Week 12: W/C 8th June

Hello FS1! I hope you enjoyed our learning last week which was linked to the fantastic story of “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch”. This week we are focusing on the book ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfitsch. This is a lovely story about a fish who did not want to share his colourful scales with his friends. This book has an important message about sharing and feelings linked to sharing.

Remember to upload any activities your child enjoys on to Tapestry. We are updating the Proud Moments page frequently so please keep checking to see if your child has made us proud! We look forward to seeing what you all get up to on Tapestry!

We hope you enjoy all of this week’s activities linked to this fantastic story. Have a wonderful week. Keep smiling!

RE

Last week we began looking at God’s church and how we are all part of God’s family. Some of us go to St Joseph’s Church in Wetherby but some people may go to other churches. No matter what church you go to, we are still all part of God’s family. Church is a holy place where we can all pray and be welcome.

Here are two churches in our local area. You may recognise one or both of them.

Who do you think we pray to when we go to church?

What prayers might we say when we go to church?

What happens when we go to church?

Say a special prayer together with your family. This is the prayer that Jesus taught us.

Activities linked to the story ‘The Rainbow Fish’

Whoops I have jumbled up the story! Could you help me put it back in the correct order? Can you discuss what is happening in each picture? This is a great activity as it opens lots of discussion about what is happening, what happens next, what makes you think this is the next picture?

Phonics

Below are some phonic activities linked to our book. These activities will support in hearing the initial sound and matching these sounds to letters.

Maths 

This activity supports in number skills. Roll the dice, count the spots and match to the numeral. Can you find the scale with that number and colour it in? Can you count how many of each colour scale he has? Using the numbers on the sea creatures play a fishing game. Fish out the numbers and say what the number is. Another game is asking the children to put the numbers in order on a washing line. Ask children to look away and remove one of the numbers. Can they tell you which number is missing. This is a great game in ordering numbers and number recognition.

Here is a great interactive counting game: Underwater Counting Game

Songs linked to “The Rainbow Fish”

Can you sing some songs about the rainbow fish and his friends?

Bake some yummy fish shape biscuits

Below is a recipe for some fish biscuits.

PSHE

Below is an activity on being a good friend. This links in with our story and continues with the theme of our emotions. As you do this activity discuss what is happening in the picture and why this makes somebody a good or not a good friend. Discuss what they think the children in the picture might be feeling. If they are sad what could they do to make them feel happy.

Good Friend Discussion Sorting Cards

Expressive Arts & Design

Here are some other ideas for fun activities for your child to enjoy. All which encourage learning through play. Hopefully these are easy to achieve at home with household materials/items. Enjoy!

RE:

May is the month in which we give particular thoughts and prayers to Mary.
Below are some resources that you might like print to prompt conversations during the month of May, remembering our Mary, mother of God.

May is the month of Mary-Colouring-Sheets-May-the-Month-of-Mary

PSED- Well-being week

Can I please signpost everyone to the Social, Emotional, Mental Heath page on the website.

We have developed this page to support children’s positive mental health and well-being and encourage positive self-esteem.

In Early Years, we try to help children identify and build their emotional vocabulary, so that they are able to express how they are feeling and to help them cope with the day to day challenges that life presents.

The message below sums up how we are all feeling- this situation is new and hugely challenging to everyone however old and worldly wise. This week’s activities follow the idea of developing talk, offering activities and strategies to try to encourage children to treat themselves with kindness and relate to their emotions.

Story sharing: share this gorgeous story of friendship, resilience and overcoming problems from Oliver Jeffers: Lost and Found

Once there was a sad, lonely penguin who appeared at the door of a young boy. The boy decided he must be lost, so he set off to find his home. The boy asked the Lost and Found Office, some birds, and even his rubber duck, but no one knew where he belonged. Then he read that penguins were from the South Pole, and decided to help him get back there. Together they set out across the sea, rowing through bad weather and good, but when they reached the South Pole, the boy discovered that sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you all along..

The second story is one that we use widely in school. It sets a happiness agenda. It talks about how we can influence our own and others positive attitudes and behaviour. It relies on the analogy that every person carries with them an invisible bucket. This bucket contains a person’s feelings and emotions. When the bucket is full, this represents us feeling happy and contented. However, when it is empty, we feel low, upset and dissatisfied. Bucket-fillers are those who act in a way that fills another person’s bucket and refers to those who practise kindness and good behaviour. At lock-down time we all need to try extra hard to fill buckets!! I am sure each one of us young and old are well aware of this. This version of the story is read by the author and it is a real feel-good, relatable story. I hope that you enjoy it.

Please find some of these great bucket template ideas below and I hope that this helps you have a full bucket at home this week.

have-you-filled-a-bucket-today-buckets-colour_ver_1

How-Could-I-Fill-a-Bucket-Today-Editable-Cards-Editable

have-you-filled-a-bucket-today-note-cards_ver_1

Examples of bucket filling behaviour

• Being kind to everyone at home
• Helping with little tasks
• Paying someone a compliment
• Being respectful
• Showing someone you care for them

Bucket Dipping

Bucket dipping is the opposite of bucket filling.

It refers to actions or behaviour that has a negative effect on those around us. It can include things like

• Making fun of someone
• Saying unkind things
• Refusing to help someone else
• Bullying someone
• Being disrespectful

 Feeling Good to be Me

Starting conversations about thoughts, feelings and experiences helps your child get to know themselves better. This can help them to develop their confidence and feel good about themselves. Taking through what makes your child unique, special and maybe using some of the resources below as a prompt.

all about magical me 

Weather Inside resource. Children can chat and draw their answers about how they are feeling- maybe over the whole week- what has made them happy, sad, worried, excited etc. They may be more comfortable talking through their responses rather than drawing them. Reassure your child that there are no right or wrong answers: all our thoughts and feelings are OK.

weather document- talk about your feelings today

Sing-along with Woody and Andy from Toy Story- a heart-warming song about friendship and special people.

Encourage your child to listen to the words of the song carefully and explain what they think the song is about. Learn the song together and create actions for the chorus, sway from side to side.

Why not enjoy watching the film as a treat?

Maybe you would like to make some friendship tokens for special friends.

MPCS-Friendship-Tokens

Mathematics

The games below are a good way to build on your child’s developing number skills; numeral recognition, accurate counting one to one, counting up and counting back, as well as taking learning further by challenging children to make up their own simple maths games.

You could: take this idea outside and chalk up a simple grid and have children being their own counters to move along spaces OR make a board based on their interests, such as dinosaurs who slide down (snakes) into their swamps and who (ladders) climb up to the top of their hills etc.

PSED comes into this activity too, with the idea of fair rules and being a supportive, friendly player. There is lots to learn about dealing with not always getting to win and encouraging them to cheer on other’s success and say well done!

Naturally, this is not going to happen overnight, but we can help children by modelling this!

-gingerbread-man-dice-game-activity-sheet-_ver_2

t-n-668-snakes-and-ladders-120-_ver_2

Make some stay connected paper dolls.

There is a template attached to this below, but I am sure that you remember making your own version of these as a child!

A nice idea might be to start a conversation with your child about who they are missing at the moment: grand-parents, their swimming teacher, cousins, aunties and uncles, their friends and teachers etc. You could use the dolls as an exercise in supporting your child with the idea that although we cannot see each other at the moment we are all still connected in our thoughts and hearts. You could chat as you draw about why that person is special to them and be thankful that they have them in their life.

julia-donaldson-paper-doll-printable-template

Make a sock puppet.

This activity needs no template!

As with lots of early years art and design activities the more the learning is directed by your child’s interests, ideas and imagination the more it will mean to them, therefore the greater value it will have. A homemade toy that encourages imaginative play!

Just use what you have at hand, such as buttons, foil, fabric strips etc. Creating a character or a new friend out of a sock brings hours of fun. This could be a penguin like in Lost and Found but it could be absolutely anything at all.  The enjoyment is in using their imagination to bring it to life!

Being Thankful Activities.

Again, no prescriptive template is really needed!

It could be that during your conversations you scribe down your child’s thoughts on what they are thankful for and add the into a special customised jar or chart, such as the picture below.

It could be that you draw a heart and write something at the top such as:

I Am Thankful For….

I feel happy about the things that are lovely in my life. Here is a picture of something that I am thankful for.

I hope that you have a lovely week together, dipping into these activities and following your own lead too.

I think that it is definitely the moment, for us all to give ourselves and our family members credit and a huge round of appreciative applause for how well we have coped, adapted, bounced back and put up with the unprecedented daily challenges that we have all faced!

E-Safety- a reminder of an important message.

This week please remind your child of the “STOP, BLOCK, TELL” message that you shared with your child when we started learning at home.

The simple message is designed to keep your child safe when learning online. The message teaches them that if they see something they are unsure or do not like whilst using their tablet or computer they STOP what they are doing BLOCK it by turning it off or coming away from it and TELL an adult straight away.

Please also ensure that you reiterate to your child that they must ask to go on any devices before they do so and be supervised at all times.

Hello again children, parents, families- lovely to catch up by phone with some of you this week!

I do hope that everyone is keeping safe and happy at home! What wonderful weather we have been enjoying this week! I am missing you so much, although for me it has been such a very busy, positive week that time has gone by very quickly!

Now, it is Sunday morning and I wanted to share some of the highlights from my week with you!

Some of my favourite moments came from spending a couple of days, working in school with some lovely friends, Mrs Harris and some of our key-worker children! On this fortnight’s home learning grid there is a challenge to learn the colours of the rainbow song, using some Makaton signs for all of the colours.

Rainbow drawing, painting and decorating has become such a symbol of brighter days ahead for everyone. Mrs Gray has told me how she has been spotting lots of rainbows in windows around Wetherby and how it always reminds her of you all and cheers her up. The rainbows are a way to say thankyou and to be grateful to all of our Key-Workers who are working so hard to keep everyone in our country safe, happy and healthy.

Makaton is a sign and symbol language which is designed to support spoken language and is a fantastic visual way to communicate. We had lots of fun trying to remember each of the colour signs by practising using the video link here!

Please take a look at my colours of the rainbow singalong with Mrs Harris and some friends from school.

IMG_5744- Please listen to our Colours of the Rainbow song here

V.E 75 Day celebrations in my village.

One of the highlights this week was spending some time with my very special neighbour Beryl, who is 81 years young!

This means that Beryl was only a 6 year old child, on V.E Day and she vividly remembers how happy she felt on this day 75 years ago.

It is important that older people stay safe in their own home and gardens at  the moment but we managed to safely share a very special V.E picnic over the driveway, by making sure the table that we set out was at a safe distance and preparing our picnic food very carefully. We both enjoyed dressing up as land girls and enjoyed drinking our tea from very posh china cups! Here are some photos from my village.

Here is a very special War Memorial in my village, where 578 Squadron were based in the War. One of the airmen used to carve a notch in the tree in my neighbour’s garden when he arrived back to the barracks safely in his aeroplane, after each flying mission. 212 men from the squadron were not so lucky and were lost and one airman from this squadron actually got the VC. I am very proud of my village’s history.

Now that you have had a chance to understand more about V.E Day by celebrating this together at home, it would be lovely to share some of your  photos and comments on Tapestry.

Some of our allies in the War were the Australian and New Zealand forces. Why not try to bake some yummy Anzac biscuits, as a way of remembering their help!

Quick and Easy Anzac Biscuits Recipe _ Australia’s Best Recipes

blob:https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/c8b3659b-455d-4b7a-9ef5-ac358e9cd488

Girls and boys !!! Look who wants to say a big hello….

Mr Cooper is missing you. Check out his challenges!

I have a lovely message to share with you from our very own Super Cooper.

Mr Cooper says that he is really missing seeing you all on Wednesday and Friday mornings and hopes that you are all staying healthy and taking time to keep your bodies active. He says that he misses us singing our sporty kids song too! I wonder whether you can remember it:

“We are sporty kids, we are sporty kids,

we run fast, we run fast,

we move our bodies beautifully, we move our bodies beautifully,

settle down, settle down.”

How about singing the song to get in the PE mood and try out some of the fantastic activities that Mr Cooper has sent you in this interactive story.

Super Mr Cooper – Active Story (1)

THANK YOU MR COOPER!!

Exercise and spotting signs of spring!

Each week on the home learning page we have talked about going on walks and spending time in our gardens noticing the signs of Spring. It is such a lovely time of the year so why not have a go at drawing or painting some spring flowers or animals.  As you get busy with your drawing  or painting  look closely at the features, shape, size and colours and send me a photo of your finished work.  We can build a Spring Gallery of your pictures of the natural world on our class page.

I love getting out for my daily walk or run! It is fantastic to get some fresh air and smell, see and hear all of the signs of spring.

Here are some of the special things that I saw this week. Awhhhh!! just look at those tiny new-born lambs!

RE: Jesus says goodbye to his friends the disciples.

This week we think about the story of The Ascension, when Jesus goes back to his Father in heaven. Please talk to your child about how we usually say good bye to friends and family: give them a hug, give them a wave, tell them what you have enjoyed doing with them and how they feel when it is time to say goodbye.

We are missing the company of our friends and family at the moment so it is a good time to talk about the people that they love and miss. Maybe you could ask your child to draw a picture to someone that  they are missing at the moment and how they are looking forward to seeing each other again in the future.

You may like to read the story to the children.

Ascension Story

Let’s get counting with our busy bodies.

I love some of the activities in this great resource- why not try out the Let’s get Moving activity on pages 40-41

early_years_home_learning_collection (2)

Make some number cards 1- 10 and take turns to challenge to count out the corresponding number of actions.

The exercises are as follows:
• Star jumps
• Skips (with a rope or without if you don’t have one)
• Throw a bean bag (or similar) in the air and catch it
• Hop on the spot
• Jump in and out of a hoop (or a circle drawn on the floor)
• Crouch down and stretch up
• Turn (one whole turn on the spot)
• Touch your own heads, shoulders, knees and toes
• High knees walk on the spot
• Run on the spot

Barbecue Maths: Learn the number rhyme 10 or 5 fat sausages!

I am hearing about lots of garden barbecues!

Do you know the 5 fat sausages rhyme it is a really fun, noisy one.

Singalong using this fun link:    https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-ten-fat-sausages/z6vh7nb

Try to make some sausages from playdough or card and use them as a prop as you say the song and make the sausages into a number line.

Five fat sausages sizzling in a pan
Five fat sausages sizzling in a pan
One went ‘pop’ and the other went ‘bang’
Now there’s four fat sausages sizzling in a pan    keep counting down to 1 fat sausage and then ….

Now there’s one fat sausage sizzling in a pan
One fat sausage sizzling in a pan
One went ‘pop’ and then went ‘bang’

Now there are no fat sausages sizzling in  pan.

Now there’s no fat sausages sizzling in a pan
No fat sausages sizzling in a pan
No fat sausages sizzling in a pan

Five went ‘bang’, ‘bang’, ‘bang’, ‘bang’ ‘bang’
Now there’s no fat sausages sizzling in a pan.

Talking to the children about the popping sausages in the pan, can help them to develop an understanding of ordinal number and its relationship with counting. You can count the sausages left in the pan and explore which one burst first, second, third, fourth and so on. You might want to draw some simple pans and ask your child to draw in a given number of sausages.

10-Fat-Sausages-Cut-Outs_ver_2

Activities linked to learning at home grid 4 for week 7.

At the start of our next week of home learning a big hello from Mrs Gray, Mrs Harris and  Mrs Reddiex to all of you. Many thanks for the Tapestry updates and photos, which give us a peep into the children’s play and learning at home. We are missing you all!

Lockdown is for all of us a time when food, cooking and sometimes even growing our own fruit and vegetables is a matter of high priority!

Also, talking of recipe suggestions!.Please look at this invitation to write a recipe of one of your favourite cooking ideas and send it to the FOSJ, who wish to create a cookbook for everyone in school to share.

Please get busyin the kitchen, then send your tried and tested suggestion to add to the Friends of St Joseph’s Cookery Book.

Please try it out, cook, enjoy and show us the results on Tapestry!

Recipe Template

” Gruffalo crumble!” the Gruffalo said, And quick as the wind he turned and fled. All was quiet in the deep dark wood. The mouse found a nut and the nut was good”

Give some Gruffalo crumble making a go!

gruffalo-crumble-recipe-pdf

Activities linked to The Gruffalo in week 7.

This week we focus on one of our favourite core books The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This version is read by Alan Mandel, but there are others on-line too!

In it’s own way, there is an important moral message for our times in this story. The little brown mouse dodges danger as he goes through the woods by telling tall stories and using ingenious ways to avoid the predatory animals. In a way we are all doing the same: staying home, washing our hands lots and not going to school to protect ourselves and everyone from danger and we will all get through the woods together in the end!

Share the story and then retell it together by adding in the missed out words in the song words below.

Then it is time to learn, perform and act out the song.

The Gruffalo Song

Get outside and have a go at retelling the story again- a summary of the text is attached here and use the movement cards.

Gruffalo movement cards and story summary

Phonics Learning; Rhyme Activities.

Please get to know the story well first and then have a look at the rhyming pairs cards.

gruffalo-rhyming-words

Go on a rhyme hunt around your home, during this week.

Maths- make a birthday card for your toys.

Happy Birthday to everyone who has had a special birthday since we last saw you.

You may like to print and design some birthday cards for all of the toys and teddies in your home.

Birthday Age Colouring Cards

Maths: Owl’s Packing Activity.

Wishful thinking! Owl goes on his holiday and needs some number help packing his bag. Please try this fun activity and tweak it to work for you.

Use this link to take you to this fantastic mathematical problem-solving activity.

https://nrich.maths.org/12744

V.E Day- learn about why we should celebrate the 75th Anniversary of V.E day.

On Friday it is the 75th Anniversary of V.E day and perhaps there are activities planned in your street to celebrate.

It might be nice to start a conversation using this black and white photographs as a talking point.

Take a closer look at the little girl, right at the front of the table. She is 3 and a half- the same age as your child.

.

This is her story

I was three and a half years old and there was a big party in our street. I had been watching all the preparations and finally we children were all sat around the biggest table in the world and on the table was a HUGE cake with a big word on it. It wasn’t my cake but it was for all of us.

And here I am, in the accompanying photo, right in the foreground and whilst the whole allied world is celebrating,

There are other memories of this day: a fancy dress party and being allowed to stay up until it was dark because no one was at home. My parents and everyone else down our road were all out in the street, singing and dancing and drinking. Men had come to the house to help Dad get the piano out into the street where my mother played and people gathered round and sang and the beer glass rings from that night marked our piano until the end of it’s days.

You might like to: make bunting and flags and have your own family V.E tea party – make tiny sandwiches, scones and Victoria Sponge cakes.

Observational Painting of flowers

This gorgeous painting has been sent on Tapestry this week by a little Nursery artist! I wonder which other flowers that you can take a closer look at and represent as you paint.

Try some yoga stretches.

Learn to balance, stretch, relax and strengthen your body with some yoga stretches.

Have you had chance to check out Mr Mercer’s music lesson below.

Mr Mercer’s Music Class for Nursery Children

Mr Mercer is our school music teacher from ArtForms who comes in to teach children across the primary school. He is now working hard to upload videos each week for children in each year group. We hope you enjoy this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02REOrtWiT4&list=PL6WV9wEVdssjN9yjDSokFUV-IT91CEtiq&index=1

Activities linked to learning at home grid 3 for week 6

As Week 1 now seems such a long time ago, I think that it is important to reiterate the key message on EYFS learning at home, that I shared in week 1.

You are your child’s first teacher and when considering learning activities that you can enjoy with your young child at home, you will be the one best placed to tune in to their interests and build from these to extend their learning further. You may choose to add-on some creative and directed learning opportunities to further their thinking and talk. Please don’t worry that this is different from Nursery learning opportunities, be responsive, ‘go with it’ and do not feel that any grid should be rigidly followed. You will make your own magical learning discoveries together as you go about your daily activities, bake, go for walks, garden and share story adventures, such as making story maps and dressing up and acting out the characters together.

I can absolutely see that this is the case from the gorgeous photos and comments in your observations on Tapestry and I will always try to use these, to feed the next grid of learning ideas- so please keep me posted through Tapestry. Looking at the photos always leaves me with a big, soppy grin as I look at their lovely expressions and experiences! Please dip into the activities suggested in a way that works for your child and your family and tweak accordingly!

I have left some of the information on that is on-going, such as hand writing and early letters and sounds work. Please keep referring to these.

Handwriting letter practise pack can be found on Twinkl- free sets of early years activities for parents to access.

I have been asked for guidance on resources to support letter formation and hand writing practise. Please use this link in your browser..

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents-birth-to-five/3-5-early-years-parents/early-literacy-writing-early-literacy-phonics-3-5-early-years-parents

Please find attached on continuing some play-based early phonics learning here.

Letters and Sounds Learning in Nursery while your child is learning at home

I am leaving the flower identification activity below on this week as I added it mid-week, and so you may have missed it!

Learning with Nature: Flower identification.

Some children are enjoying looking at flowers in their gardens and on their walks. This flower identification I-Spy sheet is a lovely way of extending this interest a little further and I hope the children may enjoy taking a closer look and drawing their favourites.

It is a good way to start conversations about the different parts of the flower and their functions: roots, stem/ stalk, petals, leaves and to ask what plants need.

flower-identification

More Learning with Nature: further activities linked to Percy and the Park Keeper.

Nature name: cut out the letters from your name with acorns and create a nutty name!

Try printing out and cutting the letters from your name to create a name fit for the squirrels to eat!

Be careful with the printing costs! The one named Animals is the upper case/ capital first letter so you don not need the full document!

There are acorns and a separate leaf one, which has the upper and lower case letter on each leaf. A good learning point is to talk to your child about this and point out that at the start of our name it looks like this (upper case) and when we find it in the middle or at the end of words it looks like this (lower case).

acorn-alphabet-line

alphabet

Alphabet-on-leaves

Percy and the Park Keeper boards games- great maths!

Here is a dice board game, which is great for mathematical learning, as you move on a certain number of spots etc.

board-game

The second is a matching pairs memory game.

matching-pairs

What does a pair mean?

What else do we have pairs of? socks, gloves, hands, feet, eyes, nose?! etc

How many pairs does each person have? Who has the most/ least?

Percy and the Park Keeper- making up your own woodland stories.

colour-face-masks

character-flash-cards

Have a go at retelling some of the stories with the masks.

Use the pictures to make up your own story.

What else might happen in the woodlands? think up your own ideas or maybe speculate on what if a baby animal got lost and needs to find his/ her mummy/ way back home, what might happen if the weather gets really warm- how would the animals react? what might they do to cool off?

.

Woodland sing along.

songs-and-rhymes

Which of the songs in this linked document, do you like best?

I wonder if you can make up your own animals song?

Maybe you can try making up some new words to the song Wheels on the Bus….for example: The squirrels in the woods go scamper, scamper, scamper etc

Please add in your own verses and act it out in a family talent show with actions.

After all of this maybe you might fancy some quiet colouring in!

colouring-pics

Mr Mercer’s Music Class for Nursery Children

Mr Mercer is our school music teacher from ArtForms who comes in to teach children across the primary school. He is now working hard to upload videos each week for children in each year group. We hope you enjoy this!

Activities linked to learning at home grid 3 for week 5

Handwriting letter practise pack can be found on Twinkl- free sets of early years activities for parents to access.

I have been asked for guidance on resources to support letter formation and hand writing practise. Please use this link in your browser..

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents-birth-to-five/3-5-early-years-parents/early-literacy-writing-early-literacy-phonics-3-5-early-years-parents

Please find attached on continuing some play-based early phonics learning here.

Letters and Sounds Learning in Nursery while your child is learning at home

Learning with Nature: Flower identification.

Some children are enjoying looking at flowers in their gardens and on their walks. This flower identification I-Spy sheet is a lovely way of extending this interest a little further and I hope the children may enjoy taking a closer look and drawing their favourites.

It is a good way to start conversations about the different parts of the flower and their functions: roots, stem/ stalk, petals, leaves and to ask what plants need.

flower-identification

Learning with Nature: Percy and the Park Keeper Ideas.

I have added a mini theme of learning experiences and activities based on the Percy the park keeper stories by Nick Butterworth. This is in response to some of the things that children have been getting up to at home over the Easter fortnight.The children have been spending lots of time outside and many comments focus on seeing, hearing and feeling nature- following the trails of deer, looking out for burrows, tasting fruit and tickling the edge of a feather.

Percy loves to spend time with his animal friends, even though his work in the park keeps him very busy. The animals often need Percy’s help, and he is always there to lend a hand.The stories feature some familiar woodland animals; badgers, squirrels, foxes, owls, mice and rabbits.

Read about what happened when a chilly fox needed warming up, or when a dirty badger was offered a bath. Find out how Percy helped an unhappy hedgehog hold a balloon, or a squirrel find her lost acorns. Laugh along as the animals take charge whilst Percy is unwell – with unexpected results!

Here are 3 good stories to share and there are plenty more in the series to be found on You Tube.

Mathematics:

These activities are to support children’s developing number sense. They aim to develop concepts and skills such as being able to:

• recite numbers in order to ten,
  Recognise numerals to ten
  Knows that numbers identify how many objects there are in a set
  1:1 correspondence when counting objects
  Match numeral with quantity
  Recognise that anything can be counted – claps, actions, acorns, animals.
  Place numbers in order
  Say number that is one more or one less than the number they are thinking about.

Some conversations and questions that might happen to support their mathematical learning:
Which number comes next?
How do you know?
Why do we have to say the numbers in the same order when we count?
How many do you have? How do you know you have that number?
How do you know you have counted every object? encourage them to arrange them in a row and touch each one at a time if needs be.
What number is 1 more than the number you are sticking down?
Which number is 1 less?

acorn-number-line

animal-number-line

Understanding The World

Ice Block treasure hunt

This photograph gives you the idea behind this activity, which is fun and will sustain interest for a sustained time.

Animal Footprints art activity

animal-footprints (1)

:

Animal fact files: research, draw and write

download and use to create your own fact files.

If I was a – percy animals

Animal fact files: research, draw and write

Use these animal cards to find out more.

animal-fact-cards

Activities linked to learning at home grid 2 for week 4

Spike and Sid have a lovely Easter surprise, when they went on their egg hunt!.

Make a little story up with your child. Can they draw and you can scribe their words about their Easter day.

Make a little story up about Spike and Sid. What do you think they said? What happened next?

Handwriting letter practise pack can be found on Twinkl- free sets of early years activities for parents to access.

I have been asked for guidance on resources to support letter formation and hand writing practise. Please use this link in your browser..

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents-birth-to-five/3-5-early-years-parents/early-literacy-writing-early-literacy-phonics-3-5-early-years-parents

Messy Play Ideas.

These activities are open ended and great messy fun. I know we are all missing Mrs Gray’s fabulous play dough!

Play dough recipe

2 cups plain flour

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1/4 cup of salt

2 tablespoons cream of tartat

up to 1 1/5 cups boiling water

food colouring

1. mix together flour, oil, salt and cream of tartar in a bowl
2. add food colouring to boiling water
3. pour water in gradually to flour mixture and mix well
4. 4 knead when cool
5. roll, squash, squeeze, mould, mash, use garlic press, cutters etc to your hears content!

Fun with finger paint

mix equal amounts of flour and water

add some salt

add food colouring drop by drop

store in an air tight container.

Get Gloopy!

Cornflour mixed with water- this is very messy.The ratio of cornflour to water needs not be exact but approximately 2:1.

if you make this in a shallow container you can make marks and watch them disappear.

Gloop feels like a solid and a liquid.  Roll or squeeze it and it feels solid, but let it run through your fingers and its like a liquid.  Cornflour doesn’t actually dissolve in water though.  Cornflour has lots of long, stringy particles and gloop is ‘resting’ or dribbling through your fingers, they stretch out in the water and run over each other.

Week 4 continuing with a beanstalk twist! Jasper’s Beanstalk.

There have been lots of planting, gardening and outdoors play going on during recent weeks.

This is a fabulous story by Nick Butterworth

It tells the tale of a cat called Jasper and his quest to grow a beanstalk tall enough to reach the clouds, so he can visit the giants who live there.

UW-What-Plants-Need-to-Grow-Card

Mathematics: Jasper’s Beanstalk.

This book is another great way to bring in language around time and sequencing.

Sing our days of the week song together.

Make a days of the week outside activity diary.

On Monday I played football etc…..

Week 3: W/C 6th April

Please find activities and links to support you and your child in your third week of learning at home.

Activities linked to learning at home grid 2 for week 3

Handwriting letter practise pack can be found on Twinkl- free sets of early years activities for parents to access.

I have been asked for guidance on resources to support letter formation and hand writing practise. Please use this link in your browser..

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents-birth-to-five/3-5-early-years-parents/early-literacy-writing-early-literacy-phonics-3-5-early-years-parents

R.E

Our R.E focus is getting ready for Easter and so we would like you to take a closer look at the events of Holy Week together.

This Sunday 5th April is Palm Sunday. Please take a look at the Easter Story either in book format or on PPT attached here as a link and read up to the end of Holy Week.

The format is that you can read along and draw attention to the important words in the text; and find out a little more, such as what does a palm tree look like?

The-Easter-Story

Week 3 and 4 Fantastic Stories.

A traditional tale: Jack and the beanstalk meets a less traditional tale: Jim and the beanstalk!

Read along to re-tell the story. I like this read along version: https://www.thefablecottage.com/english/jack-and-the-beanstalk.Please just cut and paste this link into your browser.

There are many others- in fact take a look at FS2 page for a different version!

Then, have some fun with this quirky story Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs. The plot begins when Jim finds a beanstalk growing outside his window one morning.

He feels compelled to climb to the top of the beanstalk, where he finds a castle and a giant. The giant has some unusual problems that only Jim could help solve.

The children really enjoy this funny and imaginative story and it gets us thinking about breakfast, food and healthy/ less healthy choices.

L-jack and the beanstalk Story-Vocabulary-Cards

UW-What-Plants-Need-to-Grow-Card

stjosephswetherby.com/…4/PD-Breakfast.pdf

PD-Breakfast

Ducktastic Week 2 and 3! Learning At Home.

It has been lovely sharing your comments and observations on Tapestry about enjoying time in the fresh air, either in the garden or on a walk out together. The days are finally getting longer, the blossom is out, it is lambing time and the birds are singing. Perhaps your daily walk has taken you to feed the ducks, down by the River!

Learn a new number rhyme together. 5 Little Ducks went swimming one day.

Maths

Learn this new number rhyme together which has a fun, bouncy rhythm. The number learning will be enhanced by using some of the resources that I have attached below.

Play a turn-taking game.

Print out the duck counting sheet and have a number of counters ready: you could use counters from other board games, cheerios or mini eggs or cut out a set of ducks and use these.

Use the number spinner and count out that number of counters onto your own sheet to see who completes it first.

Which number has it landed on? Can you count out that number of objects? Which numbers are you waiting to get? How many counters are there altogether?

5-Little-Ducks-Number-Spinner-with-Ducks-

15-Little-Ducks-Counting-Cards