Well done everyone we have made it to the final week of term 3! Thank you again for another amazing week of home learning. This week everyone has had fun doing some great learning about capacity and we have seen some wonderful winter pictures!
In week 6 we have a special whole school enrichment week based around Chinese New Year. A lot of the activities are the same for each year group, in the hope that this will allow parents with children in multiple year groups to complete the same activities together.
Also this week is Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 9th February, so this weeks Monday assembly is Miss Ross reading a story about Smartie the Penguin and how he keeps safe.
These are our whole school E-Safety Rules which we will discuss during this week, I’m sure you will agree that a good understanding of how to use the internet safely is particularly important at this moment in time!
Forward planning: (Information already sent out by email last week)
Please note that for the Fortune cookie cooking lesson on Wednesday afternoon, you will need to support your child. See list of ingredients below:
- 2 egg whites
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp sunflower oil
- 100g plain flour
- 2 tsp cornflour
- 100g caster sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Milk or white chocolate and sprinkles for decorating (optional)
This week’s Learning – ‘Chinese New Year’
This week our timetable is slightly different as we have planned a lot of activities so they can be done by the whole school at the same time. This should be helpful if you have children in different year groups. One difference is that Reception children should do their writing on Monday after watching the video of the story. They can then find out about their zodiac animal and colour in the pictures on Thursday while older siblings are writing..
Phonics and maths plans continue to be year group specific.
A printable version of the timetable can be found here.
Observations – Please continue to send us observations including the Phonics, Writing and Mathematics (cooking) highlighted on the timetable.
Development Matters – Click here to see all the learning objectives for all areas of the EYFS curriculum in age related bands. Most children are currently working within the 40-60 band.
All the resources for this weeks learning can be found here: Week 6 Resources
Story time with the Reception team
Winnie the Witch Read by Mrs Browne
How to Hide a Lion Read by Miss Quinn
Yoga Ogre Read by Mrs McCardle
The Tree House Read by Ms Thoburn
Lucky Red Mittens Read by Mrs Brand
PSED
Whole-school assembly: managing worries
Daily wellbeing
Monday – Connect – Send a Happy Chinese New Year card to someone
Tuesday – Take notice – Look carefully at these Chinese numbers and see if you can copy them
Wednesday – Exercise – see if you can copy these moves!
Thursday – Keep learning – Learn how to say Happy New Year in Mandarin or Cantonese
Friday – Make some Chinese cakes for a friend or neighbour – try these or share some of the Fortune Cookies from Miss Simmond’s Bake-along on Wednesday
Communication and Language
Information about how to support your child’s C&L development is available in the shared folder
Listen to the CBeebies radio programs Poetry Playtime Michel Rosen the author of ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ presents a series of listening programs about poems, words and sounds. There are 10 programmes so try to listen to 2 each week.
Physical
Daily Physical activity
Cosmic Yoga – The Dragon of Wonder
Dance –
Please follow this BBC Podcast that will talk children through a dance lesson based on Chinese New Year. There are two episodes, please aim to complete Episode 1: Getting Ready and then move on to the 2nd episode if you wish.
You could begin by revisiting the Cbeebies page and scrolling to the video called Celebrating Chinese and Lunar New Year to see the celebrations.
Literacy
Phonics
Please keep recapping all of the phonemes and tricky words that we have learnt so far. You can access the up to date ‘sound grid’ and this week’s copy of our ‘tricky word’ list here. Please do this at least twice a day if possible. Your children will learn them best by going over them quickly but frequently.
This week Instead of learning new phonemes we would like your child to use their phonic knowledge to complete some phonics activities. We have added these to the shared drive for your child to practice. Click here to access them.
We would like your children to have a go at the phase 3 activities, however if you child needs more support with these, please try the phase 2 activities.
Phonics Assessment
Each week we put together a weekly sheet with graphemes of the phonemes that we have learnt so far. On the grid you will find each phoneme in a box, we would like you to ask your child to read the sounds in the grid as quickly as they can without any support (access the grid here).
We would also like you to do the same for the tricky words (access the grid here).
Please note every child is different and learns at different speeds, we would really appreciate your honest assessment.
Please send us a photograph of the completed grids with the totals written on. This will then help us to plan appropriately for your child next term.
Daily Reading
Please continue to support your child with our online ‘Bug Club’ reading scheme.
Teacher’s have assigned your child specific books according to their phonic knowledge, blending skills and fluency. Please let your teacher know how your child is getting on with these 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.
Group Reading for home learners
Having trialled sharing a book online during our Google meet ups we are going to host reading meetings for small groups of children over the next few weeks. We are hoping to hear everyone by the end of the second week of term 4. We will send google meet invites to the reading groups soon. Each group will include children reading at a similar level.
We need your support to make this work for the children. Please help by ensuring your child sits at the table for the duration of the reading group meeting. We need to be able to hear your child read so if possible please make sure that siblings are quietly occupied. If you have headphones that your child could wear for these reading group meetings, it may help them to focus. These groups will be in addition to our more sociable meet ups through google meets.
Writing
Please send an observation of this activity.
This week the whole school is writing about the Chinese New Year. Get your children to watch the the CBeebies video of the ‘Chinese New Year Story’
- Ask your child to think about what they have learnt about the Chinese New Year after watching the video.
- Ask them to say their sentence out loud, count how many words are in the sentence and sound out some of the words.
- Get your children to write the sentence in their writing books. For example: The animals had a race.
- Some children may be able to write more than one independent sentence. Ask your child to think about what else they found out e.g.
- The animals had a race across the river.
- The rat won the race.
- Each New Year is named after an animal.
- Please encourage your children to focus on one word at a time, to listen to the phonemes and to write as independently as possible.
- Remind your child to use a capital letter at the beginning, fingers spaces and a full stop at the end of each sentence. Use the Every Time We Write poster in the shared folder.
Please encourage your child to use the correct tripod grip throughout the writing session and again please refer to our ‘Everytime We Write’ poster before you start any writing activity. Find a copy of a letter formation sheet here to help support your child’s writing.
Please remember children are unlikely to get the right spelling, finger spaces or every sound. Encourage children to use their stickability like the tortoise!
Mathematics
Daily – Choose from the following activities
- Practise recognising numerals from 0 – 10 (or to 20 if your child recognises all numerals to 10)
- Counting up to 10 / 20 and back down to 0 again.
- Practise putting numerals in order and identifying which number is 1 more and 1 less.
- Use objects such as pasta, buttons, lego bricks to practise counting out objects carefully from a larger amount. Count up to 10, then up to 20.
- Numbergym instructions NumberGym Early Years games are good warm up activities
We are going to start this week by looking at Chinese numbers before using the Oak Academy lessons to learn about measuring weight. On Wednesday instead of making the cakes in the video you could make the Chinese Fortune Cookies planned for Wednesday afternoon.
Monday
Watch the video of Chinese counting – Can you join in? Print the Chinese number cards and put them in order. Chinese number cards Have a go at tracing the Chinese numbers – tracing chinese numbers Follow the arrows!
Tuesday
Read this discussion sheet Introduction to weighing and do some of the practical activities.
Wednesday
Watch the first weighing video lesson but instead of making the cake in the video have a go at making the Chinese Fortune Cookies on this afternoon’s timetable. Using everyday language to compare and explore weight
Please send an observation of the cooking activity.
Thursday
Watch the second video lesson, Comparing weights of objects and using mathematical language then complete this worksheet complete the scales
Friday
Watch the last video lesson Differentiating between heavier and lighter Then complete this activity Sorting heavier & Lighter
Understanding the World,
People and Communities
During Chinese New Year the streets are decorated with red chinese lanterns.
Making Chinese Lanterns
You will need red paper or card for this craft.
You can watch a video here. Further ideas include decorating the paper lantern, making lots of mini ones to make bunting, practising Chinese writing on the lantern (after you cut it but before you glue it together).
If your child enjoys craft here are some more ideas based on the animals of the Zodiac.
The World – Learning about China
Watch the video lesson all about China here.
Find the lesson slides and map template here.
Can you draw some pictures to represent some of China’s features on the map.
Explore this tale of the Ancient Silk Road.
We’re Riding on a Caravan Read by Ms Thoburn
You could look at these photos of the silk road
Technology – Safer Internet day
Watch the video of Miss Ross reading Digiduck’s Big Decision. Discuss this together with your child, highlighting the points to be kind online and asking a trusted grown up if unsure about anything. This also recaps our whole school E-Safety rules.
Activity – Make a list of the trusted adults in your life (in school and at home). You can choose how you represent this. You could draw them, write their names, make a video of you listing their names or you could find photos of them.
Optional extra video clips
Please see here for extra Esafety videos aimed at infant age children.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/jessie-and-friends-videos/
RE (Tuesday)
How is Chinese New Year Celebrated?
Look through these presentation slides together (including links to video clips):
Reception PDF
Questions to discuss together:
What special things did you notice people … eating/ wearing/ saying/ doing?
How do you celebrate a new year?
Challenge: see if you can fold a paper hongbao and put a gift or message inside for someone.
Expressive Arts
Making Chinese Dragons
As we are thinking about how many people will be celebrating Chinese New Year, we have seen that one of the great symbols of China culture is the Chinese Dragon. Chinese dragons are a symbol of China’s culture, and they are believed to bring good luck, happiness and wealth for the new year.
As a school we thought we could get creative and make our very own Chinese Dragons.
Here is a video that will show you one idea.
Here are some more examples of the different ideas you could think about:
You might have your own way to create a dragon – Be a creative unicorn. See what you can do!
- Why not learn a Chinese song to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
- Explore Google Arts and Culture at home: explore arts and crafts from East Asia, Arts of the new moon, celebrate culture heritage, iconic Places in China (type in Chinese New Year in the search bar on ‘google arts and culture’ and there is lots of galleries, videos, virtual places to explore).
Links to recommended Websites and Apps
Twinkl Homelearning hub Lots of downloadable resources to support home learning
Numberblocks Series 2 We all love numberblocks. Series 2 includes some of our recent mathematical learning
Todo Math – a free App with lots of games to practise number skills.
Number gym see the instructions here
Purple Mash
Home learning logins below are accessible from this page https://www.purplemash.com/sch/henleaze
Username class1 2019 Password cat
Username class2 2019 Password dog
Username class3 2019 Password ant