TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR FOUNDATION STAGE

SOME ADDITIONAL IDEAS.

GOOD NEWS

  • Use God’s Story 1 for picture.
  • Dance – use coloured streamers or ribbons and lively music to make up a dance to symbolise fire, wind and the power of the Spirit.
  • Headbands with flames–make coloured headbands with card and wear for dance or role play.
  • Unwrap the Alleluia – remind the children straight after Easter that the ‘Alleluia’ was hidden away during Lent because it was a sad time. Make a joyous occasion of unwrapping it to help children understand that the Easter message is good news.
  • Role play the Pentecost story.
  • Hotseat some of the people there.
  • Plan a Pentecost party.
  • Emotions faces – make masks the size of faces with different emotions shown on them. Children choose correct ones as you tell them the Pentecost story or the Good News of Easter.

CHOICES

  • Choices Game: Sort a selection of pictures with children making choices. Which choices make people happy? Take photos and make cards of role play situations, e.g.

Playing together /fighting

Sharing/snatching

Dropping litter/picking up litter

Falling over/helping each other up

  • Happy House – make a big happy house on the wall out of bricks with pictures of good choices drawn on them. Draw pictures of people making happy choices in various rooms.
  • A reflective activity – make flower shapes on coloured paper. Get children to draw good choices pictures in the middle. Fold in the petals. At reflection time place a bowl of water on the prayer space. As each child carefully lays their folded flower on the top of the water, they unfold and float. It works, honestly!!
  • Make smoothies using fruit, yogurt, and fruit juice. Children design their smoothie and choose the fruit that they would like to include. Discuss why some people have chosen strawberries and some people haven’t.
  • Have a choices display. Encourage the children (or use TA and self) to use the digital camera and take a photo when they make a choice. Annotate the photo or use post its to add to the ‘Choices Wall’. Encourage the children to think about choices outside the classroom and ask them to draw a picture to add to the wall of a choice that they have made at home.
  • Using the flower idea from growing topic. Children record their choices on a petal, colouring good choices in one colour and not so good choices in another.
  • Role play area could be a shop. Children choose the items that they want.
  • Have shopping lists in the writing area to encourage children to make choices ready for playing in the shop.
  • During circle time reflect on times when we have been made choices that have made others sad. Make a sorry box. Children anonymously draw or write about a time when they have made a choice that has made someone sad. During circle time children put their drawing in the box to show God that they are sorry. They take a little pebble or smiley face out of the box to show that God forgives us when we are sorry.
  • Use feeling fans to discuss Isaiah 58. Children hold up the fan to show how they would feel at different points of the reading.
  • New Classroom Rule. Have a special award at the end of the day to give to a child who has followed Jesus’ new rule that day. They could wear a special badge or sticker.
  • Happy choices, Sad choices. Give children picture with them making choices. Can they add happy or sad faces to the pictures to show that they are or are not following Jesus’ new rule?
  • Look at picture from ‘God’s Story’ of friends falling out. Write or draw in speech bubbles to explain how the different people feel.
  • Songs – Jesus hands are kind hands

Magic Penny

Love one another as I have loved you.

NEIGHBOURS

  • Following the activity in the folder, make a big wall picture called: ‘We are all neighbours under one sky.’
  • Create a psalm based on David’s psalm in the folder. Write it, say it/sing it together.
  • Make a big book of David’s psalm – in groups design a page each like a picture story. Reception could make it for Nursery. Last page can be a picture of all of them, plus pictures of others.
  • Make a big globe filled with people/faces.
  • Dramatise the psalm. Use dance/movement. Freeze frame and photograph.
  • Role play area could be two houses, have two home corners next to each other. Discuss the idea that the people in the houses are neighbours. Encourage children to help their neighbours by sharing things with them.
  • Play next door neighbour game. Children draw a picture or make something in the make and do area, explain that they are making it for someone but they don’t know who. Children join the circle with their drawing and then explain that they have all brought a gift for the person next to them, their neighbour.
  • Make a display including photos and annotations about when the children have helped each other. Encourage the children to add to it and include times when they have helped others at playtime or at home.
  • Remind the children about King David’s walk that we talked about at the start of the year. Organise with another class to go outside to look at the sky make sure the other class go to another part of the school grounds where your class can’t see them. Come back together as two classes and discuss how we can all look up at the sky just like in King David’s story. We all can see how wonderful God’s world is no matter where we are in the world. Explain that God can see us no matter where we are and he is always taking care of us.
  • As a class write a thank you prayer or a litany to thank God for taking care of us.
  • Children to take different parts and use the make and do area to create part of Gods wonderful world. Some children could make the sun, others could paint the sky, others make grass or paint the sea. In a large space (the hall) children bring their creations together to make up a big picture of God’s beautiful world. Then take the opportunity to talk about how we can look after this beautiful world.
  • Learn to sing the Our Father. Sign it if you can get a copy of a CD or DVD with the signing on or better still get the children to make up their own actions.
  • As corny as it is perhaps the children could sing the first line of the theme tune from ‘Neighbours’ the tv program.