Good morning parents and children,
I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are ready for another fun week learning at home.
Here is my timetable for the week. This week, I’ve decided to consolidate our Letters and Sounds learning so far and play games.
Communication and Language/Literacy
The Gingerbread Man
Once your child knows the story of The Gingerbread Man really well, try some substitutions. I find this game usually brings new life the children’s enthusiasm. The purpose is to guide your child towards being able to make up their own stories when writing.
The easiest substitutions to make are places, characters or names. Don’t be tempted to substitute too much at this stage. It may be worth limiting or staging the substitutions to avoid the story falling apart. So, a simple substitution for The Gingerbread Man might start like this:
Once upon a time there was a boy/girl called (your child’s name) ………
Then continue the story but use your child’s name throughout instead of the little old woman.
Once your child gets the idea, here are some other suggestions:
- Change the name of The Gingerbread Man
- Change the animals
- Change the river, maybe he couldn’t climb a mountain
Perhaps your child could draw a new story map for their new story.
Letters and Sounds
Writing like a Jedi
(adapt the theme depending on your child’s interest
eg. pretend to write like a fairy with a wand)
This activity will help your child learn the pre cursive letter formation ‘whoosh writing’. It’s a fun way to embed the letter pattern and can be played outside. Use the same technique to learn numeral formation.
To engage your child’s enthusiasm, pretend that you have met Luke Skywalker! You learnt how to become a ’Jedi Writer’. Jedi writing is different to the way that ‘we’ all write. It is amazing because you get to do it with a light sabre!
Use as many props as you have available eg. dressing up, something to represent the light sabre eg. a stick.
What to do:
- Ask your child to stand up.
- Choose a letter and talk about it. Where does this shape/letter start? Then where do we go?
- Introduce the rhyme related to the letter (these can be found in your Letters and Sounds book)
- Look at the letter in your child’s Letters and Sounds book. Ask your child to trace it with their finger.
- Demonstration with your light sabre, talking about all of the ‘essentials’ for effective Jedi writing: straight back, legs shoulder width apart, big strong movements, no wobbling! Write the letter in the air.
- Ask your child to write the letter in the air with their light sabre.
This initiative was inspired by Alistair Bryce-Clegg (ABC Does) for more information:
You can also ask your child to write with their finger in either flour, shaving foam or sand.
Further challenge
- Revisit the new sounds learn so far in our home learning: qu, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh. Maybe use chalk outside and write on paving. It’s always fun to use a brush and water to make the letters disappear.
- Use your child’s word bag and learn the spellings of the words.
Maths
On the Memo section of Tapestry, you will find a Gingerbread Man dice game. The game involves rolling a dice and, depending upon the number rolled, draw different features onto a template of the Gingerbread Man. If you do not have a printer, simply draw outlines of the Gingerbread Man for each player.
If your child can accurately count the dots on the dice, encourage your child to recognise the amount of dots on the dice without counting.
Challenge your child further by changing the numbers required. Perhaps decide it’s the number rolled on the dice and add 1 more or use two dice.
Physical Development
Tweezer challenge
What to do:
- Find a selection of small items eg. pasta, buttons, beads, sweetcorn, jelly beans.
- Challenge your child to see how many ……. they can pick up using the tweezers in a given amount of time, say 30 seconds.
- Use a timer eg. kitchen timer, phone, stop watch to set the time.
- Challenge your child to pick up the items and sort them into categories in 30 seconds? For example, if you have a selection of beads, sort them into colours. Perhaps sort different items into categories eg. give your child three pots – pasta in one pot, beads in another, buttons in the third pot.
I am sure you will have spotted the maths learning in this game. Your child will also be developing those small finger muscles necessary for holding a pen and writing beautifully.
Wishing you all a great day.
Nicola Palmer