Dear Reception Class,
Hello! Wow, another week and we are definitely missing seeing all of your smiley faces in class. Our classroom doesn’t look the same without all you in there. Don’t worry, we’ll have it all ready for you when we do come back to school. I know lots of you are keeping in touch with your friends and it is so lovely to hear stories of you all chatting and sharing your things. Mrs Collins’ Dad has been super busy building us something special for our classroom.
This week our lovely story is ‘The Snail and the Whale’. There are lots of great activities you can try at home and if you don’t have the book you can watch it online.
Don’t forget you can email us on reception@eastbierleyprimary.com with your work. Have a go and have fun. Do let us know if you are having any problems accessing Spelling Shed, Numbots or Reading Planet. We are looking forward to speaking to you all this week.
Stay safe, take care and we will see you soon
Mrs Clark, Mrs Collins and Miss Senior.
Any learning that you do at home, please take a picture and email it to us at reception@eastbierleyprimary.com or tweet us @eastbierleyPS
Weekly Maths Tasks
Tongue twisters: Can your child join in with tongue twisters: red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry?
Patterns- Can you make a simple shape pattern or a colour pattern by visiting string of beads?CHALLENGE: Make your own repeating pattern.
Repeating Patterns: Can you make a repeating pattern using objects around the house/garden i.e. apple, banana, apple, banana? CHALLENGE: Can you create more complex patterns e.g. apple, apple, banana, apple, apple, banana?
Action Patterns: Can you create repeating patterns with actions: Clap hands, tap knees, clap hands, tap knees? Make your own action patterns. We’d love to see an video of this! CHALLENGE: One person makes the action pattern, the other person is to listen and repeat.
Fantastic Fish: Draw the outline of a fish for your child to make a pattern in. Could they make the pattern out of 2D shapes? Can they make a repeated pattern?
Weekly Reading Tasks
The Snail and the Whale: Share the story ‘The Snail and the Whale’. If you don’t have a copy at home watch this online reading.
DEAR Time: You could read one of your school books or access the online books available.
- Visit Oxford Owl for free eBooks that link to your child’s book band. You can create a free account. Complete the linked Play Activities for each book
- Register with Reading Planet. Use your email address and your child’s name, we will then assign books to you when you have verified your account.
Reading Dens: Read a variety of books at home in different places. Reread your favourites, the more your child hears a story, the more they remember and this allows them to retell the story and make up their own versions.
Sharing a shell - Watch the online storybook- ‘Sharing a Shell’. Discuss how the crab felt in the story at each stage. Can you draw a picture to represent the crab’s feelings?
Book Hunt: Look at the books you have in your house. Can they find any other books about creatures that live under the sea? Can they group the animal books e.g. farm animals, jungle animals, under the sea animals?
Weekly Phonics Tasks
Initial Sounds: Ask your child if they can hear the sounds that come at the beginning of snail and whale (s and w). Can they think of/ or find other things that begin with the same sound? Can you create a poster or take photographs of the things you have seen or found.
Buried Treasure: Write out some real words and made up words (e.g. tud, jup, fub). Place these in a pile and using 2 containers, label one as ‘Treasure’ and the other as ‘Bin’. Can you read the word and decide if it is real? If it is real it goes in the treasure chest, if not it goes in the bin.
Phonics Play: Play Buried Treasure online
Singing Songs: Sing ‘1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive’. Click here for the words. Can your child learn this by heart?
Go Fishing: Play Fish for Sounds – write out some letter sounds that correspond to objects found in the sea – sh for shell, f for fish. Try and write them outside in chalk or similar and encourage your child to trace over them.
Weekly Writing Tasks
Under the sea pictures: Can you draw a picture and write about your favourite underwater creature? Can you label the picture too? We have looked at the sea turtle.
Snail Writing: Have a try at Snail Writing. Using hair gel, shaving foam or any other slimy liquid, show your child how to form the letter ‘s’ using your finger. Be quick though, the letters disappear, I used washing up liquid! If you can, try the word ‘snail’. Repeat for other words.
Lets Imagine: Close your eyes and imagine being at the beach. Can you draw a picture list or use your phonics to write a word list of all the things you can see, taste, touch, smell and hear?
Letterjoin: Practise your letter formation using Letterjoin, have a look at the fun patterns and marks too.
Henry the Crab- Listen to the song Henry the Crab- Can you draw a picture of what you think Henry the crab looks like? CHALLENGE- Can you write a letter to Henry and ask him about what it is like to live under the sea?
STEM Learning Opportunities
Unplugged coding
Watch this video.
Create a simple under the sea obstacle course or draw an obstacle course on a piece of paper. Children have to guide an under-water robot (Parent/sibling/toy) through the obstacles by shouting out simply instructions. E.g. forwards, right, left, backwards.
Learning Project - to be completed through the week
The project this week aims to provide opportunities for your child to learn more about life in and around the sea. Learning may focus on the strange and wonderful creatures and plants that occupy our oceans, their habitats and how human beings affect this environment.
After listening to the story, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ (see reading task).
Take your child on a snail hunt around the garden. Can they think about the places a snail might want to live?
Show your child a picture of a sea snail. Ask, how is it different from the snails they found in the garden?
Have a Snail Race- Use chalk to draw out lines on the ground (or sticks to mark out the lines) to create a race track. Place your snails at the starting line and watch them go! You could give your child a timer to measure how long it takes for the snails to make their way across. Share a picture of the winning snail on Twitter at #TheLearningProjects
Make your own ‘Under the Sea’ Scene
Watch this video of the coral reef. Talk about the animals you can see. What are the animals called?
Use junk modelling or craft items you have around your house to create the scene. You could even add in natural objects e.g. grass as seaweed.
Counting Undersea Creatures
Show your child how to play this There is a simpler version with amounts to 5 and a more challenging version with amounts to 10. CHALLENGE: Support your child to create a record of how many of each creature there were.
Make your own Fishing Game
Make a fishing rod using a stick or similar (a wooden spoon would work well!). Tie some string on to one end and tie a magnet onto the end of the string (you could use a fridge magnet).
Using the rod, your child could explore which items are attracted to the magnet around the house
Explore Floating and Sinking
Fill up a bowl, sink or basin and provide your child with a range of objects to explore. Which ones float and which sink? Ask them why they think they float/ sink? CHALLENGE: Keep a record of the objects that float and sink? This could be using pictures or written.
