This week we are starting our new mini topic – The Olympics.  We also have sports day.   Homework will have a sports theme this week!

• Spend some time practicing your throwing and catching with big or small balls
• Practice running fast in your garden.  Try getting someone to say ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’  Remember to get into your race ready starting position! 🙂  We will be trying to run 100m in class over the next few weeks.  We will be timing how fast we can run to help us understand how special athletes like Usain Bolt are.
• Use this video link  to complete the Olympic research sheet that was sent home.  Click here.  Please return your research to school next Monday.  You could try looking for the Brazil flag on the Internet to decorate and colour the flag on your page.  You might also want to tell your family some of the funny facts we found out about the ancient Olympics.

Wet weather homework

If the weather is poor you could try doing this homework instead:

• Work on your number bonds for 10 using this website – click here
• Continue playing ‘Teach your monster to read’
• Try hunting for magic ‘e’ words in any reading books or story books that you look at this week.  Remember ‘e’ jumps over and tickles the other vowel making it say its name.  You could watch an alphablocks episode by clicking here.

This week we are focussing on reading for enjoyment in class.  This will be the main focus for our homework too.  Your child will not take a reading book home this week.

Reading task

Try reading lots of different books at home this week.  We have been learning about rhyming books, fiction books and non-fiction books.  Try reading books under each of these categories for fun.  Get someone to take a photograph of you reading one of these books in an unusual place e.g. under a tree, on a swing etc.  Please bring the photograph to school next Wednesday (1st June).  There will be a prize for the most interesting or unusual photograph.  We will be displaying these photographs in our classroom to try and promote reading for enjoyment.

Please try playing ‘Teach your monster to read’ for 15-20 minutes this week.

Maths task

Learn-its:  please revise all learn-its: 1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, 2+1, 2+3

Please practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s this week.  You could do this using the SPLAT square – click here or whack a mole – click here (please change the step size to 2,5 or 10).

You could also try clapping, jumping, hopping as you count up in 2s, 5s or 10s.  We do this in class a lot so you should manage to do this at home.

PLEASE NOTE:  WE WILL NOT BE GOING TO THE FOREST THIS WEEK AS MRS DUNCAN WILL BE OUT OF CLASS ON WEDNESDAY.  APOLOGIES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.  

Literacy

This week is a revision week for sounds.   Please revise our three latest sounds.

Elephants: oi, aw (as in saw), ue

Tigers and Pandas: Oa, ai, ck

You could do this by:

• Making some words  containing the sounds with scrabble tiles or magnetic letters
• Using a paintbrush and water to write the words or sounds on paving slabs outside
• Playing catch with a ball whilst spelling the word
• Rainbow writing – writing the sound and then writing on top with different colours
• Crossword writing – try writing your words in a crossroad.  We will do this at school on Monday.   You can look at photos on the Blog to show you how to do it.

Please encourage correct letter formation.  🙂

Please continue to play ‘Teach your Monster to read’ for 15-20 minutes each week.

Maths

Please try getting your child to teach you how to play ‘Tom Thumb, Tom Thumb…what is your sum?’  You could then use this game to ask them a variety of addition or subtraction sums up to 10 (or beyond for some).  Please remind your child that we don’t need to use our fingers when adding or subtracting 0, 1 or 2.

WE STILL NEED 1 PARENT HELPERFOR THE FOREST TRIP THIS WEDNESDAY.    PLEASE LET ME KNOW A.S.A.P.  IF YOU CAN HELP.  ABBEY’S MUM, VEER’S MUM, NEVE’S MUM, OLIVER’S MUM AND HOLLY’S MUM  ARE HELPING.  PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL CHILDREN (AND HELPERS) NEED A PACKED LUNCH FOR THE FOREST TRIP THIS WEEK AS WE WILL BE HAVING OUR LUNCH IN THE FOREST! 🙂

Homework

• Please continue to spend 15-20 minutes playing ‘Teach your Monster to Read.’
• Reading – this will be done on Monday and Thursday this week.
• New words in small books
• At a request of the children, part of your homework is to have a minibeast hunt in your garden, local park, forest etc.  This is a great task for this week with the fantastic weather that is forecast.  The children could bring in a photograph of their hunt to stick into their forest diaries.  Please try bringing in photographs next Monday
• Please  read the forest school notice on the blog regarding the changes to the forest times next week

Welcome back!  I hope you all had a great Easter break.  I can’t believe we are into the final term already!

This week we are starting a new online reading package for work at home and in school.  It is called ‘Teach your monster to read’.  The game allows children to have their own individualised log in and to work at a pace that suits them.  The games must be carried out on a desktop PC or a laptop – they will not work on a tablet, yet.  As with all online homework, children should be closely supervised.

Your child will have their own personalised log in sent home with them on Monday.  Please keep this in a safe place.

This week please try:

• Logging in with your child (more than once).  Encourage him to use his/her password and type his/her name with increasing independence.   This will allow him/her to develop their independence in logging in at school which will make life for Mrs Duncan much easier! 🙂
• Helping your child create his/her monster.  This will be the graphic they use for the entire game.
• Play 1 or 2 games at the most.  I do not want the children to race ahead at this stage.  Once we become more independent and confident users we will be able to work at a more personalised pace.
• Writing a comment letting me know how your child got on either on the Blog or in the homework diary.

Additional Homework

• Please revise the three most recent sound we have been focusing on.  Elephants: ow (as in snow), ay (as in play) and ph.  Pandas and Tigers:  wh, qu and th.  You could hunt for them in reading books, watch Alphablocks YouTube episodes based on the sound (search for alphablocks ay for example) or find toys or objects that contain the sounds .  You could also try spelling some words on mini whiteboards.
• Reading – reading will be on Monday and Thursday this term.

Topic

Please bring in a wrapper from your favourite chocolate bar, sweetie or crisps for our healthy eating plate.

Puzzles

As part of our continued effort to develop our skills in completing jigsaw puzzle,  we are going to have a puzzle afternoon this week.   Please could all children bring their favourite jigsaw puzzle to school on Wednesday to share with their friends.  These will be returned home on Thursday or Friday.

Open Day Evaluation

If you did not complete an open day evaluation please do so using the one that was sent home today.  Please return them by Wednesday.   Please note they have two sides, one for parental feedback, and one for child feedback.  Many thanks.

Reading – we will try to get this done twice this week but this will be dependant on other activities that we are preparing for the open day.

Pandas and Tigers Sounds – please stick the 3 new sounds into the sound book. We are focussing on ee and oo this week.  You can watch ee by clicking here.

Elephants – new sound ue.  You can watch the latest alphablocks episode here.

Maths – Easter adding activity that was sent home. You will need your own dice to play this game. Try using the quick strategy we have learned for adding.  Remember to put the biggest number in your head and then count on using your fingers. If this is too tricky you could try using cubes, counters or coins to add the 2 dice together.

RME – Please reply to this post by sharing 1 special thing that your family do to celebrate Easter. We are learning to recognise that other people may celebrate in different ways so please also take the time to read the other response to your child. I look forward to reading all of your comments.

Sounds

• Elephants: new sound – ph.  You can watch the next episode of alphablocks by clicking here.
• Tigers and Pandas: new sound – ng.  You can watch the ng episode by clicking here.

Maths

Using the numberlines that have previously been sent home please try taking away 1 or 2 .   Parents: please remind your child that taking away 1 simply means we take 1 step down the numberline.  To subtract 2 we take two steps.  For a greater challenge you could try using the SPLAT square and use it to subtract 1 or 2.  Click here for the SPLAT square.

You could also try singing our current favourite subtraction song to help your child learn more about subtracting 1.  You could use family members, cuddly toys or fingers to be the monkeys.  Try emphasising to your child the sum that is happening at the end of each verse e.g. ‘there were 5  monkeys, take away 1…that makes……4!’  This is a fun way to encourage subtraction in a very visual way.

5 little monkeys

Five little monkeys sitting in a tree,
Teasing Mr. Crocodile: “You can’t catch me!”
Along comes Mr. Crocodile
As quiet as can be and…SNAP! He ate the monkey for his tea.

Four little monkeys sitting in a tree…
Three little monkeys sitting in a tree…
Two little monkeys sitting in a tree…

One little monkey sitting in a tree,
Teasing Mr. Crocodile: “You can’t catch me!”
Along comes Mr. Crocodile
As quiet as can be and….SNAP! He ate the monkey for his tea.

Possible extra challenge: we have recently tried changing the words of some of our favourite subtraction songs.  For example,  ‘…as quiet as can be and SNAP! He ate 4 monkeys for his tea.’  This helps introduce more complex taking away sums in a way that does not present too much challenge.

Please write a note in the reading record to confirm the homework has been completed as this can impact upon the follow up that is required in class.  Many parents are forgetting to do this and I am often unaware of who has completed their homework.  Thank you. 🙂

Sounds

-Pandas and tigers: revision week for all sounds.    Please focus on th, sh and ch.  Many of us get muddled between the ‘th’ sound and the ‘f’ sound.  Please reinforce this at home by reminding your child that we stick our tongue out slightly when making the th sound.

Pandas and tigers: you could try watching this ‘th’ video to help you develop your skills in using this sound.

Elephants: click hear to watch a video about the ‘ay’ sound.  Try talking about the difference between ai words and ay words.  Remember that words with the ay sound usually have their ay sound at the end of the word.  Words with the ai spelling rule usually have their ai sound at the beginning or the middle of a word.

Topic

Food diary – please help your child keep a record of the number of pieces of fruit and vegetables they eat each day for a week.   You should try starting it today.  They should colour in one square on the graph that was sent home for each piece they eat.  We are all aiming to eat more than 5 pieces a day.  Please bring graphs/diaries back to school next Monday.

Food rubbish collecting – please bring in any clean packaging from food that have carbohydrates in them.  We will be starting to learn about this on Tuesday.  You could bring in pasta packets, cereal boxes, noodles, bread etc.  Use the food plate below to help you get ideas (yellow section).  We are trying to make our own healthy plate in school to help us learn more about being healthy.

Literacy

New sounds – elephants: ea.  Pandas and tigers: ch.

New words in word book.

Reading – this will be done on Monday and Wednesday.

Maths – we have been learning to count in 5s and 10s.  Please use this splat square to try splatting in 10s (up to 100) and 5s(up to 50) starting at 0.   This is to help us with our money topic that we will be starting soon.  You could also try clapping in 5s or 10s with a sibling or parent or you could try throwing a ball and counting in 5s or 10s as you throw.  Your child may or may not need the splat square to help them.  As with all homework activities, your child has done this in class so should be able to explain it further.

Optional maths extension: try splatting in 10s without starting at 0.  Count in 10s to find out which number should be splatted next.  Can you see a pattern?