just week 1! We've also started phonics, handwriting, had a music lesson, read lots of stories and have made a fantastic start to school! Well done Bees and Caterpillars - you are all superstars!