As part of our harmony learning last half term we looked at circles in nature. In school we drew around circles of different sizes and explored patterns and pictures that we could create. At home you explored circles in your homes, gardens and on your walks. This half term Mrs Bearwish has asked that we explore spirals and you could start with listening to this story.
Explore these spiral pictures below, what are each of these spirals made from?
You could explore spirals further by using some of the following questions:
Where else in nature could you find spirals?
Explore pictures of the galaxy, can you find any spirals amongst the stars and planets?
What spirals might you find at the beach?
What spirals can you find in the garden or outside duringyour daily exercise?
Look closely at your fingertips. What do you see?
Any in the fridge? Or the kitchen?
How many things can you make spirals with?
Choose a spiral in nature to draw in great detail.
If you have an old ‘spirograph’ at home you could use that to make some spiral pictures, if not check out this video below about making your own! (Will require adult to make it!)
Recap your doubles learning by listening to this 1-12 doubles song.
Earlier this week you have looked at lots of different ways to explore doubles. The opposite of doubles is halving so let’s begin to introduce this next step.
Get a grown-up to give you an equal amount of objects up to 10. Have a go at sharing out these objects between you and a family member. The only rule is that each person must have the same amount of objects at the end so that it is fair. Think about how you share them out. Do you say one for me, one for you? Can you see the connection with your doubles learning so you split the amount in half straight away?
Once you have shared your amount equally, discuss what you notice. Can you spot the double as well as the half? For example…
If double 5 is 10 then half of 10 is 5!
You could try more halving throughout the day when sharing out food for your dinner or playing a card game.
Play a game of Quickwrite. How many digraphs and trigraphs can you write in one minute? Make sure to set yourself a timer. Practice this daily and see if you improve. You can also play this game with tricky words.
Play a game of Pictionary. Adults can draw something and you have to write the word as quickly as possible on your own piece of paper. Can you guess the picture before your grown-up finishes drawing? Choose your own pictures to draw or choose from the list below;
Remember that you have the phonics basic code in the back of your reading diary if you need it to find sounds.
Literacy
Discover the life cycle of a plant by watching this short BBC Bitesize video. Discuss the cycle with your family. Do you have any plants or flowers that you can talk about? How did they start their life? What do they need to flourish and grow?
Take a look at some of the wonderful artwork I’ve been receiving from members of Skipper F. They are so beautiful and brighten up my day when I receive them. Thank you my little artists.
Get your maths brains warmed up with a game of Bullseye. The adult secretly writes a number between 1-10 or 1-20 on a piece of paper. The child has to guess the number. If they guess wrong, give them clues using language of more orless, higher or lower until they can narrow it down to the correct number. When they get it right turn the paper around to show them and call out “BULLSEYE.” Repeat as many times as you like. Let your child be the teacher and write a number for you to guess.
For the next two weeks we are focusing on doubling and halving in our maths learning. We touched briefly on this before the Easter holidays. The children explored dominoes as an introduction to doubles. If you have a set of dominoes at home play a game together.
As the weather is changing and it’s becoming warmer why not go on a doubles hunt in your garden or during your daily exercise. You can find many doubles in nature. Try looking for insects and carefully find the doubles in the amount of legs they have, how many wings they have, how many spots you can see on a ladybird. Talk about doubles in the home; a double bed, a pair of socks, look in the mirror at yourself and talk about the doubles you can see looking back at you. Get creative by creating your own doubles, see the pictures below for some inspiration.
Our PE focus for the next few weeks is ball skills. Look back at your home learning pack to remind yourself of some great throwing and catching activities you can do using balls or household objects. Remember to make the distance between yourself and your partner or target bigger as you get better for more of a challenge!
The Change 4 Life website has lots of Disney themed 10 minute activities including those with ball skills. Dash’s Ball skills challenge you to do as many keepy-uppys as you can or Buzz’s Superbowl challenges you to catch a ball whilst on the move!
Good Morning everybody! I hope you’ve all had a relaxing weekend. I know that I have had a lovely weekend of cooking and baking following your inspiration and the amazing recipes that I needed to try out following last week’s assembly!
In our assembly this week, I’d like to explore a word that we often talk about in our assemblies in school – Diversity. Particularly thinking about the diversity that exists within our families and how important it is to celebrate this at this time.
I know if we were in school and I was to ask you ‘What colour is a leaf?’ you would all show me that you recognise that this is a silly question to ask as leaves aren’t all the same colour! If I were to ask you ‘How do families have fun during lockdown?’, I am sure that you would tell me that not all families are the same and that everyone has fun in different ways.
So as a starting point, I’d like us to think about the beautiful things that can happen when we all work together in harmony. In school this could be the music that is created when we all sing our hearts out together, the artwork that emerges when we all share our creative talents or maybe just the friendships that form when we play exciting games with our favourite classmates.
I’ve included a few clips below which show the awe and wonder that can be created when shared talents are celebrated together, or in the case of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’, when shared talents come together virtually during lockdown.
I have been thinking a lot about what it must feel like for you at home at the moment, and what I am really interested in is what you are doing to have fun in your relaxation time. In school, we are usually in classes with lots of children, all different and all with our own individual interests and passions. Sometimes we share the same interests with our friends and have fun together and sometimes we simply don’t. You now have new ‘classmates’ at home for a while and I’m sure that similar things are happening.
I know that if you were to ask my family about the best things to do in relaxation time, they would probably give you 5 very different answers as their first choice but I’d hope that they’d also tell you about how great a family walk in the countryside actually feels when your mum has convinced you that you need to see daylight, experience nature, talk and laugh!
Mrs Goldsack was telling me the other day about all of the very different things that her children are doing at home now and that one of her children has been appointed as ‘Head of Entertainment’ during lockdown. Mrs Scott and Mrs Godfrey have been using technology to ensure that they are able to read stories to their grandchildren in the evenings and Mrs Campbell has been keeping all of the grown-ups in school laughing with tales of the many new and diverse activities that she has been enjoying during her relaxation time.
So – what happens in your family when you just need to relax and sometimes have a really good giggle?
Card games, puzzles, dancing together, sharing a story together, creating art, cleaning together, learning a new skill together (such as juggling / speaking a new language), cooking, gardening, board games, camping in the garden … ?
This week I would really love to hear about all the ways that you are learning to have fun with your new classmates and how you are celebrating all the diverse interests and passions that exist within your own homes. I think the final clip below is a beautiful illustration of what is happening in our homes at this point in time and I am sure that you will be able to explain to your grown ups how we celebrate the many diverse butterflies that emerge throughout our lives at Damers.
So – let’s get playing together this week Team Damers. I am excited to hear from you again and to see all the fun activities that you get up to with your new classmates (your grown-up will help you to share pictures and stories with me). I will reply to any messages that come in and I will share all the highlights in our Celebration Assembly on Friday.
I also can’t wait for the day when your unique, much loved giggles and diverse interests and passions are filling the playgrounds and corridors of Damers again!
Practise your tricky word reading with a game of tricky bug splat! Write out some tricky bugs onto pieces of paper and spread them out on the floor. Use a fly swat or spatula to splat the words as your grown up calls them out to you. How many splats can you do in 1 minute?
Play the Yes/No game. Get an adult to write down some of these sentences for you to read outloud and answer. Remember to think about your tricky bugs and use your robot arms to help you blend the words together. Refer to your basic code sheet in your reading diaries if you need reminding of the digraphs or trigraphs.
Do sheep go moo?
Do cows have horns?
Can a goat have a beard?
Can you milk a chick?
Have you ever been to a farm?
Literacy
Since Mrs Smith’s planting assembly, your seed hunt and Earth day, lots of you have been planting seeds inside and outside. Have a go at writing some instructions for how to plant a seed. Think about using time conjunctions to begin each step such as first, next, then. Remember to use your basic code sheet to help you segment each word for writing. Parents, it’s okay for words to be written with the sounds your child has learnt even if this is not the exact spelling eg. ‘water’ could be written as ‘worter’.
If you still have some more seeds and pots then have a go at setting up a science experiment. Plant the seeds in different conditions such as a dark place, cold place, no water, sand instead of soil and make predictions about what you think will happen. Observe whether this stops the seed from growing or not and discuss why this has happened. Watch this Youtube clip to get you started… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lly75dEbXE8
I feel privileged that you and your families have opened the doors of your homes and your incredibly warm (in every sense of the word) kitchens to me this week. It has been wonderful to hear about …
Meal times becoming an increasingly precious part of your days now
Recipes that have been shared with you by family members and special friends
Traditional dishes that help you and your family to celebrate religious festivals such as Eid
Favourite foods that bring back happy childhood memories
How the smell of ingredients can take you straight back to a holiday in a special place
Your efforts to plant more bee-friendly plants to help with the growing of food
How to make a dish even more relevant with a few ‘rainbow’ ingredients
Your treasured newly-introduced ‘Homemade Pizza and Movie’ nights
Siblings enjoying each other’s cooking more than their mum’s (and babies not throwing it on the floor!) and being inspired by big brother’s baking skills
Your experiences of baking alongside granny via Skype
Favourite recipes from around the world
Experimenting with new recipes following ‘Mystery’ food deliveries
How good locally-sourced food tastes – particularly when it’s the delicious rhubarb from your own garden
Food inspired by heroes such as Mary Berry … and Joe Wicks (can he bake as well?!)
Harvesting home-grown lettuces
Reading novels to vegetable plants to help them grow
Innovative ways to get around the current flour shortages
Baking bread for the first magical time
How a Yorkshire Pudding and gravy should be eaten as a meal in its own right
And how it feels to celebrate Nana and Pop’s 50th Wedding Anniversary without them, but whilst sharing and celebrating a favourite family dish that reminds you of your wonderful childhood (Happy Anniversary Nana and Pops from all at Damers!)
You have made my week once again, allowing me a beautiful insight into our community and our shared love of cooking, alongside all your regular growing and life updates too. Thank you!
Miss Barnes is very kindly collating all of your wonderful recipes into one document and we will share this with you once complete but for now, time for a hearty Damers feast …
And finally, this week’s story involving a magic paintbrush and a very special celebration …
Happy Birthday Damers!
Enjoy your weekend, keeeeeeeeeeep cooking … and don’t forget that main ingredient that makes it taste even better … ❤
Try some lovely ladybird or butterfly art linked to our doubles maths learning. Look at the spots on a ladybird, what do you notice? Explore symmetry when looking at the wings of a butterfly.
Create your own beautiful drawing or painting or sketch of a ladybird or butterfly. Take your time and be careful to make sure that the wings are exactly the same. You could draw your own or if you have paint you could explore painting half of the insect and then fold the painting over and print on the other side of your paper. Use some old potatoes to print a ladybird shape and then add spots. Make sure the spots create an even number.
Play a version of the 90’s game show. Prepare number cards to 10, making sure all your numbers are formed correctly and then shuffle them up and place them face down in a line. Turn over a card, read the number and then try to guess if the next card will be higher or lower based on the card you’ve just turned over. Turn over the next card to see if you were right. Remember that, although this is a guessing game, you need to think about the cards – the higher the number the more likely it is that the next card will be lower and visa versa. Play until all the cards are gone. Repeat, shuffling the cards for a new game or challenging somebody else to play in your home or over video call. Encourage children to use ‘more’ and ‘less’ language.
Bingo!
Reuse your 1-10 number cards to play a game of bingo! First, you will need to also create number cards 11-20 (or 30) to extend your quick number recognition. Next, shuffle up all the cards and place them in a pile, face down. Then, create some muddled up bingo grids ready to cross off or cover up the number called out. Grab a pen or counters and you are ready to play. First person to cross out a line of numbers shouts BINGO!
