It’s challenge time!
It’s been 5 weeks of home learning and with just one left until half term!
How are you finding it?
We have got a challenge for you!
When we go back to school, we will be doing ‘Wake Up, Shake Up’ again so we’d like to challenge you to learn this dance that has gone viral around the world (you’re watching the Irish Garda but lots of other people have participated around the world!). Here is a video tutorial to help you – the teachers at school will be learning it too!
Two truths and a lie…
We’ve been having great fun during our daily afternoon zooms playing different games and quizzes.
One of the games we play is ‘two truths and a lie’. In this game, one person will say three statements. Two are true statements and one is a lie.
Here are Mrs Welsby’s statements.
And, here are Mrs Rowley’s statements.
Can you figure out which are the lies? We’d love for you to join in with our game. Email your two truths and a lie to Stjamesy3y4@spherefederation.org and we can add it to our daily afternoon zoom!
P.S
Here are the answers to Mrs Welsby’s and Mrs Rowley’s statements.
How are you doing?
Its been 5 weeks of home learning and with just one left until half term!
How are you finding it?
Are you managing to get out and do some exercise? Have you read any good books? Jack has done both of these recently!
Mrs Welsby and I have got a challenge for you!
When we go back to school, we will be doing ‘Wake Up, Shake Up’ again so we’d like to challenge you to learn this dance that has gone viral around the world (you’re watching the Irish Garda but lots of other people have participated around the world!). Here is a video tutorial to help you – Mrs Welsby and I will be learning it too!
Week Commencing 08.02.21: F2 Home Learning
| Monday
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Book of the week- Watch the story Mr Wolf’s Pancakes or read the book if you have it at home. Questions to discuss- 1. What three ingredients do you need to make pancakes 2. Mr Wolf made a shopping list. Have you ever made a list? What did you make a list for? 3. Why do you think the neighbours didn’t help Mr Wolf? 4. How did you feel when no-one would help Mr Wolf? 5. What did you think about the ending of the book? |
| Phonics- ee Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Take turns with an adult to play ‘Roll and Read’ (ee focus) click here to either print the word mat, or view it on screen. You will need a die or to draw 1-6 dots on 6 pieces of paper and draw at random from a bag. 1. Roll the dice. 2. Match to the correct row. 3. Choose a word on the row and read it aloud. Activity 2: Think of two different sentences for each word: queen, bee, teeth and sleep. |
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| Maths- Number 8. Click here to watch lesson 1. Activity: Click here for today’s activities. Zoom session Don’t forget to bring some playdough to our Dough Disco at 11am. |
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| Tuesday | Phonics- igh This is a trigraph. Three letters that make one sound. All three letters go in one box on a phoneme frame. Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Be an ‘igh’ detective! Can you find any words in your storybooks with the ‘igh’ trigraph? Activity 2: Click here to play Buried Treasure. It’s on Phonicsplay-Buried Treasure – Phase3 -Set 1-7 – +igh. |
| Maths- Number 8. Click here to watch lesson 2. Activity: Click here for today’s activities. |
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| Wednesday | Phonics- oa Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Click here to read the rest of the story, Toads in the Road. You can sign up on the website free and access the reading books from here. Activity 1: Write a sentence using one of the ‘oa’ words. You might use: croak, roast, toast or toad. Steps to writing a successful sentence… 1.Think of a sentence. 2. Say the sentence out loud. 3. Count the words in your sentence. 4. Use your phoneme fingers to segment every word apart from the tricky words. 5. Check your sentence makes sense. 6. Have you remembered a capital letter at the start, finger spaces throughout and a full stop at the end? |
| Maths- Number 8. Click here to watch lesson 3. Activity: Click here for today’s activities. |
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| Thursday | Phonics- Tricky word-you Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Be a Tricky Word Detective. Can you find any tricky words in the books you have at home? Activity 2: Have a go at reading the Phase 2 ‘A Bug’ comic or the Phase 3 ‘Let’s Go’ comic. You can find lots more of these on Phonics Play Parents: Please click the links below. Click here to read the ‘Let’s Go’ comic. Click here to read the ‘A Bug’ comic. Activity 3: Play the Pick a Picture game on Phonics Play. Parents: Login details are… Username: Sphere Password: Spher3 Search Phonics Play > Resources > Phase 3 > Pick a Picture > Start > Phase 2 (sets 1-5) or Phase 3 (sets 6&7) Word Passport Click here for this week’s word list. Remember to use your phoneme fingers when blending! |
Maths- Play number stacking pancakes. For this activity you will need a spatula (or something similar) and a plate.Make some pancakes: Draw around a circle template on a piece of paper or card. Cut the circles out and write the digits 0-10 on the pancakes. Mix up the pancakes and spread them out on the carpet. Your child can scoop up the correct pancake with the spatula and put it on the plate. There are a few things that you can do with this game. 1. Order the pancakes from 0-10 in ascending order. Stacking them one at a time on the plate/in a pile. 2. Order the pancakes in descending order from 10-0. 3. Ask your child different numbers at random to select and put on the plate. 4. Play ‘run and splat’ the number when it is said. 5. Time yourself. How long does it take you to stack your pancakes in order? Can you beat your time? Can you beat your adult? 6. Put the pancakes in a random pile, face down. Decide on a fun action e.g. star jumps, jumping on the spot, running to the kitchen, turning around, hopping etc. Take it in turns to take the top pancake, whatever number you get that’s how many of the chosen action you must do.**Challenge** This activity can be extended by using numbers 11-20. You could also have a go at adding two numbers (1-10) together. |
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| Friday | Understanding the World with Professor Myers; Making a volcano If you would like to join in this week’s video then you will need: washing up liquid, food colouring, bicarbonate of soda and some vinegar.  Click here to watch this week’s video with Professor Myers.Click here to watch some children carrying out the investigation, as Professor Myers mentioned. It also might inspire you to make a more elaborate volcano, if you have the time and resources. -Can you carry out the experiment in the video like Professor Myers? -Can you draw and label a picture to show what happened? |
| Story time- Below are two story videos for you to watch. I hope you enjoy them. My Pet Star read by Miss Marsden Click here to watch the story. Activities 1. Have a go at making your own pet star. You could use this template or, make your own! 2. Follow these instructions and bake some Cosmic Star Cookies. 3. Click here to see how you to make your very own star sun catcher and help brighten up your windows. 4. Don’t forget to go outside on a clear night and look at the stars in the sky. See if you can spot Pet Star. If you do, give him a wave! Six Little Chicks read by Mrs Rippon Click here to watch today’s story. After you have listened to the story, have a go at Miss Marsden’s quiz to check your understanding. Friday 12th February 2021 is the celebration of Chinese New Year! |
Story Link activities to select throughout the week:
Literacy
1. Be a friend to Mr Wolf and make a shopping list for him. You could make a list of ingredients for him to make his pancakes. Or you might make a list for him to make something else delicious. (Pizza, fruit salad etc.)
2. Draw and label two characters from the book.
Understanding the World
Click here to watch a video about wolves.
1. What do you notice about the wolves?
2. How many babies does a mother wolf usually have?
3. What do wolves eat?
4. What helps wolves to keep warm?
5. How many teeth do wolves have?
Expressive Arts and Design
1. Make a stack of pancakes out of playdough. Can you serve them at you own café with different toppings? How much will each pancake cost? Can people buy drinks at your café too?
Click here for the no cook play dough recipe.
2. Make a wolf mask or picture!
3. Using construction toys, can you build Mr Wolf’s Village and the houses for all of the different characters?
4. Maybe an adult in your house will help you to make your own delicious pancakes. What topping might you choose?
Physical Development
Get Moving Outside!
Why not take your numbered pancakes, from the maths activity, outside. Hide them in the garden then find them. Take a number and match it with objects e.g. 3 leaves. Do laps of your garden to match a number.
Joe Wicks is hosting his live PE sessions, 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 9am) You can subscribe to his channel here for alerts. A great way to keep fit at home!
Don’t forget to send pictures of your home learning to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org.
I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term!
F1 Home Learning: Week 6
This week, we’re going to find out what happens when Mr Wolf decides to cook some delicious pancakes. Listen to the story ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ and look at the illustrations in the video carefully as you watch. You might spot some familiar characters!
| Reading · Can you spot any other story characters that you recognise? Which story are they from?  Have you read it?· Why does Mr Wolf need some help at the beginning of the story?· Were Mr Wolf’s friends helpful and kind? Why do you think they didn’t want to help? · What happened when Mr Wolf started to cook his pancakes? · Can you remember what happened at the end of the story? Do you think Mr Wolf should have shared his pancakes? |
| Phonics Being able to copy a rhythm is part of our Phase One phonics learning; we often play simple ‘copy me’ type games as we’re waiting to wash our hands. Today, you’ll need two sticks or wooden utensils, or anything else that is similar! Listen to Mrs Gosper and then have a go at tapping the rhythms too. Phonics – Rhythm pattern sticks |
| Mark-Making · Mr Wolf said he wasn’t very good at writing. Can you help him write out a shopping list for going to the shops? What does he need to make his pancakes? · If Mr Wolf wanted to have a pancake party and invite some friends to his house, what would he need to send them? That’s right, an invitation. Perhaps you could plan a Pancake Day party for next week and make some invitations to send to people in your house. · Have a go at drawing or painting your favourite type of pancake. What toppings would you put on it? · Open up your own ‘Pancake parlour’ and take orders. You’ll need to write down and tick off what your customers would like on their pancakes. · Have you remembered it’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday 14 February? Why not make a card for someone in your family or see if you can post one to someone special that you might not be able to see at the moment?  |
| Maths This week, we’re going to practise our counting skills. In the story, Mr  Wolf made lots of pancakes and we thought it’d be fun to make our own playdough pancakes. If you don’t have any dough, you could follow this simple recipe and have a go at making your own. Whilst making pancakes and playing, you could introduce ‘counting’ in different ways.· How many pancakes have you made? Count each pancake, touching them as you say each number. Sometimes it helps to line objects up to ensure that you count each one only once and try to remember to stop at the last pancake. How many were there? Count again to make sure.· Have you got more pancakes than me? How do you know? · Who has the fewest pancakes? Children often understand the word ‘more’ or ‘most’ but struggle to understand the word ‘fewer’ or ‘fewest’. · The Little Pigs are going to Mr Wolf’s house for a pancake party, how many pancakes do we need to make? Think about your child’s ability and keep the numbers below 5 or 10 as appropriate. |
| Extension ideas · Introduce some real coins into your game. Children don’t need to be able to tell you what the denominations are in Nursery, they may just give you a handful of coins or some may count out 3 coins (of different values) and say “Here’s £3”. It’s all a great way to introduce and familiarise them with money. You could look at the different coins and try to sort them. How could you sort them? Big/little? Circle/not circles? Copper/silver? · Do you remember playing ‘What time is it Mr Wolf’ at school? Children love to play this at Nursery still and it’s a good way of practising counting out the correct number of steps. |
| Creative · We couldn’t read Mr Wolf’s pancakes and then not suggest that you make some pancakes! It’s a great, simple recipe for children to join in with and whisking is great for building upper arm strength too. · What’s your favourite topping? Do you always have the same one? Use this as a time to try something new and talk about different flavours. Do you have sugar and lemon or golden syrup? Is it bitter/sweet/sour? · With supervision, ask children to help you cut some soft fruit to put on their pancakes such as bananas or strawberries. Talk to them about using knives safely. · If you don’t mind a bit (or lot!) of mess, allow your child to enjoy ‘play baking’ pancakes with some flour, water and mixing bowls. · Join in a role play game and make your own ‘Pancake Parlour’, using some of the mark making and maths activities at the same time. If you have a play kitchen, you could cut out some cardboard pancake shapes or you might want to use playdough instead. Take turns to order, cook and pay for your pancakes. If you don’t have a play kitchen, have a go at making one. It doesn’t have to be fancy or take a long time; at Nursery, we sometimes make ovens/hobs using a cardboard box with some circles drawn on top. Children always love to use ‘real’ objects so grab a frying pan and spatula and let them pretend! · There are lots of songs about cooking pancakes! Here’s a Pancake rap from CBeebies. |
| Understanding the World · Part of the Early Years Foundation Stage is to begin to recognise some of our family traditions and celebrations and to begin to recognise how we are similar and different to others. In Nursery, teaching children in detail about Shrove Tuesday is too complicated, but we do talk to them about how Christian’s might celebrate this day and that it’s sometimes referred to as ‘Pancake Day’. We discuss that some families will celebrate by making pancakes and that others might not. We talk about it being a time where Christians begin to prepare for another special day, known as Easter. · If you have a laptop or a device that supports the game, let your child  practise some simple computer skills by playing this game. You need to help Curious George make some pancakes and add his toppings. How many eggs will you need and how many strawberries does George put on?· Talk to your child about the ingredients in pancakes and ask them to think about where they come from. One of the most common answers is usually “the supermarket”! Try to find out more and talk about the origins of milk and eggs by watching these videos. One is all about milk and the other is an episode of ‘Do You Know’ where Maddie finds out about eggs and bread. How does milk get to the farm shop? Do you know? Eggs and bread |
| Physical Development Funky Fingers In Nursery, we always get lemons to squeeze when joining in with pancake day celebrations. If you have a lemon squeezer and can add an extra lemon or two to your basket, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy squeezing lemons and talking about what’s inside the lemon. This is also a great activity for strengthening little fingers! Another good activity for helping to build strength in children’s upper arms, is ‘whisking’. You can do this whilst making pancakes but you could also let your child play with some soap and water and enjoy whisking it to see what happens. If you don’t want lots of mess around the sink, try it at bath time instead. Also, remember that playing with playdough is a great way to develop finger and arm strength. So, using a rolling pin to flatten playdough to make pancakes is another good activity to do. Tip: If your child is struggling  to put enough pressure onto the rolling pin to flatten the dough, try asking them to stand up and do it on a surface/table at their height. |
| Movement The weather is very unpredictable at the moment, so taking part in a pancake race may or may not be possible! If you have space inside/outside and a frying pan/tennis racket, make a play pancake or use a bean bag to see if you can move around an obstacle course without dropping it!Click here for another Cosmic Yoga session. This one is all about something you might enjoy eating on top of your pancakes – bananas! |
| Independence skills During lunchtime at Nursery, children are encouraged to be as independent as possible. This might involve knowing how to feed themselves when they’re given a meal or snack, learning how to put a straw into a carton or being able to open a sandwich box. Children that have a hot meal at Nursery are also encouraged to be able to use a knife, fork and spoon to feed themselves. Whilst many family meal times may involve finger foods, being able to use a knife and fork is an important skill to learn for when your child starts in Reception.This week, depending on your child’s abilities, have a go at encouraging them to do the ‘next step’ themselves. This might mean taking the top off a yogurt pot by themselves or for other children; it could be learning to use a knife to cut something soft, like a fish finger, into smaller pieces. If you wanted to practise using a knife and fork outside of meal times, have a go at chopping up your playdough pancakes! |
| Key Worker activity and videos This week, we’re going to help Mr Wolf with his counting. He has lots of friends that would like to eat his pancakes but he needs some help to count how many he needs. To join in with the second part of the Key Worker session, you’ll need to sit at a table and have some playdough. (If you don’t have any playdough, cut out some paper pancakes and use those instead.) Key Worker session part I – Mr Wolf’s Pancakes Key Worker session part II – Mr Wolf’s Pancakes with playdough Key Worker song –Pancake song |
| Friday Story time- Below are two story videos for you to watch. I hope you enjoy them. My Pet Star read by Miss Marsden Click here to watch the story. Activities 1. Have a go at making your own pet star. You could use this template or, make your own! 2. Follow these instructions and bake some Cosmic Star Cookies. 3. Click here to see how you to make your very own star sun catcher and help brighten up your windows. 4. Don’t forget to go outside on a clear night and look at the stars in the sky. See if you can spot Pet Star. If you do, give him a wave! Six Little Chicks read by Mrs Rippon Click here to watch today’s story. After you have listened to the story, have a go at Miss Marsden’s quiz to check your understanding. |
| Zoom session This week, don’t forget to bring some playdough for our Dough Disco on Wednesday at 11am. |
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Don’t forget to send pictures of your home learning to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org. |
Home learning superstars
Thank you for the emails showing me what amazing home learning you are all doing. Well done and keep going as much as you can!
Try to email me (address below) or bring learning to show at our daily Zoom meetings at 2pm. Email me if you need the invite re-sending.
katieharker@spherefederation.org
TTRS
This week, I’ve been having a look at Times Tables Rock Stars to see who has been practising their times tables at home. Well done to those who have been going on regularly (even if it’s for a few minutes) to practise and recall multiplication facts.
At the moment, I can see that Year 6 children have been going on more than the Year 5 children. Let’s see if the Year 5s can change this by the end of the week! If you’ve forgotten your password please ask your parents to email me and I will send you it.
Click here to practise right now!
Newsworthy writing
From Mr Catherall, who is leading the Y3,4 home learning writing sessions…
Hi everyone
I hope you’re all happy, healthy and safe. I wanted to share with you – and celebrate – some of the awesome writing that’s been sent in by children across our federation. Home learning is tough. There are many challenges, for children and adults, but these superstars have been ready, resourceful and resilient learners. (Can you remember the other 8Rs for learning?)
In the Y3,4 phase, we spent last week building up to writing our own news report about a (made-up) volcanic eruption. This links to our geography and science learning.
Here are a small selection of the wonderful examples we’ve been sent in from all three schools. If you’d like to send yours in, I’d love to see it (send me an email – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org).
From my class at Scholes (Elmet)… I love the varied sentence starts in this one (Late on Friday night, On Saturday, In the escape).
We’ve got a budding journalist at St James’ CE… I really like the news report structure here.
Back to Scholes (Elmet) for some another great piece… This time, I really like the main news section (the first paragraph in bold) because it’s exactly like you’d read in a newspaper or online.
Some amazing writing from Moortown… I love the expanded noun phrase (the orange, glowing liquid) and the vocabulary (predicted, nightfall, terrified) in this one.
Another super piece of writing from my class at Scholes (can you tell I’m proud?!)… There’s a lot to celebrate here – particularly the vocabulary (menacing, catastrophic, awoke, ear-splitting, historic)…
Back at Moortown for another great example of journalistic writing… I particularly enjoyed the use of questions to engage the reader and the way this writer has presented their news report in the style of a newspaper.
Another impressive report from Scholes… In this one, I love the vocabulary (citizens, fled on foot, vast amount).
Whatever writing you’ve managed to do at home, well done! After the last lockdown, writing was one of the few areas that we noticed children hadn’t progressed in. Try to help by completing at least one of the writing lessons each day (and always keep a focus on handwriting).
Week Commencing 01.02.21: F2 Home Learning
| Monday
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Book of the week- Click here to watch the story Dear Zoo or read the book if you have it at home. Questions to discuss- Why was the elephant sent back? Which animal was described as being too fierce? Why do you think he kept the puppy and not any of the other animals? Which animal would you like? Why? |
| Phonics- th Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1: Look at the picture. What can you see?  Write this sentence about the picture. Parents: Read sentence aloud. Remember to use a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. Below are the steps we use to help us with our writing. 1. Say the sentence aloud. 2. Count the words. 3. Segment each word apart from the tricky words. 4. Read your sentence to check it makes sense! Activity 2: Have a go at blending the phase 3 ‘th’ real and nonsense words. Click here to either print it, or view on screen. |
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| Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6, 7, 8!- Week 2. Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 1. Activity: Click here for today’s activity. If you do not have a printer, draw and make your own memory cards. This will work just as well for the activity! |
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| Tuesday | Phonics- ng Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1: Play Musical Blending. 1. Choose a favourite song. 2. Dance away until an adult stops the music. 3. When the music stops, blend one of these words. 4. Repeat until you have read all of the words. Activity 2: Read the sentence and have a go at writing your own sentence using one of these words. |
| Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6, 7, 8!- Week 2. Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 2. Activity: Click here for today’s activity. Take photos of your pairs and send them to your class teacher(s). |
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| Wednesday | Phonics- ai Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1: Play the Picnic on Pluto game on Phonics Play. Parents: Click here > Login in using Sphere (username) Spher3 (password) > Resources > Phase 3 > Picnic on Pluto > Start > Phase 3 > +ai Activity 2: Look at the pictures on this document. Segment and write the words to match each picture. You could print these phoneme frames, or draw your own. Parents: If you are unsure, click here to view the words. |
| Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6, 7, 8!- Week 2. Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 3. Activity: Click here for today’s activity. |
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| Zoom Don’t forget today’s Movement Zoom at 11am! Get ready to move and groove to some of our favourite songs. |
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| Thursday | Phonics- Tricky word – my Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Tricky Word Puzzles 1. Write each tricky word on a piece of paper. Click here to see if you have used all the tricky words. 2. Get an adult to tear each tricky word into separate letters.  3. Can you put the letters in the correct order? Activity 2: Tricky Word Hunt 1. Write each tricky word on separate pieces of paper. 2. Get an adult to hide them around your house or garden. 3. Have fun hunting for tricky words. Activity 3: Rainbow writing tricky words. Choose some bright coloured pens or pencils to practise spelling all of the phase 2 tricky words (the, to, I, no, go, into) and the phase 3 tricky words you know so far (he, she, we, me, be, my). Below is an example of how to do rainbow writing.  Word Passport Click here for this week’s word list. Remember to use your phoneme fingers when blending! |
| Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6, 7, 8!- Week 2. Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 4. Activity: Click here for today’s activity. If you do not have a printer, you could draw your own domino circuit. This will work just as well for the activity! |
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| Friday | Understanding the World with Professor Myers; Friction Experiment- Click here to watch this week’s video with Professor Myers. -Using a variety of toys, carry out your own friction experiment. Before you carry out your experiment, remember to predict which toys you think will travel fast or slow. You could sort them into two groups. – After the experiment, draw and label your results. |
| Story time- Night Monkey, Day Monkey read by Miss Marsden **Challenge** When listening to the story, see if you can hear the rhyming words. Click here to watch today’s story. Questions to discuss: 1. What would life be like if it was dark all the time? 2. Which part of the day do you like best day or night? 3. Can you think of any animals that come out at night? These are called nocturnal animals. Nocturnal animals are awake and active at night and then sleep during the day. Some nocturnal animals can be seen during the day, but most of them spend their whole day resting. Get ready for next week’s Dough Disco! |
Story Link activities to select throughout the week
Literacy
1. In class, use Talk4Writing actions to help us retell and act out the stories we learn. After listening to the story, see if you can come up with some actions. You could get an adult to record you and send it to your class teacher!
To help you get started, click here to watch an example.
2. Dear Zoo is a ‘lift-the-flap’ book. Make your own ‘lift-the-flap’ book. You could choose your favourite animals to be underneath each of the flaps. Then, write a sentence underneath each flap. For each sentence try to write the name of the animal and a describing word.
Parents: A writing reminder…
How did your child find the writing activity? Remember, it’s okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important that your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound rather than always spelling them correctly. We encourage the children to use their own skills, rather than copying an adult.
Understanding the World
Choose an animal from the book. With the help of an adult, research and find out information about that animal.
Where is its natural habitat? What does it eat? What does it like to do? When the animal lives in a zoo, what does a zookeeper need to do to look after it?
You could use this website or find one of your own.
Maths
1. Choose two or three animal toys. Go on a hunt around your house for different containers. Explore which containers your animals will fit in. Can you explain why they fit in some containers but not others?
2.Patterns are everywhere! Can you recognise any of these animal patterns? Draw your own animal pattern on a piece of paper.
Expressive Arts and Design
Make a lion mask.
Resources:
Paper plate
1 sheet of Yellow and orange paper
Scissors
Glue
Instructions:
1. Cut out the inside of a paper plate, leaving only the outside circle.
2. Cut strips of yellow and orange paper.
3. Glue the yellow and orange paper to the paper plate circle, creating a lion’s mane.
4. Make sure they give a loud ROAR!
Physical Development
1. Get moving and dance along to these songs!
Animal Boogie
Let’s go to the Zoo
2. Make a paper chain snake. This is a great funky fingers activity!
Resources:
Paper (any colours you’d like to use)
Scissors
Stapler
Glue
Googly eyes or draw your own!
Instructions:
1. First, decide on which colours you want to use. You could use two or three colours and try to make your snake a repeating pattern, for example, red, orange, red, orange.
2. Cut strips of each colour.
3. With an adult, use a stapler to connect the chains.
4. Add a head by cutting out a triangle and gluing it to the first chain. You could also add a tail!
5. Glue or draw some googly eyes on the head and add a red tongue, then you’re done!
I hope you all have a great week! Please remember to send photos to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org. I love hearing about how you’ve been getting on with your home learning.
F1 Home Learning: Week 5
This week, our learning is going to be based on a book that lots of families will already be familiar with, ‘Dear Zoo’ written by Rod Campbell.
We’ve saved all of this week’s remote learning ideas to a pdf as we thought this might be an easier way for some people to view them.
Zoom
Don’t forget Wednesday’s Movement Zoom at 11am! Get ready to move and groove to some of our favourite songs.
| Reading · Before you read the book, ask the children if they are familiar with it. Have they read it before? Can they remember what the story is about? · If you have a copy of the book, as you’re reading, pause each time for children to guess what animal is next. · Listen to the story a few times and encourage your child to join in with the words that are repeated. Once they’re familiar with the book, use the pictures to have a go at retelling the story using the repeated pattern of words. “So they sent me a_____. He was too ____. I sent him back.” · What do you think would be a good pet to have? Why? Can you think of any animals that wouldn’t make a good pet? |
| Phonics Listening to rhymes and being able to keep a simple beat are all important elements of our Phase One phonics teaching in Nursery. Here’s a new rhyme to learn all about going to the Zoo. Watch this video and join in with drumming the beat at home. You’ll need something to bang like a drum so see what you can find at home, a pan/box and wooden spoon work well! 1,2 We’re going to the zoo. 3,4 crocodiles by the door. 5,6 Monkeys doing tricks! 7,8 Lions at the gate. 9,10 Elephant’s stomping in his pen. Do you remember our ‘Guess the animal’ Key Worker game? Here’s another one for you to try; we need to keep practising our listening skills! |
| Mark-Making · Have a go at drawing your own pet or an animal that you would like to have as a pet. Think carefully about what it looks like. Does it have big, floppy ears? Does it have legs? · In the Key Worker video this week, some of the teachers have drawn patterns on a snake. Draw a snake outline yourself, or ask a grown up to help, and have a go at adding your own patterns. Will it be a spotty or stripy snake? · You could have a go at making your own ‘Dear Zoo’ book. Draw some pictures of different animals (or print some pictures if you prefer and have a printer) and then cut out some flaps to stick over them. Have a go at telling your own version of the story! We’d love to see it – send us a photo or video of you reading your book. |
| Maths Do you remember learning about shapes during our ‘Zog’ themed week? This week, we’re going to continue learning about shapes. First, watch this shape video to remind yourself of the names and properties (such as the number of sides and corners) of the basic 2D shapes (circle, square, rectangle and triangle). Then, draw one of each of the shapes on a piece of paper and go on a shape hunt around your house. · Can you find each of the shapes? If you find more than one, you could put a tick or tally on your sheet. Which shape did you find the most of? We’d love to see some photographs of the shapes that you find. · Next time you go for a walk, try and spot some shapes along the way. What shape are the road signs? |
| Extension ideas – Have a go at feeding the ‘shape monsters’ on this Topmarks game. – Do you remember creating a repeating colour pattern? Ask a grown up to help cut out some different shapes. Have a go at creating a repeating shape pattern with just 2 shapes. Circle, square, circle, square, circle…. What would come next? – In Nursery, we often use different objects to investigate what shape they make when we dip them in paint and print with them. Find some objects (eg. a tin, Duplo brick, a small cardboard box – like a toothpaste box) and pour a bit of paint onto a plate. Dip the object in and then print with it! What shape can you see? (You could use these to print a repeating pattern, too.) Are there any shapes that are tricky to find? |
| Creative · What is your favourite animal from the story? Have a go at making it using boxes and other recycling materials that you may have. · In the story, each of the animals was delivered in a different shaped box or container. Find your favourite animal toy and have a go at making it a home. What would it need to be comfortable? What size and shape would it need to be? · If you have some toy animals, you could make your own small world area. You might use Duplo bricks or you could go outside and collect some leaves, sticks and pebbles to add to a tray or an empty shoebox. · Here’s another of the songs that we enjoy listening to before lunch time – Walking through the jungle. |
| Understanding of the World · Have you ever been to a safari park or zoo? What did you see? Whilst it’s not possible to visit animals at the moment, you could watch some snippets from the virtual tours on Chester Zoo’s website and find out about meerkats and giraffes. (The information from the Keeper is quite tricky for Nursery children, but your child may enjoy just watching and talking to you about the animals they can see in the video). In Nursery, we often talk to children about why some animals are looked after in wildlife parks and where the animals would normally live, in their natural habitats. · In the ‘Dear Zoo’ story, the boy wanted a pet. Do you have a pet? If you have a pet, talk about how you look after it and what it needs to be healthy. If you don’t have a pet, which animal would be a good pet for your family? Would you be able to look after a pet and give it everything that it needs? · Are you ready for some quiet time? Find out about different pets in an episode of My Pet and Me. |
| Physical Development Fiddly Fingers We’re going to make our own snakes in this activity, so you’ll need some small strips of paper and some glue. Show your child the picture and talk about how to make the snake. Look carefully at how the body is made. They might remember making paper chain decorations in Nursery before Christmas. Make a paper chain, linking each strip of paper together and then make a head to add on at the end. How long will your snake be? Linking the paper strips is a great way to get your child moving their fingers and hands to increase dexterity. Movement We love to have a good boogie at Nursery and dancing is a great way to get us all moving in different ways! Join in with the Animal Boogie at home and have a go at some of the actions. Movement play is really important in Early Years; it helps children to develop and strengthen connections between their body and brain. These connections lay important foundations for children’s future learning and development. We encourage all kinds of movement in Nursery, including crawling like animals and laying on the floor to slither like snakes – just as this song encourages children to do! |
| Independence skills Over the last few weeks, we’ve been trying to encourage you to help your child to become more independent, ready for their return to Nursery. We’ve been practising getting our coats on and fastening zips, putting on our own gloves and how to blow our own nose. This week, we’d like you to have a go at putting on and taking off your own shoes. This is where Velcro or elasticated fastenings make it much easier! If your child is already confident at doing this, can they put their own socks on? Have a go and see! |
| Key Worker activity and videos For this week’s Key Worker activity, you’ll need some paper to draw your own snake or a snake outline and some crayons or colouring pencils/pens. Watch the video to see how each of the teachers draws a different pattern onto the snake’s body. When you’ve finished watching, have a go at your own. Key Worker video – Snake patternsHere’s another activity for you to join in with – you’ll need two wooden spoons or utensils. It’s a song you might already know, all about ‘Going to the zoo’ and afterwards, you can learn some signs for some of the animals that you might see if you went on a trip to the zoo! Key Worker song- Going to the zooVideo – Zoo animal signs |
| Story time- Night Monkey, Day Monkey read by Miss Marsden **Challenge** When listening to the story, see if you can hear the rhyming words. Click here to watch today’s story. Questions to discuss: 1. What would life be like if it was dark all the time? 2. Which part of the day do you like best day or night? 3. Can you think of any animals that come out at night? These are called nocturnal animals. Nocturnal animals are awake and active at night and then sleep during the day. Some nocturnal animals can be seen during the day, but most of them spend their whole day resting. Get ready for next week’s Dough Disco! To make sure you are prepared and ready to get your fingers moving, use this simple recipe to make some dough at home. I look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday. |
I hope you all have a great week! Please remember to send photos to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org. I love hearing about how you’ve been getting on with your home learning.