Author: Miss Hudson

Phonics & Literacy

Minibeasts! 

Our last topic this school year will be all about minibeasts and we just love this topic! Today we would like you to start with a minibeast hunt, use your garden or a nearby park to find as many as you can, maybe you could take something to draw or write with and record what you find by writing down or drawing the types of minibeasts you can find. Remember that minibeasts love to hide so carefully look under rocks and stones or in dark, damp places. Minibeasts are very important to our environment though so make sure that you leave any you find in the places that you find them, they can also be very delicate so be extra careful if you touch or handle them. When you find them look carefully at how many legs they have, what colour they are, if they have patterns or spots. Have a go at writing some labels for the minibeasts, sounding out words carefully to write the sounds you can hear.  

Enjoy this minibeast themed story! 

Silly Squad Summer Reading Challenge 2020 

Join the Silly Squad reading challenge here…

http://www.sillysquad.org.uk

Check out the flyer below for more information…

Phonics

Join in with this Bubbles ABC phonics song

Read the sentences below and decide if the answer is yes or no. You could even write yes and no on a piece of paper to answer with. Are they real or nonsense sentences? After you’ve read them you could have a go at writing your own silly sentences and playing with a member of your family. 

Creative

Listen to this story called The Dot. We use this story a lot in school to reinforce always having a go. It will also be the inspiration for our art session today.

Once you’ve heard the story talk about what happened. How did Vashti feel at the beginning and the end of the story? How did the teacher help Vashti to believe in herself? What can this story teach us? 

Now have a go at creating your own dot art. It can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. Take inspiration from Vashti and see what you can create. Can you make a circle from lots of circles? Can you use different colours on one circle or lots of circles? Use different resources such as paint (see the homemade paint recipe previously featured on the blog), crayons, felt tips, chalks etc. 

Have fun and remember there’s no wrong when it comes to art, it’s about being excited and forgetting what others think.

Phonics 

Join in with this insect song and see if you can copy the signs for each letter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEln3LDBPtA

Scrambled up tricky words!

Oh no the tricky words have been scrambled up! Can you unscramble them? 

Work in pairs, look carefully at the words below, can you see what the word is supposed to be and put the letters in the right order?

Now pick your favourite tricky word, write it down all scrambled up and see if your friend or family member can unscramble it! 

Maths 

Watch this video to find out how you can use other coins instead of 1p’s to make the same amounts… 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018bykp

Today we are going to play shops. You have 10 pennies in your purse. Look at these items in the toy shop. Count out the correct amount of pennies to buy each item. You could use a 10 frame to help you count them out. 

Once you are confident with this, get yourself some 2p, 5p and 10p coins. Which toys could you buy with these coins instead of using your pennies? Could you add your 2ps and/or 5ps together to total some of the amounts? If you like to touch count, then try tapping the 2p,5p and 10p coins as you count. Two taps on the 2p etc. 

5p + 2p + 2p = 9p 

Many apologies that this wasn’t posted yesterday, I had not scheduled this properly.

Phonics 

Watch this insect alphabet video

Today we are going to be digraph/ trigraph spotters! Read the sentences below and count how many different digraphs and trigraphs you can see. You could print out the sentences and colour them in as you go. 

Now pick your favourite digraph and have a go at writing a list of all the words you can think of that include that sound. For example… 

Digraph ar: 

star

car

bark

chart

park

sharp

farm

Maths

This week we are going to learn about money. Let’s begin with this song all about coins…. 

Have a chat about money. Where have you seen money before? What have you used it for? (buying items at the shop, saving in your money box, playing games at the amusements) 

Have a look at all the different coins below. Do you know how much each one is? How do you know? You should be able to spot the number in numerals and in words engraved on each coin. If you have some real coins at home then have a look to see which ones you have. 

After looking at the coins, see if you can write down how much each one is worth. When we write down amounts we always record a ‘p’ after the number as this means pennies. If you have coins infront of you then you could use post-it notes to write down the amounts or write them on your whiteboards. 

Just like tricky bug splat, spread the coins out on the floor and tell eachother which coins to splat! 
Get creative as you explore coins by making your own coin rubbings using real coins, wax crayons and paper or make an imprint of coins using playdough!

Phonics

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! 

PE

Have a go at this rainbow yoga today!

Phonics

Let’s start with a funky fun phonics song!

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! 

Phonics

Enjoy this digraph song 

And now this tricky word song

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.

Phonics

Start with this dinosaur alphabet song

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.

Phonics

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.

Phonics 

Stand up and let’s begin with an alphabet dance! 

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…