Hi everyone, hope you are well. Have you been enjoying the nice weather last week? This week we will share what we have been doing, some of the amazing writing you have done with our texts so far. We will give some ideas to help you to motivate your child to write, plus our Literacy, Reception Maths and Topic tasks. We have been sharing extra things on Tapestry. Check out our fun Pass the teddy challenge at the end of this post.
To keep in touch with you further, your child’s teacher will be giving you a phone call this week. We look forward to chatting to you.
A parent let us know that one of the links was incorrect in the Reception activity booklet. This is the correct link.
What we’ve been up to
Mrs Wallace
I have been going for walks and reading in the sun. I hope that you are having fun and enjoying reading too. My tortoise Rambo has come out of hibernation. He was very hungry. He is 35 years old. He lives in the garden from Spring to Autumn.
Mrs Yule
I have been for lots of walks with my three dogs. We have seen 3 deers, a grey squirrel, rabbits, horses and heard lots of birds.
Mrs Storey
I have been enjoying walking my dog Freddie in the sunshine.
Mrs Bell
I enjoyed planting sweet peas.
Mrs Watson
We have made some vegan banana bread. We made some Hama beads designs. We have been doing some art. The rainbow illusion was inspired by Victoria’s Art4 Youtube channel (Art Club lady) We have been cooking lots.
Mrs Ward
We have been planting and building lots of Lego. We have begun excavating a fossil.
Mrs Nelson
We made hugs for grandma and potions too. Our caterpillars have turned into cocoons. We have been biking too.
Mrs Jones
We made a blow dragon for St Georges Day. We exercised with a circuit in the garden and were inspired to make a milk bottle rocket by #LifeGoesOnline. We have been having a picnic every day.
Ms Turner
We have had a go at cross stitch, made some cherry and almond muffins and made a rainbow with objects around. Elodie wrote about gorillas and we tried Mr Morrow’s dunking challenge.
What you’ve been up to
We love to see what you have been up to on Tapestry and Facebook. We have looked through previous posts to show some of the writing you have produced inspired by the texts we have read. Keep sharing what you have been doing.
Inspiring writing
Lots of parents (including us) are finding it difficult to get their children to write.
First of all we say please don’t worry and don’t stress, this is very common.
Together we have put together some simple ideas, tasks that might help get the children motivated and some tips that we hope you find useful.
Writing is hard! It takes time, it takes concentration and it means the children have to put together a lot of the skills they are learning e.g. fine motor skills to make the pencil work, remembering letter sounds, remembering tricky words, thinking of a sentence, remembering the rules of a sentence, remembering the sentence and then staying on task. It’s no wonder they don’t want to do it. So please remember little and often is key! Also why do we have to write??? Try giving writing a purpose – then your child can think ‘Oh, I know why are doing it.’ Sometimes saying it is for us is a purpose enough.
· Write a note for a friend or relative – tell them one thing you have enjoyed recently or ask them a question
· Choose something your child loves (a book, a cuddle toy, a tv programme) and ask them to write 3 key things about it for someone (again it can be a friend, a relative, a teacher – ask whoever to write back)
· Make your favourite toy have an adventure and write simple short sentences about it.
· Put paper in strange places and get them to write there – stuck on doors, under tables.
· Write on large cardboard boxes
· Use paint brushes with water in the bath
· Write in different ways not just sentences e.g. lists – people’s names, favourite things.
· Change what they write with – glittery pens, felt tip pens – make the writing rainbow writing, bath crayons, write with paint, fingers dipped in paint
Fun games that can get them writing:
· Hunt the words – find a tricky word and write it down – how many did you find? can you do it with a sibling or parent – who got the most. Can you do it against the clock – how long did it take you?
· Use someone (a character from a story, an author of a favourite book or a famous person) your child really loves and make letters, pictures/objects to arrive from that someone that they need to respond to…this really works in school. It could be a fairy (use a fairy door) or an author. If they ask questions in the letter the children have to write back to answer them.
We really hope this helps, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if we can help in any other way. We will try to include more creative ways to write in our tasks linked to the stories as well.
Please remember LITTLE AND OFTEN! Brave writing is key – just having a go and praise, praise, praise – if they know they are making you happy from trying they will do more! It doesn’t matter how much they write as long as they have a go!!!!
Literacy
Week 2 – The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Nursery:
Task 1: Read the book together. Draw a picture of all the things the caterpillar eats. Discuss which would be your favourite?
Task 2: Re-cap the story and look into the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly. Can you draw the whole life cycle or just a part of it?
Task 3: Find a Days of the Week song on YouTube and sing together. Can you remember the Nursery days of the week song? (Use our website for Days of the week using Makaton signs)
Task 4: Sort food into healthy and unhealthy options
Task 5: Paint, draw or create a beautiful butterfly.
Challenge: Caterpillar begins with c, can you find other things in your house or in a story that begin with the same letter? Maybe you could draw them.
Reception:
Task 1: Read the book together.
Write a list of all the things the caterpillar eats match them to the correct day of the week. Can you do the list from memory? Check back and see how many you got right. Can your grown up do it at the same time – who remembers the most?
Task 2: Re-cap the story and use google to look into the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly. Can you draw the life cycle? Add some labels.
Task 3: Find a Days of the Week song on YouTube and sing together. Pick a day and write about what you did or what you would like to do on that day. Sign the days of the week (Use our website for Days of the week – Makaton signs)
Task 4: Write two or more sentences or if you would rather a list of all the food you would like to eat. E.g. On Monday I will eat 1 strawberry. On Tuesday I will eat 2 pizzas. Discuss healthy and unhealthy options – how can we be healthy?
Task 5: Change the story to be another animals – act the story out, retell it in your own words or with a grown-up have a go and writing it E.g. The Very Hungry Lion. Read this aloud on Tapestry.
Challenge: Paint a symmetrical butterfly by folding your paper in half, painting on one half and re-folding it. Explore the word symmetrical.
Numeracy (Reception)
This week we will build on our work on halving by working on sharing.
Your child will already be aware of the word share (even if they find it hard to do so!) This week we will look at sharing objects fairly.
Begin by sharing out objects between 3, 4 and 5 plates. Use “one for you, one for you” to help them to share. Make sure the objects are able to share fairly. Talk about how many are on each plate and that they all have the same number. Share some objects unfairly. Can your child explain why you haven’t shared them fairly? Can they correct your mistake?
Watch this episode of number blocks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0006xcw/numberblocks-series-4-18-the-lair-of-shares
Try playing dominoes, snap or any game that requires the players have an equal amount to start. Put your child in charge of sharing the cards.
Have a teddy bears picnic- use teddies and food to make sure they all get the same amount.
Solve problems using sharing.
Extension
Group objects in 2’s 5’s or 10’s. Now count them in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
Give objects that can’t be shared equally. What should we do with the ones left. Introduce remainders.
Introduce the division symbol. Can your child read the number sentence with this new symbol and solve it by sharing the objects.
Topic
The Very Hungry Caterpillar eats through lots of fruit (and some vegetables) so lets eat some too.
Try a new fruit or vegetable – What did you try? What did you think? Would you eat it again?
Make a healthy kebab. Photograph or draw it and tell me what you had on it.
Share your photo or drawing on Tapestry.
Catch the teddy challenge
For fun, we are making a little video on Tapestry. See Tapestry for more information. If you are unable to access Tapestry please contact admin@archibald.newcastle.sch.uk and we will be happy to help.
Have another great week making memories. See you soon.
