Author: Mrs Wood

Monday	Book of the week- Watch the story Lost and Found or read the book if you have it at home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRAAQ8EWzig Questions to discuss- – How is the boy feeling when the penguin first arrives at his door? – Why does the penguin follow the boy? What does he want?- The penguin was lonely… What does it mean to be lonely? How can we help others when they are feeling lonely? What can we do when we feel lonely ourselves?
	Parents: Click here to see how we use Phoneme Fingers when blending. Phonics- j  Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Be a ‘j’ detective! Can you find anything (or anyone) in your house, that has the initial sound ‘j’? Activity 2: Take turns with an adult to play ‘Roll and Read’ (j focus) click here to either print the word mat, or view it on screen. You will need a die or to draw 1-6 dots on 6 pieces of paper and draw at random from a bag. 1. Roll the dice 2. Match to the correct row. 3. Choose a word on the row and read it aloud.
	Maths- White Rose Maths: Alive in 5!- Week 2. Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 1. Activity: Click here for today’s activity. Encourage your child to speak in full sentences when describing the number composition, for example: “There are three frogs in the pond and there are two frogs on the grass. There are 5 frogs altogether” or “There are 4 toys on the bed and there is one toy on the floor. There are 5 toys altogether”
Tuesday	Phonics- v Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1:  Be a ‘v’ detective! Can you find anything (or anyone) in your house, that has the initial sound ‘v’? Activity 2: Here is the link to ‘fishy phonics’ on the Phonics Bloom website- click here Parents: Select phase 2, set 5. Try the hard level initially, change to easy if this is a bit tricky.
	Maths- Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 2. Activity: Click here for today’s activity.
Wednesday	Phonics- w Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Be a ‘w’ detective! Can you find anything (or anyone) in your house, that has the initial sound ‘w’? Activity 2: Write ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on two separate pieces of paper and put them at either side of the room. Ask your child to read these questions (click here) one at a time and then run to either the yes or the no answer. Encourage your child to point to each word on the screen as they read the question.
	Maths-  Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 3. Activity: Click here for today’s activity. If you do not have a printer, draw 5 of anything you like on a piece of paper and cut them out. This will work just as well for the activity!
Thursday	Phonics- Tricky words he/she Click here to watch today’s phonics video. Activity 1: Be a Tricky Word Detective! Can you find any tricky words in the books you have at home? Activity 2: Write a sentence using one of the new tricky words. Steps to writing a successful sentence… 1.Think of a sentence. 2. Say the sentence out loud. 3. Count the words in your sentence. 4. Use your phoneme fingers to segment every word. 5. Check your sentence makes sense. 6. Have you remembered a capital letter at the start, finger spaces throughout and a full stop at the end? Activity 3: Rainbow writing tricky words- use a variety of colours to practice spelling all of the phase 2 tricky words. Click here for this week’s word list for your Word Passports. Remember to use your phoneme fingers when blending!
	Maths- Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 4. Activity: Click here for today’s activity.
Friday	Understanding the World with Professor Myers; Exploring Ice Click here to watch this week’s video with Professor Myers. -Can you carry out the ice experiments in the video from Professor Myers? Remember to make some predictions about what you think will happen first. -Can you draw and label a picture to show what you did?
	Story time- One Snowy Night read by Mrs Rippon Click here to watch today’s story. Sit back, relax and enjoy the story.

Story Link activities to select throughout the week

Literacy
1. Make a story map of the key events in the story Lost and Found. We practice creating these lots in class.

2. Sometimes, when people lose a pet, they put up posters to help find them again. Can you make a ‘lost’ poster for the Penguin in Lost and Found. Don’t forget to add lots of details describing the penguin, so that the reader knows what to look out for. What does the penguin look like? What colour is it? How big is it?

3. The story doesn’t have any speech in it. Ask your grown up to draw out a speech bubble and pretend you are the boy from the story (perhaps you could draw him next to the speech bubble) Have a go at writing what you think he might have said when he first met the penguin.

A writing reminder…
How did your child find the writing activity? Remember, it’s okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important that your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound rather than always spelling them correctly. We encourage the children to use their own skills, rather than copying an adult.

Understanding the World
Spend some time watching the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo:
https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/webcams/penguin-cam/
– What do you notice about them?
– How do they move? (perhaps you can walk like a penguin too!)
– Do they like to be alone or in groups?
– Do they live on land, in the water, or both?
– These penguins are in a zoo. Where can we find penguins in the wild? Ask an adult to help you find this information in a book or by using the internet.

Expressive Arts and Design
1. Build a boat for your toys! You could use any construction toys you have at home (such as lego, duplo) natural or found objects outside, or recycled food packaging. Perhaps you could tell a story about an adventure your toys go on in their brand new boat!
2. Make a ‘Paper Roll Penguin’ You could follow this guide or, if you do not have coloured paper, create your own version using plain paper, the paper roll and colouring pens or pencils!

Physical Development
Get Moving! Join in with this Jack Hartman Penguin Dance: video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf0uKmKwnKs

Did you know… ‘PE with Joe’ is back? Joe Wicks is hosting his live PE sessions again from Monday 11^th January 2021, 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 9am) You can subscribe to his channel here for alerts. A great way to keep fit at home!

I hope you all have a great week of home learning and please keep sending me photos of what you’ve been up to.
stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

This week, our learning is going to be themed around the popular children’s books ‘Zog’ and ‘Zog and the Flying Doctors’. At the bottoms there’s also links to some Key Worker times which you can join in with at home. Two of the videos will be of other Sphere Federation Early Years teachers and the story video will be either Miss Marsden, Mrs Small or Mrs Rippon.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, you can listen to it here and if you would like some quiet time, why not snuggle up on the sofa and enjoy watching it on BBC iPlayer.
Zog
Zog and the Flying Doctors

Reading

• What was your favourite part of the story?
• Can you remember the characters that the Flying Doctors helped in the story?
• What do you think princesses should be like?
• If you’d like a challenge, try completing this quiz

Phonics
As part of our Phase One phonics learning, we practise making different noises with our own voices.
– Can you roar like a lion?
– If you don’t want to wake the sleeping King, what could you say? ( Shhhhh)
– What noise does Zog make when he lands? (Bang, crash, thump!)
– What noise do you think Princess Pearl says when she sees a silly, frilly dress? (Eugh!)
Can you think of any other sound effects that you could make from the story?

Mark-Making

• Do you have some wrapping paper left over or some old wall paper? Turn it over and roll it out on the floor. Hold it down at the corners using some tins/books/tape. Can you draw a giant map for Zog to show him where to go? What will be on your map? You could draw some trees for a forest or a tall mountain. What about a castle or a river?
  Parents: Remember, in Nursery, the process of mark making is the most important part. The end product may not ‘look’ exactly like you think it should, but the marks that your child has made will mean a lot to them. If you have time, try to draw a little bit with your child before leaving them to continue alone. As you draw, talk about your marks and what they show (keep them simple). It’s great if they can talk to you about what they are drawing as they make each mark.
• Here’s a Zog colouring sheet if you have a printer at home. We try to talk about choosing the correct colour for things at Nursery.
• You might also like to try and follow the lines very carefully with your pen to help Zog win a golden star .

Maths
Watch this song about 2d shapes and talk about the names of the basic 2D shapes (circle, square, triangle and rectangle). Then, look at these pictures of castles and see what shapes you can spot. How you know it’s a triangle? How many sides does that shape have? Can you see a shape with a curved side?
Extension ideas
– Cut up a selection of different sized shapes and ask your child to create their own castle or maybe even a dragon picture. There are lots of ideas online.  What shape would be good to use to make a doorway or window?
– Have a look on Google images at castles to see what other shapes you can spot.

Creative
– We love to create buildings using Duplo in Nursery. If you have Lego or Duplo at home, can you build a castle?
– Sir Gadabout has a shield and a sword in ‘Zog’. We know that some of you love to play ‘knights’ so maybe you’d like to have a go at making your own shields using any recycling items that you have such as cardboard delivery or cereal boxes etc.
– Role play being a doctor/nurse and help to make some of your toys better. Use your imaginations to think about what could be wrong; in the story, the mermaid has sunburn and the lion gets a sore throat. You could make a bandage (toilet roll) or use some old plasters that are hiding at the back of a cupboard somewhere.

Physical Development
Funky Fingers
Draw or print a dragon outline. Get some clothes pegs and show your child how to squeeze them to open them. Use the pegs to add spikes onto the dragon’s back (like in the dinosaur photo below). You could challenge them to add 2 blue spikes or 3 yellow ones.

Movement
Get moving and join in with this Happy Dragon dance!

Independence skills
In the story, the Lion has a sore throat and cold and needs to blow his nose a lot! Can you blow your own nose? Next time you need to blow your nose, get a tissue and look in the mirror.  Hold the tissue to your nose, pinch your fingers gently around the tissue and blow.  Remember to pinch and pull as you move the tissue away from your nose. Look in the mirror to check that your nose is clean and do it again if you need to. What’s the last thing that you need to do? Throw your tissue in the bin or flush it away and then wash your hands well.

Key Worker activities
Watch these videos (click on the two links below) and join in our Key Worker activity at home. Listen carefully to the clues and animal noises. Which animal is it?
Animal Guess Who video

If you enjoyed playing, have a go at the game at home. We’d love you to make up your own clue and send a video for us to guess which animal you have!

We often play games that help to develop our visual and memory skills. Look carefully at the animals and see if you can work out which is missing! You can easily play this game at home- just choose 5-6 items and find a tea towel or towel to hide them.
Animal memory game

Story Time – One Snowy Night read by Mrs Rippon
Click here to watch today’s story.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the story.

Parents: If you have any questions I am here to help. Please email  your questions and photos to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org and I will aim to respond the same day. 

 

Please don’t forget to email us any pictures of your home learning. I would love to see how you’ve been getting on and what you’ve been up to!

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Read! Read! Read!
Share stories and read different types of texts. You could even make up your own stories! Here are some suggestions from Book Trust.

Talk!
Please talk with your child on a daily basis. The best thing about being at home is all those lovely conversations! Talk to your child about everything! We encourage talk and language in class by asking lots of questions:
“I wonder what would happen if…?”
“Can you remember when…?
“What does that feel like/ smell like/ look like/ taste like?”
“Why did you do it that way…?
“How could you change it…?”
Have fun painting, drawing and making models to encourage lots of chat!

Stay Active!
Spend some time moving and grooving around your house! There’s plenty of movement songs on YouTube. For example, Shake Your Sillies Out, Move and Freeze or Happy Dance – these are our favourites Foundation! You could even just put on the radio and have a good dance!#

Phonics
Use your phase 2 sound mat and word passport daily.

Phonics
Play the Match Cards blending game on Phonics Bloom.
Parents: Click the above link> Make sure all sets are ticked> Click play 

Maths
Making 2D Shapes
1. Gather a selection of small items e.g. sticks, lolly sticks, pen, coins, pebbles or buttons.
2. Explore ways of arranging the items to create a 2D shape.
3. What shape did you make? Can you describe your shape to an adult?
4. Take turns at making and describing shapes to each other.
Parents: Below is a list of questions you can ask to support your child’s thinking.

Creative/Topic
Make an Ice Sun Catcher.
1. Explore your garden and collect a variety of natural treasures.
2. Pour some water into a suitable oven tray or shallow dish from your kitchen.
3. Place a piece of string over one of the corners and leave to freeze overnight.

Artic Yoga
Have a go at some of these yoga poses.
Parents: Your child needs to be on a carpeted floor or mat with enough space for them to stretch out their arms and legs.
I hope you all have enjoyed your first week of home learning activities. Next week, I will be posting daily videos of phonics and maths lessons alongside a week of activities linked to a focus story.

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Click here to see the message.

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

This is what you can expect to see on your child’s class news page each week during lockdown.

The learning for week beginning 11.01.21 will be posted on Sunday 10.01.21.  All subsequent weeks will be posted on a Friday evening.

As teachers are also teaching our key worker children in school, these videos may not be from your child’s teacher. However, every Friday the children will be able to enjoy a story read by an adult from their class.

Each week a menu of activities will be presented that can be completed during the week. This menu will relate to the book of the week. The activities will cover all aspects of the Early Years curriculum. There will also be the following screencasts and videos.

Monday	Phonics screencast with follow up activities. Maths screencast with follow up activities
Tuesday	Phonics screencast with follow up activities. Maths screencast with follow up activities
Wednesday	Phonics screencast with follow up activities. Maths screencast with follow up activities
Thursday	A tricky word screencast with follow up activities Maths screencast with follow up activities
Friday	An Understanding the World video with “ Professor Myers” with follow up activities A story read by one of your child’s teachers with talk time activities.

As always your child’s teachers will be available via email for any questions. We will also endeavour contact you by phone once per week, just to check in with you.

Phonics
Have a go at the Flashcard Time Challenge on Phonics Play.
Say the ‘phase 2’ phonemes before the 2 minute timer ends!
Challenge: Can you do it before the 1 minute timer?
Parents: Login details are Sphere (user name) and Spher3 (password).
Click ‘PhonicsPlay’ > Resources > Flashcards Time Challenge > Start > Phase 2

2. Words to read:

Use your ‘phoneme fingers’ or point to the sound buttons to help. How many sounds are in these words?

3. Words to write:
Ask an adult to read out the words. Use your phoneme frames in your home learning pack. Remember to write one phoneme in each box.
map   hug   net   pick
**Challenge words**
Have a go at writing these words on a piece of paper.
pocket   fusspot   rabbit

4. Phonics Activity
Can you find the hidden letters to spell the tricky words?
The letters needed to spell a Phase 2 tricky word are hidden within each picture. Find the letters and unscramble them to correctly spell the words.
Click here to open the document.

Literacy
Read a story with an adult. When you have finished, ask your adult questions about the story. Were they correct?
Then swap over. Ask your adult to think of questions to ask you.

Maths
1. Watch and sing the Ten Green Bottles song.
2. Finding the total number of items in two groups.
Collect two bowls. Put three bananas in one bowl and two apples in the other bowl. How many pieces of fruit do you have altogether?
Draw a picture to show your answer.
Challenge – Can you make up your own?
Parents: Your child can use any objects for this activity.

Well, it’s not quite the welcome back that we had planned! We’ll provide you with more information regarding our remote learning activities this week, but here are some activities for you to do this week.

This week, the activities are all linked to a very popular and familiar tale, ‘The Gingerbread Man’.

If you have a copy at home, share it together or you could watch this online version.

Reading

As you read the story, see if your child can join in with the repeated phrases such as… “Stop! I want to eat you!” and “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread man!”

Talk to your child about the story. What happened? What did the Gingerbread Man say? What happened at the end of the story?

 Mark-making

We love drawing our own gingerbread people in Nursery. Draw, paint or print an outline and add in some details. Give your gingerbread person some eyes, a nose and a mouth. How many buttons will you draw? What shape are they?

Mathematics

There are some fun Gingerbread Man counting activities on this website. In Nursery, we don’t expect children to recognise digits at this point so you may need to help your child recognise the numbers as you play together. Count the buttons and remember to say the numbers slowly, touching each button as you count it.

You could continue to play this together using the gingerbread person that you drew. Find something to use for buttons (buttons, pompoms, sweets, coins…) and challenge each other to put on 1-5 buttons. We’d expect some children to be working with numbers up to 3,4 or 5, but some children may be able to count more confidently up to 10 with one to one correspondence.

Here are a few ways to extend the activity…

• Which Gingerbread Man has the most/fewest buttons? How do you know?
• How many buttons would s/he have if we added one more? Ate one?
• If you put 1, 2 0r 3 buttons on the Gingerbread Man, can you tell how many there are without counting?  Try it!

Creative

• If you have the ingredients, have a go at making your own gingerbread people. It’s always a great hit in Nursery. If you don’t have time this week, add the ingredients to your weekly shop and save it for a weekend treat together.
• Watch ‘Melody’ as she listens to some music that reminds her of the Gingerbread Man story. What did it make you think of?
• If you have playdough at home, have a go at making gingerbread people.

 Phonics – Nursery rhymes

During group time this week, we were going to re-visit some of our favourite Nursery rhymes. Sing some together at home. There are lots to choose from here.

As you’re singing, try missing out a word from the end of a line. Can your child fill in the missing word? E.g. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great….. ?

Please remember to let us know how you’re getting on throughout the week and send us a quick e-mail to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org. We love to find out about your home learning – in whatever form it takes. Gingerbread Man related or something completely different!

 

 

 

Phonics
1. Practise recognising and saying all the sounds.
Phase 2 – Phonics Bloom
2. Practise reading all of the phase 2 tricky words. You could also have a go at spelling them using the look, cover and write method. Remember to use the letter names when writing them!

3. Words to Read:

Use your ‘phoneme fingers’ or point to the sound buttons to help. How many sounds are in these words?
4. Words to write:
ten    bat    neck    top
Ask an adult to read out the words. Use your phoneme frames in your home learning pack. Remember to write one phoneme in each box.
**Challenge words**
Have a go at writing these words on a piece of paper.
sunset   rocket   laptop   bucket
5. Phonics Activity
Write the captions (adult to read aloud)

Remember to use your phoneme fingers when segmenting.

Literacy Activity
Tell a story together using the ‘my turn, your turn’ method.
You – Once upon a time there was
Child…
You – Who lived in
Child…
You – One day, he/she decided to
Child…
Have fun and be creative!
Please email us your stories – we would love to hear them!
**Challenge** Draw a story map of your story and label each of your pictures with a word or sentence.

Maths
You can count just about anything! Have a go at counting different actions. Have a go at these…
10 star jumps
5 claps
3 shoulder shrugs
6 clicks
Can you think of anymore?

Activity
Write out the numbers 0-20 on some paper or card, cut them up and then ask an adult to mix the numbers up – don’t peek! Then, see how quickly you can put them into the correct order. You could ask someone to time you and see if you are faster the second time.

Topic
Go on a winter walk with a grown-up and look around to see the things that have changed since the summer.

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

 

Happy New Year! I hope that you’ve had a happy and healthy Christmas.

Phonics
Listening Walk
Go on a Listening Walk with an adult around your house and in your garden. Practise listening carefully to all the different sounds you hear. Talk about what you heard. Did you recognise all the sounds? Were they loud or quiet? Were they long or short sounds?
Draw pictures of the things you heard on a piece of paper.

Maths
Build a tower using building bricks, blocks, cubes or anything you have at home.
How tall is your tower?
Can you count all of the bricks?
Can you build a smaller tower?
Topic
We are currently in the season winter. This morning, there might be frost on the floor. Go outside into your garden to explore the frost.
Talk to an adult about…
What happens in winter?
Do you like winter?
How do we keep warm in winter?
Draw or paint a picture of someone dressed for a cold winter day.