Good morning parents and children,
What a busy week we’ve had! Thank you again for all your observations on Tapestry. I’ve been so impressed by the children’s enthusiasm and parents’ energy.
I have now organised Zoom meetings for different groups of children. Please look on the Memo section of Tapestry for your child’s allocated slot. All meetings are at 9.30 am on Monday, Wednesday or Friday. This is slightly earlier than originally planned in order to avoid clashes with other online class meetings.
Our Special Story
I would like to begin planning around traditional stories and have opened a poll for your child to vote for the first themed story. This can be found on the Memo section of Tapestry. To narrow down the selection, I have picked three options:
The Gingerbread Man
The Three Bears
Jack and the Beanstalk
Please reply to the Memo post to let me know your child’s preferred story. I’ve already had lots of votes in! Thank you.
Letters and Sounds
Today’s new sound – ‘sh’ (digraph two letters but one sound)
Here is fun video which teaches the sound ‘sh’. Geraldine the Giraffe is a very mischievous character as you will discover.
This video supports blending and reading words that include the ‘sh’ sound.
Below is the action for ‘sh’. Can your child find ‘sh’ on their sound mat?
Ask your child to articulate the ‘sh’ sound whilst demonstrating the action.
Show your child how to write ‘sh’ using the correct letter formation.
Letter formation for ‘s’ and ‘h’ can be found in your child’s letters and sounds book.
Encourage your child to ‘have a go’ at writing the ‘sh’ sound.
If your child is ready for a challenge, ask your child to write the following words:
For extra challenge, maybe your child could write a sentence and draw a picture to accompany the sentence.
Maths
The next step in our measure learning sequence is that of using the language of heavier and lighter to compare mass or weight. Exploring that bigger things might not be heavier
Ask your child to compare weights from a selection of objects (a ball, a blown up balloon, a wooden block). Can your child guess which might be heavier/lighter out of a pair? Give your child the objects to feel to see if they can predict which will be heavier or lighter. At this point, notice that bigger objects (like the balloon) might not always be heavier. A nice trick to play is fill a small box with a heavy object.
If you have some kitchen scales, test the objects and show your child how to measure weight. Of course, cooking activities are a great way to continue to consolidate this concept.
Internet Safety
Talking to children about online safety is essential because many of them will be using a wide range of technologies in their home environments during this period of lockdown. Technology is becoming an integral part of children’s lives; we know it entertains them, engages them and motivates them.
Childnet.com provides excellent internet safety advice for parents. Here is a link to activities for children aged from 3-7 years. The Smartie the Penguin story is a great story to watch with your child and introduces good discussion points.
https://www.childnet.com/resources/online-safety-activities-you-can-do-from-home/for-3-7-year-olds-
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Nicola Palmer