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Good morning Reception parents and children,

I hope you’ve all had a great weekend in the sunshine.  Please continue to enjoy daily exercise and outdoor activities.  Enjoying outdoor activities not only benefits children’s emotional wellbeing but also encourages an active life style.

Please also feel reassured that doing the simple things as a family, such as preparing meals together, helping with the washing, sharing a book and having cinema time at home are just as important in terms of your child’s home learning.

This week we’re going to focus on ‘getting ready’ for school.  I have, therefore, reduced other home learning activities to allow parents and children time to relax and adjust in preparation for our return to school.

Personal, social and emotional development

There will be mixed emotions about our return to school next week.  Some children will be excited whilst others may feel a little apprehensive.  I am sure this is the case for parents too.  

Please feel free to contact me either via Tapestry or the School Office if you have any concerns about the return to school.  In particular, please let me know if you feel your child may require extra support or if there is anything that I should be aware of prior to our first day. It is important to me that all parents and children feel supported and our first week is a happy time for all. 

Happy box

Please create a ‘happy box’ with your child ready to bring into school on Monday, 8 March.  We will display the boxes in the classroom for the children to share with each other.  This activity is not only great for language skills but will provide a link with home that your child can revisit during the day at school.

You will need:

An empty food packet/any kind of box that can hold a few things.  No larger than a shoe box.

What to do:

• Start by talking about being happy. What does happy look like? What does happy feel like? Make some happy faces together, maybe looking in a mirror. Draw a smiley face. When they smile or feel happy, do they feel it anywhere else in their body – warm tummy, tingly toes?

• Explain that you are going to make a Happy Box – in it you will put 3 things that make you feel happy. You could model this by having your own Happy Box to show them. Talk about the things you put in it and why they make you feel happy.

• Ask your child what makes them feel happy? What would they like to put in their box – e.g. a pebble, a photo of Nana, a special toy. Together, go in search of 3 things. Use lots of happy words – smile, laugh, giggle, warm, cosy, joy, cheerful. Chat about why they have chosen each thing.

• Your child can put the things in their Happy Box. They might want to decorate the box first – you could talk about what colours make them happy and use felt tips/paint matching their happy colours.

• You can refer to the box every so often. Perhaps if your child is feeling sad and needs cheering up, you could suggest you look in their Happy Box and choose one of the things to look at and talk about. Or if they find something else that makes them feel happy, they could add that to the box later.

Top tips: 

• Don’t include any precious items just in case of loss or damage
• Limit to 3/4 items
• Box no larger than a shoe box
• Name the box and items in the box

Maths

This activity will build on your child’s ability to subitise (recognise the amount of objects in a group at a glance without counting).  Your child will also to learn that a whole number can be created by combining small parts.

You will need:

A dice
Collection of objects eg. dinosaurs, buttons, bricks, pasta

What to do:

• Show your child a familiar dot pattern, e.g. the five on a dice. Check they instantly recognise the value.

Ask your child to copy the pattern with objects. Initially use the same objects to make the pattern.

• Ask your child ‘Do you see any familiar dot patterns within the dinosaurs?’  Your child may answer ‘Yes I can see a 2 on the top’ or ‘I can see 3 diagonally’ or ‘1 in the middle’.
• Encourage your child to swap the objects for different ones to show the value they can see.

Extension and playing outside

Ask your child to collect natural objects around the outside area such as twigs, leaves and stones. Once they have a small collection, make little groups and explore how many there are by subitising where the group is small enough.

Note:  subitising is recognising a group of objects at a glance without counting.  The highest number that even adults will normally subitise to is 6.  Try it yourself.  Count a random collection of objects, say 10.  You will notice that you immediately notice the groups eg. you may see 3, 5 and 2 to quickly count the objects and know there are 10.

Zoom meeting

You will notice from my timetable that I plan to hold an extra Zoom meeting on Tuesday at 1.15 pm.  I will send the invitation to you all today.  Up until now, we have met in small groups.  However, I thought it would be nice to provide an opportunity for all the children to get together.  There probably won’t be a chance for everyone to talk to each other.  However, hopefully we will be able to share some news. 

If up until now your child has been reluctant to join one of my meetings, try turning the camera off to allow your child to watch.  Alternatively, your child could watch from a safe distance and nominate a soft toy to ‘stand in’ on the camera.

Enjoy your day.

Nicola Palmer

Dear parents and children,

I hope you all had a wonderful half term and managed to have a rest.  I appreciate that many of you are juggling family life with working and home schooling.   Hopefully, everyone is feeling ready to begin this week’s home learning.

Here are my plans for the week.

Religious Education – Lent

A promise for Lent

As you are aware, the church season of Lent began last week with Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.  Remind your child it is purple time again in the church year; a time of getting ready for the celebration of Easter.

It is also a time to think about how we can change and grow inside to be more like Jesus.  We are growing not only physically but inside in goodness, kindness, caring and loving. Our learning will begin by thinking about what the term ‘growing’ may mean.  I have, therefore, included a couple of activities this week that observe the growth of plants. 

I am sure you will have discussed Lent with your child and may have taken the opportunity to attend St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church to receive the Ashes. I would really like to hear about your child’s Lenten promise.  If you haven’t already agreed upon a promise, please make a Lenten promise with your child to send to me. 

The cornerstones of Lent are praying, fasting and giving.  You may find the list of suggestions below useful ideas. 

Pray

Fast      

Give up something you enjoy eg. only have sweets or treats at the weekend
Choose to look at a book instead of the television

Giving

Helping with a chore in the house
Playing with a brother or sister

Encourage your child to draw a picture.  Scribe your child’s promise on the picture and pin it up somewhere prominent to help your child remember this special time of the church year.

Letters and Sounds

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

This video introduces the ‘ear’ sound.

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

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

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

For challenge

Only if your child is ready.  Write the following words:

For extra challenge

Write a funny sentence and draw a picture to accompany the sentence. 

Maths

Number positions

This week in maths your child will be learning how to understand the position of numbers and their relationship to other numbers.  We will focus on numbers from 0-10.  However, the activities for the week can also be extended to 0-20, depending on your child’s confidence.  We will be working towards understanding 1 more and 1 less. 

Let’s begin with step 1:    Recognise that a count starts with nothing (zero) and increases equally by one each time

Make a number staircase

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This activity will help your child to see that the difference between each number is equal and goes up in ones.  It involves creating a number line physically as a ‘staircase’.

You will need:

Ideally Duplo or Lego bricks to make towers.  However, you can use pasta shapes, buttons, beads and create number lines on the floor.

What to do:

• Write numbers 0-10 on a separate pieces of paper.  You could use the numeral cards I previously sent through Tapestry.  I’ve resent them for today.
• Give a number to your child.
• Ask your child to make a tower of cubes to match the value on the card.
• Ask your child to order the towers from smallest to largest labelling each tower/length with the number card.

The idea is for your child to increase the number of items used for their towers/lengths by 1 each time. 

Ask your child ‘What do you notice?’  Ideas you will be looking for:

Celebrating our Learning

The children really enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year.  Many thanks for all the wonderful photos and creative ideas.  I thought the children may like to share their photos with each other.

I look forward to hearing all about your learning through Tapestry and wish you all a great day.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning Reception parents and children,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and ready for another week of home learning.

Please find below my plan for the week. 

As part of the whole school Geography focus, we will be looking at China and celebrating Chinese New Year which falls on Friday, 12 February.  To help you prepare for tomorrow, I’ve posted a template and instructions for the paper lantern on Tapestry today.

I also set out below materials you may wish to gather together over the week ready for Friday’s dragon costume.  Of course, you’ll be able to improvise so don’t worry too much if you can’t find everything listed!

Religious Education– St. Adrian

Chaplaincy Team Assembly

Please find enclosed a link to our Chaplaincy Team Assembly.  It’s all about St. Adrian, who is our class saint.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VNYPH-QkpG4adjlYXu2IbHCD3RpS_bVN/view

If you cannot access the assembly link, below is link to a short video and information all about St. Adrian.

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-adrian-of-canterbury

Your child may like to take part in the school competition set by the Chaplaincy Team.  Draw a picture or make a poster to celebrate our class saint, St. Adrian.  The deadline for the competition is Friday, 12 February.  Post your entries on Tapestry and I will forward them to the Chaplaincy Team. 

Letters and Sounds

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

This video introduces the ‘ur’ sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9354FVIi0nM

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

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

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

For challenge

Only if your child is ready.  Write the following words:

For extra challenge

Write a sentence and draw a picture to accompany the sentence. 

Maths/PE

Spatial thinking

The language of spatial thinking is linked to many aspects of mathematics. Position and directional learning is the most obvious but also patterning and geometry. It is also essential when considering the relationships between numbers; knowing which numbers come ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘next to’ or ‘in between’ is important, as well as knowing how near or far numbers are from each other or from a given point. If the language of these are not fully understood in the real world, it will be difficult to use them in the abstract world of numbers.

The other aspect of spatial thinking covered in this learning sequence links to understanding abstract representations of the real world. The ability to transform images from pictorial to an abstract image later supports solving worded maths problems. In this sequence, the children will go from passing through a space in reality to using maps of known spaces with symbols to represent known objects.

Here’s our first activity:

This activity can be done inside or outside.  It naturally builds on itself because children will want to provide feedback on specific obstacles and courses can have endless combinations.  The perfect obstacle course should be challenging, silly, and easily deconstructed or reconstructed.

Using any equipment available such as cones, cushions, tables, hoops, beanbags or small mats, ask your child to devise a route to be followed and then invite other members of the family to try their route.

The idea is for your child to use directional language to explain their route.  For example, “Jump over the cushion. Then hop on to the mat. Now throw the beanbag in the hoop.”

The key words you want your child to use are:

up, down, forward, through, over, turn backwards,

under, turn around, turn towards

To end today’s blog, I’d like to celebrate our learning from the last week.

Children’s Mental Health Week

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Maths

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Phonics and reading

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Looking forward to hearing all about this week’s learning through Tapestry.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning Reception parents and children,

Thank you for your feedback regarding the ebooks I shared on the Memo Section of Tapestry yesterday.  If you have not accessed your child’s ebook yet, please note you will need to register to get onto the website, Oxford Owls. However, it’s free to subscribe and a fairly straight forward process!

Mental Health Week – Personal, Social and Emotional development

“Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” read by author Carol McCloud

This heartwarming book encourages positive behaviour as children see how rewarding it is to express daily kindness, appreciation, and love.  The book is based upon an ‘invisible’ bucket to help children understand the effects of our actions and words on the well being of others and ourselves.

I thought it would be nice for the children to see a ‘real life’ author and hear Carol McCloud read her own book.

As a visual reminder, parents could use a small bucket/bowl and cotton buds, beads or a similar small object.  Each time your child shows an act of kindness, pop a cotton bud into the bucket to recognise their thoughtfullness.  You could also encourage your child to do the same for you!

Letters and Sounds/Literacy

Let’s go shopping!

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This is an idea that I hope will inspire your child to write for fun.  Set up a shop – this could be any shop that your child chooses eg. sweet shop, shoe shop, fruit shop, ice cream shop. Search around the house for resources that could represent the various items, a box for the till, upside down box covered with a cloth to display items, paper and pens.

Writing ideas your child could contribute:  shop sign, open and closed signs, shopping list, labels for the items, price tags. Can you child write some rules around the shop? For example, wear a face mask, keep your distance – No Kids Allowed! (From our Jack and the Beanstalk story.)

Remember, encourage your child to ‘have a go’ at writing. Promote independent writing and confidence in writing skills. Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ words and use their sound mat to find the sounds they can hear. Celebrate emergent writing, your child may just begin by only writing some of the sounds they can hear.

Maths ideas: writing numerals for the price tags, counting the correct amount of items requested by the customer, deciding upon open/closed times. Perhaps you could add some real money (1p, 2p or 5p coins) or decide upon something to represent the money eg. beads.

Maths

Roll a dice and balance game

You can use the ‘beanstalk in the clouds’ suggested yesterday for this game.  Or just use a cardboard tube standing upright and balance a paper plate on top. 

What to do:

• Gather together a collection of small objects eg. small bricks, miniature toys, pieces of pasta.
• Roll a dice – how many dots can you see?
• Balance this amount of objects on the plate.
• The challenge is to balance the objects without the plate falling off the tube.
• Keep going until the plate falls.
• How many objects did you manage to balance?

Recognising a small number of (a group of items) at a glance without counting is a key mathematical skill.  Playing games with dice really helps develop this skill.  If you have any board games, these are an excellent resource to support the development of maths.

You could extend your child by using two dice and encourage addition.

Celebrating our learning

Thank you to those parents who responded to my email regarding home photos.  I’ve decided to delay this week’s learning celebration until I have gathered together the responses. Watch this space!

Have a wonderful day

Nicola Palmer

Good morning Reception parents and children,

Today our home learning will also celebrate the fantastic learning you have been doing at home.  I have been overwhelmed by your enthusiasm and energy.  Not only have you embraced my home learning, but posted additional learning activities some of which I’d like to share for extra inspiration.

Communication and Language

Making predictions

You will recall this activity posted previously.  However, I thought I’d repeat it because it is so important in terms of your child’s reading skills.

• Read a story together.  This could be a story book or maybe your child’s reading book.
• Read a few pages to introduce the characters.
• At key places, stop and before you turn the page ask ‘What do you think might happen next?’
• When you read the next page ask ‘Was your prediction right?’

If your child needs a little support, ask more direct questions eg. Goldilocks and The Three Bears – ‘Whose house do you think she will find?’ or offer alternatives for your child to choose from.

Literacy

Jack and the Beanstalk – joining in

We explored this activity during our Gingerbread Man story telling activities. Hopefully, your child will be growing in confidence and, with daily repetition, can begin to join in with the story.  Watch the story of Jack and the Beanstalk again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00BbNDgeBtg&t=52s

Talk about the story and ask questions to make sure your child fully understands the story.  Here are some example questions:

• What do you like best about the story?
• Was there anything you didn’t like about the story?
• Did you notice any patterns (repetition) in the story eg. ‘Jack opened his eyes wide in amazement’?
• Was there anything in the story that you’re not sure about?
• What would you have done if you were …. Jack’s mum, Jack, the Giant?
• How would you have felt if you were ….  Jack’s mum, Jack, the Giant?
• If you could change one thing in the story, what would it be?

If you have a different version of Jack and the Beanstalk, talk about the differences – which ending does your child prefer?

Letters and Sounds

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

There are two types of ‘oo’.  A long ‘oo’ (boot) and a short ‘oo’ (look).  We are going to learn the short ‘oo’ today.

This video introduces the short ‘oo’ sound.

Below is the action for the long and short ‘oo’:

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

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

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

For challenge

Only if your child is ready.  Write the following words:

For extra challenge

Write a funny sentence and draw a picture to accompany the sentence. 

The following video brings together both the long ‘oo’ and short ‘oo’.

Maths

Golden eggs game

Our version of the story doesn’t include golden eggs or a harp. This is for simplicity at this initial stage of becoming familiar with the story.  Next week, I will be encouraging your child to adapt the story.  Perhaps you could explain to your child about different versions of a traditional tale. 

This game will help your child explore addition and subtraction.

You will need some ‘golden eggs’ – don’t worry about looking for a beanstalk to climb!  These could be boiled eggs, crumpled up pieces of paper, potatoes, beads, pieces of pasta, Lego bricks – children are very good at suspending belief and letting their imagination running wild.

What to do:

• Place 10 eggs in a container (basket).
• Tell your child that the goose has laid these eggs for the giant.
• Tell your child that Jack takes two eggs and count the eggs as they are taken out.
• Ask your child ‘How many eggs are in the giant’s basket now?’
• Encourage your child to explain why they think there are 8 eggs left.
• Model your own mathematical thinking if your child needs support to explain.  Use your fingers to show your child.
• Check your child’s answer.
•  Continue the activity by placing eggs into the basket or removing some.

Perhaps pretend to be Jack creeping up to take the eggs.  Maybe your child could cover their eyes, count how many eggs are left and work out how many eggs Jack took.

You may wish to ask your child to challenge you or make suggestions about the number of eggs that the goose lays or Jack steals. 

Vary the amount of eggs depending on your child’s understanding.

To help your child visualise the numbers in a context that may be more familiar to them, use an egg carton to hold the eggs instead of a basket.   

For support

Begin with 5 eggs in the basket.

Expressive Arts

Make a castle for the giant or Jack’s house

Acting out stories really helps children become familiar with story sequences.  It also enables children to put themselves into particular characters’ shoes and imagine how things would look from that point of view. Through drama and role-play children can imagine characters’ body language, behaviour and tones of voice in ways that they can draw on later when they write.

Encourage your child to create a castle in a similar way they may make a den.  Maybe you could also make Jack’s house.  Act out the story together.

If you have a bunk bed or a cabin bed, you’ve got a ready-made den structure just waiting to be transformed.

Seats can become walls.  Get a few dining room chairs or two sofas? Simply arrange them back-to-back with space in between for your castle/house. Then all you need is a big sheet or blanket to drape over the top as a ceiling and you’ve got the beginnings of a castle/house.

Tables act as all-in-one walls and ceilings, meaning you won’t need as many sheets and blankets to finish off the main structure. You can also join up lots of different tables to make quick den extensions – just add blanket walls and you’re done!

Of course, once a den is made I’m sure your child will have lots of other play ideas.  Reading a book in a cosy den is a lovely activity.  In school we sometimes leave some books in a den which really encourages the children to read.

Celebrating our learning

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Enjoy your day everyone.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning parents and children,

Welcome to today’s Reception home learning.

Communication and Language/Literacy

Making alterations to the story of The Gingerbread Man

In some way, we have already thought about making alterations through substitution and addition.  However, now we are going to try to make changes that have a consequence. By ‘alteration’ I mean a change that is significant and changes the direction of the story – alterations have a knock on effect!

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It is worth beginning by just making changes within the story – so that your child will still have the overall comfort of the original.  This acts as a large writing frame and provides structure within which they can manoeuvre.  You could try altering:

• the nature of one of the characters eg. the fox is kind and helpful.
• setting eg. on the moon.
• the end of the story eg. The Gingerbread Man and the fox go on an adventure.
• a key event within the story eg. The Gingerbread Man didn’t run away.

I hope your child enjoys making changes to the story – I find this normally generates quite a lot of amusement.  Again, if you could act it out with your child and make the changes as you play, your child will probably be more inventive.  Perhaps at a key point, stop and say ‘Hey we could change that bit’.

Letters and Sounds

Crocodile in the river (or is it a fox in the river?)

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You will need:

Large piece of blue fabric
Pieces of paper with sounds written on – see below

What to do:

• Lay the fabric on the floor like a river (you can play this game outside and use chalk to draw the river instead)
• Tell your child he/she has to cross the river, but a crocodile lives in it.
• Assume the role of the crocodile and stand in the river.
• The only way for your child to cross safely is for he/she to make a bridge.
• Ask your child to lay down sounds to create a given word as the bridge eg. ‘pet’ as in the picture.

Suggested words (you don’t have to do them all!):

qu – quick, quit, quack, queen   (sounds: qu, i, ck, t, a, ee, n)

ch – chop, chin, such, chip    (sounds:  ch, o, p, i, n, s, u, p)

sh – shop, ship, fish, rush, cash, shell   (sounds: sh, o, p, i, p, f, r, u, c, a)

th – this, that, with, moth   (sounds:  th, i, s, a, t, w, m, o)

For support – try the following words:

mat, pen, pig, cat, dog, mum, dad   (sounds:  m, a, t, p, e, n, I, g, c, d, o, g, m, u, m, d)

For further support, just tell your child the word and ask them to sound out the word before crossing the river eg. ‘mat’ – your child tells you ‘m-a-t’.

Maths

Positional Language

Go on a hunt to find the Gingerbread Man!  Of course, you could use any toy for this hunt or draw a simple picture of the Gingerbread Man.

The gingerbread man has run away but left directions of where he has gone.  Your child has to follow the directions around your home or outside to find him. Use prepositions such as ‘under the table’, ‘on top of the cupboard’, ‘behind the laundry bin’ etc.

Swap roles and ask your child to hide the Gingerbread Man or toy and give you directions of where to find it.

Gingerbread Man Puppets

I have posted on the Memo section of Tapestry characters from the Gingerbread Man story.  Encourage your child to develop their scissor skills cutting out the shapes, sellotape them onto a stick.  You will have your very own puppets to retell the story.

Celebrating our Learning

Word webs

Story maps

Gingerbread Man cooking

Retelling the story to an audience

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Reading The Gingerbread Story in my own language

Story scribing

Patterns

Sharing

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Writing like a Jedi/writing in flour

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Strong fingers

Thank you so much for all your Tapestry posts! You are an amazing Reception class.

Mrs Palmer

Good morning parents,

Many thanks for all your observations on Tapestry.  I’ve already had some wonderful ideas about how we can change The Gingerbread Man story.  Today, we’re going to make some more changes.

Communication and Language/Literacy

Additions to The Gingerbread Man story

In some ways making additions comes quite naturally.  Children retelling a story will often start adding extra bits.  Similar to the way your child may add extra things when in conversation about something that has happened.

The simplest way to move into addition is by adding in more description eg.

Once upon a time there was a little old woman who lived in a cottage.  She decided to make a gingerbread man.

You could build on this by:

•          adding in more dialogue eg. the cow said “I want to eat you”.

•          adding in a new character eg. the Gingerbread Man met a pig.

Perhaps The Gingerbread Man decided to look for a boat and managed to cross the river.

Keep demonstrating to your child how to add and embellish the story.  

A good way to do this would be to act out the story together and add as you play.

Maths

Cookie Challenge

Here is a problem solving activity involving sharing.  The game can always be adapted and explored at snack time.

What to do:

• Place 12 biscuits on a plate.  You can cut out circle shapes for this activity rather than actual biscuits or perhaps pieces of fruit.
• 2 soft toys.
• Provide a plate for each soft toy.
• Talk to your child about parties and the biscuits; count them together.
• Ask ‘Let’s share the biscuits, how can we make it fair?’
• If your child hesitates, guide towards taking 1 biscuit at a time and giving to each toy in turn.
• Ask ‘How many biscuits each?’
• Put the biscuits back on the original plate.
• Ask ‘What happens if 3 toys each have a plate?’
• ‘What about 5 toys, can the biscuits be shared equally?’

Talk about how you can change or extend the problem, for example, by changing the number of biscuits to 10 or inviting some more toys to join the group.

Sharing and acting out The Door Bell Rang story can extend your child further:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZpXuc735pg

Adapting the game

Ask questions involving addition or subtraction eg. ‘If we put 2 more cookies on the plate, how many would there be?’ or ‘If three get eaten, how many would be left?’

Letters and Sounds

Tricky words

What are tricky words?   Words that contain letters that do not correspond to the sounds children know (e.g. in go, the last letter does not represent the same sound as the children know in dog).  They are words that cannot be sounded out and blended together.  Children learn to read these words by sight.

This video revisits tricky words learnt so far.  All these words will be in your child’s word bag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek8TVoLdJWY

This video introduces new tricky words.  Learning to read these words by sight is the first step. 

Top Tips:

• Tricky words are the star shape words in your child’s word bag.
• Play a game spotting tricky words in story books and read the words together.
• For support, concentrate on reading words in your child’s word bag.
• For challenge, learn to spell all the tricky words in the word bag and new words listed above.
• For extra challenge (only if your child can happily read the words), write a sentence that includes tricky words (and draw a picture).  For example,

Big and Under Writing

Making writing fun will always inspire and motivate your child to write.  I have attached to the Activities Section of Tapestry some ideas about writing ‘under the table’ or on ‘big paper’.  I’d like to share with you a photo I received of a very passionate writer producing some fantastic writing and a story map all about pirates.

Religious Education

The Presentation Story ‘Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple’

This is a story from the Bible Luke 2:25–35.  Explain to your child that it can be found in the New Testament because it is about Jesus. 

Together look in either your own Bible or your child’s Bible to find the story and talk about the story.

To reinforce the story, role-play indoors or outside the story of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the Temple.

I hope you all have a great day.

Nicola Palmer

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.

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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: 

How to Write Like a Jedi – Star Wars Inspiration!

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

Good morning parents and children,

Communication and Language

Making predictions

Making predictions can be quite complex for little ones because it involves analysing information and bringing ideas together.  It helps children think about problems to decide what they could do next.  Also, when your child is reading to you, being able to make predictions about the story supports comprehension.

• Read a story together.  This could be a story book or maybe your child’s reading book.
• Read a few pages to introduce the characters.
• At key places, stop and before you turn the page ask ‘What do you think might happen next?’
• When you read the next page ask ‘Was your prediction right?’

If your child needs a little support, ask more direct questions eg. Goldilocks and The Three Bears – ‘Whose house do you think she will find?’ or offer alternatives for your child to choose from.

Literacy/Letters and Sounds

Draw a story map – The Gingerbread Man

Once your child has listened to the story of The Gingerbread Man a couple of times then draw a story map in front of your child.  The maps need to be simple and very clear so that they capture the plot in one go – and can act as a visual reminder. 

Here is an example I created.   

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

For a change, I’ve found a different video to introduce the sound.  However, you can always google – Mr Thorne Does Phonics ai – to find out what Geraldine gets up to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQGObQTTR-g

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

Below is the action for ‘ai’   – cup one hand over ear, as if hard of hearing, and say ai?

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

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

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

Continuing a pattern – repeating

If you completed yesterday’s maths activity, your child should be able to recognise the repeating aspect of a pattern.  Continue to explore the step explained yesterday if not (recognising patterns).

Now it’s time to continue a repeating pattern.  Begin by starting a pattern using any objects you have available at home (as suggested yesterday).  Ensure that more than two colours and several shapes are used in varied examples and provide examples of different lengths of units of repetition.  Many children will struggle beyond a repetition that involves four items so adjust the complexity of the pattern according to your child.  Continue to encourage your child to describe the features and repetition.

Another opportunity to continue a pattern can be found by printing (manmade stamps, vegetable printing etc.) and finish each other’s creations by finding and repeating the patterns.  This is how you can have a go at printing with vegetables.

Veggie Stamp!

• Select any choice of vegetables to cut it in half (take the opportunity to talk about half).
• Encourage your child to choose 3/4 different vegetables or colours.
• Dip the flat side of each vegetable in paint and stamp onto some paper in a repeating pattern (depending, of course, if you have paint at home).

Thank you for all the observations posted on Tapestry.  I thought I’d celebrate some of our learning once a week, here goes for this week:

Epiphany and scissor skills

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Letters and Sounds/Letter formation

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Reading/special story of the day

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Scribing a story with some child contributions

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Writing for a purpose

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Maths

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Being physical

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Games

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Congratulations children and parents, you’re doing a great job!

Nicola Palmer

Good morning parents and children,

Welcome back to another week of home learning.  This week we are going to start learning the story of The Gingerbread Man, the winner of our vote last week.

May I also take this opportunity to remind parents of the resources recommended on the school website.  Look on the drop down menu under Curriculum/EYFS Support. 

Below is an outline of activities I will provide for this week.  If you’d like to prepare for the cooking activity on Friday, you will need:

A Gingerbread Man cookie cutter
350g plain flour
175g light soft brown sugar
100g butter
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Ground ginger
Icing sugar and sweets for the decoration

Communication and Language

Understanding which day comes next

A reminder of last Tuesday’s post, make a chart together.  This time include the days of the week across the top.  Monday – Friday in a different colour from Saturday – Sunday. The idea is to help your child learn the days of the week eg. what day comes after, before etc.  This can be partially filled in advance or after each event.  Keep reinforcing your child’s understanding of the day ‘before’/’after’ a given day.

This chart will also really help your child in terms of routine and self-esteem during these unpredictable times.  

Literacy/Letters and Sounds

This week, I have planned some activities to help your child learn to retell a story.  We call it talk for writing.  The idea is to develop children’s ability to imitate the language they need for a story orally, before writing their own versions.   In particular, children begin to learn key words and phrases such as ‘once upon a time’ ‘first’ ‘next’ ‘finally’ ‘suddenly’, ‘however’.  Children learn to use these words in speech so that they have the words in their heads when thinking about what to write. 

Ask your child to watch my video retelling the story of The Gingerbread Man.  The story can be found on the Memo section of Tapestry.  Encourage your child to listen to the story first and try to join in with the actions– hope they enjoy it!  In class, we would tell the story orally with actions each day.  In time, children begin to remember the actions and join in. 

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

There are two ways to say ‘th’, voiced (as in ‘this’) and unvoiced (as in ‘thin’). 

Here is fun Geraldine the Giraffe video to introduce the sound.  Watch the next video for words your child should be able to read and write.

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

Below is the action for ‘th’   – pretend to be a naughty clown and stick out tongue. Can your child find ‘th’ on their sound mat?  This is quite a tricky sound for children – ask your child to look in a mirror to see their tongue sticking out a little when making the sound. 

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

Letter formation for ‘t’ and ‘h’ can be found in your child’s letters and sounds book.

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

Here is step 5 of our measuring sequence.   

Ordering a small set of objects by a given attribute.

Story sticks

A story stick is such a great activity to do with children during an outdoor trip. It keeps them busy, helps them learn about nature, and provides a memento to take home.  You also need very little in the way of preparation; just some string or sticky tape.

A story stick features items collected whilst on a walk. These might be things like leaves, twigs, flowers, feathers or anything else natural that you find along the way.  All you need to do is choose a stick and attach items from your journey to it using string or wool.  Younger siblings could use a piece of cardboard instead of a stick; this is easier.

Questions you could ask:

• Do you want your story stick to have a theme? For example, a colour, all flowers, all leaves. 
• How long does your stick need to be? Think about how long your walk is!
• What senses does each item stimulate?
• What is the story that your story stick is telling? This could be either a retelling of the journey or let your child’s imagination run wild!

Wishing you a great day.

Nicola Palmer