Category: Our Classes

Dear parents,

I have your collected your child’s reading book and reading record and will return them tomorrow.  Your child will have in their book bag their high frequency word bag and letters and sounds book. Please use these for tonight’s home reading activities.

Here are some ideas you may like to try:

High frequency word stamp

You will need:

Word bag and something to splat the words eg. wooden spoon or your child can just use their feet.

What to do:

Spread out the words from your child’s word bag on the floor.

Call out the words.

Ask your child has to stamp on the word, or hit the word with the wooden spoon.

Swap places with your child and ask your child to call out the words.

Countdown

You will need:

Word bag and a timer.

What to do:

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.

If you feel your child needs an extra challenge, ask your child to write as many words as they can before the timer signals ‘stop’.

I hope your child enjoys playing the games.  I would love to see your child’s learning on Tapestry.  The children always enjoy sharing their home learning with the class.

Mrs Palmer

On Monday Mrs O’Connor brought into school Deacon Paul’s vestments to show us, including the different coloured stoles that are worn at different times of the church year. We especially liked the white stole that is worn at the celebration of baptism. We guessed that the pink one is worn for Mary’s feast days. We also saw the alb and the dalmatic garments. She told us that the stole represents the towel that Jesus puts over this shoulder at the Last Supper when he washed and dried his disciples’ feet.

We also held our very own baptism in our class church. We all said “I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. We followed this with a class celebration which included singing songs. Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was the delicious cake at the end.

Letters and Sounds

As promised in the children’s Letters and Sounds books, below is one of the games we play at school. You may like to have a go at home.

What’s the sound Mr Wolf?

You will need:

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

What to do:

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

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

1. Stand your child several large paces away from ‘The Wolf’ (parent).
2. Pull from the word bag a word, say the word and ask your child to sound it out.
3. Your child will then say the sounds loudly as they take strides forward.
4. Make sure your child takes just one stride per sound.
5. Choose another word and repeat.
6. Once your child is close enough to The Wolf, turn round and shout ‘dinner time!’
7. 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.

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

For support

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

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Nicola Palmer

I thought it may be useful to share some games that you could play with your child whilst at home in this lockdown period.

Our current maths focus is subitising – up to the number 6.  Subitising is seeing how many are there without counting. This help develops calculation strategies when your child is older.

Many games encourage subitising so at home teaching your child to play games will support subitising. Dominoes, snap, rolling multiple dice to show the same value, are all good games to support subitising. 

Traditional board games, such as Snakes and ladders, Ludo etc. are great for counting and encourage children to rehearse the order of the numbers and match each number to an action. 

You may wish to try the following game at home :

Dottzi

Once your child has identified two dice that are the same value.  Put those dice to one side, roll the remaining dice and keep repeating until you have all the dice the same value.

To extend your child’s learning begin to identify ‘same’, ‘more’ or ‘less’ when subitising. 

Here is another activity you could try at home.

It would be great to see any games played at home on your child’s learning journal – Tapestry.  The children always enjoy sharing their home activities with their friends.

Wishing you a safe, wonderful weekend

Nicola Palmer