Have a go at the below games for quick recall of sounds and tricky words. You may need a login in order to play the games however phonics play has provided parents with a free one for home learning which you can find here …
This is a favourite in the classroom! To help the children recognise where a digraph is to go in the word you can use a longer line or different colour line where the digraph goes.
Example words you could use:
farm, goat, duck, chick, duckling
boat, chip, mash, shark, car/park
Animal to animal
This game is called Full Circle. You start with a word and change one sound at a time eventually making it back around to the word you started with, however this version has a twist! For this game we start with a farm animal and finish with a different farm animal! I have underlined the sound that changes each time. Read the words out to your child and ask them to write them down noticing which sound is changed with each new word.
Round 1: goat boat boot shoot sheet sheep
Round 2: chick chip cheep sheep
Literacy
Think back to the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’. If you would like to you can watch another version here ..
Use tricky bugs together to form the sentence …
The little red hen had…
Discuss with your child the different things the little red hen had in the story to complete the sentence e.g. bread, corn, water,etc. (If you made a story map you could use this as a guide) Have a go at writing the complete sentence. If you wanted more of a challenge you could add an adjective such as;
The little red hen had lots of corn.
The little red hen had cold water.
Try to focus on letter formation, finger spaces and full stops while you are writing.
Look at the pizza problems below. Use your knowledge of doubles and halves to solve the maths problems. You can draw out the problems on your own paper or if you have any paper plates why not use those. You can cut up the paper to help or try and work out the problems from your own drawings.
Patterns and shape in animals
Look at the grid of pictures.
Who’s who? Can you guess? What shapes can you see in the animal patterns? What other animals have lovely patterns? Can you think of other animals with spots? What about animals who flutter which we find in our garden? Or those that swim in the sea?
Can you draw three more amazing patterns you find on animals?
Don’t forget that today is PE day!
Following on from our ball skills session last week have a look at these short videos for a guide to building on balls skills successfully.
Use a washing up bowl or washing basket to help with this first game. Move further away from each other for more of a challenge.
If you don’t have a ball try using a balloon, a rolled up pair of socks, a teddy bear or anything you have that lends itself to throwing and catching
You can get the whole family involved in a game of throwing and catching. We’d love to see how you get on so why not upload a 30 second clip onto EExAT so we can see you having a go?
Discuss whether you think it was fair that the hen ate all of the cake at the end of the story and didn’t share. Explain why you think that.
Have a look at the story map picture below.
Write some labels for some of the different pictures in the story map that you can phonetically sound out to spell correctly (hen, seed, sack, mill, plant). You could even draw your own story map and include the animals too! Practise telling the story in your own words and teach it to your family or perform it in a little show.
As our lockdown continues, it can sometimes feel tricky thinking about how things were before the lockdown or what things will be like in the future when we return to our ‘normal’ lives again. So for this week I would like us to think in particular about that one line from Master Oogway that reminds us that ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery buttoday is a gift – that’s why it’s called the present’.
One of the Harmony principles that we think about in school is ‘Oneness’ and the importance of finding our place and our peace within the world. We are all part of a very big ‘whole’ and now more than ever, we are hopefully all able to see clearly the many connections that exist between ourselves, our families, our communities and the world around us.
So many positive things are happening to make those connections even stronger, resulting in healthier communities and a healthier world. You may have heard the word ‘legacy’ being used a lot at the moment and most of you will know that a legacy is a kind of stamp on the future which shows the meaning of the past. In the future, when we look back on 2020, I am sure that we will talk about many ‘lockdown legacies’ but for now I would like us to really think about what these might be at a time when we are living and breathing their meaning.
What are the gifts that have been given to us during this time which have made us happier as a family or stronger as a community?
If you were only allowed to use one single word to describe the most positive ‘Lockdown Legacy’ for you, what would that word be? Maybe ‘gratitude’, or possibly ‘community’ or ‘family’? I am sure that you will have lots of ideas of your own and if you struggle to think of just one word, this will be a good problem to have and I will allow you a bonus one!
I have plans for these words and something that we could create together when we all return to school – a new garden in our school grounds. I am hoping that this will become a visual reminder of this time and will provide us all with the opportunity to remember the positive gifts that we have been given right now, that will hopefully stay with us long into the future.
At the moment my plans are vague and I need your help! We have been given a very kind donation from Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Foundation to get us going and I now need your thoughts and inspiration to help my initial ideas to grow. My thoughts so far are that we could take over an area of the school grounds and create a garden that is both inward facing and outward facing, allowing us the chance to look at what we have but also to look towards our community as we are all doing right now. Our new garden could involve some topical rainbow planting reminding us of our current symbol of hope …
Our garden could also include the important words that you choose this week in a piece of artwork. I have shared a poem with your grown-ups that we may be able to include, but I have a feeling that one of you could create something even better. Our garden could provide a chance to sit, to reflect and to remember. And of course our garden needs a name … I have a few ideas so far, but I’d love to hear yours.
Once again an opportunity for you to remember your important role as agents of change and to sow the seeds of our very own lockdown legacy.
I can’t wait to hear the word that you have chosen, maybe each member of the family could choose one too? The more visual that you can make your word the better. You could simply create a work of art using the word or incorporate the word into a picture that illustrates its meaning. You could create your word out of objects or using a collage of different letters.
Some of you may also want to have a go at creating a poem or short story that will form a centrepiece in our new garden, using the Kitty O’Meara one as a starting point. You may also have some further suggestions for our garden design, or elements that we will need to incorporate. I can’t wait to hear your ideas. I will reply to any messages that come in and I will share all the highlights in our Celebration Assembly on Friday.
Enjoy a week where you are well and truly focused on the present and all that it is gifting you Team Damers! Hold on to those positives while you can genuinely feel them because if anyone can ensure that they become a lasting lockdown legacy, you can!
Well in a week where we have been talking about what we do to ensure fun, relaxation and wellbeing, you have all topped up my wellbeing-ometer to the ‘full to bursting’ level once again! I have the loveliest evenings hearing your news, sharing your adventures and seeing your beautiful creations like this ‘Covidinsky’ …
… and our much missed teachers also sharing their relaxation fun …
Your grown-ups at home are doing an amazing job at the moment, as teachers, break and midday supervisors, sports coaches, learning mentors, mediators, counsellors, first aiders, after-school provision leaders, cooks, entertainers and all round good eggs! I hope that when you get the chance you will give them a great big hug and a heartfelt thank you!
This week you have shared so many top tips for fun and relaxation. You have told me about …
The diversity that exists in your homes and amongst your interesting new classmates
Family sleepovers in the aptly named ‘Kindness Hotel’
Undercover walkie talkie missions in the Borough Gardens
Kite flying on windy walks
The card and board games that you are becoming unnervingly better than the grown-ups at
The joy of connecting with nature on walks and how this makes you feel so much more positive
Creating works of art together inspired by Pop Art, Andy Warhol and Kandinsky, Apollo 13 inspired crafting, sewing and screen printing
Gardening and its link with mindfulness
Cooking and the memorable sights, tastes and smells of joyful family gatherings
The wonder of miniature steam engines
The joy that comes from dancing and singing your hearts out to timeless Kylie classics and one dad performing ‘Shiny’ from Moana
How great exercise can make you feel – whether this is a family bike ride, the exhilaration felt on a water slide or the excitement of trying to empty or reload a ball-filled trampoline in competition with some rather red faced grown ups
Your reading adventures and the feelings that come when you realise that a book like The Secret Garden is coming to an end
Den building indoors and outdoors and the construction of a very impressive ‘Technology Den’
Trips to the beach inside your own living rooms
Decorating the house in preparation for a religious celebration
The joy of creating all kinds of music together
Caring for treasured family pets and creating stylish feeders for wildlife
Snow White themed adventures
Garden camping … outdoor film nights … sleepovers in the tree house …
I genuinely feel like one of the luckiest people in the world doing my job at the moment – thank you for continuously providing a fantastic source of lockdown wellbeing, for each other and for me!
And so, time to share some of the gems that have been sent my way this week …
And finally, one of our Year 3s introduced me to her little friend ‘Guppy’, the tiniest of frogs, this week. Ella has been nurturing Guppy since he was a tadpole and wanted to relocate him to our school pond. This reminded me of one of my favourite fun activities as a child when I was lucky to spend what felt like everlasting summer days outdoors with my brother and cousins, nurturing all kinds of pond and woodland creatures, creating stories about them and building many a magical kingdom (that they rarely stayed in!).
Hence my choice of story this week …
You’ll be pleased to hear that Guppy is having a lovely time and was last spotted an hour ago basking in the sun on the top of one of our lily pads. Thank you Ella!
Don’t forget the big squeeze and heartfelt thank you for your grown-ups this weekend. Time for a Friday dance-off in the kitchen I feel …
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!
