Hello everyone,
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. It is hard to believe that we have now been back at school for three weeks. The children have really settled well into our routine and have been fantastic learners this week.
Maths/Physical Development
We played an addition game using numbered buckets (1 – 5). The idea being to throw two balls into the buckets and add up the numbers indicated on each bucket to find the total score. However, the most challenging task whilst playing this game was fine tuning our throwing skills! The children, therefore, thoroughly enjoyed developing their throwing skills.
Letters and Sounds
This week we again revisited the ‘th’ sounds and learnt how to spell ‘thank you’ ready for writing our Father’s Day card. The children previously enjoyed reading a book about bugs and we decided to read a caption which included some of our tricky words and the ‘igh’ sound – The moth likes to go to the light.
We also revisited the ‘ng’ and ‘ai’ sound and began learning to read and write the ‘ing’ suffix. At home you can try reading and writing the following words:
ring, king, sing, song, ping pong, thing, bashing
wait, pain, paint, sail, snail, rain, main
Yes/No game
We read the following caption and the children wrote down their answer (yes or no).
Will all shops sell nails?
This is an excellent game to support comprehension and language skills. Here are a selection of questions you could try at home. Write the message on a piece of paper, ask your child to read the question and decide upon the answer.
Is a thick book thin?
Is rain wet?
Can a boat sail?
Is all hair fair?
Can coins sing a song?
Encourage your child to explain their answer. This will develop their talking skills in terms of clarifying their ideas and thinking. I am often pleasantly surprised by answers such as ‘No not all boats can sail, some have engines’.
Understanding the World
The children have been very keen to make a den this week and remembered an activity we played at the beginning of the academic year – shadow puppets using torches. We, therefore, recreated this activity. However, this time the children made an amazing discovery – shadows can change their size. As light moves towards the object, the shadow becomes larger. As light moves away from the object, the shadow becomes smaller.
This is also a great activity for story-telling and developing creativity. In class the children made ogres! We provided black card and lolly sticks. The children drew their pictures on the card, cut out the shape and sellotaped the shape to a stick. You may wish to try this at home.
Retelling a story with Nursery
We continued learning The Three Billy Goats Gruff story this week and made story maps.
I was excited to learn that Nursery have also learnt a story – Little Red Hen. We, therefore, linked with Nursery via a video call with each class showing their story maps and retelling their stories.
Pop up Books
I also read an alternative version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff to the class which happened to be a pop-up book. The children were inspired by this and wanted to learn a new skill – how to make a pop-up book/card.
At home you can show your child how to make a pop-up book. Follow the video below to make a simple pop up card. We didn’t make ours with the exact measurements. We just cut up strips of paper and pre folded for the children to attach their pop ups onto. However, the video will give you the basic idea.
Expressive Arts and Design
The children have continued to explore colour mixing – this week we used crushed up chalk to make paint as well as powder paint. Back in the classroom, an amazing castle was created and the children put their colour mixing skills to good use by creating grey to paint the castle.
The problem solving and team work exhibited whilst making this castle was impressive. They even made a draw bridge using string to move it up and down. This required tying knots, a skill we consolidated during our funky finger session. My blog dated 30 March outlines a method you can try at home.
Next week we will be adapting and changing our story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, I have a funny feeling it might include castles or ogres and am looking forward to sharing the children’s suggestions.
Wishing all the Dads a fantastic Father’s Day. Top tip: look on Tapestry on Sunday for a special message!
Nicola Palmer