Starfish
Reception children
Welcome to Burnham Infants! This term the children will be learning about colour and shape. We will also begin to introduce our new phonics programme, Sounds Write.
Please see websites below to support your child's learning.
A message to everyone:
Please remember to read with your child at least 5 times a week as we really want to win Orlando the Reading Owl! Don't forget to learn the Words of the Week/Tricky Words with your child. Can they read them? Spell them? Put them in a sentence?
Soundswrite planning wb 13th July
Term 6 Planning
Planning week beginning 13th July - lighthouses and Summer
Talk about lighthouses in Burnham on Sea and go and have a look at them if possible or look at pictures online. What do you think it would be like to live in a lighthouse? Why do we have lighthouses? http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/lighthouses.shtml
Make your own lighthouses at home using boxes, blocks, lego or other materials. How tall is your lighthouse? Who can make the tallest lighthouse?
Look at the story of Grace Darling http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/true-stories-grace-darling/13413.html
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-12913-grace-darling-information-powerpoint
Can you act out the story at home. Can you write a re-tell of the story in simple sentences? There is some nice Grace Darling paper on this link https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-12914-grace-darling-writing-frames
How do we keep safe at the beach https://kidsalive.com.au/ebooks/boos_adventures_at_the_beach/index-h5.html#page=24
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/z94jxnb
Discuss beach safety and keeping safe in the sun. Design your own beach safety poster. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-tp-1266-sammy-seagulls-summer-safety-poster-activity-sheets
Can you spot the dangers in this poster? https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-10000015-dangers-near-the-sea-activity-sheet
Discuss halves and quarters. Can the children cut a sandwich or piece of fruit like an apple in halves and quarters?
Finally as it is our last week, you could chat about your children's favourite memories of school. They could draw or write about these memories.
Have a happy and safe summer holidays.
Planning week beginning – 6th July – Pirates
This week we are learning all about pirates. What is a pirate? What do they look like? What do they do?
Listen to the story ‘The Troll’ by Julia Donaldson and discuss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNI_rsFeys8 What is an author? What other books has Julia Donaldson written?
Listen to the story ‘Jake’s First Day’ (attached below). Can you remember your first day at school? As the children find out which class they will be in this week, please discuss this with them.
Discuss real words and ‘alien’ or ‘fake’ words (made up words). Play Buried Treasure to sort the real and fake words. https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/buried-treasure
Select ‘Phase 2’ and ‘Revise all Phase 2’ to start. If confident, select ‘Phase 3’ and sounds from ‘Set 1-7 plus consonant digraphs’.
Listen to the story ‘Ten Little Pirates’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo9z4azK2ZE Link to one less. Predict how many pirates will be left each time.
In maths, we will continue to focus on reinforcing and further developing taught skills, ready for Year 1, such as recognition and ordering of numbers to 20, being able to say the number that is one more and one less than any number to 20, simple addition and subtraction (using counting apparatus to support where needed - this could be anything that you have to hand - grapes, counters, buttons, etc.) In school we are particularly focusing on counting in twos and tens and just becoming really familiar with the number system - being able to begin counting from a different number than 1 and find missing numbers within this number range. Our aim is for children to be really familiar with working within numbers up to 20 before Year 1.
You could make your own treasure map https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes/swashbuckle-treasure-map
You could make an eyepatch too.
Play some Swashbuckle games to practise your mouse skills https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/swashbuckle-my-swashbuckle-adventure
Play the ‘Pirate Ship’ warm up game
https://www.teachingideas.co.uk/warm-up-ideas/pirate-ship
Practise your pirate moves with the ‘We Are The Pirates’ dance
Term 6 Planning
Planning Week Beginning 29th June - Recycling and The Environment
One of our parents very kindly let us know last week that the free Twinkl link was no longer free, and that it was now asking you for a subscription payment for it's use. We were totally unaware of this, as school already subscribes to it, so we were happily accessing all of the links, oblivious to the fact that you couldn't. So we do apologise for that and will no longer be including links to Twinkl activities.
This week we are learning all about environmental issues and how we can look after our planet, with an extra focus on recycling.
Here are some video and radio links to support your teaching of this subject.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07dk7z6/tee-and-mo-song-time-5-help-our-little-world
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0001y16/biggleton-series-2-17-recycling-day
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio/do-you-know-recycling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGWr5jXJfbs Water pollution
Here are some stories we listened to with an environmental message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8CLhNvaEFI - 'George saves the world by lunchtime' by Jo Readman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf4b4no8ric - 'Somebody Swallowed Stanley' by Sarah Roberts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjs66M41-04 author of 'Somebody swallowed Stanley' talking about plastic sea pollution affecting sea cretures
Here are some ideas to encourage children to learn about and participate in recycling
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/joinin/how-to-get-kids-to-recycle
In school, we provided a variety of different items of rubbish, ensuring that different recycling materials were included. The children were then given the opportunity to sort the object themselves into different groups.
Following on from learning all about the environment, we will be asking children to create a poster to encourage people to be kind to our planet. There are many different examples to look at on google images, which can support your child's ideas.
We will also be asking children to make a pledge 'I am going to help to care for our planet by...' Lots of discussion can result from this, including talking about the changes that we saw briefly, very recently, when the world slowed down and stopped travelling around during the lock-down period.
In maths, we continue to focus on reinforcing and further developing taught skills, ready for Year 1, such as recognition and ordering of numbers to 20, being able to say the number that is one more and one less than any number to 20, simple addition and subtraction (using counting apparatus to support where needed - this could be anything that you have to hand - grapes, counters, buttons, etc). In school we are particularly focusing on counting in twos and tens and just becoming really familiar with the number system - being able to begin counting from a different number than 1 and find missing numbers within this number range. Our aim is for children to be really familiar with working within numbers up to 20 before Year 1, but obviously all children develop at different stages, so if your child still needs to be working on numbers to 10, then that is what should be your focus.
Here are two links again to practise counting in 2's and 10's as the children do love these songs:
Our PSHE this week is all about 'Being Positive and Looking Forward'. We would suggest that you continue to practise meditation and mindfulness to support your child's mental health and wellbeing. There are so many different possibilities on youtube for this but we continue to use gonoodle.com and find this suits our needs very well. Obviously, the theme chosen for this week of caring for the environment is all about kindness, helping each other and taking care so you will naturally be covering many different aspects of PSHE through the weekly topic.
Planning week beginning 22nd June - Bees and Sunflowers
- Watch video about 'Bees'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta154f5Rp5Y
- Can you write some bee facts that you have learnt? Here is a Bee Writing Template: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-tp-5965-bee-writing-template-writing-template
- Spread some honey on bread making sure you use a knife safely and accurately.
- If you have it, you could watch 'The Bee Movie'. Discuss the characters. Which one do you like best? Did you like the ending?
- Make a bee life cycle headband: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-27672-bee-life-cycle-headband
- Learn about the life cycle of a sunflower - here is a power point to support your learning. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-5220-sunflower-life-cycle-powerpoint
- Complete 'The life cycle of sunflower' worksheet https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-1140-sunflower-life-cycle-worksheets
- Plant a sunflower seed. As it grows you could keep a 'Sunflower Diary', drawing pictures and writing about the changes.
- Cut out and create a bee shape picture https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-tp-1171-2d-shape-bee-picture-activity-sheets
- Bee halving activity - use practical apparatus, e.g. counters or cubes for support if needed: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/bees-in-the-garden-halving-worksheet-t-tp-7080
- Watch 'The Rainbow Fish' story and talk about the message/moral behind the story of sharing and friendship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFORvXhub28
Planning week beginning 15th June - Floating and sinking
Art
Draw your own designs for boats. You could name and decorate your boat.
Understanding the World
Find a variety of objects and decide whether you think they will float or sink and why. Try the objects in a bowl of water. Were you correct? Why do you think they floated or sank?
Make your own junk model boat. How are you going to make sure it floats? Try your boat on the water. Can you make a sail for your boat? How will you make your boat move?
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/ni-sc-19-float-or-sink-powerpoint - a powerpoint about floating and sinking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbIraFDjjU - a programme about floating and sinking
Literacy
Label your boat design. Can you write about how you made your boat?
Mathematics
Naming 3D shapes and their properties (cone, sphere, cube, cuboid)
Writing numbers to 20, using the correct formation.
Counting in 2's, 10's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTcpfSnOMQ - counting by 2's song
https://scratchgarden.com/videos/counting-by-tens/ - counting by 10's song
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=3D+shapes - a variety of shape games
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
To develop the children's ability to be able to self-calm and manage worries and stress, we use mindfulness activities in school. One of our favourites is Go Noodle, a website with many mindfulness short activities. Here is the website: https://app.gonoodle.com/categories/manage-stress . There are many more options available. Here are just a few possibilities on You tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihwcw_ofuME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBnPlqQFPKs
We are going to be talking about feeling safe and belonging this week. This would be a good opportunity to talk to your child about how we are doing everything we can to stay safe during this difficult time and the measures that are being taken. Also to discuss different groups that they belong to, e.g. family, friends, school, extra-curricular clubs, etc... We also monitor children's feelings daily to ensure that we know about the emotional and mental health. If you wanted, you could do this at home by letting them use a feelings chart. Here is one you could download from Twinkl or you might like to make your own version: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-s-1133-feelings-chart
2 Weeks Planning beginning Monday 1st June - Bubbles
Personal Social and Emotional Development
Design own naughty baddie germ. Draw a picture of yourself inside your safe bubble with the family members that you live with. Your naughty germ is on the outside while you are safe inside with your family.
Talk about how our personal bubbles need to be bigger than usual; wear a hula hoop and practise staying apart from socially distanced friends or family by being bubbles within a bubble; try not to bump into one another; ask children to name their family bubble.
Make a 'How to keep safe with Coronavirus' poster. List a set of instructions, e.g. wash your hands regularly, etc...
Art
Bubble Printing
- Pour bubble mixture into a small lidded container.
- Add food colouring.
- Shake up the containers to froth up the mixture.
- Place a piece of card over the top of the bubbles.
- Cut up the card into a butterfly shape and decorate if you like.
Understanding the World
Make a Bubble Mixture
Recipe
1 litre hot water
250ml good quality washing up liquid
2-4 tablespoons of glycerine
(Best made 2-3 days in advance)
Questions to prompt your child to explore/experiment with bubbles:
Can you make bubbles just with water? Do bubbles last longer in the shade or the sun or on a dry surface or a wet surface? Do bubbles make shadows? What colours can you see in a bubble? Can you make a pointy bubble or a cube shape bubble? Can bubbles go under water? Are smaller bubbles always stronger than bigger bubbles? Could a person float inside a bubble? Why/why not?
Make your own bubble wand
Try using
- pipe cleaners
- sticks and coated wire
- sticks and string
Cookie cutters and sticks
Which were the best materials to use? Why?
Decorate your wand with paint, tissue paper, beads, etc.
Literacy
Write or email a letter to your class (via your class teacher), telling us all about how you are and what you are doing at home. We will then share these with the class.
Read aloud the story of 'The Bubble Mystery' https://freekidsbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/The-bubble-mystery-room-to-read-FKB.pdf
Comprehension questions - Which one is Toot-Toot? What kind of animal is she? Why was she scared of the water? What does 'blop' mean? Do you know how bubbles are made? What's mystery? How is she feeling? What was the solution? Why didn't Toot Toot tell her sister?
Mathematics
Recap on number recognition to 10 or 20 as appropriate for your child
We have been doing this through bingo games. There is one available on Twinkl to download and print.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-n-2608-bingo-and-lotto-game-1-20
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-n-209-ladybird-bingo-0-10
We are also looking at doubles again this week. Her is a powerpoint and some worksheets to support this. The children could also make their own doubles ladybirds if they wanted. You could use dominoes to find the doubles.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-254566-ladybird-doubles-to-20-powerpoint
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-254575-ladybird-doubles-to-10-activity-sheet
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-254576-ladybird-doubles-to-20-activity-sheet
Phonics plan for week beginning 15th June
Phonics planning week beginning 8/6/20
Reception Farm Topic - Week 5
Week beginning Monday 18th May
Hello children,
So, amazingly, we are in the last week of Term 5! If you were in school as normal, you would be finishing on Friday for a week off so we would expect that you will have a week off from home-schooling too, so this is our last farm topic week. As always, you can choose from any of the activities and do as much as you like, without pressure to complete the activities given. Don’t forget there were a lot of words given on the Sounds Write plan, so keep working your way through those and if you’ve finished all of them, you could have a go at writing some sentences using the words you have learnt already.
As we have been learning about farm animals, we thought it would be a good time to share a favourite story of ours ‘Chicken Licken’. You might have it at home or you could choose which one you want to read from these links:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/api/digital_books/1228.html
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-11191-chicken-licken-powerpoint
You could make a ‘chicken licken’ shape picture if you wanted to. Don’t forget to name the shapes as you put them into place.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-2546559-chick-2d-shape-activity-sheets
Maybe this week you might like to have a go at making some playdough. Here is a recipe to make some playdough You will probably need some help though!
Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe
- 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (baby oil and coconut oil work too)
- 1/2 cup salt.
- 2 tablespoons cream of tartar.
- 1 to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
- gel food colouring (optional)
- few drops glycerine (my secret ingredient for stretch and shine!)
Method:
- Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
- Add food colouring TO the boiling water then into the dry ingredients
- Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
- Add the glycerine (optional)
- Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. * This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!*
- If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right.
You could watch the video to watch how it is made:
https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/
You can use your playdough for whatever you want – we are sure you’ve got lots of ideas. You could make some farm animal models if you wanted or you could use your playdough to complete activities on these Chicken Licken playdough mats:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-11171-chicken-licken-playdough-mats
There are some different games and activities here to learn more about farm animals.
If you didn't want to make playdough, you could always make some story pebbles. All you need to do is to print off these pictures of the Chicken Licken characters - decorate some pebbles with them (you could even have a go at labelling them with the character names using some felt tips) and then retell the story, trying to remember to put it in the right order.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-22805-chicken-licken-story-stone-image-cut-outs
Now you have learnt so much about the story, it is always fun to watch it so here is a link to youtube to do just that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzZbtMFP-_
Enjoy your week children - stay safe and be kind!
Hope to see you soon x
Reception Farm Topic - Week 4
Week beginning Monday 11th May
As promised last week, this week we stay with the pig theme, but branch out to look specifically at one of our favourite pig stories - 'The Three Little Pigs'. I expect a lot of you have got a version of this story at home. If not, you can share one of these versions with your mummy or daddy:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-5080-the-three-little-pigs-story-powerpoint
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gdcgnSrUvU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtHjB6rRmQc
Are all of the stories the same? Can you say what is the same and what is different? Can you remember the repeated refrains that the pig and the wolf said several times in the story?
Maybe you might like to make some masks and act out the story like these children here (if you have any brothers or sisters, perhaps they would like to join in too!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQYGoHnnvP0
Here are some masks you could make and don't forget your house can be anything you have handy - a table, a door. a washing basket if necessary! You don't have to have anything fancy to do the role play.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/three-little-pigs-masks-t-t-514
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-514-the-three-little-pigs-role-play-masks
If you prefer, you could make some stick puppets instead and act the story out with them:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-17257-australia-the-three-little-pigs-stick-puppets
You could even add sound effects to your retelling of the story, like these children have done. If you haven't got any musical instruments at home then you could use plastics tubs, saucepans and a stick to make sounds!
If you wanted to, you could ask Mummy or Daddy to film your performance and send it to my email address, so I could put it on the school website for your friends to watch too!
Once you know the story really well you could draw or make a story map to tell what happened to the three little pigs or you could retell the story in your writing book or even stick together some words to make sentences about the story. Here are some resources to help you:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-e-194-the-three-little-pigs-sentence-building-cards
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/the-three-little-pigs-cut-and-stick-story-map-activity-t-e-2549604
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/the-three-little-pigs-mini-zigzag-booklet-t-l-527820
Can you remember which materials the pigs used to make their houses? Which was the strongest and the best?
Here are some making activities that we often do in school to show the three different materials used by the pigs (lots of imagination needed here for bricks!) Maybe you would like to have a go at making the pigs houses too?
You could evaluate your house if you wanted to:
https://central.espresso.co.uk/espresso/primary_uk/servlet/file/store66/item1140118/doc.pdf
We often focus on shapes a lot in this week too. It is a good opportunity to practise learnt shapes and use the language for practical purposes, e.g. - a round or square window, a square house, a triangle roof, a rectangle shaped chimney, etc...
Here is an alternative version of the story with a maths focus:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08cqtk0/numberblocks-series-1-three-little-pigs
After all of your hard work playing, you might like to settle down and enjoy watching the story performed through ballet on cbeebies:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b041mc85/cbeebies-presents-three-little-pigs-a-cbeebies-ballet
As always, there is no expectation of how much or little of this you choose to do. Whatever you do, just have fun and enjoy your playing and learning - that's what is important!
Take care all of you - see you soon xx
Reception Farm Topic - Week 3
Week beginning Monday 4th May
Hello children,
We hope you are enjoying learning at home about different farm animals. You should know all about cows and sheep now, so this week we are going to move onto learning about pigs. As before, the first thing we would like you to do is to find out all about this animal. What do you call a male and female pig? Can you name the different parts of a pig? What do you call a baby pig? Where do pigs live? Do pigs have any strange habits? What do they eat? Why do farmers keep pigs? Are there any products that can be used from a pig besides for food? You will find some links below to support you with your research, or if you wanted to you could use your own books or search the internet with your Mummy or Daddy. This should get you started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na_1ZDK6QyY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06sDgp3wZUc
Why do pigs wallow in the mud? Find out here?
As with the other animals, you might choose to just discuss your learning with your Mummy or Daddy or you could draw a picture and write down any pig facts that you have learnt. You might even like to draw a pig shape and write labels to show that you know the different parts of the pigs body.
You might like to play with your own toy pigs or other animals and make them wallow in the mud! This will tell you how to make some sensory mud for your toy animals to play in, or you could draw and cut out some pigs to put in:
https://entertainyourtoddler.com/taste-safe-mud-for-sensory-play/
Here is a lovely 'pig story' for you to listen to and read along. Maybe you have already got this one at home? It's called 'The Pig in the Pond'. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLsNWcqOO5Y&feature=youtu.be
We know a lot of you like to be creative at home and make, draw, colour or paint. There are all sorts of ideas for 'pig' art. Here are some suggestions, but you might have other ideas of your own:
You might like to make a rocking paper plate pig https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/748653138034710113/sent/?invite_code=dab81f09976444ccad7966f64b956284&sender=525513987677234521&sfo=1
Or a different type of paper plate pig: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/846817536171072444/sent/?invite_code=c9fef1cca2e541f8a9e9bc0ce9f57fd0&sender=525513987677234521&sfo=1
Or even a hand print pig: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-17854-hand-print-pig-craft-instructions
Here are some games for you to play to support your understanding of animal sounds and animal babies:
Parent/Carers - As we always say, these ideas are just that - ideas. Please don't feel any pressure to try to complete all of these activities. You can do as much or as little as you feel able to. Just please don't forget to try to keep up with your reading, e.g. Oxford Owl. Hopefully, you will have seen the phonics videos and plan that we posted last week. If you want to practice some number and maths skills, continue to make it practical. Notice and count things as you go out on your walks, talking about practical addition or subtraction problems (often connected to food!), notice the time and talk about the clock, count and add the coins in their money box, play board games. All of these things will develop the children's mathematical learning and they won't even know it's happening! One last thing - although we have been talking about pigs this week, you might notice that we have not mentioned the most obvious pig story 'The Three Little Pigs'. It is such a favourite that it has a week all to itself, so you might like to leave that one for next week when we will give you some ideas to go with the story.
Don't forget we would love to see any pictures you have of the learning you have been doing it at home. If you give your permission when you send it to us, we can add it into the school home learning website gallery. My email address is dwarren@educ.somerset.gov.uk
Stay safe, stay happy and stay well x
Sounds Write Phonics Lesson Plan
Reading
We have finished the Initial Code in Reception. The sounds we have learnt are:
a, i, m, s, t, n, o, p, b, c, g, h, d, f, v, e, k, l, r, u, j, w, z, x, y, ff, ll, ss, sh, ch, th, ck, wh, ng, qu
We have uploaded a video of a Sounds Write Phonic session to the Video Resource Centre under the 'children' tab. Above is a suggested lesson plan which you can do bits and pieces from, if you find it useful. These are all suggestions and not compulsory.
The Oxford Owl website is also very useful. Through the e-Book section you can choose the correct Book Band colour for your child.
Reception Farm Topic - Week 2
Week beginning Monday 27th April
Hello children,
This week we will be looking at a different farm animal. It is the sheep. The first thing we need to do, as with cows, is to find out all that we can about this animal. Here are some videos that you could use. Of course, you can find different ones if you choose, or you may have some books about animals that could use. Try to find out what we call baby sheep, what we call a male and a female sheep, what sheep like to eat and where they live. Can you find out what some of the different types of sheep are called? Why do farmers keep sheep? What are they used for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNCcQoDh8JE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK3KsFd2YnQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtP63IOhg1Y
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03zlygt/lambing-live-series-3-5-live-show-4
Here is a picture of a sheep with space to write. If you like, you could print it off and write a sheep fact that you have learnt inside and stick it into your book. Or alternatively, you could draw your own sheep picture in your book and write your fact inside that.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-m-2030-editable-sheep-sign
There are photos and a video of lambs recently born in Brent Knoll on the 'gallery' page.
While keeping up our phonics work, we would also normally be focusing on the alphabet in the summer term. Earlier in the year, the focus is much more on learning the sounds. Now that you are more secure with the sounds, we also need to spend time learning the letter names and learning the order that they are placed in, in the alphabet. Don't forget to use the alphabet song that we know, to help you. Here are some activities to help for you to practice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-sEZaHet8c
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-l-8429-alphabet-match-activity
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-11604-farm-missing-letters-alphabet-grid-worksheet
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/T-L-014-A-Z-Alphabet-Mat
If you have foam letters or magnetic letters, you could order them, maybe on the fridge or in the bath? Play a game - while you have your eyes closed. Ask Mummy or Daddy to take one away. Do you know which letter is missing? You may need to sing the song or use an alphabet mat to help you.
We would always use 'sheep' week to revisit 'Baa Baa black sheep'. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-5402-baa-baa-black-sheep-powerpoint There are lots of different art activities that could result from this. Here are a couple of examples:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-18179-paper-plate-sheep-chinese-new-year-craft-powerpoint or
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Maybe you would like to make some 'Fluffy Sheep Bites'. Try to help your adult with the measuring out of ingredients and point out the numbered steps in the recipe to practice your maths skills. Also discuss how the chocolate and the butter changes as it is heated. Discuss the word 'melted' and talk what will happen to the ingredients as they cool. Maybe you would like to name the sheep. Once you have made your sheep, perhaps you would like to give one as a gift to the family members in your house and of course enjoy a treat yourself too!
If you have a toy farm at home, don't forget to spend time role-playing with the animals, counting the animals, putting them into twos, sharing them between the 'fields', making the different animal noises and making up your own farm stories
Finally, just settle down, get cosy and enjoy some lovely bedtime stories
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00jdlm2/cbeebies-bedtime-stories
As before, these ideas are here for you to pick from. Please do not feel that you need to do all of these, or any of them if you are choosing alternative things. Just, please try to keep up some sort of reading.
Enjoy your week at home children, stay safe and be kind xx
Reception Farm Topic - Term 5
This week we would be introducing the beginning of our new topic of farms. We would be starting with a focus on cows this week. Here is an espresso link to introduce this idea:
We would spend time talking about why farmers keep cows - what they are used for. This would involve talking about the food types which come from a cow - both dairy and meat. Here are some video clips which show milking time on the farm:
https://central.espresso.co.uk/espresso/modules/ey_people_help/people_further/video_milking.html
https://central.espresso.co.uk/espresso/modules/ey_people_help/people_further/video_last.html
And this one talks more about some of the foods in the supermarket which are made from milk:
One of our activities would be to draw and paint cows. Perhaps the children would like to have a go at home. This step-by-step guide might help them:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-28953-how-to-draw-a-cow-activity-sheet
We would also read lots of non-fiction books and stories to find out as many facts about cows as we can, then we would write about what we have found out. Here are some video links to help you. Maybe, your children would like to draw, paint or write about what they have found out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frcAf4ks9_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2du2aQ0I6PU
At this time of year, we would often have lots of farm shop role play activities available for the children to play with. It's a great way develop their language and imagination. Your child could make some signs for the shop and of course buying and paying for goods will help them to practice their number skills. You don't need to use expensive shop bought role play toys. Some old egg boxes and packets, artfully displayed by your children, with prices written on will do the trick. We always like to use real coins - but would generally stick to 1p and 2p coins at this stage. Hopefully, this well keep them busy for hours - and you know they are learning so much while playing too!
Another activity we do which you may wish to do at home is making butter. You just need a large clean jar with a screw tight lid and then you pour in mostly cream with a little bit of water. Then you shake and shake and shake until it finally separates into curds and whey(it does take a while and a lot of shaking!). The children enjoy spreading the butter onto crackers before eating them! Here is a video to watch about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_RG42N3GM
Your child might like to find out more about what happens on a farm, during different times of the year. This could be a nice quiet time for them to listen and learn:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/down-on-the-farm-on-cbeebies-radio
Later in the week, we will add some phonics activities for you to use at home.
Hopefully these activities will be fun and interesting, so your children will be keen to join in. Please, only do what you are all comfortable with. These are testing times for all, and the last thing we want is for any of this to be stressful for you, but we do want to offer you some ideas, so they are here if you want them. The most important thing is to try to keep up some reading if possible. As mentioned before, Oxford Owl online allows you to choose books from the book band they are currently reading at. If you are unsure about which band your child is on or you have any other questions, you can reach me on my email address - dwarren@educ.somerset.gov.uk . You can also use this email address to send things that the children have done if you want. I would love to see them!
Stay safe everybody,
Dawn Warren
Year 1 Weekly Phonics/Spellings
Friday 17th April
Good morning children,
As promised, here are your final links to watch to learn about the development of a duckling. One of the links shows a pet duckling hatching out of it's egg and growing up in just over a minute. Do you think it would really grow up that quickly? How long do you think it would take? See if you can find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxEc8eCw4OE
We have also included a little bit of film showing a farmer with lots of different types of ducklings? Which one do you like best? How many ducklings do you think there are in the run? How does the farmer care for his ducklings? What do they need to grow strong and healthy? Has he had to do anything to keep the ducklings safe? What changes does the farmer need to make now that the ducklings are growing bigger to suit their growing needs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQeQ8kYirDM
As before, watch the clips and talk about them with your parents. It would be lovely if you were able to complete your duckling diaries - maybe you could bring them into school to show us, when we hopefully get back to school.
To end our duckling topic - here is a 'duckling' story and a song about ducks that we learnt earlier on in the year. Hopefully you remember it!
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-l-53921-brendas-boring-egg-story-powerpoint
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZw9veQ76fo
Our next topic in Reception is all about farms so we will be learning more about different animals in the weeks ahead.
Starfish Year 1 children - I hope you have enjoyed learning all about the ducklings too and have managed to record some of your ideas in your books. You can join in with any of the Starfish learning posted on here but there will also be some different things posted for you too in the weeks ahead.
Hope you are all happy and well x
Week beginning Tuesday 14th April
Hello everybody!
We hope you have had a lovely Easter weekend and have enjoyed lots of chocolate - we certainly have!
As it is still the Easter holidays, we don't want to load you with too much to do, but we did promise you more videos to continue with the 'Duckling Diaries'. Today, we are sending you another link to watch a video of some ducklings. This time, the ducklings are with the mummy duck outside and she is teaching them a very important lesson. As before, watch the video, discuss with your parents and try to think of a sentence that will describe what you have seen. Using your phonics card, try to write your sentence and draw a picture of the ducklings. We will send you another video later on in the week to complete your duckling diary and then next week, we will give you some different activities to keep you busy.
Keep safe - we miss you all.
Mrs Warren, Miss Lock, Miss Heyworth, Mrs Macgregor and Mrs Blain
LINKS FOR SCHOOL CLOSURE
The link below has some useful information and videos to support your child/children in their phonics learning at home using our Sounds Write programme.
Learning through landscapes
Welcome back to Starfish Class!
Year One Children
Now the children are so settled into their Year 1 group in Starfish Class, we are developing our independent working skills
Our topic this term is 'Amazing Animals'. We have visited 'The Wild Place' in Bristol, and we were very excited to see lots of different animals including real bears!
We will be learning about animal habitats and classifying different animals.
If you know of any great websites to visit or any books you or your children love about animals please let us know as we would love to look at them.
Reading
We are still running the reading challenge to win 'Orlando the Owl'. Please read with your child at least 5 times a week. It is so important for your child to have a good quality reading session to help them become a fluent and confident reader. Don't forget to write in the reading record to say you have read.
As a reminder, please can all children have a named P.E kit in school at all times.
Below are some useful websites for you to look at with your children.
For lots of resources about our topic and everything else visit the Espresso website. Parents have their own log in to use .
username - student3863
password - sandcastle
Don't forget to look at 'Words of the Week' with your children. Can they read them? Can they spell them? Can they put them into a sentence? We will check these with the children in class on Fridays. To find a list of the latest words, please look on Dolphin's class page.
We are still running the reading challenge to win 'Orlando the Owl' so please can the children read at least 5 times a week so we have the best chance of winning him! This also helps the children with their reading skills and enables them to move between the reading levels.
Just a reminder, can all children please have a named P.E kit in school.
Below are some useful websites to look at with your children.