Welcome to Term 4 week 2, hopefully our last week of home learning! As I’m writing this I’m looking at a very blue sky and feeling optimistic that spring is coming!
It has been lovely to see some of the children back in school this week and we are really looking forward to having all the children back with us on March 8th! We have also enjoyed seeing all the children getting back into a routine with their home learning and receiving all your observations of the work that they have been doing. Just one more week so please keep going until the end!
You will have received an email from Mrs Fricker about the arrangements for the return to school. We would like to reassure you and your children that they will be returning to the same staff, environment and routines that they are familiar with from terms 1 and 2. We will be extending our Reception starting time to be the same as in term 1, 8.45am to 9.15 am, so that older siblings can be dropped off first and to give the children time to settle. Our focus for the rest of this term will be on wellbeing, rebuilding relationships and being ready to learn.We will also be using our curriculum activities to assess where all the children are in their learning. Our parents evenings will be a good opportunity to share and discuss your thoughts about your child’s learning and progress during lockdown.
The powerpoints that we made to welcome your children to school in September are available here if you would like to revisit them with your child.
You might also like to look at the Reception classes on the virtual tour which is on the website. Virtual tour
World Book Day
Next Thursday, March 4th, is World Book Day. There are lots of ideas and activities of things to do on this website. World Book Day
Mrs Fricker’s assembly this week introduces some resources from the WBD site and has a dramatised story to enjoy. Click here to watch.
As this is the day of our regular ‘Meet-ups’ we are inviting everyone to come dressed up as a storybook character. This could be as simple as a hat or some face paint up to a full costume. Please could everyone also bring their favourite story to show and talk about.
Also don’t forget our whole class storytimes on Monday at 3.45 pm. The link should be on your google calendar.
This week we have been enjoying the story of Handa’s Surprise and beginning to learn about Africa. The children at home and in school have made some lovely story maps.
You can watch Mrs Browne reading the story Handa’s Surprise here.
There is also a nice animation that you can watch here. Handas Surprise animation
This week’s Learning
Our in school timetable will follow the timetable below so if your child is doing a mixture of home and school it will be important to follow this timetable to avoid repeating or missing a learning activity.
If you are doing home learning all week you can of course swap it round to suit your week and daily routines. Please use it in conjunction with the planning notes and instructions below.
Remember to watch the Monday message to the class from your class teacher that will have been emailed to you through Schoolcomms on Monday morning. This week this will include some preparation for the return to school next week
Whole school Assembly – Watch Mrs Frickers Monday Assembly here.
A printable version of the timetable with links can be found here Week 2 timetable
Observations – Please continue to send us a daily observation including the writing and Mathematics and PSED 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 2 Resources
Story time with the Reception team
We have recorded some stories for you to watch and listen to.
Hairy McClary read by Mrs McCardle
The Short Sighted Giraffe read by Miss Quinn
Ruby’s Worry read by Mrs Brand
Horatios Bed read by Mrs Keefe
Freddie and the Fairy read by Mrs Wood
The Worrysaurus read by Mrs Brand
Handas Surprise read by Mrs Browne
PSED
This Term’s Jigsaw is all about Being Healthy
Please click on this link for this week’s activities: We like to move it, move it!
Daily wellbeing
Monday – Connect – Send a card or message to someone in your class to let them know something you’re looking forward to doing together when you’re back at school next week.
Tuesday – Take notice – Back to school wellbeing sheet.
Wednesday – Exercise – Miss Linky Jungle
Thursday – Keep learning – Colour in some of these to encourage yourself or a friend Resilience postcards
Friday – Give – Play Kindness bingo – how many can you do?
Communication and Language
Information about how to support your child’s C&L development is available in the shared folder
This week we are learning about syllables. Words can be divided into syllables – chunks of sound. For example, the word ’monkey’ has 2 syllables and the word ‘elephant’ has three syllables. The ability to ‘chunk’ words in this way is an important skill that helps us to break down words into simple units when we are reading or spelling.
- Watch the bitesize video and join in with the syllable song.
- Practise clapping the syllables in your family names, the names of the animals and fruits in Handas Surprise.
- Clap along to the rhythm of the African song Kye Kye Kule that we learnt last week.
- Watch the Tinga tinga tales from Africa on Cbeebies.
Keep Listening 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
Enjoy Joe Wicks video’s or similar each day.
Jasmine Real PE – Static Balance
Learning Objective: Balance on a line or low beam with a good stance for a sustained period of time. Explore ways to balance on a line with developing fluency and minimum wobbling.
This week, we will continue to develop our tightrope walking skills! Continue to use the ‘Tightrope’ theme and build upon you learning from last week. If you missed last week or are unsure, refer to last week’s introduction. Remember to go through the warm up and story and build upon what you did last week. Try out a new game and try and build up your skill level from yellow to green to red!
Last week, we were delighted to receive the runner up prize for Real PE at home!
This means that, out of the local schools using Real PE at home, Henleaze Infants had the 2nd most logins! Well done to everyone; we’re so pleased that so many of you are enjoying the Jasmine resources. Remember that you can continue to use Jasmine as much as you like once we’re back at school!
Please use your new personal log in, sent in the final week of last term.
For the ‘Adventure’ (warm-up) you will be setting up your circus for tightrope walking! It would be great to have these things to help bring it to life:
- Blanket/towel for your big top
- Toys to take part in the circus
- Instruments/things to shake or bang for your grand opening music
- String/skipping rope/tape to make your tightrope.
Real PE instructions
Real PE login
Click here for a folder of ideas and resources for supporting the development of fine motor skills
Literacy
Phonics
This week we are asking you to 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 earn them best by going over them quickly but frequently.
We will be learning 2 new digraphs this week ure and er
Please click on the links above to watch the phonics videos recorded by St Peter Church of England Primary school. Children will need a whiteboard and pen or pencil and paper.
The link below demonstrates how to make each phoneme and digraph sound How to say phonemes
Please also introduce these 2 new tricky words to your children ‘there and little’. Talk to your children about why they are tricky words (because they can not be blended) and they need to be learnt by sight. Model putting the words into a sentence and ask them to put them into a sentence verbally.
Spelling
Please ask your child to practice spelling the following tricky words from Phase 2/3. Use a whiteboard or piece of paper to record and call out each of the tricky words so your child can become confident in spelling these words.
Tricky words: the, he, she, we, me, be.
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.
Storytime – Please remember that it is also really important that you continue to read stories to your children every day!
Letter Formation
Each week we are asking that your child practice their handwriting. This week we are focusing on forming the letters ‘e, x, z’ please use this letter formation sheet to help support your child’s writing. Make sure they start each letter at the dot (usually at the top.) and follow the letter round in one movement. Please encourage your child to use the correct tripod grip throughout the hand writing session.
Writing
Please send us an observation of this activity.
This week we would like you to get your children to write about the sequence of the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’. To begin, re-read the story of Handa’s Surprise and talk to your children about the sequence of the story.
Cut out the pictures of the story in the shared folder and put them in the correct order.
Story sequencing pictures. Use the story map your child drew last week to help support the sequence.
Ask your child to choose which pictures they would like to write about. Choose one from the beginning, one from the middle and one from the end.
Differentiation: Some children may need to focus on just one sentence, others may want to write more than 3 sentences.
For example:
Handa put 7 fruits in her basket.
The Monkey took the banana.
The Ostrich took the guava……….
Last, Handa gave Akeyo tangerines.
- 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 your child to start in the right place on the line, using a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence and remember finger spaces.
- We encourage children to spell phonetically, so your child’s sentence may look like this
‘Handa put 7 froots in her basket.’ or ‘The Monkee took the bana.’ Of course if they know how to spell the words correctly that is great but please don’t spell them for the children to copy.
- Please encourage them to focus on one word at a time, to listen to the phonemes and to write as independently as possible.
- Remind your children to use a capital letter at the beginning, fingers spaces and full stops. 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.
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 warm up activities for number fluency.
Use number cards from the shared folder or make your own.
- 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.
- Writing numerals – 10
- Numbergym instructions NumberGym Early Years games are good warm up activities
This week we are focusing on the numbers 15,16,17,18 as well as continuing to learn about measurement. The resources are all available in the shared folder Maths Activities
Please focus on just one number each day in the correct order.
For each number there is a powerpoint to watch, a home learning fact sheet of ideas and an activity sheet for the children to do. you can also watch the Number blocks videos that are linked below:
On Wednesday we will have a change from number and learn about measuring height.
the vocabulary that we would like the children to be using is:
tall / short
taller than / shorter than
tallest / shortest
Please encourage your children to use these words and not just use bigger / smaller.
Measurement Activity: Please send an observation of this activity
- Using some of childs toys (animals / dinosaurs / teddies ) complete the practical activities in the shared folder. Start with 3 toys then move onto 5 or more.
- Cut out the gingerbread men and order them according to height.
Understanding the World
People and Communities
Monday 1st March is St David’s Day, here is a clip from some children in Wales
CBeebies: Celebrating St David’s Day – Let’s Celebrate.
The World
The story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’ is based in south-west Kenya. Can you find Africa and Kenya on a map? You could use a globe or an atlas or the internet.
Watch this cbeebies powerpoint about Africa. It has lots of photographs and some quiz’s for you to have a go at. Go Jetters video Maasai Mara National Park, Kenya
If you would like to find out a bit more this powerpoint has a lot of information about Kenya.
Use this template to colour in and make your own Kenya flag using the correct colours.
RE
The story of Moses in the basket (A story which happened in Egypt in North Africa!)
This week we are learning about a story which is important to Jewish people and Christians.
In the Jewish Torah, and in the Old Testament of the Bible, we read about things which happened long before Jesus was born. There are stories of many great leaders whom God put in charge of his people. One of these great leaders was called Moses.
Explain that God’s people (known as the Hebrews) were living in a land called Egypt, but the Egyptians were treating them unkindly and making them work as slaves for no money. The Egyptian king, called Pharaoh, wanted to get rid of all the Hebrew baby boys. Miriam, Moses’ big sister, has a plan to rescue him.
Watch the clip: Moses in the Basket
Questions: Why did Moses’ mother put him in a basket? Who found the basket? What did his big sister Miriam do? What did Moses become when he grew up?
Expressive Arts
Please bring your Tinga Tinga artwork into school with you on Monday 8th March to display in the classroom.
- This week ask your child to explore some Tinga Tinga painting. Tinga Tinga is one of the most widely represented forms of paintings in Kenya. Click here to access the Tinga Tinga Powerpoint to explore the artist ‘Edward Tingatinga’ and some of his work. Then ask your child to create their own Tinga Tinga painting of one of the African animals in the Handa’s Surprise story, using lots of bright colours, shapes and patterns.
- Join in with part two of BBC let’s move ‘Handas Hen’ Dance.
Links to recommended Websites and Apps
Teach your monster to read Reading activities and games.
Twinkl Homelearning hub Lots of downloadable resources to support home learning
Numberblocks Series 3 We all love numberblocks. Series 3 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 class12019 Password cat
Username class22019 Password dog
Username class32019 Password ant