Reception Home Learning

Dear Parents, We were not expecting to start the new year and new term in this way!  The announcement of a lockdown lasting for the whole of term 3 has taken us all by surprise. While some children will still be in school most children will now be learning from home. The whole reception team has been very busy for the past 2 days preparing for both groups of children to ensure that we continue to have safe happy learners and that they continue to maintain the great progress that they made last term. We really need your support to do this and will be giving much more detailed information in our plans to help you support your children with their home learning. 

Throughout this period our weekly plans will include activities and suggestions for all areas of the Early years curriculum. It is a legal requirement that we provide for and monitor home learning, however we do understand that for parents working from home or supporting older siblings this can be difficult. We suggest that if necessary you focus on the Literacy and Mathematics activities and try to do at least one topic-based activity each week. 

How you structure your day will depend on your unique family circumstances, however we recommend that you create a regular daily timetable that works for you and your child 

Please read all of the plans before starting so that you can decide the best structure for your family. Some activities need to be completed daily while others can be spread across the week. 

Here is a suggested timetable for this week  to help you plan your work time. You can of course swap it round to suit your day.

Sharing home learning with school

Please choose 1 activity every day and send an observation using the Evidence me app on your phone. Try to include a range of activities throughout the week including Literacy, Mathematics and other curriculum areas, we will sometimes identify  specific activities in the plans for observations. For writing please take a close up photograph of the work so that we can provide feedback and next steps to support your child.  For other activities please include a photograph of your child doing the activity and a comment about their learning. 

We will enjoy looking at all the observations and will respond to most but not all of them. When we have added a comment you will be able to read it and share it with your child.

Over the next few days we hope to find a way of providing you with whiteboards and work books to support the home learning. Please look out for further information.

Thank you so much for your support during this difficult time. We will all be available via our class emails throughout the week to answer any questions. 

This weeks extended learning plans

PSHE

Our whole school term 3  Jigsaw theme is ‘Dreams and Goals’. This week we will be thinking about how we keep going when we find things difficult. Here is a link to our opening assembly by Gemma Fricker ‘Dreams and Goals’.

You could try asking your child to build a tower with toy bricks blindfolded. This could be followed with an exploration of what was challenging or tricky about that. How has it made you feel?

Daily wellbeing

It will be more important than ever to look after your child’s and family’s well being.

Here are some starter suggestions for this week:

  • Feelings – ask your child to tell you things which help them to feel calm. You could try collecting a few things in a Calm Box eg bubbles to blow; a soft toy to cuddle; a story to share; bubble wrap to pop. Here are some more ideas for ways to feel calm – Calming cards
  • Mindfulness – take time to be still and listen to the sounds you can hear around you  (indoors or outside)
  • Thankfulness – Tell someone in your family something you love about them

Communication and Language

This week we will be talking to each other about what we did during the holidays. Please encourage your child to remember the things that you did during the holidays. What were their favourite activities? How did you celebrate Christmas?  Please encourage them to extend their answers using descriptive language and thinking why these times were special. 

We will be introducing our new topic by reading the story ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ by Micael Rosen, joining in with the rhyme using actions and expression. You 

You can watch Michael Rosen reading his story here. Please encourage your child to join in with the words and the actions.   We’re Going on a Bear Hunt 

Later see if you remember any of the rhyme  or if you have the book read it together.

Physical

Learning Objectives; Jumps off an object and lands appropriately. Travels with confidence and skill around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment. 

As explorers we will be thinking about how we can travel ‘over’ ‘under’ and ‘through’ things. You could do this inside or outside. You could encourage your child to go under chairs and blankets (with care) and over the bed or cushions. The same could be done in the playground or woods. In our PE lessons we would be focusing on dynamic balance and agility, learning to jump and land safely. This can be over, on and off of equipment or safe items such a step or log. If you would like more ideas please see Activity 1 ‘Jumping in combination’  here ThisIsPE  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRjO1IGwbLo 

Literacy 

Phonics 

This week we are recapping all of the phonemes and tricky words that we have learnt so far. Click here to access the ‘sound grid’ and a copy of our ‘tricky word’ list. Please practice a quick recall of these twice a day if possible. If you wish, you could ask your child to write the tricky words. 

Reading

Please support your child with our online ‘Bug Club’ reading scheme. Teacher’s will assign your child to different sets of books. It is really important to talk to your children about what they are reading, ask them about the characters, what is happening, what do you think will happen next? If you can encourage your child to use expression when they read to help support prosody with different texts. 

Writing

This week we will  be writing simple sentences about our Christmas holidays. 

For example:

 I had a ……. from Santa.

 I went to the park with…

At school we would sit with each child to do this early writing. It is really important that all of their early writing experiences are very positive – essentially they cannot go wrong! You can support your child to write by encouraging the correct tripod grip.

Please refer to our ‘Everytime We Write’ poster before you start any writing activity.

  • To begin, help your child decide on the sentence they are going to write.
  • Ask your child to say the sentence out loud a few times before they start. 
  • Ask your child to count how many words are in that sentence.
  • Encourage you child to start in the right place on the line, using a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence. 
  • Work on one word at a time, segmenting (breaking words down into individual sounds) to sound out the word, what is the first sound you hear? What is the last sound in that word?
  • Show your children to use finger spaces to separate each word.
  • We encourage children to spell phonetically during this stage, so your sentence may look like this

 ‘I got a big casl from Santa.’    I got a big castle  from Santa. 

 or

 ‘I went to the prc wif mi Mum and Dad’.    I went to the park with my Mum and Dad. 

  • Try to help them to choose short and simple words that they can blend like doll or truck rather than Baby Annabel or fire engine. 
  • Find a copy of a letter formation sheet here to help support your child’s writing. 

If it is becoming tricky it is also fine for children to draw what they would like to say and write one or two words. Please note you do not need to correct or rub out any mistakes, we encourage a small line through the mistake, or just move on. 

They are unlikely to get the right spelling, finger spaces or every sound. The main thing, at this stage, is positivity!

Mathematics

Daily:

Please practise recognising numerals from 0 – 10 (or to 20 if your child recognises all numerals to 10) 

Practise putting numerals in order and identifying which number is 1 more and 1 less.  

Activities:

Use the ordering numbers to 10 in the home learning folder  here ask your child to cut out the numerals to 10 and stick them in the correct order. 

Use objects such as pasta, buttons, lego bricks to practise counting out objects carefully form a larger amount. Count up to 10, then up to 20.

Using the part part whole dot activity in the home learning folder here  or drawing your own and using practical objects experiment with different ways of making numbers up to 5 / 10. Your child can then record their calculations either pictorially or in a simple number sentence. 

Please send an observation of this activity.

Understanding the World 

People and Communities 

Learning Objective; Enjoys joining in with family customs and routines. 

Children will share their own Christmas and holiday experiences as explained in Communication and Language. You could support collaborative story building using model people (dolls) and animals. 

The World  

Learning Objective; Can talk about some of the things they have observed such as plants, and animals.

  • Find out what your child knows about winter. Talking about the environments in We’re going on a Bear hunt story, talk about Winter for example the changes in the weather, light, food availability and what it means for animals. 
  • If it’s cold enough you might leave some water outside to freeze and explore the following day.
  • You could help your child to dress up like an explorer to find hidden teddy bears or other toy animals.
  • Use Cbeebies programs to explore Winter.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/winter

Technology. 

Learning Objectives; Completes a simple program on a computer. Uses ICT hardware to interact with age-appropriate computer software. 

Further resources

Cbeebies is free and has lots to stimulate young minds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies 

Teach Your Monster to Read is free under the current circumstances.

Khan Academy is also free.

RE

Our RE focus this term is ‘Why are some times special? ’ This week the focus is the same as for Communication and language, thinking about our own special times and sharing favourite memories from the holidays.

Expressive Arts

  • Our topic this term is ‘We’re Going on Bear Hunt.’ Please support your child to use descriptive sounds and words when talking about the book. You could make a bear cave or den at home. 

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