Author: Mrs Allen-Kelly

Happy Easter! We know that it’s the Easter break, but in these unprecedented times we thought that we’d continue to post some ideas of activities that you can do at home, if you choose to do so. Some of these are Easter related and others are ideas that you can continue after the Easter break.

This will be the only post for the two week Easter holidays. During this time, you can still email your child’s class teacher, although they may not respond as quickly as they have been doing.

The most important message this Easter is to have fun as a family. Read together, play outside, bake, garden, watch a movie, sing and dance. Make the most of this time together.

Easter Holiday ideas

Here are some links to a cbeebies programme called “Let’s celebrate” it show children celebrating Easter along with a child friendly reference to the Eater Story.

https://youtu.be/-qVW9IjhIlU – preparing for Easter

https://youtu.be/StlJgYF-Ki8 – celebrating Easter.

https://youtu.be/jzzr9ogygwA – The Easter Story

Watch the Cbeebies Easter programmes -Talk about what you watch with your child. Have you done any of the things that Toby has done to prepare for Easter? Have you seen any baby animals, see if your child can remember the names of the young animals from two weeks ago? Have you seen any spring flowers in the garden? Talk about their names and colours. Can the children remember painting the daffodils for their Mother’s Day cards?

Here are some activities that you may like to try over the Easter holidays.

Make an Easter egg picture? Cut out some egg shapes from paper and ask your child to decorate it. The patterns we use in Nursery for mark making are zigzag patterns, wave patterns, horizontal lines, vertical lines and circles.

Easter egg hunt – Can you child help you to think of some clues for the Easter egg hunt? Can you write their instructions for the rest of the family?

Decorate an egg – Make a hard-boiled egg and allow it to cool down. Ask your child to decorate it using coloured pens. Use a slide or create a ramp with a large box propped against a chair. Whose egg rolls the furthest?

Counting eggs – Sing the song together. Count the eggs as they hatch. Count carefully counting to each egg as it pops.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-hickety-pickety-my-red-hen/zvymd6f – Hickety Pickety my red hen.

Counting ducks – We enjoy singing this song at Nursery. Each time a duck is lost count how many are left. Use each finger to represent a duck.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038jj3r – 5 little ducks

As always stay safe and have fun. Let’s hope that the sunshine returns!

To download the Easter Menu, please click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a look at this special video of L’s past two weeks. He has been looking after butterflies. He saw a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, helped look after them and released them into the wild. I wonder if your child can tell you what happens before a butterfly makes its chrysalis? What is it before it is a butterfly? What is it at the very start?

If you would like to make it onto the ‘Home Learning Heroes’ wall next week, please keep sending in your pictures, questions and comments:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Music Time! Learn a new song about Spring. Add your own actions to the song.

Music time!

Did your child make their own actions to the new spring song? Can your child see any signs of spring in their garden?

Literacy Activity

Use the laminated letter formation sheet handed out at parent’s evening and your whiteboard pen to practise writing each letter of the alphabet.

Letter formation

Letters that are often difficult are s,b,d,e and a. Encourage your child to practise these!

Maths Activity Doubling Use the butterflies to double each number. Remember when we double we add the same amount to the other side!

Maths

Doubling! When teaching your children to double we talk about adding the same amount again. Here is a fun doubles song your child may enjoy singing.

If you have any questions we are here to help and will respond to emails in school hours.

Enjoy family time this weekend! Don’t forget to send pictures of any activities you have enjoyed together.

Phonics Words to Read- Polysyllabic words: Words to Write: plum, swim, spoon, float

Phonics Activity: Phoneme spotter story- draw a circle around every use of the phoneme ‘ure’ (see page 21 of your home learning pack) How many times did you spot it?

Phonics

Did your child enjoy reading the phoneme or tricky word spotter story today? If so, there are plenty more on Twinkl. Just search ‘Story spotters Phase 3’.

Twinkl are offering parents and carers free access to thousands of resources, so you can select your own activities based on your child’s interests too.

“Setting this up is really easy to do – go to www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and enter the code UKTWINKLHELPS”

 

Literacy Activity Story Treasure Hunt Ask your grown-up to write 4-6 clues about a story you know well and hide the words around the house. For example, if they were leaving clues about Jack and the Beanstalk they might write ‘beanstalk’, ‘giant’, ‘cow’ and ‘Magic Beans’. Try and read the clues by yourself. Can you make a story map re-telling the story from the clues you have discovered?

Literacy

Was your child able to draw a story map? Please email photos or comments to:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Here is an example of what your child’s story map may look like.

Maths Activity Missing Numbers Fill in the missing numbers to 20 below:

Maths

Did your child find the missing numbers?

In Foundation 2, we focus on numbers to twenty throughout the year to get a depth of understanding of what the numbers really mean.

If you have any questions we are here to help and will respond to emails in school hours.

Inspired by Leo’s kind gifting of rainbow paintings in his neighbourhood, Foundation have been sending in their rainbow creations-a sign of hope and positivity.

We hope Foundation’s rainbows bring happiness and smiles to your day!

 

Yesterday, we received an email about some wonderful kindness in the community that really makes us think about our Christian Values of Love and Friendship.

You may have seen lots of rainbows recently in people’s windows. Some people have made them to support the NHS and some have made them as a sign of hope and positivity during this unusual and uncertain time.

The email we received reads:

” —- made a rainbow for our house…He painted one to post to Nanny and Grandad and also made some for people who live in our street who are elderly or don’t have children. He painted 7 in total and was really pleased when the recipients stuck them in their windows; “Wow Mummy, look, that’s the rainbow I made!”

Can you see which friend has been spreading happiness in his community this weekend?

Challenge

Let’s see if we can flood our Class News page with positivity rainbows! If you have made a rainbow or would like to make one to stick in your window, please send us pictures of them by 3pm on Wednesday so we can upload them to the page. Send them to:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Look at the fantastic learning at home this week, from three members of Foundation Class…. You are our Home Learning Heroes! We are so proud of you. Thank you to the parents who have been sending in lovely messages, photographs and learning observations.

If you would like to make it onto the ‘Home Learning Heroes’ wall next week, please keep sending in your pictures, questions and comments:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Get Crafty! Use the paper plate in your pack to make a Spring time animal or picture; perhaps you could make a chick or add some cotton balls to make a sheep? Use your imagination to get crafty! If you do not have bits to add and stick, you could draw an Easter picture onto your plate.

Did your child make a model with recycled items? It would be great to see a photo of it! Please email us – including any comments from your child: stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Literacy Activity Use the laminated letter formation sheet handed out at parent’s evening and your whiteboard pen to practise writing each letter of the alphabet.

Letters that are often difficult are s,b,d,e and a. Encourage your child to practise these.

Maths Activity Numicon Addition: Fill in the answers on the sheet (write the number)- See page 13 of Home Learning pack.

Can your child count on to find the answer?

If you have any questions we are here to help and will respond to emails in school hours.

Phonics Words to Read: Words to Write:  plan, trip, grab, sniff Phonics Activity: Play Phase 4 Phonics snakes and Ladders (see page 11 of home learning pack) with an adult or a friend. You will need a die (if you do not have one you could search for ‘virtual dice’ online, or on your phone) Roll the die and read the word you land on. Go up the ladders and down the snakes. Who will be first to the finish?!

Did you play snakes and ladders today? Was your child able to spot any digraphs and trigraphs? Here are some great videos from MrThorne about digraphs and trigraphs.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mr+thorne+does+phonics

The snakes and ladders games are from an educational resource website called Twinkl. Twinkl are offering parents and carers free access to thousands of resources, so you can select your own activities based on your child’s interests too.

Literacy Activity Brenda’s Boring Egg We have been looking after our chick eggs in class and this story is all about hatching some feathery babies too!… If you have access to the internet, you can download the story at: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-l-53920-brendas-boring-egg-ebook

Can you hear the rhyming words? Perhaps you could make a list of them. What was the special message in the story? Could you draw and decorate your own special egg- write sentences about what you think your baby duck would look like when it hatches. Don’t forget to make it exciting by adding lots of adjectives!

Can your child tell you the life cycle of a chicken? Please email us your child’s comments:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Maths Activity Addition (Counting On)

Ask your grown up to challenge you with different quantities.

 

Ask your grown up to challenge you with different quantities.

How did you find making number stories for your child? Here are some ideas of number problems you could ask your child (click the link)

Number problems

If you have any questions we are here to help and will respond to emails in school hours.