Dear Parents I would like to welcome you all to an exciting and challenging stage in your child’s education now know as the "foundation stage." We will be following the foundation stage curriculum which is divided into six areas of learning, Personal Social and Emotional learning, Language and Literacy, Numeracy, Knowledge and Understanding of the world, (which includes Science, History, Geography and Technology), Physical development and Creative development (which includes Art, Music, Drama, dance etc.) You, as parents have played a very important part in your child’s education, you were their first educators. Now the children are in school they will make best progress if you support them at home and reinforce things they learn at school. Our termly Newsletters will give you some idea of the work we will be covering and will include suggestions for support in home. The topic this term is "Bears, bears, everywhere" and most of the work will take the theme of bears, although we will also cover some work on ourselves for those children who did not attend our Early Years Class. Language We will be reading Bear Stories and saying "Bear rhymes." Our role play takes place in the 3 bears cottage where we have some lovely Bear costumes and a Goldilocks dress. Reading is extremely important. Please encourage your child to bring his/her book bag to school every day and take it home at night. Your child may be too tired to read in the evening especially once they are at school all day, so after breakfast may suit him/her better. Please change your child’s story book from the book box on bringing him/her, or collecting him/her from school. We will be following the new Phonic Strategy and so we will be making sounds and matching sounds to letters and listening for end and middle sounds (phonemes) as well as initial phonemes. Our older children will continue to write words from the high frequency list, writing labels, stories and letters. We hope all children will be able to write their name by the end of the year. You can help them practise at home, making sure you use lower case letters with only a capital at the beginning. In Numeracy we will be counting to 20 and beyond. We will start to count in tens and practise counting reliably. We will talk about size, particularly in relation to height. In Knowledge and Understanding we will investigate objects by using ourselves, look closely at similarities, pattern and change. A look at Autumn at the end of term will lead us into our next terms topic. We will look and watch ingredients change form. We will construct Bears and learn how to use the construction apparatus. Using the computer will support the curriculum. In Creative development we will explore colour and texture in two and three dimensions. We will sing songs about Bears, and make music to accompany a story. Physical skills will be developed in P.E. and in the outside play area. We would like to make a collection of bears and if anyone has a very old bear we would like to borrow it. Children can bring a teddy to school for our bear display, please give your bear a label so we can make sure he is returned safely. Our reclaimed materials boxes are now running very low, so please can you save your empty boxes, cartons, foil tins, kitchen roll middles etc. Please put them in the appropriate containers in the art area. Thank you. Looking forward to our next topic, I have arranged a visit to Cannock Chase for an Autumn Teddy Bears picnic on Thursday 27.9.01. . It will be a full day visit and children will need a packed lunch, sensible walking shoes, trainers or boots, a waterproof coat and a Teddy Bear. The cost to include coach, entrance to the education department and insurance will be £3.80. Please complete the slip below and return to school. Yours sincerely, S. Ashley Foundation Stage co-ordinator I would like my child (Name:                 ) to visit Cannock Chase. I enclose my contribution of £3.80. Signed Parent/Guardian Important note: In the future please note that letters will not be given directly to the children. You will need to collect them from the box by the entrance. Please pay milk and biscuit money on a Monday morning by placing the correct money in a named purse or envelope in the box by the classroom entrance. Please pay dinner money on a daily basis by placing the correct money in a named purse or envelope in the register box, in the classroom. Please feel free to come into the classroom with your child for as long as you need to, but if and when you feel your child is ready they may come into school by themselves. Thank you for your Co-operation.