Manor Park Infant School & Nursery
Foals
Welcome to Foal's Class!
Mrs Morris teaches the Foals and Mrs Christian and Miss O'Brien are the teaching assistants.
Our P.E. days are Wednesday and Thursday.
We change books each Tuesday and Friday.
Autumn Term Learning 2024
Spring Term learning 2025
2023/2024
Week Commencing 15th July 2024
It has been a wonderful week full of sunshine, where we have learnt all about the season of summer in Britain. We thought carefully about what we could see, hear, feel, smell, taste and do in summer. We looked at summer plants such as sunflowers and lavender, we learnt about summer pollinators and looked at some honey comb. We thought about what we do in the summer such as playing in a paddling pool or going to the seaside. I wonder how many signs of summer you can spot when you are out and about this weekend?
For our Maths learning, we have enjoyed practicing our map skills to reinforce our Geography learning. We looked at aerial maps and used Google earth to look at an aerial map of Calverton and describe what we could see. We spotted roads, cards, fields, trees, buildings, shops and Manor Park!
For our science learning, we have enjoyed learning all about reflections. We looked at our reflections in a mirror then we had a selection of materials and had to sort them into ones where we could see reflections and ones where we couldn’t.
Week Commencing 8th July 2024
We have had another great week in the Foals class. This week we have looked at coral reefs. The children looked at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and learnt about the coral. The children learnt what coral is, the animals that live on a coral reef and how coral reefs have been damaged by global warming and pollution.
In maths the children have been subtracting using a number line and in geography the children have continued to learn about maps and map keys.
In art this week we have started to think about sculpture and we will be using clay soon to make our own sculptures.
Week Commencing 1st July 2024
We have had another busy week in the Foals and Cubs classes. This week we have continued learning about directional language in maths. The children have been using the words in between, next to, behind, in front, opposite and beneath to describe the position of objects.
In English we continued to look at sharks. The children have been learning about the different types of shark and they have been writing about them.
In geography we have continued to look at maps. The children drew a map of Calverton, using a map key to add detail. In R.E we have been looking at people who are special to us like family members and friends.
Week Commencing 24th June 2024
We have had a wonderful week in the Foals class. This week we have been learning about sharks. We read the book 'Shark in the Park' by Nick Sharratt and we have altered the story using our own ideas.
In maths we have been using positional language to describe where objects are. We have used the words: opposite, next to, below, above, in between and on.
We have also visited our new classrooms and been on a school trip to Patching's Art Centre. At the centre we painted on silk cloth. First we drew a space picture on paper and then placed silk material above the paper using a hoop to stretch the fabric. We then used a silver pen to make an outline and then finally we used silk paint to colour the outline in.
The children had a wonderful time and we will send the art home soon when we have mounted it on card.
Week Commencing 3rd June 2024
Welcome to the last half term in the foals and cubs. It has been a pleasure welcoming your children back to school and seeing them again after their half term break. They have made a brilliant start to the half term, impressing us with their Manor Park values.
We have enjoyed making a start to our new topic, Map Skills. We read Martha Maps It Out by Leigh Hodgkinson. We enjoyed looking at Martha’s maps of the universe, solar system, planet earth, her city, her street, her apartment and her bedroom. We then drew our own maps of an imaginary place with raids, streets, buildings and people. We wrote about the features of our imaginary place, describing what was there.
For our RE learning, we passed around a special box, with a mirror inside. The children each has a turn to look in the box and then we discussed what we could see - our own reflections. This lead to us thinking about how we are all unique and special. This will lead nicely into us thinking about our families next week, who is special to us and why.
For our science learning, we had fun discovering how shadows are made. We explored shadows in a variety of ways, looking at shadows made by bricks, toy animals and other objects around our classroom then we looked at shadows outside made by trees, the fences and our bodies. We drew round shadows on the floor using chalk.
For our maths we have continued to look at shapes. We have focused on 3D shapes and discussed their properties. We have used the words, flat, curved and faces. We have also looked for 2D shapes within 3D shapes. For example a cube has 6 squares in it.
We ended the week with some very interesting geography learning, where we went on a journey, looked for objects such as leaves then hung them on a stick in the form of a journey stick. We used our journey sticks to describe the route we took, using directional language. For example, first we walked around the sand tray where we discovered a leaf, next we walked forwards towards the shed where we found a pebble.
Week Commencing 20th May 2024
Wow what another amazing week in the Foals class. This week we have continued our leaning about space using the book 'Professor Astro Cats Solar System' by Dr Dominic Walliman. During the week we have learnt key facts about all the planets and then we have written sentences about our favourite planet.
In maths we have been looking at shapes and how they can be manipulated to make shape pictures. We learnt the word 'rotate' and we have been solving puzzles involving irregular shapes.
Also in maths we have been using the words 'above', 'below', 'under', 'between' and 'next to' to describe the position of shapes in a group.
Week Commencing 13th May 2024
This week, we having enjoyed being super scientists and finding out all about outer space. We read a non fiction text called Once upon a Star, which explained how the sun is our nearest star, is 100 times wider than earth and was formed 4.6 billion years ago. For our science lesson, we pretended to go to space and visit each planet. We learnt the names of the planets and how to put them in order starting from the sun. The photograph shows the order of the planets, should you wish to refer to this at home.
For our art learning, we used our styrofoam tiles to print the rockets that we drew last week. Our prints look fantastic.
For our maths learning, we have enjoyed consolidating our addition skills before moving onto subtraction. The children have learnt the words subtract and take away. We started with a group of objects, took some away, then counted how many were left.
Week Commencing 6th May 2024
It has been another productive week in the foals. We have thoroughly enjoyed finding out all about what it is like to be an astronaut. We started the week by thinking of some I wonder questions.
I wonder how astronauts sleep in space?
I wonder how and what astronauts eat in space?
I wonder how astronauts brush their teeth?
We then did some research using websites such as the NASA website to find the answer to our questions.
I wonder if your child can talk to you about all the interesting things they have discovered?
For our maths learning, we have been learning to add. We have used tens frames to find one more or less by counting the spots then we used tens frames to find out how many more had been added. Finally, we used the add symbol. We placed red and yellow spots on a tens frame then found how many altogether. We wrote corresponding number sentences. For example- 3+5=8. Your child should be familiar with the words- more, less, add, equals and altogether. Please use this vocabulary when supporting them to complete their maths home learning. You could use actions- fingers for the numbers, crossed arms for add and parallel arms for equals.
Week Commencing 29th April 2024
We have been busy this week finding out all about Neil Armstrong and why he is famous. We started this week by reading a book called 'On the Moon', which told us all about how astronauts travel to space. We then did some research to find out lots of information about Neil Armstrong. Some of our favourite facts are:
1. Neil Armstrong was born in 1930.
2. He learnt how to be pilot when he was 16. This was before he could drive.
3. He flew over 200 different types of aircraft.
4. He was the first person to walk on the moon in 1969.
5. His footprint is still on the moon. It will be there forever.
I wonder what other amazing facts your child can share with you?
For our maths learning this week, we have enjoyed using numicon to build teen numbers. We have done very well with this and our teachers are proud.
We have also been busy being super artists. We have learnt how to sketch a rocket in preparation for next week, when we will draw a rocket on styrofoam for printing.
Week Commencing 22nd April 2024
What a busy but brilliant week of learning in the foals. We started the week reading The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers. In the story, the boy got stuck on the moon. We made a prediction about how he was going to get off the moon and go back home. We then read the rest of the text and decided who’s prediction was closest to the story.
We have been busy in art learning what printing is. We looked closely at the moon and found different resources in the classroom to print the craters and mountains. I was impressed with the textures the foals created. For our history learning, we found out what an astronaut is and learnt that astronaut means - star sailor. Next week, we will find out why Neil Armstrong is famous.
For our maths learning, we have been learning how to build teen numbers using mathematical resources such as numicon and counters. For example, we built the number 14 by making 10 and 4 and we built the number 18 by making 10 and 8.
Week Commencing 15th April 2024
Welcome to the summer term in the foals. The year does seem to be flying by and we can’t believe that it is already the summer term. We have made a brilliant start to our learning theme this half term- space explorers. We enjoyed reading Whatever Next by Jill Murphy and making our own Whatever Next! stories. We have also been busy making rocket collages 🚀 in the art area and decorating boxes to make rockets for our space station role play area.
In maths, we have recapped our learning on 3D shapes and tried to describe the shapes using mathematical vocabulary such as face, edge, curbed and straight. Our home learning this week is to complete the I spy 3D shapes activity. We hope you enjoy it.
The children were absolutely brilliant in their class assembly. We are super proud of them all.
We wish you all a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday, when we will be reading The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers.
Week Commencing 18th March 2024
It has been a lovely spring week of learning in the FS2 unit. We have been busy finding out all about spring. In our English lessons, we have been reading information books about the signs of spring and have then written some good sentences about what we found out. We learnt about spring flowering plants- daffodils, bluebells and crocus, about trees growing buds, leaves and blossom and about spring animals such as lambs.
In maths, we have been looking at doubles to double 10. We used our fingers and learnt a doubling rhyme, used bricks to find doubles.
We have enjoyed looking at houses from around the world and have focused on African round mud houses for our Geography learning. We learnt words such as cone, thatch and clay to describe how they are built. We compared them to our houses thought about if we would like to live in an African round mud house or not and why.
Our chicks had been busy growing and we have thoroughly enjoyed looking after them. We hope you have enjoyed looking at our photographs of the chicks.
We are looking forward to our Easter bonnet parade in school next Monday. We can’t wait to see all your creations. The children are also excited and have been telling us all about what they have been making at home. 🐣🐇
Week Commencing 11th March 2024
What a super week of learning. We started the week reading a non-fiction text called Amazing Eggs. We then looked at our hatching eggs in the incubator and found out all about the life cycle of a hen. We learnt lots of new words such as- egg tooth, pipping and incubator. 5 of our eggs have hatched and we have now moved the chicks to the brooder box. Next week we are looking forward to feeding our chicks and watching them grow.
In maths we have been sorting 10 cherries into 2 groups to help us learn how to make number bonds to 10. Our homework this week is to support this learning.
For our Geography learning, we have enjoyed learning about animals that live in the African savanna. I wonder which animals your child can discuss with you? 🐘🦓🦒
Next week we will be learning all about the season of Spring.
Week Commencing 4th March 2024
What another amazing week in the Foals. This week we have been really busy with Mother's day and world book day.
During world book day we had a storyteller in school who told us a story and we acted it out with music. The children looked amazing in their costumes.
This week we have also celebrated Mother's day and the children enjoyed giving our cards to our grown ups.
In English this week we have been looking at the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. We have sequenced the story using pictures and drawn our own simple story maps.
In maths we have been looking at the numbers 9 and 10 and what numbers are used to make them.
In science we have looked at pendulums and in Geography we have been looking at Africa. We learnt that Africa is a continent and that it is made up of 54 countries. We learnt about the savanna and all the animals that live there.
Week Commencing 26th February 2024
We started the week reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children particularly enjoyed sharing this story and joining in with the repeated refrains and story actions. We sequenced story pictures then wrote sentences about the beginning, middle and end of the story.
In Maths this week, we have enjoyed learning about the days of the week and time⏰. We have been challenged to see how many things such as claps, jumps or writing our name we can do in just 1 minute.
For our Geography learning, we have enjoyed solving the problem- how can we travel from Calverton to Africa? We learnt a transport song and looked at different modes of transport 🚲🚑🚒🚜🚛🚗🚂🛫..
Next week, we are looking forward to our Mother’s Day workshops🌻. We do hope you can join us for this special celebration.
Week Commencing 19th February 2024
It has been a wonderful start to our new half term. We have enjoyed reading an alternative version of The Three Little Pigs. We read The Three Horrid Pigs and the Big, Friendly Wolf. I wonder if your child could tell you what they story was about?
We have also learnt about Chinese New Year and have been completing lots of tricky challenges linked to this. We have been making Chinese dragons, getting our home corner ready for Chinese New Year and making dragons from play dough.
In Maths, we have enjoyed learning how to measure length. We have collected objects from our classroom and have been comparing the length of them. We have also learning how and why we measure height. We talked about who is the tallest and shorted in our classes and have been comparing the height of objects such as towers.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week, when we shall be reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Week Commencing 29th January 2024
We started our fabulous week by looking and root ginger and discovering what it is. We then used ginger to make our own gingerbread people. They were delicious. For our science learning, we then answered the question- how can we help the gingerbread man to cross the river? We designed bridges for the gingerbread man to cross the river. For our writing this week, we have written instructions for how to make a gingerbread man.
For our maths learning this week we have enjoyed playing games to find one more and one less. We have then looked at the composition of the number 6 and have been placing spots on ladybirds to find as many ways as possible of making 6, for example 5 and 1 or 4 and 2.
Next week, we look forward to reading The Three Little Pigs by Axel Scheffler. We will be making the 3 pig’s houses and describing the characters.
Week Commencing 22nd January 2024
What a brilliant week of learning! We started the week by looking at lots of shoes and wondering where they may have come from. We learnt our new wow word of the week-cobbler. This is a person who makes or fixes shoes.
We then enjoyed sharing The Elves and the Shoemaker. We talked about how the elves were kind for helping the cobblers. We then had a go at lots of independent tricky learning challenges including- designing them, making a pair of shoes, investigating how to waterproof a shoe, building a street of shops in our construction area.
For our maths learning, we have enjoyed learning how to measure- weight and capacity. We weighed objects using non standard units-cubes and we measured the capacity of various containers using pine cones, conkers and pom-poms.
For our Geography learning this week, we have been thinking about how to look after our area. We all made a pledge to care for our world by- picking up litter, turning the tap off, looking after animals, recycling and reusing. What wonderful, caring children you have!
Week Commencing 15th January 2024
We have had another fantastic week in the Foals and Cubs classes. This week we have been looking at the book Goldilocks and just one bear. The book tells the story of what happened after the story Goldilocks and the three bears. The children enjoyed learning about the bear visiting the city and meeting grown up Goldilocks.
The children learnt about the term setting that is used to describe where a story is.
In maths we have started to look at weighing objects on balance scales and reinforcing number bonds to 5.
In art we have learnt about collage and we have collaged a Union Jack.
Next week we are looking forward to reading the Elves and the Shoemaker.
Week Commencing 8th January 2024
It has been a busy but brilliant first week of our spring term. We have started our new English topic, Traditional tales and begun our new Geography topic, The British Isles.
When we arrived at school on Monday, we found porridge outside on the floor, with a footprint and a hand print in. We also found empty bowls and chairs that had been knocked over. We looked at the cause and decided Goldilocks had visited the three bears cottage. We have thoroughly enjoyed reading and re-reading the version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Axel Scheffler and using expression to sound like each bear.
In maths, we have been consolidating our knowledge of numbers, counting forwards and backwards to 50 and finding one more than a number. We are impressed with all the children’s confidence and fluency with numbers.
In Geography, we answered the question, where in the world do we live? We learnt what a globe and map are. We used Google earth to locate Calverton, Nottingham, England and the British Isles. We looked at the flags for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Next week, we will look at the features of our local area.
For our art learning this half term, we are learning about what a collage is and are going to build skills to collage a landscape.
Week Commencing 1st January 2024
Welcome to the Spring Term in the foals and cubs. We hope you have all had a wonderful, restful break and a brilliant start to 2024.
It has been a pleasure to welcome your children back to school this week and to share all of their lovely holiday news. It sounds like you all had some quality family time together. We are impressed by how settled the children are and we are eager to continue their learning again.
This week, we have begun the new year by learning about the new year celebrations held in the British Isles. We looked at the fireworks on New Years Eve in London and talked about how people around the world count down to midnight,. We talked about what a resolution is and each thought of a new year resolution for school and home. I wonder if your child can share their resolution with you?
This half term, we will be reading Traditional Tales (once upon a time stories) in English. If your child has a favourite traditional tale they would like to share with their friends at school, please feel free to send in. If you do, please write your child's name in the front cover.
Week Commencing 4th December 2023
We began this week reading The Gruffalo’s Child. We enjoyed sharing the book and joined in with the repeated refrains. We thought about how the Gruffalo’s child was feeling at various points in the story-brave, worried, scared- then used these feelings words in full sentences. We have also been busy making the Gruffalo from play dough and from collage materials in out creative area.
In maths, we have been learning about 2D shapes. We have been recognising, naming and describing circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons and octagons. This is quite challenging and so the home learning this week is linked to our work on shapes.
In art, we have worked in our artist sketch books to draw a portrait of Florence Nightingale. We have shown our creative skills and persevered to sketch in detail.
This week we were also joined by the Year 6 pupils from Sir John Sherbrooke. All the children worked together to make Christmas decorations (see below).
We have also been busy practising our Christmas Nativity, which we are looking forward to sharing with you on Monday 18th December at 9:30.
Week Commencing 27th November 2023
It has been another busy and brilliant week of learning. The foals and cubs have read The Go Away Bird by Julia Donaldson and Catherine Rayner. We enjoyed looking at a real go away bird and learnt some new vocabulary- crest, bill, feather. In our outdoor area, we have been making pine cone bird feeders and bird spotting. We have also been painting the characters from the story and making British birds in our creative areas.
In maths, we found out what a part, part, whole model is and found many ways of making different numbers using spots, animals and counters. For our guided maths work, we were challenged to find as many ways as we could if making 5. Our teachers are impressed by concentrating and perseverance.
We have continued finding out about Florence Nightingale and answered the question- why is Florence known as the lady with the lamp? We looked at sources of light and ten discovered that electric lights were not used in the Scutari hospital.
Week Commencing 20th November 2023
This week, we have been busy reading a Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The story made us laugh lots as it was ever such a tight squeeze to fit all the animals in the old ladie’s house. We enjoyed telling the story and joined in with repetitive phrases.
We continued learning about Florence Nightingale and answered the question: How did Florence Nightingale make a difference? We are fascinated by how much she did to help the soldiers and how much she has an impact on our hospitals today.
In maths, we have explored the composition of numbers and investigated lots of different ways of making each number. This was tricky but we persevered and impressed our teachers.
Once again, well done to all the children for making super progress with their reading. We are delighted to hear you are enjoying your reading at home. Keep it going!
Have a wonderful, restful weekend and we look forward to seeing you again next week for more super learning.
Week Commencing 13th November 2023
It has, as always, been a wonderful week in the foals.
In English, we have begun reading texts by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. This week, we enjoyed reading Room on the Broom 🧙♀️. After reading the book, we acted out the story on our stage. We are also busy setting up a theatre box office with tickets, posters and programmes. In our writing books, we answered the question: who is on the broom? We sounded out the character names using our phonic knowledge and impressed our teachers with our handwriting, finger spaces and full stops. We shall read A Squash and a Squeeze next week.
We have also begun learning about Florence Nightingale. This follows on nicely from our ‘people who help us’ topic. This week we discovered who Florence Nightingale is. Next week, we will ask: How did Florence Nightingale help others? How did Florence Nightingale make a difference?
In maths, we have consolidated our counting skills and have been rolling dice, counting the spots then drawing a corresponding number of objects. Again, we impressed our teachers with our understanding of number.
We are pleased you are all enjoying your new reading books at home. 📖 The children continue to amaze us with their independent reading at school and it’s lovely to hear how well they are also doing at home.
Week Commencing 6th November 2023
We have had a really busy week in the Foals class. This week we have been focusing on Diwali (the Hindu Festival of Light). During the week we have learnt about the festival and why it is celebrated. We have made Rangoli patterns, Diva lamps and we have painted Mendi patterns on paper hands.
In maths we have been learning how to subitise to 5 and then 10. Subitising is when you are able to look at a group of objects and realise how many there are without counting.
This week we have also planted bulbs, been visited by a dentist, and we have been learning about Remembrance Day and why people wear poppies.
In phonics we have learnt the sounds ll, ss, ff and j. We continue to revisit and recap all the sounds that we have learnt so far too.
Next week we are starting to look at the author Julia Donaldson. We will start with the book 'Room on the Broom'.
Week Commencing 9th October 2023
It has been another wonderful week of learning. Thank you to all parents who joined us for our Harvest festival in church. It was a wonderful celebration. There are some photographs of our celebrations on Tapestry that we posted earlier in the week.
For our English learning this week, we read a fiction text called Awesome Ambulances then we sounded out some words, phrases and sentences for our writing books. We are doing very well at sounding out then writing the matching grapheme (letter).
In Maths this week, we have been finding one more and one less. We found out that more means finding a bigger number and less means finding a smaller number. We have used a number line to help us find our answers.
For our art learning, we have looked carefully at paramedics and learnt how to draw one. We drew an outline then added facial features and tried to draw the uniform. Next week, we shall paint our paramedics, thinking carefully about the colours we use and mixing shades.
We also met Harold the giraffe from the Life Education Bus who taught us about staying healthy.
In PE this half term, we have been travelling back in time, then going on a dinosaur hunt. We have been finding different ways to move our bodies to represent various dinosaurs. We shall put all our movements together next week for our final performance.
Week Commencing 2nd October 2023
We have had another exciting week in the Foals class. This week we have been learning about refuge collectors as part of our topic ‘People who help us’. We have learnt about what they wear, what they do, where the rubbish goes and how to recycle. We have looked at the book ‘I’m the bin lorry driver’ to help us with our understanding.
In maths we have been comparing numbers using the words more, less and equal to. We have also been looking at length, height and weight using the words tallest, shortest, lightest and heaviest.
This week we have also met a police officer, police dog and a vet as part of our topic ‘People who help us’.
Week Commencing 25th September 2023
This week, our lovely little learners have been busy finding out all about the Police service. We started the week reading Topsy and Tim meet the police and discussed how the police help us.
We are continuing to enjoy our phonics learning and have now learnt all the following phonemes: s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u and r. We have begun our guided reading sessions and have enjoyed reading a booked called Old McDonald Has a Farm.
We all worked in our new writing books, where we drew a picture of a police officer, police car or police dog then wrote labels to go with our illustrations.
In maths, we have been busy sorting and grouping. We learnt how to sort by colour, size and shape. We were given pictures of space ships and rockets of various sizes and colours and have to decide how to group and sort them. Our teachers are impressed by how many different ways we found to sort them.
Week Commencing 18th September 2023
We have had another exciting week in the Foals. This week we have carried on our topic all about ‘People who help us’. This week we have been looking at vets and how they help animals and their owners. We looked at the story ‘Mog and the V.E.T’ by Judith Kerr. We have learnt about Judith Kerr and we have acted out the Mog story many times. We have also been practicing to write our name.
In maths we have been counting to 20 and practicing writing the numbers 1 to 9 correctly. The children have also been introduced to a 10 frame and have been learning how to count quickly using the 10 frame for support.
In art we have been drawing animals in our sketch books, ready for painting next week. In computing we have learnt about computers, mobile phones, tablets and cameras and how they help us in everyday life. In understanding the world, we have looked at and discussed what a vet does and who helps the vet in the surgery.
In phonics we have learnt the phonemes G,O,C and K.
Week Commencing 11th September 2023
We have had another fantastic week in the Foals class. This week we have been looking at the book Mr Tick the teacher as part of our topic 'People Who Help Us'. We have been learning the story and how to answer comprehension questions orally. In maths we have been learning how to count objects and how to write numbers from 0 to 9. In phonics we have learnt the sounds S,A,T,P,I,N,M,D and in topic time we have learnt colour mixing, discussed our families and we looked at all the people that help us in our community.
In science we conducted an experiment about how we could protect Humpty Dumpty when he fell off the wall in the nursery rhyme.
Week Commencing 4th September 2023
Hello and welcome to the Foals. I have really enjoyed getting to know all the children this week. This week we have looked at the story The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. In the story a monster experiences the feelings of sad, happy, love, as well feelings of being afraid and calm. The children have learnt about these feelings and have managed to identify how they have felt as they start the next chapter of their learning in Foundation stage 2.
This week we have been counting objects in maths and recording numbers as well as predicting how many objects there are. In science we have been looking at fruit and vegetables and have used our observation skills to discuss what a fruit looks, smells and feels like. In art we have been drawing the Colour Monster and we have also made him out of playdough.
Outside the children have been exploring the sand, water and mud kitchen as well as the ice cream parlour role play and writing shed.
