Month: May 2020

Message from Mrs Smith:

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  … 

https://youtu.be/wD0Y_oBcw6w

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 …

https://youtu.be/oYeu15eax9E

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 

Maths – Measuring time 

Time can be measured using many different items like calendars, analogue clocks, digital clocks, stop watches, sand timers or simply by counting. Have a look at what items you have in your house to help measure and tell the time. 

Use a stopwatch or timer to record how fast you can run/ scoot/ cycle from one end of your garden to the other or choose a set distance in the park. Can you try again but try to do it even faster? Compare your times and discuss how the numbers got less if you were faster or more if you were slower. 

Set yourself a one minute challenge…

How many star jumps can you do in 1 minute? 

How many tricky bugs can you write down in 1 minute?  

Can you tidy away all your toys in 1 minute? We use a countdown at school for tidy up time! 

Keeping healthy includes keeping ourselves clean and keeping the germs away. I am sure you have seen lots of information and songs to use to ensure you wash your hands for 20 seconds. Count out loud or use a  countdown timer to check you are washing for long enough. Brushing your teeth can be another daily routine to time – 2 minutes, morning and bedtime! 

Getting enough sleep is also very important for keeping healthy. Why does sleep help your body? 

Talk about what time you go to bed (to the nearest hour) and what time you wake up. How many hours do you sleep for? What do the hands look like on the clock at these times? Which numbers are they pointing to? 

Listen and watch this story about what the hens get up to each hour of the day. 

Phonics 

Read Miss Hudson’s daily food diary. Use your phonics to read each sentence as independently as you can. The tricky words are in red so remember not to sound those out. Fill in the missing part of the sentence by saying out loud what you see in the pictures. 

Literacy 

We would love to know about what has made you happy during lockdown. You could write about your favourite meals or snacks, your daily exercise, games you’ve played, your home learning, films you’ve seen and more. Draw a picture of yourself in the middle of a piece of paper and fill up the paper all around your picture with thought bubbles or speech bubbles and write what you’ve enjoyed the most. 

Fun snacks 

Plan to make some fun and healthy snacks this week. Work together to look through your cupboards and the fridge to see how creative you can get. Plan together by talking lots about what you’re going to do, what you can use and how you’re going to make them. Let your child lead the discussions by asking them lots of questions that start with how, where, when and getting them to expand on their ideas. The pictures below are for inspiration but create whatever you like. 

Owl rice cake snacks

Rice cakes, banana, apple, cereal, blueberries or raisins, peanut butter

Fun toast friends

Use whatever you have in your cupboard or fridge to create a healthy fun toast snack

Bug snacks 

Get creative with your fruit and vegetables 

Get colourful 

How many colours can you find in your fruit and vegetables? 

Maths – weight and capacity

If you have a blender at home then have a go at making this healthy Superhero Smoothie! Remember to use your prior learning about weight to use scales to weigh out the fruit, checking the correct number is showing. This recipe also requires you to measure out liquids. This can be done using a measuring jug where you must check if it fills up to the correct number and line shown on the side of the jug. You can also discuss what the language ‘empty, half full and full’ means as you pour your smoothie into your glass. 

As part of healthy week and your previous learning about The Little Red Hen, have a go at baking your own bread rolls! This recipe also requires you to weigh out flour and measure out water. Spoons are used for measuring out ingredients for both of these recipes too! When dividing your dough into balls, think about halving the mixture again and again. How many rolls did you make? Can you share them out equally between your family? Remember to use a timer to measure the time for kneading and baking! 

Whilst enjoying your smoothie and bread rolls, have a chat about where the different ingredients came from. Why is it important to eat and drink healthily? 

PE – 

Daily exercise helps to keep your body strong, brain active, mind happy and can aid better sleep! As mentioned on Monday, Healthy week usually involves a Wake Up Shake Up dance! Have a go at some of these dances to get your body moving and feeling energised… 

Have a chat about how your bodies feel after exercise. Can you feel your heart beating faster? How does your temperature feel?

This week is Healthy Week! It’s an opportunity to celebrate our health and happiness. In school we would usually be planning lots of fun activities linked to health and self care including, making healthy snacks, taking part in a daily Wake Up Shake Up dance every morning with the rest of school and lots of fun physical activities. Although we won’t be able to be together to enjoy this fun week, we have planned lots of activities that link to Healthy Week that you can still do at home with your families.  

Phonics 

Read the instructions below as independently as you can. Adults, you can either show your child the instructions on the screen or write them up on a piece of paper/whiteboard to hold up for your child to read. You must do whatever the instruction says for 30 seconds to 1 minute. 

Literacy 

Now it’s time for you to write your own set of exercise instructions for someone or everyone in your family! Think about what you’d like them to do and have a go at writing your own for someone else to read and follow. You could use some of the ones you read earlier but have a go at sounding out the words and writing them by yourself. You could even use some of the moves from PE with Joe Wicks.

Spirals with Matisse 

Find out all about Henri Matisse by watching Art with Mati and Dada. Find out about Mattise and his famous paintings. His artwork below is named The Snail. Can you notice the spiral in it? 

After watching the video think about creating your own piece of art by experimenting with space, shape and colour.

Make your own spirals using natural materials. You can either make these when you go out for your daily exercise or collect some materials (leaves, twigs, small stones) whilst you’re out to create a spiral once you get back home. You could stick them down with some glue or just arrange them in a spiral shape and take a picture. See how creative you can get! Have a look at some of the pictures below for some inspiration. 

Maths:

Let’s listen to this opposites song to remind us of some of the measurement language we learnt earlier this week – 

Length

Use playdough to make play dough snakes or worms of different lengths. Use your fine motor skills to gently roll out the snakes with your hands, making them longer and longer. Which one is the longest? Which one is the shortest? Are any the same size? Can you put them in order? 

Go on a measuring hunt inside or outside. Use a length of ribbon or string and go hunt for things that are longer or shorter than it. Remember to always begin measuring from the very end of your ribbon all the way across to the other end. Record your answers in a table of longer/shorter by writing down the item or drawing a picture. You could also record your findings by taking photos of the item next to the ribbon for comparison. 

Weight

Weight can be learnt in many different ways. You can measure by using your hands to hold items and compare how heavy you think they feel. You can stand or put heavier objects onto scales on the floor. You may have some scales in your kitchen for cooking. Talk about and go see if you have any scales. Do they have a dial? Are they digital? Do they have weights on the other side to compare and balance? 

Think about other places or peoples jobs where scales are used and what they are used for. Eg – vets for weighing animals to check they are healthy. 

Choose some different sized objects in your home to weigh in one of the ways we have discussed and have a go at ordering them from heaviest to lightest. 

Use these challenge cards to extend your learning further – 

Have a go at this weight game where pan scales are used to compare and decide if the food is heavier or lighter – 

https://pbskids.org/peg/games/happy-camel

Phonics 

Begin your phonics learning by listening to this fun farmyard themed abc song – 

Twinkl also has some blending and segmenting farm reading to have a go at. Once you have read the hotspot words, have a go at writing some labels for the other animals or farm related objects in the picture. 

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/go/resource/t-l-52383-farm-themed-oral-blending-and-segmenting-phonics-picture-hotspots

Literacy

On Monday you started to talk about farm animals and listened to the story I Love Animals. 

Have a go at designing and writing your own page for the book.  Look at your tricky words to write ‘I love the’ and then choose which farm animal you love the best. Use your robot arms and basic code sheet to find the sounds that you need. 

Challenge yourself by extending your sentence so that it includes an adjective (what does it look like? How does it feel?) and a verb (what is it doing on the farm?)

eg-

I love the fluffy yellow duckling quacking on the pond.

Draw a picture to go with your sentence making sure the colours and appearance of the animal matches your adjective!

Maths

Measurement 

We are moving on from doubling and halving and beginning to look at measurement. Grown-ups this is mostly just a focus on the accurate use of the language of measurement and being able to make comparisons in sizes, weight and capacity of at least 3 different objects. Our focus words will be;

Tall, tallest, taller

Short, shortest, shorter

Long, longest, longer 

Small, smallest, smaller

Wide, widest, wider

Narrow, narrowest, narrower 

Big, biggest, bigger 

Heavy, heaviest, heavier 

Light, lightest, lighter 

Full, fullest, fuller

Empty, emptyist, emptier

Half full 

Lets begin with this picture. Have a look at the farm animals in the picture and discuss the different sizes for example which animal is the biggest? Which is the smallest? Which animal has the longest ears? Which animal has the shortest tail? Which animal might be the heaviest? Which animal might be the lightest?

Why not have a go at ordering some of your toys at home from tallest to shortest or longest to smallest. On your daily walk see if you can find some leaves or twigs that you can bring home and order. Don’t forget to try your best to use the right words to describe the different sizes of your objects. 

There is also this fun game you can play online! 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/lets-compare

PE

We hope you have been having lots of fun with Joe Wicks, Cosmic Kids and some crazy dances!

This week in your PE we would like to explore ‘counterbalance’, you can do this with a brother or sister or your parents. Counterbalance is using both yours and your partners body weight to create a pose and hold it, it is a good exercise to help you understand different movements and positions your body can achieve. Have a look at the different pictures below and see if you can recreate any of them! 

Phonics

Don’t forget to revise your sounds and tricky words every day here is a great game to help with sound revision. 

Parents this is a great game to focus on specific sounds. 

https://www.ictgames.com/phonicsPop/index.html

This game will help you revise your tricky words!

https://epicphonics.com/games/play/free-penalty-shootout-tricky-words-game

Pictionary 

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? This week try to focus on words with 1 or more diagraphs.  Choose your own pictures to draw or choose from the list below; 

rain  torch   teepee  beard  shark  sheep  chain  book

Literacy 

We have been thinking lots about growing over the last few weeks. This week we would like you to start thinking about the animals that live and grow up on a farm. Today we would like you to have a go at writing down what you already know about animals on a farm such as pigs are big, cows eat grass. Have a think and discuss with your grown-ups about what animals might live on a farm, why do you think the farmer keeps that animal on a farm. What is the animal’s name when it is a baby for example baby cows are called calves. 

Here is a lovely story about animals on a farm! 

What is your favourite animal from the farm? 

I have noticed that there are some new born lambs around some of the fields around the Poundbury area. See if you can spot them on your daily walk!