Author: Mrs Solakova

Good morning Reception parents and children,

Welcome to today’s home learning.

Communication and Language/Literacy

Tell a funny story – pass the story

I thought this game may provide an opportunity for your child to use all the imaginative skills we have been learning recently.  You can either use The Gingerbread Man story for the underlying plot or make up an alternative story.  This is a fun game to play together – it works for just two people or the whole family.

What You Need:

A soft, large ball.  Inflatable beach balls are ideal.   Or you just use a soft toy or cushion etc.

How to Play:

The person with the ball starts by speaking those magical words, “Once upon a time…”.  The first person will then roll the ball to the next person who continues the story.  After the next person has added one sentence or a few sentences, he/she rolls the ball to the next person.  A cliff-hanger for the next person who catches the ball would add to the fun – I expect you will probably have to provide these.  Continue taking turns as the story evolves and until you’re ready to finish the story with an ending.

Letters and Sounds

Play countdown

This game will help your child consolidate their quick recall of sounds/words, especially those digraphs (two letters/one sound).  It’s also a great way to help your child understand the concept of time and begin to talk about minutes and seconds – literacy and maths in one!

• Use the list of words below – today we are going to focus on ‘ai’ and ‘ee’.  Write the words onto individual pieces of paper.  Remember to keep modelling cursive ‘whoosh’ writing – perhaps this is something you are learning together.
• Use a timer – either kitchen timer or your phone.
• Explain to your child that the object of this game is to read as many words as possible before the timer signals ‘stop’.  I suggest perhaps 1 or 2 minutes.
• Repeat the game, the objective is for your child to beat their last score.

For support

Play the game using the words in your child’s word bag.

For challenge

Ask your child to write as many words as they can in a given time.  You could change roles, your child can be the teacher and reads the words for you to write.  Talk about the words and meaning.  Can your child say a sentence to include some of the words?

Maths

Classifying and sorting

This is a fairly simple game to play and you can use a variety of objects.

•          Gather together a collection of objects.  
•          Experiment with different ways of sorting the objects.

Examples:

A collection of toys.  Sort them into the type of toy eg. cars, bricks, dolls, animals.  Or the type of material they are made from, colour, size etc.

A collection of items collected on a walk.  You could sort them into things from natural or manmade items.  Or perhaps sort a collection of stones by colour or size.

Beads or buttons.  Perhaps sort them into shape, size, colour.

For challenge

To extend your child’s learning it can be fun to play ‘guess the category’:

•          Gather together a collection of objects.
•          Take turns to sort the objects into a category.
•          Can your child guess what your category is?
•          Can you guess your child’s category?

For example, I played this game with a collection of buttons.  We began with an easy category when my partner sorted the buttons into size.  However, at one point, my partner sorted the buttons into the amount of holes in each button which took me some time to guess!  This is a fun game once your child has really grasped the concept.

British Values

The Rule of Law

The fundamental British values of rule of law, democracy, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs are already implicitly embedded in your child’s curriculum.  We are going to focus on one value each week beginning with the rule of law.

The rule of law in the early years is all about children understanding their own and others’ behaviour and its consequences.  They are also learning to distinguish right from wrong.

Children enjoy participating in creating rules. If they are involved in making reasonable rules, they will know what is expected of them and others. Their participation will help ensure their willingness to maintain the rules and help develop self-control. 

• Talk to your child about the rules you have in the house.
• Discuss why the rules are important, for example, to keep them safe.
• Discuss what could happen if the rules are broken.
• Explore different rules you could adopt in the house. 

Ideas to explore rules:

• Make up a few funny rules eg. stay up all night and act out being too sleepy to play.

• Your child could be a ‘rule superhero’.  Pretend to break the rules and your child saves the day eg. leave all the toys out and trip over them.

• Make a poster together to display the rules.  This could be useful to refer to when the opportunity arises.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning children and parents,

I hope you enjoy today’s home learning.  

Communication and Language/Literacy

Tell the story from the Gingerbread Man’s point of view

This is quite a sophisticated skill and more difficult than a basic retelling with additions and changes.  Your child will have to see the story from another angle so I recommend you do this one together.  Plenty of acting out the story and lots of modelling will help your child.  However, the basic technique is something that your child will encounter many times throughout their school life so some exposure at this stage will be very beneficial.

Another way you could do this is something we call “hot seating”.  Pretend to be the Gingerbread Man and encourage your child to ask you some questions.  Or you could change roles and your child could ask the Gingerbread Man some questions.  Of course, you can play this game pretending to be any of the other characters eg. the little old woman, the cow, the horse or the fox.

Try the technique with another story – perhaps when reading one of your child’s favourite story books.

Letters and Sounds

What’s the Sound Mr Wolf game?

This is a fun game we’ve played often in class.

You will need:

• Your child’s word bag.
• Lots of space – outside is best.

What to do:

Take out tricky words (star shapes) from the word bag. 

You will only need high frequency words for the game (words that can be sounded out)

• Stand your child several large paces away from ‘The Wolf’ (parent).
• Pull from the word bag a word and ask your child to sound it out.
• Your child will then say the sounds loudly as they take strides forward.
• Make sure your child takes just one stride per sound.
• Choose another word and repeat.
• Once your child is close enough to The Wolf, turn round and shout ‘dinner time!’
• The wolf chases your child who runs back ‘home’ and start again.  Agree where ‘home’ will be prior to beginning the game.

I normally stand with my back to the children and turn round each time I say a word.

Perhaps swap places with your child who becomes the wolf and reads the words out to you.

For support

• Check the sounds with your child by clapping them first as you say them together.
• Show your child how to take one step per sound for each word before he or she begins taking their paces.

For challenge

Try these words which focus on our new sounds.

ai – wait, pain, sail, rain, main, tail

ee – see, weep, meet, week, feet, deep, keep

igh – light, fight, might, sight, bright, fright

This would also be a good opportunity to discuss word meanings and encourage your child to say a sentence to include the word.

Maths

The box game

Children often enjoy visualising how many toys are hidden in a box.  This game helps with adding, subtracting and solving problems.

You will need:

A box, number cards (or individual numbers written on pieces of paper) and some toys eg. teddies, small action figures

What to do:

• Put the toys into the box one at a time, counting the toys with your child as you hide them in the box.  The amount of toys may depend on your child’s understanding.  Perhaps start with 5 toys and increase the number as you play.
• Ask “Can you show me using your fingers how many toys are hidden?”
• Ask your child to find the number.
• Add one to the box, without showing the toys inside, and again ask your child to show you using their fingers “How many are there now?” “Show me the number”.
• Check your child’s answer by counting the toys in the box.

Extend this game by using larger amounts of toys and numbers.  Instead of adding toys to the box, take a given amount of toys out of the box.  “What if we add two more?” “What if we take two out?” 

Questions to ask your child:

• How many were there at the start?
• How many are there now?
• How do you know?
• How did you work it out?

Tricky words

Here’s a reminder of our new tricky words.

I’d like to share with you a great idea from one of the children.  Create your own words to add to your child’s word bag.  Perhaps your child could cut the star shapes out themselves to keep learning those scissor skills. 

Revisit the words on a daily basis and play ‘spot the word’ in story books.  Replay the ‘tricky word’ videos posted on Tuesday, 19.01.21.

Expressive Arts

Gingerbread Man ‘See How He Runs’ song

Attached to the Memo section of Tapestry is another song to learn with your child. 

Enjoy your day.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning parents and children,

I notice from your posts on Tapestry that many children are enjoying The Gingerbread Man story.  We’re going to do some more learning about the story for one more week.   So watch this space for more Gingerbread Man fun next week.

Communication and Language

 Understanding question words using stories

Asking questions about stories is a way of finding out what children know, understand and can remember.  It also encourages children to be reflective. 

We’ve already explored The Gingerbread Man story with lots of reflective questions.  I’ve compiled some more specific questions relating to our Gingerbread Man story which will deepen your child’s learning.

• What did the Little Old Woman do to make the Gingerbread Man?
• What happened when the Little Old Woman opened the oven?
• Why did the Gingerbread Man run away?
• Why did everyone chase him?
• Why do you think everyone wanted to eat the Gingerbread Man?
• Why did the Gingerbread Man stop when he reached the river?
• Why didn’t the fox tell the Gingerbread Man he wanted to eat him?
• How did the fox trick the Gingerbread Man?
• Why did the Gingerbread Man trust the fox?  Would you?

Challenge your child to ask you a question.  Maybe take turns.  What about making it into ‘Quiz Time’ game – who can get the most points?  What will the winner’s prize be?  Perhaps choose your own story for this game.

Literacy/Letters and Sounds

Make a story chair/story area

Create a specially decorated chair or story area with your child. This then becomes a special place for your child to tell all sorts of stories.  All you need to do is choose a chair and drape different fabrics over it or your child may wish to make some decorations for the chair.  Maybe add dressing up clothes, fairy lights, some writing materials etc. 

Today’s new sound – ‘igh’ (trigraph three letters but one sound)

Here is a video to introduce the sound.  It also has a little reading challenge at the end.

This video supports blending and reading words that include the ‘igh’ sound.

Below is the action for ‘igh’ :  

Show your child how to write ‘igh’ using the correct letter formation.

Letter formation for ‘i’, ‘g’ and ‘h’ can be found in your child’s letters and sounds book.

Encourage your child to ‘have a go’ at writing the ‘igh’ 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

Creating varied patterns and independently

This step should feel like a natural flow from the previous steps and many thanks to those children who have already shown me their independent patterns.

• Provide materials (eg. bricks, stones, twigs, knives, forks, spoons, cars, beads, buttons) for your child to create their own pattern.
• Again, ensure your child can talk about their pattern and identify where it repeats.
• Parents, try creating your own pattern and present deliberate errors. Ask your child to ‘fix’ the problem.
• Create patterns for a purpose – wrapping paper for a birthday or a design for a dinner place mat for example.

Baking a Gingerbread Man

I have posted on the Memo section of Tapestry a simple gingerbread recipe.  Your child could, of course, make any sort of biscuit depending upon the cutters available at home.

Here are some ideas to support your child’s learning:

• Talk about the sequence of the recipe and involve your child in following the numbered steps.
• Encourage your child to read the recipe with you eg. stop at a word, say ‘mix’, and pretend to struggle ‘Can you read that word for me?’
• Talk about numbers throughout your cooking activities such as how many eggs or spoonfuls you might need.
• Place all of the ingredients you need for the recipe on a tray and ask your child to pass them to you by asking specific questions such as ‘pass me the ingredient that is beside the flour, or behind the eggs’. The game can continue with your child naming the positions of ingredients to you.
• Teach your child how to use the scales and how to read the dial or numerals. You can also encourage your child to guess which of two items is heavier or lighter by holding one in each hand, for example a bag of sugar in one hand and a bag of flour in the other. Check if your child’s estimate was correct.
• Cooking together lends itself ideally to talking about time. How long will the gingerbread people take to cook?  Set timers together on your cooker, freestanding timer or phone.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning parents and children,

Welcome to today’s Reception home learning.

Communication and Language

Word webs

This activity will help your child build their vocabulary.

What to do:

• Choose a word to start a discussion.   I often find when I am reading stories to children a word that we are unfamiliar with always pops up.  Below I have suggested some possible words from our Gingerbread Man story. 

decided, bellowed, neighed, river, scrambled, unfortunately, gulp

• Write the word in the middle of a piece of paper eg. ‘river’
• Ask your child what he/she knows about ‘river’
• If your child can’t think of anything you could look at a book or Google together and start the discussion from there.
• Encourage your child to lead the conversation and write down his or her ideas linking them together.  Perhaps your child could draw some pictures.
• This is a nice activity for you to model writing ‘scribing’.  However, you could just sit and chat about your word.

Talking about new words in this way helps your child remember the new words.  This because they will be making links between new vocabulary and old vocabulary.

Literacy/Letters and Sounds

Retell the story of the Gingerbread Man

Now it’s time to start using our story map and encouraging your child to retell the story independently.  I have posted a transcript of the story on the Memo section of Tapestry to help you guide your child.

Begin by telling the story together.  Point to the story map as you retell the story.  Once your child seems confident, you can start to withdraw from saying the words.  Maybe you can just mouth the words or just keep prompting with the actions.  If your child falters in their telling, you can always leap in and keep the story going.  Tell your child ‘When I stop you carry on’.    The aim is to move from you being the dominant teller to becoming a listener.  Your child moves from being the listener to becoming the teller.

Find an audience for the story

The wonderful thing about learning to tell stories is becoming a storyteller and to communicate a story to someone else.  Maybe your child could tell their story to a collection of toys.  Perhaps even pretend each toy is one of their friends from class.  Other ideas are to ring or Zoom a family member or you could set up a theatre performance at home.  I’m sure your child would love to use your phone to record their story.  As usual, all use of technology with supervision.

Today’s new sound – ‘ee’ (digraph two letters but one sound)

Here’s a video to introduce the sound.

This video supports blending and reading words that include the ‘ee’ sound.

Below is the action for ‘ee’.

Show your child how to write ‘ee’ using the correct letter formation.

Letter formation for ‘e’ can be found in your child’s letters and sounds book.

Encourage your child to ‘have a go’ at writing the ‘ee’ sound. 

If your child is ready for a challenge, ask your child to write a couple of words from the following selection:

For extra challenge, maybe your child could write a sentence and draw a picture to accompany the sentence.   I expect this may result in some funny pictures!

Maths

Identifying the unit of repeat and describing

Build a tower as an example of a vertical pattern, for example, with coloured or different sized construction bricks. Stop part the way through a unit of repeat to see whether your child can continue it.  Ask your child to describe the repetition eg. ‘See if you can find where the pattern begins and ends’ or ‘Count the repeats and show them’.   Of course, you could always make your pattern using a different material available at home.

For extra challenge, you could also play a board game, such as Snakes and Ladders, and ask ‘Can you see any patterns here?’

Expressive Arts and Design

Gingerbread Man on the Run

I have posted on the Memo section of Tapestry this fun song.   Sing to the tune of ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’.

Reading

Finally, in the absence of your child being able to change their reading books at school, may I recommend the following website.

https://phonicsplaycomics.co.uk/

Click on Comics and start with the Phase 2 comics. 

Pat
Sit
A Nap
Rick the Duck
A Bug

If your child can read the Phase 2 comics fluently, with confidence and a good understanding, move onto the Phase 3.   Your child hasn’t learnt all of the Phase 3 sounds yet.  However, the following comics in the Phase 3 category are suitable if your child is ready.

Pet a Vet
Buzz
I can Spot

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions regarding your child’s reading or any other home activities.  Email the School Office or post an observation on Tapestry.

My thoughts are with you and hope everyone is well and keeping safe.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning Reception class,

Here are my activities for today.

Communication and Language

Memory Game – Shopping

This is a simple game that I’m sure some of you will be familiar with.  Learning to remember more and more information is a key skill.  As your child’s school life progresses, he or she will need to remember increasingly longer and more complicated information.  This game develops memory skills.

What to do:

• You start the game by saying ‘I went to the shop and bought a banana’.
• Your child repeats what you have said and then adds another item ‘I went to the shop and bought a banana and some biscuits’.
• Now it could be a different family member or back to you.  Repeat the sentence and add another item – and so on until you think it is time to stop!

Variations of this game could be packing for a holiday, tidying up the toys, tv programmes to watch, going on a walk etc.

If your child needs a little support, try using objects to look at first and then move the objects as a reminder of things to recall.

To challenge your child further, try initial sounds (everything begins with a certain sound) or using the letters of the alphabet in order as children choose their items.  To help with this, use a letter chart (if you have one).

Literacy/Letters and Sounds

Listen to the story of The Gingerbread Man again (yesterday’s blog) and encourage your child to join in.   Talk about the story and ask questions to make sure your child fully understands the story.  Here are some example questions:

• Did you notice any patterns (repetition) in the story eg. ‘Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man’?
• Was there anything in the story that you’re not sure about?
• What would you have done if you were …. the little old woman, the fox etc?
• How would you have felt if you were ….  the gingerbread man, the horse etc?
• What do you like best about the story?
• Was there anything you didn’t like about the story?
• If you could change one thing in the story, what would it be?

If you have a different version of The Gingerbread Man, talk about the differences – which ending does your child prefer?

Today’s new sound – ‘ng’ (digraph two letters but one sound)

Here’s Geraldine again!!!  Watch the next video below for words your child may be able to read and write.

This video supports blending and reading words that include the ‘ng’ sound.

Below is the action for ‘ng’.

Show your child how to write ‘ng’ using the correct letter formation.

Letter formation for ‘n’ and ‘g’ can be found in your child’s letters and sounds book.

Encourage your child to ‘have a go’ at writing the ‘ng’ 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

We are now going to move onto another learning sequence, pattern recognition.

It’s important that your child explores and identifies the regularities, sequencing and repetition that characterise pattern in mathematics. By recognising pattern, your child is beginning to recognise mathematical relationships and algebraic structures that will deepen his or her mathematical understanding.

In this sequence, your child will begin to understand the elements of pattern that can be found in the world around them as a precursor to the exploration of numbers. This will build up your child’s vocabulary to explain and describe patterns as he or she is beginning to generalise, make predictions and draw conclusions from a breadth of experiences.

What to do:

• You can use any resources available eg. natural materials (twigs, leaves etc), kitchen items (knives, forks, spoons) or toys (duplo bricks of different colours).
• Create a pattern with the objects.
• Ask your child “Tell me about the pattern I have made”.  You will probably need to model the language first.  You will be looking for your child to be able to say something like “After each stick there is one leaf”.
• Emphasise the repeating aspect of the pattern.  You may need to explain what ‘repeat’ means. You will be looking for your child to be able to say “I can see one yellow brick, one blue and one red then they repeat”.

Draw your child’s attention to repeated events in the daily routine, the natural environment, in songs or stories.   What pattern can we hear in The Gingerbread Man story?

Go on a ‘pattern hunt’ around the house or when outside walking.

May I also recommend www.topmarks.co.uk.  Look under ‘Learning Games’ age 3-5.  In the category ‘Ordering and Sequencing’.  Here is a link:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/ordering-and-sequencing

There is an excellent shape game which draws children’s attention to patterns.  You will see three levels to this game so you can adapt according to your child’s needs.

Look out for the Gingerbread Man game on this website.  This game teaches counting, matching and ordering numbers.

Lastly, if you would like some extra activities, try BBC Bitesize for some fun activities aimed at younger children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zks4kmn

Wishing you all a fantastic day.

Nicola Palmer

Hello parents and children,

I understand that some of you have experienced difficulties accessing Tapestry today. Please see below a link to the Gingerbread Man story referred to in my blog earlier this morning.

Hope you enjoy it!

Mrs Palmer