April 5th

Happy Birthday Lilly-Mae

Hope you have a great day!

Best wishes

Mrs Bailey & Miss Merwanji

April 2^nd

Happy Birthday Matei!

Hope you have a great day!

Best wishes

Mrs Bailey & Miss Merwanji

Please read the whole of this week’s message as it is quite long, but hopefully it will be informative and useful. Thank you.
Activities to do during school closure:

Week beginning 30.3.2020

• I hope you are all keeping well and have enjoyed your first week of home learning. I hope the previous information was useful and informative and has given you lots of ideas about what you can do at home whilst the school is closed.

Here are some activities linked to spring to do at home:

Activity 1

• Draw a flower- if you have flowers in your garden choose one to draw if you haven't ask your parent/carer to find a picture of a flower online you can copy. Look carefully when drawing and use the correct colours to colour it in.

• When your picture is finished label it with the words petals, leaves, stem. Draw an arrow from the word to that part of the flower.

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• To grow a flower you need to plant a seed, with the help of a parent/carer research online what you have to do to plant a seed and look after it. Write some simple instructions on how to grow and look after a flower. You may want to write one or two instructions each day rather than writing them all at once.

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Activity 2

• Listen to 'Spring' by Vivaldi. It may help to lay down and close your eyes so you can concentrate on the music https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mFWQgxXM_b8 

• Do you like the music? Why? Why not? Is it fast or slow? What instruments can you hear? (your parents may need to help you with this) Does it remind you of Spring? Why?

• Create a dance to the music, include spins and leaps, perhaps imagine you are a flower growing or a bird flying. Your parent/carer could video you performing so you can look back at it. Do you think your dance was good? Why? Why not? What could you do to improve it?

Activity 3

• Ask your parent/carer to read you the story 'The Tiny Seed' if you don't have access to the book you can listen to it and watch it on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cqE3Kcc8Zgg&t=64s

Questions for parents/carers to ask about the story:

Which animals eat the seeds?
Why doesn't the seed grow in the desert?
Why does the boy pick one of the flowers?
Does the tiny seed grow? Tell me what happens to it.
What do the seeds need to help them grow?
What do you think will happen to the seeds that blow away at the end of the story?

• Imaginative play linked to the story (parents/carers give your child the instructions to act out):

Pretend to be the tiny seed and float and twirl around the room on the wind. Slowly settle into the ground and curl into the seed. It’s time to sleep through the winter.
Clap your hands and announce that it is spring and it’s time to grow. Wiggle like seeds getting ready to burst and slowly start to grow.
Now grow and grow until you are on your tiptoes
It’s time to blossom use your hands to make flowers
Explain that it is autumn and the wind is going to take your seeds and blow them away. Invite your child to become a seed once more blow in the wind and find a new place to land. Now you are ready to start again.

• An action song linked to planting:

This is my garden (Extend one hand forward, palm up)
I’ll rake it with care, (Make raking motion on palm with 3 fingers of other hand)
I’ve got some small seeds (Use thumb and finger to show small)
To plant right in there. (Plant motion)
The sun will shine (Make circle with hands)
And the rain will fall, (Let fingers flutter down to lap)
My seeds will sprout (Cup hands together; extend upward slowly)
And grow really tall. (Stand on tiptoes and indicate tall)

• If possible cut up some fruit or vegetables such as tomatoes, pears, cucumber and apples and look at the seeds inside. Talk about how seeds were once planted and these fruit and vegetables grew from them. Make sure you eat the fruit and vegetables when you have finished.

Here are some ideas for this week to support you in structuring your child’s learning time:

• Daily Speed Sounds and Word Time Green Words Or Red Words and Speedy Green Words. To support this, ‘Read, Write, Inc.’ are streaming live on YouTube for the children to watch live every day. Set 1Speed Sounds at 9.30 a.m. and Set 2 Sounds at 10 a.m. Each session is also available for 24 hours.Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ. Practice writing the words, using ‘Fred Fingers’ and don’t forget to form the letters correctly.
• Daily Handwriting Practice- choose a couple of letters and use the sheets provided from school and the information booklet to remind you of the correct formation.
• Daily sentence- use the information sheets for ideas and to remind you about what you need to remember when writing a sentence. If you want to, you can write more than one sentence and draw a picture too. 
• Numberblocks is a great way to support learning about numbers and addition (addition is the maths focus for this week). Videos are available on BBC I Player: www.bbc.uk>.cbeebies>shows>Numberblocks.

Useful videos for this week are:

• Series 1: Off we go/ How to count/ Strampolines- Focusing on numbers to 5, counting, ordering, different patterns for each number and numeral recognition.
• Series 1: Whole of me/Terrible Twos- focusing on addition to 5/6.
• Series 2 All of the the individual number song videos (1 to 10) are useful to watch and incorporate an element of addition.
• Series 2 /Counting sheep/Blast off/ Three threes,Fluffies- focusing on addition.

      * Watch these videos more than once and talk about the maths involved using language such as, add, plus, altogether makes, total, more, how many?

• Keeping fit and healthy is also very important, so why not join Joe Wickes, the Body Coach, on YouTube every day at 9 a.m. for 30 minutes of exercises and fun! Or GoNoodle (www.gonoodle.com or download the App). To sign up on a laptop or PC, visit the website, click on the wheel in the left-hand corner and sign up on behalf of your child. There are a variety of videos you can choose from and the vast majority is free. 

Maths focus: addition

Activities:

• Using 2 dice, roll both and add the two numbers together. Use fingers or any materials that can be used for counting, e.g. counters, pebbles, cars, sweets. Encourage your child to get out the two amounts and then when s/he adds them together, encourage your child to count on from the first amount and not to start from 1. Start by adding amounts up to 5, then when your child is good at this, move onto amounts up to 10. Find different ways of recording this. Encourage your child to use the key vocabulary when talking about what’s/he have done: add, plus, altogether makes, total, more, how many? If you do not have any dice, then write two sets of numbers 0 to 6 on paper, cut up and place face down for your child to turn two over and add up. Play the game more than once and on different days.
• Partitioning numbers up to 5, then 10. Ask your child to get out a specified amount of materials, e.g. buttons, cars, pencils etc. Then ask your child to use the counting materials to find out how many ways s/he can make that amount. For example, 5- 0 add 5, 4 add 1, 3 add 2...... Ask your child to record the different ways. Do 2/3 numbers each day.
• Any board game can be played using two dice to add an points. If you do not have any, draw a track on a piece of paper (with 30-40 spaces) and using numbers written on cut up paper which are placed face down, turn two over, add and that is the total number of moves. Use appropriate language and questions when playing, e.g. how many altogether, count on (as start to move the counter on the board or are adding the two amounts), too many, not enough, more, less or fewer. Questions: Who is winning? How do you know? How many do you need to win? These games can be played daily. Possible games: Snakes and ladders or Frustration.
• If you have dominoes, they can be used for addition too.