Use your basic code at the back of your reading diary to play sound bingo!
Pictionary
Let’s have a game of pictionary today! Adults you draw the pictures and children write down what you can see!
Use the words below or have a go at some of your own.
Chair Tree
Light Step
Stamp Brush
Drink Spin
Literacy
As we have asked you to do such a big writing task this week we won’t be setting any more literacy tasks but find below a ‘good writing’ checklist. Use this checklist when you have finished your writing and see how many you can check off.
When you are checking your work you could take a different coloured pen or pencil to add anything you have missed. At school we sometimes call this a polishing pen as it helps our work to really shine!
Today we are going to focus on the trigraph ure, have a go at reading the words below but be aware, some are real and some are fake words! See if you can spot which is which!
Literacy
This week we would like you to have a go at rewriting your traditional tale of choice. We do not expect it all to be written in one go or in just one day so take it steady and write a little bit at a time! You could even take all week to write it if you like. You can include as much or a little detail as you want but for a real challenge it would be great to see you have a go at writing as much as you can.
You have been working hard to accumulate some descriptive language about settings and characters so try and include this where you can, think about how interesting you can make your sentences for the person reading your story.
Use your story map to help you with the sequence of your story and try to use a ‘traditional tale’ story starter and ending like ‘Once upon a time’.
If you like you can write your innovated version of your story instead of the ‘original’ one!
Revise all of the tricky words that we gave you in your learning packs. Have a go at reading them out loud.
Get your child to write down the tricky words on pieces of paper/post-it notes/cardboard (choose from a selection of tricky words that you think your child needs to focus on). Spread the tricky words around on the floor and play tricky word splat. Give your child something to splat the tricky words with (a spoon, fly swatter, spatula etc) as you call them out. You could even write the same tricky words as your child so you have a double of each word and play a game of pairs. Turn them all face down on the floor and take it in turns to turn over two cards. When you get a match, keep them. If they don’t match then put them back.
Creative
We have been having so much fun creating works of art using shapes as our inspiration. Not only is lots of fun but we also find it quite relaxing. This week we’re going back to the simple circle. We’ve looked at lot of circle and spirals this term and now, after our recent Mattise work we want you to try this.
You need to go a shape hunt in your home to find a few different objects that are cylinder shaped so that one of the faces is a circle. You need to find a few different sizes. You could use a cardboard tube, a tin of food, a bowl, a plate, a glass or mug. Get yourself a piece of paper, it might even be worth taping two sheets together to create a larger piece. Draw around your circles as many times as you can, filling your paper with circles and make sure to overlap them – see the pictures below. We like how the circles really stand out with the use of a black felt tip pen but a pencil will do too.
Once you’ve drawn all your circles you’re going to be colouring them in so make sure you’ve got as many different colours as you can find. Choose different colours to colour in each space created by your drawing. Have fun with it and take your time. It should be an activity that you can relax to, maybe put on some calming music in the background. Here’s a couple of links to some music we like to listen to in the classroom.
Today you’re going to be using your new tricky words, there and were to write simple sentences for the pictures below. We’d really like you to use at least one of the tricky words in each sentence and next to the pictures are some suggested sentences but as always, feel free to come up with your own.
There were bugs on the plant.
The bees were getting honey.
There are lots of bugs.
Maths
Start your maths today with this fun song What’s the Time
Remind yourself of yesterday’s maths session and talk about what you’ve already done today and what you’re planning on doing later. Encourage your child to talk in the correct tenses (past and present).
Look at the pictures of Billy Bear and talk about what is happening in the pictures. Are they similar things to what you do in your day? Explain that they are all a bit muddled and not in the correct order. Can the children verbally put them back in the right order? Can they explain their choices e.g, breakfast comes before we’re at school, bedtime comes after we’ve had dinner. Focus on using words like ‘before’ and ‘after’.
If you feel like your child is ready to start using an analogue clock to tell the time (to the nearest hour) then feel free to teach them. At this stage of the year the children need to be able to talk about the sequence of time rather than tell the time specifically.
There are many different types of sign language for the letters of the alphabet and words. See if you can join in with these signs as you sing along…
For today’s phonics let’s have a go at reading the captions. Read the first sentence and talk about what makes it a good sentence (capital letter, finger spaces, question mark).
Now read the caption below and remember our new tricky bug words there and were. There is something missing from this sentence. Can you spot the mistake? (no capital letter). Could you also add a describing word for the bugs?
Now read this final caption and see if you can spot some different mistakes (no finger space or full stop).
Maths
This week we are going to focus on telling the time and understanding the sequence of time. Lets begin with a song called What time is it?
The first thing we can do is have a chat about time. What do you know already about time? You might remember learning about time in our blog posts for home learning a while back.
How do we know what time it is?
What if we didn’t have any clocks or watches… how would we know what time it was then?
At school we use a visual time table to help us know what order we do things in and this can help us know what the time is. Have a chat about the activities we complete in the mornings before lunch and then what we do after lunch.
If you are at home then do you have a morning routine? It may include brushing teeth, getting changed, having breakfast, reading, going for a walk or playing in your garden.
As you are talking about your day, think about what language you are using. You might say first, next, after that, later on.
Have a go at sequencing a particular part of your day. You could draw it like a story map or stick pictures down in a row.
Today we are going to think of our own sentences to match the minibeast pictures. Have a look at the pictures and discuss what sentence you could write. Once you have decided on your sentence, say it outloud and count on your fingers how many words it is. Now begin writing your sentence starting with a capital letter. Keep repeating your sentence out loud as you write it and you will know which word comes next. Here are some sentence examples…
The bug has six legs.
The bee is landing on the flower.
The beetle likes to dig in the mud.
Literacy
To begin our literacy learning today, get out your story map from yesterday and have another go at retelling the story just using your map and labels.
Now let’s innovate our stories! This means that we are going to change something in the original story to make it our own. It’s just like you are becoming the author! You could change one of the characters, the setting or a well-known object used in the story.
For example…
The three bears could be having toast for breakfast with three different spreads on top instead of porridge.
Jack could grow a sunflower that he climbs up and finds a tent at the top.
Little Red Riding Hood could meet a lion instead of a wolf.
Whichever part you decide to change, draw it on a post-it note or paper and stick it over the original part on the story map.
You can now have a go at retelling your new and improved story!
PE
At school we have been enjoying some peaceful time down by the school pond. It’s a lovely area with wild flowers, buzzing bees and insects skating across the water. Have a go at this ‘Be the Pond’ mindfulness PE session and see if your imagination can take you to your own special pond area…
We are sticking with the theme of traditional tales in our literacy but our phonics will take on more of a mini beast theme for the next coming weeks!
Have a look at this insect themed alphabet video.
Teach your child the new tricky word there. Write it down and show them, then cover it and ask them to write it down. Use it in a sentence and then ask your child to do the same.
Now take a look at the following sentences, have a go at reading what they say using the new tricky word you’ve just learnt. Can you spot any mistakes?
Literacy
We are going to continue thinking about traditional tales in our literacy this week. You may remember story mapping from when we looked at ‘The Little Red Hen’ and this week we will be using story mapping to help us remember the key points in the traditional tales that you have heard.
We use story maps in school frequently to retell a story or to make up one of our own, they are great to help with learning to sequence and helpful when retelling a story in your own words. If your adult would like to find out about story maps take a look at the links below!
Start with picking your favourite traditional tale that you have heard and write the title at the top of your paper. Draw a large wiggle shape down your page, this will be the path on which the journey of your chosen story will take.
Retell the story picking out the key parts, these key parts you can draw on your map, you can use the odd word too if you wish.
Your pictures can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish, the important thing is that you are able to retell the story in the right order using only the map to help you! Your grown up can help you with the pictures or you could find some on the internet that you can cut and stick. Your map might have many pictures or just a few but try to keep it simple and just to the key parts.
Use the story map to retell the story in your own words. Try to remember to start your story as most traditional tales start with ‘once upon a time’ or ‘one sunny day’ and as you retell your story try to add in some detail using adjectives!
I hope that you’ve all had a lovely weekend and are ready for another week of learning either in family homes or, for some, back in school.
Following the wonderful growing transformations that you shared with me last week, I thought we’d start with another moment of awe and wonder. I hope that you can sit back and relax as we watch Mother Nature proudly share other breathtaking transformations that happen all around us every day.
We’re going to continue with our theme of ‘Changing Me’ this week, focusing on our very own life cycles. I know that our Year 4s are currently looking for photographs of how they looked on their first day at school compared with now, so I thought we could all join them this week and take a moment to think about how we change over time.
You may have some photographs that you could look at at home. I wonder if you can spot all the ways that you have changed physically over time?
I’ve included a few below of a little girl aged 2, 4 and 7 years old. (She was very relieved to find that at least one was in colour!) I wonder what she looks like now … ?
As we grow, we experience physical changes but we also start to think differently too. I wonder when you have a look at your photographs whether you can identify what was important to you when you were a baby and whether this is the same as what is important to you now? Has anything changed?
As babies we tend to think about ourselves a lot and what we need to stay happy – food, warmth, milk, clean nappies and so on, and if those things don’t happen quickly we might let out a bit of a squeak! But as we get older we start to think about others and the world around us more and that’s the aspect of change that we’re going to focus on this week.
In Damers we often refer to ourselves as ‘Agents of Change’ and one of the ways that we show that the children in our school are powerful agents of change is through our termly class ‘Roots and Shoots’ pledges.
I’ve included a few of my highlights from the last couple of years below, where children in our school have focused on making a positive change which affects animals, the environment or their community.
Children have planted garden areas that attract butterflies, have played an active role in supporting a local foodbank and have raised money to help animals that have been affected by forest fires.
Children have encouraged Poundbury residents to feed the birds and other local wildlife.
Children have shared their love of reading with the local community, traced the journey of their food to protect the environment and built bug hotels to provide shelter for our minibeasts.
There are many more examples of pledges from each class and so many children have contributed to the fantastic positive changes that have happened as a result of these pledges.
At the end of each school year we celebrate some of the children that have made a significant difference to their community, animals or the environment in each class through our ‘DASP Citizen’ awards.
DASP Citizens are celebrated in all of our local partnership schools and are usually voted for in each class in each DASP school. This year will be a little different, so this is where we need everyone’s help, whether at home or in school.
Between us over the next few weeks we are going to nominate our DASP Citizens. This year’s nominations are going to come from you and I would like you to share your nomination for someone in your class that you feel deserves the DASP Citizen award.
In addition this year I am going to invite your grown ups to join in too as they may wish to nominate you!
Remember what we are looking for – someone who has made a positive difference to their community (this includes their friends and their class), to animals or to the environment.
So – your task this week (children and grown ups) is to send me your nomination including;
The name and a drawing / picture of the child that you are nominating, as well as …
The reason why you think that they deserve the award and the difference that you think that they have made to their community, animals or the environment.
I am going to plan a slightly longer gap for this one to allow everyone time to get their nominations in, so our next Celebration Assembly will take place on Friday 3 July. Award winners will be announced following this assembly.
Have a lovely week everyone and remember the beautiful quote that we so often use in our assemblies in school when we are thinking about change and our role within it.
Thank you for the wonderful insight into your growing projects this week. You have all clearly been nurturing your pots, gardens and allotments well throughout lockdown and are now starting to enjoy the fruits of your labours. So many signs of new life, some edible, some helping our bees and other pollinators and some just breathtakingly beautiful.
I have loved hearing your stories once again this week and so many of you were able to share your own first hand experiences of nature’s cycles as well as representing them so creatively. I particularly loved the duckling tales and the many celebrations of the Damers favourite – the journey of the caterpillar.
I was also delighted to hear about all the seeds and seedlings that you were able to take from our garden bank, or that went home in your first learning packs. Thanks to your tender loving care they are now growing well and are brightening window sills, pots and gardens. Some of you have experienced cooking with your own home grown vegetables for the first time and have told me how delicious they taste too! I know that some of the children in school this week have enjoyed harvesting rhubarb and strawberries and have been creating wonderful dishes with these at home too.
Joe in Year 3 shared his thoughts about growing:
“It’s great seeing the plants go through their stages of life and seeing the leaves come out. I’m really looking forward to the sunflowers coming out and brightening up our garden. When we don’t water them they go floppy but the instant you give them water they spring back into action. We also have a cherry tree and tomatoes. The cherries are turning red and the tomatoes are getting bigger. I noticed how the fruit pushes away the flower and grows bigger and bigger. I just like growing things really!”
Many of you have been able to share observations of interdependence in your growing spaces and the wonderful teamwork that has been happening within your own transformation. I wonder if you can spot the ‘transformers’ that have been enjoying Mrs Smith’s vegetable plot over the last few weeks in today’s celebration …?
https://youtu.be/9eRt6O6Oxyo
Thank you once again for all of your contributions to our celebrations, they always brighten my week and the films always make me cry when I see what we have achieved together. Our thanks as always to Miss Barnes for pulling these all together so creatively.
Today’s story is a perfect celebration of the transformations that can be achieved when everyone works together and this story was recommended to me by the lovely Ruth in Year 1. Ruth very kindly brought her book into school this week so that I could share this beautiful story with you too.
Have a great weekend everyone, I think that vital ingredient for all of our growing (sunshine) is about to return.
