Reading

The children who were in school last week changed their books as normal, bringing home the new books they have read with an adult during the course of the week.

For children not in school last week, we have allocated 2 books on Bug Club at the appropriate level for your child to read and answer the questions to the quizzes. These were allocated on Sunday afternoon. We will ensure all children  (not attending school) have the minimum books allocated to them as of Sunday afternoons each week. Please see instructions for how to login to Bug Club in Reading journals.

For additional books please use this link for online books. You can find books appropriate to the coloured level they are currently on- lilac, pink, red etc.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/

Monday 18th January

Focus activity- Writing

We have had a letter from Dr Kit and Dr Beth along with a poster....

Dear Crocodiles and Elephants,

As you are the holders of the egg containing a new species of dinosaur you have a very important job to do. You have been asked to name the new dinosaur. We think it is a great honour. As there are so many of you looking after the egg this will be a competition. Everyone has to create a name and then we will submit all of your entries to the Head of Palaeontology to decide on a winner. We have enclosed everything you will need to help you do this.

All the best with the competition and thank you again for looking after our egg so carefully.

Please create your entry and then put into a sentence for us like we did in the modelled writing session in the morning briefing, remembering your capital letters, full stops, finger spaces, tricky words and making sure all of your letters are formed correctly.

Challenge – use a conjunction (such as 'because')  or create several entries.

Here is a video showing parents how to do the writing process at home;

https://www.lyppardgrange.worcs.sch.uk/writing-eyfs/

The phonics strips and tricky word mats the children have in front of them whenever they do writing can be found on the Reception home learning section here;

We use lollipop sticks in school to support with remembering finger spaces and having a consistent space between words but anything you have at home will work just as well. 

Focus activity- Phonics Activity

In the morning briefing, the children will flick through the sounds already taught, including tricky words, and then be introduced to the 'ai' sound and the action that goes with it. They will be shown how to form it, articulate the sound and the Jolly phonics story that goes with it. Please login to Education City and play the 'ai' game.  See instructions on Reception Home Learning page to find out how to login to Education City.

There are lots of games you can play with these sounds and sounds taught already such as pairs games, hangman, writing on ground grass, sky boards, magnetic letters, eye spy etc.

More games can be found at https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase3Menu.htm

and on Espresso which you can login to through the SIMS ID login. Espresso has word and sentence building games as well as some useful videos of how to make the sound. Click on Foundation, then Literacy, Phonics, Polly’s phonics. Please let the children use the activities found on the right hand side for the 'ai' sound.

Tuesday 19th January

Focus activity- PE

Dr Beth and Dr Kit discovered that crocodiles and dinosaurs are similar.  They are both reptiles and are both cold blooded, meaning that they relied on their environment to warm them up or cool them down. They also look similar with rubbery skin, fierce teeth and claws.

Dr Beth and Dr Kit heard last week you really enjoyed taking part in Cosmic KidsYoga.

They would like you to try this yoga adventure about a crocodile.

Follow the link below and it will take you to Cosmic Kids Yoga; Colonel Crockles the Crocodile.

https://youtu.be/obzFP6eEGAg

We loved seeing your photos last week, please send us some more this week please!

Focus activity- Creative

Your stick skeleton dinosaurs you made last week were amazing.  This week we would like you to make a different type of dinosaur skeleton.  If you made a walking dinosaur last week choose a flying or swimming type this week. Think carefully about the features of your dinosaur, does it have wings and feet or a very long tail or horns. This time we would like you to make your dinosaur skeleton out of dried pasta.  Below are some examples of pasta skeleton dinosaurs to give you some ideas. 

Remember, we love seeing the photos your grown ups send to us!

Focus activity- Phonics Activity

In the morning briefing, the children will flick through the sounds already taught including tricky words. We will continue to work on the 'ai' sound today.

Please play this game and complete the attached worksheets below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvq9bdm/articles/z4xsxyc

Additional Activities

Wednesday 20th January

Focus activity- Outdoor Learning

Today we would be going to Forest School. 

Dr Beth and Dr Kit would like you to go into your garden or on a walk with your grown up and collect some sticks.  Try and collect some sticks than are all the same length and all the same width: don’t forget you can measure with your hands and arms!  Try to get some sticks as thick as your thumb and as long from the top of your tallest finger all the way to your elbow.  When you have gathered all your sticks lay them out on a newspaper so you can see if they are all the same length, if you have some which are too long ask your grown up to break them to match the others.  

You will now need a bucket or an old container as you are going digging for some soil!  Dig up some soil and put it in the container, you are now going to add a few drops of water and with one of your sticks stir until the water and soil have mixed together.  Do you know what you have made? MUD!  Your mud needs to be the right consistency to paint with, ask a grown up to check if it looks right.

Dr Beth and Dr Kit would like you to copy the picture you have already created of your made-up dinosaur, but this time in mud.  You can paint your mud dinosaur on paper, on material, on the grass, on a big tree trunk or a really big leaf!  If your grown-up says it’s okay, you may even be able to paint your dinosaur on the grass or patio!  You can use a paint brush or your fingers or even a stick.

Whilst your mud dinosaur dries, you are now going to make a picture frame for it.  Using the sticks you collected earlier, put the sticks into four groups, try and put the same number of sticks in each group.  You will now need four pieces of string or wool.  They need to be the same length so measure again from your tallest finger to your elbow, ask a grown up to help you cut it. 

With a grown up helping, arrange the sticks so they make a square or rectangle that will fit around the outside of your mud painting, just like a picture frame does.  If you push the sticks so they overlap a little it will be easier to tie string around them.  When you tie two or more sticks together it is called ‘lashing’.  Using your string or wool and wrap around the two piles of sticks, if you wrap it in a figure of eight it will be much more secure.  Just like this.

Now add another side to your picture frame and lash it just the same way. 

This what your frame should look like now.

Do exactly the same for the fourth set of sticks and once you have lashed all of the sticks your picture frame should look similar to this one.

If you want you can find some beautiful leaves or pebbles and decorate your frame or use coloured wool, string or ribbon to wrap around the sticks.  Be creative.

Once your mud painting is dry you can now put your frame over your painting and frame your picture.

If you are feeling adventurous you can put little holes in the corners of your painting and tie it to your frame.

We look forward to seeing your ideas. Please send them to us. 

Focus activity- Phonics Activity

In the morning briefing, the children will flick through the sounds already taught, including tricky words, and then be introduced to the 'ee' sound and the action that goes with it. They will be shown how to form it, articulate the sound and the Jolly phonics story that goes with it. Please login to Education City and play the 'ee' game.  See instructions on Reception Home Learning page to find out how to login to Education City.

There are lots of games you can play with these sounds and sounds taught already such as pairs games, hangman, writing on ground grass, sky boards, magnetic letters, eye spy etc.

More games can be found at https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase3Menu.htm

and on Espresso which you can login to through the SIMS ID login. Espresso has word and sentence building games as well as some useful videos of how to make the sound. Click on Foundation, then Literacy, Phonics, Polly’s phonics. Please let the children use the activities found on the right hand side for the 'ai' and 'ee' sounds taught so far.

Thursday 21st January

Focus activity- Maths 

Dr Beth and Dr Kit have sent us some dinosaur number cards to play with but there is a problem... when we looked at the number cards we noticed that one of the cards doesn't have a number on it. Can the children work out which number is missing? 

To do this activity you will need to print off and cut out the number cards or, you could write the numbers onto some pieces paper for your child to use. When you have the numbers cards, make sure you have shuffled them up. The children then need to put the number cards into order and work out which number is missing. Ask your child to write the missing number onto the blank card.

Challenge 1 - Time your child to see how long it takes to order the numbers to 20. See if they can beat their time. The more practise they have with ordering the numbers, the quicker they will become at recognising the numbers, especially those tricky teen numbers!

There is a game on Education City which your child can also play. Log on to SIMS ID and select Education City. Select Mathematics.

Next select F2

Then click on Activities.

Then scroll down until you find the game called Jack in the Box.

Challenge 2 - If your child is confidently ordering numbers to 20, then select 5 random numbers cards. Ask you child to put the 5 numbers into order from smallest to largest. 

Focus activity- Phonics Activity

In the morning briefing, the children will flick through the sounds already taught including tricky words. We will continue to work on the 'ee' sound today.

Please play this game and complete the attached worksheets below 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvq9bdm/articles/zn9q92p

Friday 22nd January

Focus activity- Computing

Today we would like the children to do some computer programming. In school, we use Beebots. These devices can be programmed to move. We teach the children how to use a Beebot and then challenge them to program the Beebot to move around simple mazes. On Purple Mash there is an activity which allows the children to have a similar experience of this programming. 

Log on to SIMS ID and select Purple Mash.

Go into Tools

Select 2Go

Click on the instructional video.

Watch the Introduction video, the Challenge video and the Programming Part 1 video.

We would like the children to complete Challenge 1 and 2. They can do the other challenges if they want to but each challenge does get harder. After they have finished the challenges, we would like them to follow the instructions from the Programming Part 1 video to program the Bee around all the the flowers. If they enjoyed this then they can try a different background. 

Focus activity- Phonics Activity

In the morning briefing, the children will flick through the sounds already taught, including tricky words, and then be introduced to the two new tricky words for this week which are ‘we’ and ‘me’. Please show your child these words written down and on their tricky word bumblebee mat provided in the workshop packs. The actions for ‘we’ is to make a circular motion with your index finger pointing upwards and for 'me' to point your three fingers (excluding baby finger) to yourself. Please watch the teacher model these in the briefing. 

The children enjoy coming up with sentences for the new words, playing stations with them where they have to run around the outdoor classroom to find the word and splat the tricky word where they are all laid out and first person to splat the word wins.

Please play the two games found in Espresso under 'Polly's Phonics' as shown below.