Good morning Everyone,

I hope those of you who are at home self-isolating are still feeling ok, we have missed seeing you in school. As you know, the last two days of term are all about celebrating our time in Reception and having lots of fun together before the summer holidays. There is no formal home learning this week but I have put up some suggestions of things that you could do to replicate the fun we are having in school.

If you would still like your child to complete some Literacy and Maths, please refer to last weeks activities and complete any you didn't get round to or visit the suggested websites.

The activities from last week are aimed at consolidating things your child has already learnt. In order to help them prepare for Year One, please focus on practising things they still find a little tricky, or were mentioned on their report. Don't forget to get in touch via Tapestry if you need any help and do to let me know how you get on.

Have a lovely week and enjoy the summer holidays,

Love from Mrs Foster x

Home Learning Week Beginning 19th July 2021

Wake and Shake

Have a go at this week's wake and shake songs- follow the links below.

Home Learning Week Beginning 12th July 2021

Date and Time

Weekly focus: Nearly the holidays!

Complete the date and time session as normal using the calendars I gave you in your home learning pack previously.  Draw your child's attention to the 20th of July and explain that this will be their last day in Reception class. Can they count how many days they have left? If your child questions why they need to move class, explain that it is because they are getting too big for Reception now and need to learn some new exciting things in Year One.

Wake and Shake

Have a go at this week's wake and shake songs- follow the links below.

Dough Disco

If you still want to visit the dough disco this week that's fine, just follow the link below, otherwise choose a Funky Fingers activity from the list below. 

Dough Disco link: 

Funky Fingers: Sea creature activities 

Try one of these activities or an alternative of your own:

• Draw a wibbly shaped head for a jelly fish or octopus onto card, cut it out and hole punch  8 holes along the bottom. Cut u and thread 8 pieces of string, ribbon or wool (one for each hole) to make tentacles.
• Use an ink pad or paint to thumb print randomly around some paper, let them dry and then use a thin felt tip or fine tip pen to add details and make them into sea creatures
• Draw a fish shape onto card or paper and use tweezers to move sequin 'scales' onto it.
• Model some sea creatures using playdough or clay.

Maths

This week please

• Follow the White Rose Link below, watch the daily power point and then complete the associated activity as suggested or try one of the alternative activities instead. 
• Don't forget to visit the Topmarks website and have a go at one of the Maths games.

Literacy

Phonics

Weekly Focus: Consolidation

Each day, please use your child's reading pack to practise their letter sounds and tricky word recognition. Use them to create words and sentences for your child to read. In addition to this, please share a book together. The Oxford Owl website has a variety of books at your child's level that they can use to practise reading. Have a go at one of the suggested activities below or visit one of the phonics websites to play a reading or writing game.

You will need:

Your child's phonics and tricky word cards from their reading pack, access to the internet, one of the worksheets from below, paper or card, a pencil and pencil crayons.

• Start by asking "Why do we do our phonics?" Your child should reply “To help us read and to help us write.”
• Use their letter cards as flashcards and quickly go through the sounds that they have previously learnt- s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,ck,e,u,r,h,b,f,ff,l,ll,ss,j,v,w,x,y,z,zz,qu,sh,ch,th,ai,ee,igh,oa,oo,ar,or,ur,ear,air,ure,er Check that they are saying the sounds correctly e.g ssss not suh, mmm not muh. If not encourage them to use their "soft sounds". (Look at the Reading and Phonics section of the Reception website for examples of how to pronounce them.) Make a note of any they are having difficulties with and put these to one side.
• Pause at or and ask “What is special about this one?” (It’s a digraph) “What’s a digraph?” (“Two letters making one sound”.)
• Pause at igh and ask "What is special about this one?" (It's a trigraph) "What's a trigraph?" (Three letters making one sound)
• Pause and compare b and d, can they identify which is which? Model using the bed card or action as a way of finding out if they are unsure.
• Pick up the pile of cards your child is having difficulty recalling and quickly show them each card at speed saying each sound aloud as you do so. Do not get them to repeat these after you at this point, this is a technique for helping their brain recall the sounds quickly.
• Now try making sentences for them to read using their words and letter cards.
• Have a go at one of the free phonics games on the Phonics Play or Phonics Bloom websites or complete a page from one of the activity books.
• Visit Oxford Owl for an appropriately levelled book for your child to read to you or try one of the Phonics Play Comics.

Topic

Weekly focus: Setting Sail for Year One

These are the activities I really need you to complete this week as they are important to help support their transition:

Please complete them in the correct order.

• Day 1-Talk to your child about coming to the end of their Reception Year.
• What have they enjoyed most this year- special events, toys, activities? 
• What do they think they have got better at- what can they do now that they couldn't when they started?
• Who are their special friends?
• What are they looking forward to doing in Year One?
• Record some of these things on the sheet below.
• Finish by watching The Koala who Could story together and talk about how the Koala was feeling.

• Day 2- Making boats
• Give your child a variety of different materials and let them experiment with making different sorts of boats. Use some of the documents below for ideas. Afterwards reflect together. Which floated the best? Why? 
• Test your boat further, add some coins or marbles. How many can you add before the boat sinks?

• Day 3-Talk to your child about the journey into Year One.
• Explain that you are going to complete a sheet together to tell their new teachers Mrs Pollard and Mrs Goldsmith all about them.
• What is it important that their new teacher knows about them?
• Who are their friends?
• What do they like to do/play with?
• What do they like learning about?
• What  are they good at?
• What would they like to get better at?
• Is there a question that they want to ask their new teacher?
• Complete the sailboat sheet below on their behalf and please send it to me via Tapestry so that I can pass the information on to their new teachers.

• Day 4- Floating and Sinking Experiment
• Fill a clear plastic box or a sink with some water and collect together a variety of objects. You can choose the recommended ones on the sheet or some of your own, it doesn't matter which.
• Talk to your child about floating and sinking. Check they know what it means when something floats or sinks. What happens to the object?
• Now look at the objects together and make some predictions. Which ones do they think will sink to the bottom? Which ones might float on the top? Separate the objects into the two piles.
• Place the objects from one pile into the water one at a time- were their predictions right? Can they explain why the object is floating or sinking? Now try the other pile. Discuss what happened. Were there any surprises?
• Finish by drawing some of the items that floated/sank on one of the attached recording sheets. Can they label the objects using their phonics to spell the words?

• Day 5- Floating into Year One.
• Talk to your child about yesterday's activities. Recap about the light things that floated.
• Explain that sometimes as a person you can feel heavy or light inside. Worries can make you feel heavy and happiness can make you feel light.
• In order to float into Year One, you need to feel as light as possible and get rid of any worries you might have.
• Collect the best boat from Day 2, the box of water and a few coins. Explain that the boat is them and that they are going to float right across into Year One. Get them to place their boat on one side of the box and float it across to you on the other side.
• Now take the boat out and ask if there is anything they are worried about in Year One. Place one coin in the boat for each of their worries. (Do not put it in the water yet) Explain that everyone has a few worries when they do something new but that most of them are easy to get rid of. Recall the Koala story.
• Tackle their worries one by one. Get rid of as many coins as you can. Be confident about getting rid of their worries. E.g. "I am worried about making new friends." "Well all your friends are going with you so you don't need to worry about that!" (Remove the coin) "I can't remember what my new classroom looks like." "We are getting a special photobook to look at over the holidays which shows us pictures of your new classroom and we can look at it everyday if you want. So we can get rid of that one too."
• By completing this activity you are doing three things. Encouraging them to talk to you about their worries, acknowledging their feelings and helping them to let go of their worries in a supportive way.
• There may be some worries you can't easily get rid of- things that you don't know that might happen on the first day for example. Be reassuring and have a solution- "I can look after that worry for you over the Summer if you want." "We can talk to Mrs Foster- she will know how to get rid of that one." Don't panic, if some pennies are left in, just make sure that the boat is still light enough to float- test it first if you have to. 
• Sail the boat across again and say "I knew it, you are going to float straight into Year One in September!"
• Then go and do something lovely together.