Phonics

Our phonics reading today focuses on the tricky words some, come and said. See if you can spot them in this tricky bug song and find them on your phase 3 tricky bug sheets. 

Now have a go at reading these sentences and guessing which tales they are from. Can you spot the three tricky words? There is something else in each sentence…. speech marks! Can you find these and discuss with an adult what these are and why they have been used? Remember our session last week where you saw them too?

See if you can say the speech in a voice just like the Wolf’s, Witch’s and Jack’s. Can you think of anything else the characters say in one of your favourite traditional tales?

Literacy

Remind yourself of which traditional tales you have enjoyed reading/listening to this week and talk about which one is your favourite so far. What makes it your favourite? Is it the funny story line, a particular character or maybe the ‘happily ever after’ ending?

Encourage your child to join in with retelling the story to you or maybe to a friend or family over video call. The listener could guess the traditional tale based on your storytelling and descriptions. Include a description of the story setting in your retelling and think what the place would look like and if you would like to live there. 

Let’s now turn this into some Drama! You are going to imagine that you are one of the characters from your favourite tale. As your adult reads the story or plays it online, see if you can act it out with actions and movements. 

Can you use your facial expressions to portray the good/bad character? Do you look sneaky and scary, like the Big Bad Wolf?  Do you look sad and hungry, like Baby Bear in Goldilocks and The Three Bears?

Good morning everybody! 

This week sees the start of our new Jigsaw theme ‘Changing Me’ and a chance to focus on the diversity that exists within our school, our communities and throughout the world. 

I want you to think particularly about the word ‘unique’ and how often we see examples in nature that remind us that two things are rarely exactly the same.

One perfect example of this is the snowflake and I’ve included a short film to allow you a moment of awe and wonder at the beginning of our assembly today. The images were taken by Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farmer who became fascinated with snowflakes at a very young age and was one of the first people to photograph a snow crystal, after years of trial and error (and never giving up!). He took pictures of more than 5,000 snow crystals and drew the conclusion that no two snowflakes are alike; each one is unique. Wilson Bentley celebrated and shared the beauty and diversity of the thousands of snow crystals that he photographed so that we could appreciate them, and so that their brief existence did not go unnoticed.

Diversity, Tolerance, and Snowflakes

I wonder if we were to make a film capturing images of the children in our school, what would we notice and would we draw the same conclusion that no two children are the same; each one is unique? Have a think about the diversity that we would see in those images – hair, height, gender, eye colour, number of freckles, glasses, colour of skin … would any two children be exactly the same? What is it about you that makes you unique or special?

When we talk about diversity in school we recognise that groups and communities are always stronger when they have lots of different types of people in them. Diversity in nature also teaches us that there is beauty and strength in difference. We know that everyone should be treated fairly and with respect regardless of their gender, age, ethnicity or skin colour and we take great pleasure in recognising the things which make us similar as well as the things that make us different in order to live in harmony with each other.

However, whilst we all recognise this, sometimes in the world around us we see signs that people aren’t always treated fairly, that differences aren’t tolerated or that people make judgements about other people purely based on one unique characteristic such as their gender or the colour of their skin. The sadness and anger that this generates has been seen throughout history and can also be seen today. We have focused on some of the people who have stood up for people’s rights in these situations in our assemblies in school. 

I wonder if you can remember who they are or what they were fighting for? Don’t worry if you can’t, I have included some clips in your grown-up’s notes if you want to explore their stories together. Just like you, these people recognised the importance of treating everyone fairly and that diversity should be celebrated and inequality challenged, just as it is in our school.

A story which illustrates this theme beautifully is ‘The Sneetches’ by Dr Seuss.

How did the changes that the Sneetches made make you feel as you watched them? Did they need to add or take away their stars?

The Sneetches eventually recognised that everybody should be treated equally, no matter what they look like. They realised that  differences should be celebrated and that communities can live in harmony and be happier and stronger when everyone shows respect for everyone else, whether they have a star on their belly or not.

So – your task this week is to help us to celebrate the diversity that we see in our school and we are going to look for this in two places this week.

1. I would like you to share with me an image or a drawing of you, which will show everyone in our community why you are ‘unique’ or ‘special’. You may want to focus on a physical feature such as your eye / hair colour or another aspect of you that makes you unique. 
2. I would also like you to share with me a piece of learning from this week that you are particularly proud of.

As well as focusing on the diversity that exists amongst us, this will also help us to focus on the diversity that now exists in our learning situations as some of us are now learning back in school, some of us are still learning at home and some of us are now learning in different homes as parents return to work. Wherever you are we want everyone to know that we are still all learning together and we’ll be celebrating the shared learning that is happening in all those different settings in our Celebration Assembly on Friday. 

Enjoy your week, wherever you may be learning. Here’s to a celebration of diversity at the end of the week and a recognition that as agents of change we are all trying our absolute best to ensure that everyone within our community is treated with respect, fairness, care and unique Damers kindness, whatever their differences.  Every one of us is unique and special.

I look forward to seeing some of you in school and also want those at home to know that you are in my thoughts ALL of the time and I miss you!

With warm wishes 

Mrs Smith

Phonics

Let’s start with a Snow White ABC song. Get your pen and paper or whiteboards ready and see if you can write out the alphabet as you sing along. Make sure your v,w,x and z letters are straight and pointy!

 https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWF26JjgkCI

Listen to this tricky word song to help refresh your memory … 

Now have a go at a 1 minute tricky bug challenge!  Keep your paper handy to see how many tricky bugs you can write down. I wonder if you can beat your score next time!

Let’s have a tricky bug disco!

Scatter tricky bugs around your floor, dance to some music and when the music stops you must find a tricky bug to stand on. Your adult can ask you to then shout out the tricky bug before the music starts again. Why not remove the bugs once you have stood on them and play until you have run out of bugs! You can write your tricky words on post-its or scrap pieces of paper.

Here’s a Three Pig Jig to dance along to for your disco … 

Or see if you recognise the tune to this song.. 

Creative

Draw/ paint your favourite character from a Traditional Tale that you have listened to this week. Think about the character’s appearance. Are they tall? Short? Fat? Furry? What colour are their clothes or fur? Do they have sharp claws or carry an object? You could use a paper plate to create the face of the character using materials such as wool for their hair. 

Here’s a really simple homemade paint recipe using just cornflour, water and food colouring… https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/cornflour-paint-recipe/395o29ll

Phonics

Listen to this phonic song, point out the capital letters during the song.

Have another go at the following tricky word game 

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/spookySpellings/index.html

For today’s session have a go at writing sentences for the following pictures. You can use the suggested sentence with the picture or have a go at one of your own! Try describing what you see.

The pig is little.

The goat has little feet.

She has a lot of food in her basket.

Maths

Get your maths brain ready with this groups of 10’s song.

Today we are revisiting yesterday’s place value activity with a guessing game, you can use the same resources as the previous activity. This is a spin on ‘who am I?’. 

Take it in turns to think of a number and describe it to your partner (parent, sibling etc) using the values of the number, for example my number has 1 ten and 4 ones (14) the person guessing can say the number but to make it extra challenging use the place value cards and/or objects to make the number. 

If you think your child is beginning to understand the concept of place value with teen numbers it would be a good idea today to repeat yesterday’s activity with some larger numbers (only up to 99) and explore how many 10’s each of the larger numbers might have. 25 has 2 tens and 5 ones, 47 has 4 tens and 7 ones.

Once you have explored numbers above 20 you can have a go at the following game!

http://www.ictgames.com/sharkNumbers/mobile/index.html

It has felt incredible to finally have some of you back in your classroom, with your friends, looking more grown-up than ever. Seeing your happy faces has brightened up Damers once again. We had so much to catch up on and so much missed time to make up for. We played, chatted, enjoyed lunch together and spent lots of time outside. If you’re still at home know that we are all missing you and hope to see you again soon.

Phonics

Today use the basic code in the back of your reading diary and go though all the sounds together. You could always make a bingo out of it using small counters or coins. Get someone in your family to call out a sound and cover it up using different small objects.

Tricky word challenge! See how many tricky words you can write in 2 minutes, use the following or a selection of your own. 

said there so little have one  like do some when come out were what

For today’s session have a go at reading the following, remember that tricky words are highlighted in red. Most words should be phonetic but there might be a few where your child may need some assistance. Talk to your child about the speech marks. Point to them and ask them to tell you what they are and what they mean (we have looked at them in school). Once they’ve read the sentence once, encourage them to read it again in the voice of the character who is speaking.

Maths

Over the next few weeks we will be learning about place value focusing particularly on ‘teen’ numbers. If you feel like your child needs more of a challenge please feel free to use some larger numbers with them however it is important that they do have a good understanding of place value at a ‘teen’ level too. The main objective is that your child is aware that, for example, 14 is made with one 10 and a 4. 

Start with a number song to get your brain warmed up!

Adults you’ll have to take the lead with this introduction to teen numbers. Have 20 objects (if possible 20 of the same thing, lego / duplo blocks etc and if possible make some place value cards 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6 ,7, 8, 9 (see example picture) or alternatively if you have access to a printer you can find some here. (You will only need pages 4-6)
http://resources.sparkleplus.co.uk/5000-6000/sb5862.pdf

Explore the numbers on the cards and see what happens if you place the single digit on the 0 of the 10, how does that change the number? 

What new numbers can you make? 

Discuss what you see is happening for example this is 17, can you see that it is one 10 and 7 ones?  

Use the duplo/lego or other counting objects to count out the numbers that you make with your cards. Experiment with making a group of 10 objects and a group of objects to represent the single digit and just changing the single digit amount to change the value.

Have a go at exploring all numbers to 20. 

Phonics

Let’s start with a song…

Now practise your tricky words

For today’s phonics session you will need to work with a partner. Ask an adult or a sibling to play with you. This game is called Sentence Substitution. Adults, ask your child to write a sentence starter, choose from the list below or do all three –

The pigs hid in the…

The goats ran to the…

The duckling felt…

Once your child has written a sentence starter, get their partner (it might be you or another member of your family) to finish the sentence with a real or fun and silly ending. Encourage your child to read the whole sentence back adding in your chosen word. You can rub out the final word and repeat with a different one. Possible endings could include –

The pigs hid in the…mud/grass/shed/car/bed

The goats ran to the…chip shop/beach/field/farm

The duckling felt…sad/happy/upset/grumpy

Ask your child to read these riddles and tell you which traditional tales character they are about.

Tricky words are in red, don’t sound them out, and digraphs and trigraphs are underlined.

Literacy

For literacy this week we would like you to get as familiar with as many different traditional tales as you can. Refer to Monday’s session and watch, listen or read a different story each day or more if you like. 

PE

We will no longer be delivering a traditional PE session in school each week. We will however still be practising mindfulness, yoga and Just Dance in the classroom. We will provide you with links to the sessions we’re accessing at school so that you can carry out the same activities at home. Don’t forget to still go out for your daily exercise and if you are in school we will be spending a lot of time in the outside area. 

Mindfulness – breathing exercise

Listen to this calming mindful video. Turn off everything around you and find somewhere comfortable to sit down and take a moment to just concentrate on your breathing. It’s quite a long session at 12 minutes so you may want to break it into 2 chunks. 

Welcome back. We are so looking forward to seeing many of you return to school. If you are remaining at home then please access all of your learning here. We will be teaching the same content in the classroom. 

This half term we will be immersing you in traditional tales. We will be looking at stories that have been around for many years, stories that your parents, grandparents and other family members will know! Ask your grown ups at home what their favourite story was when they were younger. You’ll notice that a lot of our activities in Literacy, Phonics and even Maths, are based on traditional tales. We hope you’ll love this topic as much as we do.

Phonics 

Start by singing one of our favourite alphabet songs 

Now practise your digraphs…

With our new topic in mind have a go at reading the picture and caption cards below. After you’ve read them can you tell which story they’re from? Don’t forget the words in red are tricky words, don’t sound them out.

Literacy 

We love traditional tales. How many can you think of? Here’s a list to get you started. Have you read or heard any of these before? Maybe you’ve heard some in your class or at home.

Goldilocks and The Three Bears 

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Three Little Pigs

The Three Billy Goats Gruff 

Little Red Riding Hood

Hansel and Gretel 

Rumpelstiltskin

The Ugly Duckling 

The Gingerbread Man

There are probably a lot more that you know that aren’t included on our list. These are just a few of our favourites. If you have any of these stories at home, start reading them. 

If you don’t then here are a few links to some online stories you can read, watch and listen to. 

The Gingerbread Man. Listen to the story or follow the words to read

The Gingerbread Man

Another version of The Gingerbread Man. Read the story with an adult

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/stories/GingerbreadMan.aspx

Goldilocks and The Three Bears 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Jack and The Beanstalk. Listen to this story on BBC Teach. Scroll down for all the episodes. There are some great activities to go alongside the story too 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks1-jack-and-the-beanstalk-episode-1/zjfwkmn

Enjoy listening to the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff

https://elt.oup.com/student/oupeprimary/traditional-tales?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

Listen to Malvyn Hayes read you The Ugly Duckling 

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/the-ugly-duckling

Your job for Literacy this week is to read as many different stories as you can ready for next week’s Literacy tasks. Just read, listen and enjoy. You could listen to one of the links above each day. Talk about the stories with your family. Listen to the same story from different sources e.g, Youtube, a book, an online book, a video. Do you notice any differences between the same story? Talk about characters, who is good and who is bad? We will be looking more at characters later on. For now, just enjoy stories and try and read as many from the list above as you can.

Good afternoon everybody!

Apart from realising that two weeks is a very long time between assemblies, I have also learnt this week that we are all completely surrounded by real-life heroes! I have loved hearing about the people in your lives who care for you, inspire you, make you feel proud and help you to realise the true value of people and relationships, especially when things get a little tricky in the world. People like …

• Uncle Chris who does the food bank trips, tidies the garden and even builds trampolines whilst working long hours in a supermarket
• NHS workers – nurses, midwives, doctors, mums who care for our eyes and Junior Doctors in their first few weeks in post on the frontline 
• A and E Air Rescue trained GPs and surgeons and a little boy who is so proud of the role played by his daddy and his Uncle Ali in trying their best to ‘squish’ the danger that currently exists
• Mums, Dads and other grown-ups who are patiently helping to keep our home learning going alongside all their other jobs, and still managing to take us for lovely walks, cook with us, paint with us, garden with us and have lots of fun with us all at the same time
• Daddies who help to deliver food parcels
• Inspirational, kind and caring teachers who are deeply missed but are continuing to inspire us and make us smile from afar
• Great Grandma Doll Doll (aged 93) who lives by herself but now uses two ipads to manage her family communications!
• Uncle Shane who is tirelessly and bravely supporting the residents of Camden, keeping them safe, well and happy
• An engineer Grandpa who is keeping the wifi in Manchester working so that everyone can keep in touch (I may need to ask you to pop around to help my mum so that we can see more than just the top of her head (… sideways) when we facetime)
• Local farmers who are working long hours to ensure that we can still buy milk in the shops
• Firefighters, ‘posties’, refuse collectors, home care assistants, shop workers, police … even courageous, comforting soft toys …

And my own group of heroes this week, perfectly illustrated by Buddy …

Never has the inner strength, kindness and dedication of this amazing group of people shone more brightly, as they all begin to plan for the next half term. I have said it many times before but I have no idea where I would be without them!

Thank you once again for all of your lovely images and emails over the last two weeks. Time to meet all of your amazing helpers and heroes  … 

As we have been focusing on all of our ‘real-life’ heroes, I thought it would be good to immerse ourselves in the world of a story book hero this week. The often quiet, deeply understated but fiercely talented Eliot  Jones, Midnight Superhero …

And finally, a mention for another quiet, deeply understated but fiercely talented ICT Technician, Miss Barnes (24 Hour Superhero) who has been working hard to ensure that two further recipe books are ready for you, for some half term culinary fun – the Chocolate Collection and the Family Favourites.

Damers Family Favourites – http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Damers-Family-Favourites.pdf

Damers Chocolate Collection – http://www.damers.dorset.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Damers-Chocolate-Collection-FINAL-Reduced-Size-PDF.pdf

I wish you and your families a happy half term break. I know that I am really looking forward to having some time with my ‘Smith Family’ heroes this week, and I look forward to being ‘with you’ again after half term.

Until then, I know that my thoughts will be filled with 450 purple and blue superheroes who wear butterflies on their chests and help me to stay focused and smiling throughout the most difficult of tasks. I miss you all and can’t wait to welcome you back soon. 

Mrs Smith