07 July 2020 : Whole school home learning (Let’s get sporty!)
Whole school sporting activities
Week commencing 6 July 2020: F1 Home Learning ‘Sharing a Shell’
Whilst going on a big holiday might be less likely this year, we know that everyone loves a trip to the seaside.
This week’s story is another of Julia Donaldon’s popular books, it’s called ‘Sharing a shell’.
You can also listen to Julia Donaldson singing the ‘Sharing a Shell’ song here.
Talk about the story with your child. Have you ever visited the seaside and had a look in the rockpools? You may have some photos that you could look at and talk about what you saw whilst at the seaside.
Here are some activities that you could try that are linked to the story.
Listening skills
We might not be able to visit the seaside as much as we’d like to at the moment, but we can still listen to some seaside sounds. Listen to the beginning of the recording and see if you can guess what some of the sounds are.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/eyfs-listen-and-play-at-the-seaside/zvyf6v4
Fiddly fingers
Can you make a snail out of playdough? Roll a really long sausage shape and then carefully curl it back around to make a snail shell.
If you want to make some shells or sea creatures that you can keep, you could make a batch of salt dough and when it’s dry you can paint them too. https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/starfish-craft-for-preschoolers/
Make a sandcastle
Don’t worry if you don’t have any sand! Have you ever made cloud dough at home? Whilst it can be messy, it’s great fun and very easy to make. All you need is some flour and oil (vegetable oil or baby oil) and to mix them together in a bowl. There’s a recipe here, but you don’t have to add the extras like oranges or cinnamon. Once you’ve made your cloud dough, you can use small pots and spoons (yogurt pots or small containers) to scoop and mould it.
Creative
Have a go at making a flag to go in your sandcastle. You could use a bamboo skewer or find a small stick when you go for a walk. Cut out some paper to make the flag and decorate it with a picture. Will it be a triangle or rectangle shaped flag? Make sure that you keep it somewhere safe so that you can take it to the seaside, the next time you go. You’ll be able to look forward to building a giant sandcastle!
Lego challenge
Build a lighthouse using your Lego/Duplo bricks. How tall can you make it? Is it stable or does it fall over? Here’s a very short clip of Maddie learning about lighthouses.
Role play
Do you like to eat fish and chips at the seaside? You could have a go at creating your own fish and chip shop. Cut out a circle to make a cone and use some dry penne pasta for chips. You could make a fish using some brown cardboard. If you have an old newspaper or magazine, you could use that to wrap them up. Add a note pad to take orders and some money for the customers to pay. Have fun!
Watch
Join Barnaby Bear on his visit to the seaside.
Health and self care
What would you wear to go to the seaside? Being able to get undressed and dressed independently is a really important skill. Encourage your child to get dressed by themselves when you’re not in a rush. Can they put their own shorts and t-shirt on? How about tricky socks?
Floating or sinking
Story time!
I hope you’ve all had a good week.
Here’s the link to this weeks story.
Activities
- Draw and label a story map.
- What else could the Owl Babies have said to each other that night?
- Click on the link to find out some interesting facts about owls.
- Record your facts using the fact file template.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Another fantastic week!
Take a look at what some of the F2 children have been up to this week!
Phonics Hunt
Butterfly Symmetry
The children really enjoyed creating different patterns and getting messy! They loved seeing the line of symmetry when opening up their butterfly wings.
Under the sea!
On Thursday, we went under the sea. We looked at different sea creatures and found out lots of interesting facts. We even made our very own turtles. Take a look!
Week commencing 29 June 2020: F1 Home Learning ‘Pirates Love Underpants’
This week’s story is one of the very popular books from a series of stories written by Claire Freedman; they’re all about aliens, dinosaurs and pirates that love underpants!
We hope you enjoy listening to the story about a crew of cheeky pirates that are looking for some golden treasure.
Pirates Love Underpants
We hope that you enjoyed listening to the story.
- What was your favourite part?
- Did any parts of the story make you laugh?
- Can you remember which animal was waiting underneath the bridge?
- How did the pirates trick the rival pirate crew to steal the treasure?
Here are some activities for you to try that are linked to the story.
Creative
Have a go at making your own pirate hat, patch, telescope or treasure chest. Before you start, gather together some cardboard boxes or tubes from your recycling pile. You could cut out the shape of a hat from an opened out cereal box or you could simply roll up some paper to make a telescope. A clean, empty egg box would make a great treasure chest. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it!
We’ve added a few links if you need some help or a starting point.
Music
This week, we thought we’d share another of the songs we enjoy listening to before home time at Nursery. It’s called ‘Port Side Pirates’. We hope you enjoy singing along at home.
Mark making
Every good pirate needs a map! Draw where the pirates have hidden the treasure on the island. Is it next to a tree or in a cave? How will you show where the treasure is? That’s right, X marks the spot. When we were little, we used to use a teabag to stain the paper to make our treasure maps look really old. Did you?
Role play
Grab your hats, telescopes and treasure maps and come aboard! We’re sure that you can make a pirate ship on your bed/sofa/picnic blanket and enjoy sailing the Seven Seas together. What can you see through your telescope? Is that a desert island ahead? Look for the landmarks on your map and go and find some treasure! Ahoy, Maties!
Mathematics
- Investigate capacity using a selection of different containers, bottles and tubs. This activity might be a good one to do in the bath or outside with a bucket or storage box full of water. Children love to play in the water and investigate pouring and filling containers. As they pour, talk to your child about which containers/bottle holds the most/least water. Is it nearly full? Half full? Empty? If you have a funnel or colander in the kitchen, let children explore using these too. If you want to add to the discussion, you could put a hole in one of the bottles. What happens to the water as you try to fill the bottle?
- Treasure hunt – Hide 5 coins outside. As children find them, ask how many there are left to find. Once you have found 2 coins, how many are still missing?
- Listen to this counting story about ’10 Little Pirates’ . Can you join in each time and work out how many pirates are left each time?
Physical development
Can you walk the plank at home? Have a look in your garden or whilst on a walk in your local area to see if you can find something to practise balancing along to ‘walk the plank’. You might have a plank of wood that you could lay along the floor, or you could use a rope or rolled up blanket. Children will enjoy carefully balancing along it and then jumping off the end.
Scavenger hunt
Can you find something that is… red/blue etc… circle/triangle shaped something shiny/dull something that makes a loud noise/quiet noise…
Perhaps your grown-up can think of more items to hunt for!
Don’t forget to send pictures of your home learning to:
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Fun in the sun!
The children in school have settled well but staying cool in the warm weather has been a challenge!
I love hearing from the home learners. Your photographs certainly put a smile on my face. I miss having all of our class together even though it’s been lovely having some children back in school.
Look what we’ve been up to!
It’s definitely been a warm one this week! The children have settled well and had a great week.
Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday for another fun week!
Story time!
This week, it is the turn of one of my favourite children’s books. There is a part at the start where you should try to guess the main character (so I won’t reveal the title just yet!)
To listen to this weeks story, please click here
Questions
- How would Gerald be feeling at the start of the story when the other animals are laughing at him?
- How many different types of dance did the jungle animals perform?
- What do you think the cricket meant when he said; “Sometimes when you’re different you just need a different song?”
- How was Gerald feeling at the end of the story?
- Do you like to dance? What is your favourite song and dance move? Perhaps you can send us a short video of your fab dancing for the class news page!
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Activities
- Have you ever wondered what a real-life jungle might look like? Google Maps now has the ability to let you see a ‘street view’ of the Amazon Rainforest! Just type in ‘Amazon Rainforest’ on the website and drag and drop the little yellow person in the corner to any blue marker.
- Colouring is a great way to be calm and relax. Scholastic.co.uk have a lovely Giraffes can’t dance themed colouring sheet. Click here to download and print yours!
Social distancing: How wide is 2 metres?
A group of us who are in school looked at how wide 2 metres was. In our investigations, we found that 2m was the same as the following:
2 Hana’s legs
7 yellow cones
1 ¾ Alfies
16 Emily’s phones
4 stools
42 board rubbers
7 i-pads
18 glue sticks
4 carpet tiles
20 maths blocks
6.4 rulers
10 Mr Stink books
7.8 of Mya’s water bottles
17 pink houses
0.8 football goals
24 sticks
How many other ways could you measure 2 metres?
Week commencing 22 June 2020: F1 Home Learning ‘The Runaway Train’
We hope that you all enjoyed the weekend.
Today’s story is called The Runaway Train and is all about Duffy Driver and his adventures on ‘The Little Red Train’. It is one of a series of books written by Benedict Blathwayt.
We hope that you enjoyed listening to the story. Here are some things to talk about after you have listened together.
- What did Duffy Driver forget to do at the beginning of the story?
- Can you remember some of the different types of transport that he used to try and catch up with the train?
- How did Duffy Driver manage to get back onto the train?
Here are some activities that you can try that are linked to the story.
Role play
We love to build trains, boats and other vehicles at Nursery using a whole variety of resources. Can you make a train at home? Have a look around and see what you can find to use. You might put your dining chairs in a line or make a row of cushions on the floor. If you have any cardboard boxes you could use those. Where will you go on the train? What can you see out of the window?
Do you need a ticket? Cut some small pieces of paper and use them as tickets. The conductor could collect them and write on where each passenger is travelling to. Remember, writing for a purpose is great way to get children mark making in Nursery. Writing/mark making of all forms is valued – from lines and circles to zig zags and crosses.
Small world
Do you have a train track at home? Have a go at building a circle track together. Children can usually join pieces of track together, but they often find it difficult to work out how to make the track join together to form a loop. Have a go and send us a photograph of your completed track!
Creative
Have you ever noticed that different vehicles leave different tracks? If it’s a sunny day, drive your toy vehicle through some water and see if it leaves a track on the floor outside. Alternatively, put some paint on a plate and get some paper – the bigger the better! You could use the back of some old wallpaper or wrapping paper. Dip your vehicle’s wheels into the paint and drive it along the paper. What tracks does it make? Remember to wash your vehicles before the paint dries too much!
If you don’t want to get too messy, you could draw your own roads or train tracks. We often put a large cardboard box or piece of paper on the floor at Nursery and ask children to draw roads or track. We then add other details such as ponds and trees. Children love to create their own towns and roads/tracks to drive the trains and cars along.
If you don’t have any small vehicles at home, you could make your own simple train using shoe boxes!
Sing a long at home
- Where will the Magic Train Ride take you?
- This Little Train goes.. We move our arms by our sides, in time with the music, pretending to be trains. Do you need to move your arms quickly or slowly?
Mathematics
- Next time you go for a walk, have a look for the numbers that are all around you. Can you spot any numbers on the cars? Children are not expected to know the numbers yet, but they may begin to recognise numerals of personal significance such as 3 or 4 for their age.
- How many red/blue/white cars can you count as you walk along the path?
- Look at a selection of different vehicles including bikes, cars, buses and vans – How many wheels do they have?
Watch
Find out more about steam trains and different types of train with Catie and her amazing machines.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp1jrj/caties-amazing-machines-series-1-4-rail-machines
Get active
Duffy Driver tried to catch the train on a bicycle. Have you got a bike, scooter or ride on toy? Go outside and have a go at using the pedals or balancing. Remember to be safe and wear your cycle helmet.
Wednesday activity
When we play outside at Nursery on a sunny day, one of the most popular activities is creating a car/bike wash. We put some soapy water in a bucket and add some cloths/sponges, washing up brushes and a few old spray bottles. Children love to clean the wheels on the trikes; this often develops into garage role play including fixing bikes and refuelling at the petrol station.
