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/

Please complete the Bug Club quizzes for each book your child reads so it shows up as read and understood on our system.

Monday 1st February

Focus activity- Writing

Dr Kit and Dr Beth have sent a letter explaining the winning name for the competition was; Thormatoasorrus. Whose entry was that? Who named the dinosaur? They have also sent a range of non-fiction books wrapped up. They have included a note explaining that they have sent some books to help the children start thinking about what this new species of dinosaur might be like. The children have thought what it looks like so far, but what does it eat? Where does it live?  (Diet and Habitat). These books could help us to think of ideas for the new species. Discuss features of non-fiction texts and look up some facts.

Please write a sentence explaining where you think it might live (habitat) and what it might eat (diet).

Please create your 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' 'and' 'but')  to create an extended sentence or two sentences using two different conjunctions. 

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;

Remember, children only need to be spelling the words on the tricky word bumblebee mat correctly. The rest of their writing will be 'phonetically plausible'. It is important the children are sounding out the words independently and recording the sounds they can hear from the letter strips just like we do in the modelled writing sessions on Teams.

For example a typical sentence would look like; The dighnasor eets meet and livs in the jungl beecus he is a carnivor.

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 'igh' 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 'igh' 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 'igh' sound.

Tuesday 2nd February

Focus activity- PE

Well done on all the fantastic yoga you have been doing! Your grown ups have been telling us how much you enjoy it.

Dr Beth and Dr Kit enjoyed playing in the snow, they didn’t make a snowman, guess what they made?  That’s right, they made a snow dinosaur!  They have found you a cosmic kids yoga all about snow and a polar bear called Joybob.

Follow the link below and it will take you to Cosmic Kids Yoga; Joybob the Polar Bear.

https://youtu.be/DP9jd1Ug2y4

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

Focus activity - Creative

Dr Beth and Dr Kit have been able to find out a lot about dinosaurs from their fossils.  Fossils are the remains of plants and animals that lived long ago. Fossils gives clues about the past.  Most fossils are found in the earth that once lay underwater. They are usually formed from the hard parts—such as shells or bones of living things.

Dr Beth and Dr Kit would like you to have ago at making some fossils.

You can make the fossils out of salt dough, playdough or plasticine.

The salt dough recipe is available in the additional activities

You need some plastic dinosaur toys, or you can use Lego bricks, LOL dolls or any small plastic toys you have.  Roll your salt dough into small balls, gently flatten it, push your plastic toy into the salt dough and gently pull it out.  You can either cook your salt dough fossils or leave them to dry in a warm place until hard.  You can then paint your fossil.  

We would love to see a photo your fossils, don’t forget to send them in 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 'igh' sound today.

Please play this game and complete the attached worksheets below

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

Wednesday 3rd February

Focus activity- Outdoors

Today we would be going to Forest School. 

Dr Beth and Dr Kit would like you to have a go at making a 3D model of what you think the new species dinosaur would look like.  Model it on the picture you created in the first week.  Look carefully at your picture, is your dinosaur a walking, flying, or swimming dinosaur?  Does it have legs, if so, how many?  Does it have wings, if so, how many? What shape is your dinosaurs head?  Is it big, small, thin, or fat?   Has your dinosaur got a big, small, long, or short body?  Has it got a neck, is that long, short, fat, or thin?  Does it have spikes, how many eyes, does it have ears?

A 3D model is made up of simple 3D shapes.  The head could be a sphere, the body a cylinder, the legs, cuboids.

Dr Beth and Dr Kit would like you to make it from MUD CLAY!

Warning grown-ups – mud clay is messy but fun!!

To make your mud clay you need a container or bucket that you don’t mind getting messy.  Collect some soil and put it in your bucket, then add some flour (if you don't have flour or don't fancy getting messy, you can make your dinosaur out of playdough or plasticine).  Add a little bit then a few drops of water.  Now the best bit, put your hands in and squish it, squash it, and mix it all up!  If you don’t fancy that, you can use a thick stick or maybe an old sand spade or old spoon (ask your grown up first). 

The right consistency for mud clay is like playdough.  If you can roll it into a sausage shape and have very little mud on your hands that is perfect.  Another way to check is to see if you can ‘rip’ a piece off.  If it rips away ‘cleanly’ and without stretching much, it will be perfect.

Make your dinosaur in pieces, it’s easier to start with the tummy, then make the legs.  Remember the feet will need to be flat to stand up, fatter, shorter legs will be stronger and able to hold your dinosaur body.  To ‘glue’ each body part together, you will need a thin mixture of mud clay, similar consistency to PVA glue.  Using a paint brush or your fingers, rub some mud clay glue onto the two parts you want to join.

Have some strong sticks handy to ‘prop’ parts up whilst the mud clay dries.

Once you have finished you can decorate your dinosaur with forest floor findings, beautiful leaves, pebbles, sticks.

Grown-ups, as beautiful as the mud clay dinosaurs look, they are unable to come inside as the water and flour will start to ‘ferment’ if it becomes warm. 

Please send in photos of your dinosaurs.  Dr Beth, Dr Kit, and all of us can’t wait to see them!

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 'oa' 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 'oa' 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 'oa' sound.

Thursday 4th February

Focus activity- Maths

Dr Beth and Dr Kit have a problem that they need our help with…

In their headquarters, they have 2 dinosaur nests with 10 eggs. This morning they arrived to find that the eggs have fallen out of the nests! Now Dr Beth and Dr Kit have no idea which eggs go in which nest. They would like you to explore and find out how the 10 eggs could be organised into the 2 nests. Is there more than one way they can be sorted? Is there a pattern? Can you find a logical way to find all the different options?

Today we would like the children to explore the different ways to make 10. We have uploaded a document with two nests and 10 eggs which you can print out and use. If you do not have access to a printer then you could use 2 bowls, plates or boxes for the nests and 10 small toys or pieces of construction for the eggs. The children can use these to sort the eggs into the nests and then count how many are in each. They can then explore any different ways organise the 10 eggs. It is important to continue to emphasise to the children that although the number of eggs in each nest changes, the total number remains the same.

Every time you child has found a new way to make 10 in the 2 nests, they need to record this. This can be done in different ways. Our calculation policy has been added to the website to support you with this.

You can record your findings as number sentences using the + and = symbols. 

You could also record it like this. Where the circles represent the nest and then the number represents the number of eggs. 

There are some worksheets which your child can do to consolidate their understanding as well as the Education City game Hustle and Bustle.

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 'oa' sound today.

Please play this game and complete the attached worksheets below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvq9bdm/articles/zh4j47h

Friday 5th February

Focus activity- Knowledge and Understanding Activity

Dr Beth and Dr Kit have heard you are very good at solving problems.  They accidentally dropped a toy dinosaur in a bucket of water and couldn’t get it out.  Can you help them?  Dr Beth and Dr kit would like you to answer these questions to explain how you got the dinosaur out.  Please tell your grown up the answers.

For the floating dinosaur instructions and questions to discuss please see additional documents.

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

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 ‘my’ and ‘you’. Please show your child these words written down and on their tricky word bumblebee mat provided in the workshop packs.  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