Story Time.

Below I have added a link to a website on which you watch authors reading stories.

If you use the link, please use the form below to let me know and what you thought of it. 

ENJOY.

www.worldbookday.com

www.carylhart.com

If you are unable to get the link to work, simply type it into your browser and it will take you straight there.

Home Learning

Learning at home is an important part of your child's learning journey. It helps to consolidate learning done in school and is a fun way to help your child if they are finding any aspects of the EYFS framework challenging.

Below we have put together ideas and links to websites which you can access at any time to help support your child.

Hungry little minds 

This site has simple fun activities for children from newborn to 5 years old.

hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk

Physical skills

In class the children are working on this all of the time. Every time they hold a pencil, scissors, paintbrush or glue stick we check they are holding it correctly. 

You can support your child's development by setting up activities which enable them to develop the 'pincer'grip which is needed for holding pencils correctly. These activities will also develop the muscles they need to hold pencils and for  sustained writing.

• Drawing their own pictures then cutting them into pieces to create their own jigsaws.
• Using the 'pincer' grip with thumb and forefinger, to pick up small items such as buttons,coins,lego and place them into pots. These pots can also be labelled with colour words or numbers so your child also has to read or identify the number of items required.
• If you have tweezers, then you can repeat the same activities as above but using the tweezers.
• Pencil control activities can easily be created at home. Use a highlighter or thick felt tip to draw lines on paper. These can be straight, wavy, curved, pointy. Ask your child to choose a coloured pencil and holding it correctly trace carefully over the lines staying withing the coloured line.
• Playing with playdough strengthens wrists, which supports writing.

Making you own playdough is not only cheaper, but enables your child to discuss changes in materials (Understanding the World). Below is a link to a simple Playdough recipe.

Amazing White Rose Maths Resource!

White Rose Maths, on which all maths planning at Leedon is based, have made a fantastic resource for people to use at home during this difficult time.  It can be found here https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ and offers lesson activities with explanation videos that follow the curriculum objectives in the same way as would have happened at school. This is a great way to make sure your child keeps up with their learning objectives and I would really encourage you to make full use of this wonderful resource. Work can be recorded on paper, with pictures uploaded and sent to teachers to show all your amazing work. 

Maths

Maths is an easy subject to work on around the home. We do maths every day without even realising it. Help you child see the maths they already do as this will help them gain confidence in their ability. Also tell them whenever you use maths so they can see how important it is.

• CBeebies on iplayer has the Numberblocks series to watch.
• Counting up to and back from 20. Make this more challenging by starting the count from different numbers, i.e 12-20, 16-1.
• Counting out plates, cutlery, or the number of beans on a spoon.
• Counting out groups of toys and adding them together when playing with cars, lego, dolls houses etc.
• Work out subtraction problems when playing with toys, i.e If you have 7 cars and 4 are parked, how many are left on the road? If you have 6 dolls and 3  are in the buggy, how many dolls are left?
• For more challenge write out a number line 1-10 and help children complete addition and subtraction problems by jumping either forwards for addition or backwards for subtraction.
• Use number cards 1-20 and ask your child to place them in the correct order. Check they place them from left to right. You can write the numbers on slips of paper, paper plates, napkins, sticky notes virtually anything which can be moved.
• Once the number line is complete, ask your child to say which number is 1 more than, or 1 less than a number. 
• Ask your child to close their eyes whilst you turn over random numbers in the line. Ask them to open their eyes and tell you which numbers have  been turned over.  
• As you are at home, help your child identify the coins in your purse or the coin pot. Can they count out piles of 10p? Can they do this for 1p, 2p , 5p 10p. What do they notice about the piles?
• Play shops using coins and help  your child first count out individual amounts for the items, then add items together and help  them work out the total before counting out the coins. For  more challenge help them to work out the change needed.
• Play numbered board games to help your child recognise numbers to 20 and beyond. 
• Complete dot to dots.  You can even make your own if you do not have any to hand.
• Have a shape hunt around the house, look for both 2D and 3D shapes, encourage your child to name them independently.
• You can cook and bake with your child. Ask them to weigh out the ingredients, or count the number of teaspoons etc they add to the recipe.
• Looking at time and discussing the sequence of their day, i.e can they put pictures of their morning routine in order, or sequence pictures drawn by themselves of a full day.
• Encourage your child to look at the clock and tell you what time it is. Start off with o'clock, then for more challenge move onto half past then quarter past and quarter to. Remember to call the hands by their correct name. Rather than long hand, it is the Minute hand, rather than short hand, it is the hour hand. Point out the second hand too.
• Use a timer on a tablet, phone or computer to compare how long it takes the different hands to move around the clock. 
• Use a timer to time how fast they get dressed and turn it into a challenge for the whole family to see who can dress the fastest.
• Under the heading Understanding the World/Expressive art and design, look at 'Shape Art Inspiration' and make your own Klee-inspired shape art.
• CHALLENGE! Try a maths investigation - we have looked at different ways of making 10. Our hands show us that 5 and 5 make 10, and we have also learnt that 1+2+3+4=10, but how many more ways can you find?

Reading and Writing.

Children love stories and hearing stories is the best way for children to learn how stories are structured, about main characters, settings and story language. This then helps them when they begin to tell or write their own stories. The more stories children hear, the broader their own vocabulary becomes, and this in turn helps them with reading and writing. Don't forget to ask them a few questions about the stories as well, this will help them with comprehension, another important skill they need to master.

• CBeebies on iplayer has the Alphablocks series to watch.
• OXFORD OWL website has free resources including ebooks. See video below on how to find reading books suitable for your child. 
• Read stories to your child as often as you can. Make up your own stories and ask your child to help you with what might happen next. Ask them how characters feel and how do they know this?
• Encourage your child to make up their own stories. This can be done whilst you play with them using their small world (cars, dolls houses, farm, train set etc) or when you are sitting together during a quiet moment.
• Encourage your child to keep a diary or journal. This would be similar to our news writing task. Encourage your child to say the words they need and work our how many syllables they need. We ask them to work this out on their fingers. This then supports them when they write the words. Please do not write the words for them to copy, as this would be more like handwriting practise than writing using their emergent writing skills. It is very important that the children work out the letters they need themselves.  All our children are used to writing independently so they do know how to do it. 

 If you have an alphabet poster or sheet then place this where they can see it. If not, you can always write one out, but remember to use the school handwriting font. (We will add a copy of this below)  

 It is important that no matter how they have written, whether mark making or           actual letters, that you praise them. Ask them to tell you what they have written         so you can write it in 'your' writing. All children need to feel 'they can do it' so             please do not tell them they cannot write and need you to write it for them. We         aim to build up their confidence so they develop more quickly.

• Using their emergent writing to write menus for lunch and dinner, or for a party with their toys.
• Helping to write shopping lists, or even typing the items needed in the bar at the top of your shopping website.
• Using their writing skills to type and then send emails to family and friends using technology.
• Writing letters to loved ones, addressing envelopes and posting them in the local postbox.
• Write their own stories so that you can read them back to them or read them to brothers and sisters.
• Ask your child to draw, paint or collage a picture of their favourite character. Once dry, ask them to label it using their independent emergent writing skills. Here is a picture of a labelled Pirate we put on the wall. Although you don't have to make one so large!!

Expressive Art and Design/Understanding the World

We have been looking at the changing seasons and made a wall display to show the changes on a tree. You could make your own version on A4 paper. Use finger painting for the leaves, blossom, fruit or berries. Don't  forget to discuss the reasons why the trees change and other changes that are seen around the country.

Alongside this you can discuss how people make changes to the world round us, some positive and some not so positive

With Easter coming, you can enjoy the video clips below about children celebrating Easter, as well as an artistic retelling of the Easter story:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/lets-celebrate-easter

Science

For fantastic science podcasts use the  link below:

www.brainson.org

For a virtual field trip to learn about growing food go to :

www.urbanfarm.Ipages.co.uk

Outdoor learning

If you are missing our Forest School then use the link below and download the PDFs for ideas to do outside:

www.outdoorpeople.org.uk

23. 4. 20 UPDATE

Thank you so much to Max and Sam’s mum, who sent me this information about the slime mould (not a fungus, as I mistakenly thought) that we saw during one of our Forest School sessions:

There are many types, and when they were first discovered they thought they were a fungus, hence the name 'mould'. Slime moulds are fascinating as the above picture is not 1 organism but scores of tiny 1cell plants which all cluster together to make the large slime mould pictured. When ripe it splits open and is full of spores which blow away! 

So today I need to see if I can find the slime mould again. I will let you know what I find.

Useful websites:

Basic playdough recipe:

https://www.theimaginationtree.com

Teach your Monster to Read:

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

Science ideas:

sciencesparks.com

Phonics play:

www.phonicsplay.co.uk

A great site for learning across different subjects. Weekly online activities and free home learning packs.

www.classroommagazines.scholastic.com

For creating your own music:

www.incredibox.com