Class News

Fabulous report writing!

Well done on completing another week of home learning.

The number of children attending our daily Zoom lessons has increased which is fantastic to see! Once again, it has been great to see everyone’s hard work at home and in school. A highlight this week has been the report writing. Thank you to Mr Owen, who has clearly inspired lots of you to create your own imaginary planet and write a report all about it. Here are a few examples of reports that have been written this week:

During the week, some of the Year 6 pupils were asking for some help with the maths learning. Zoom was a great opportunity to share this and I was able to give some additional support to those who needed it. This is another great reason to join the daily sessions as I’m available to give some top tips and go over anything that children are finding challenging.

I look forward to seeing what you all get up to next week!

Week Commencing 25.01.21: F2 Home Learning

Story Link activities to select throughout the week

Literacy
1. Can you write a recipe for Gruffalo Crumble?  Write a list of all of the ingredients you will need. Think about the things that the mouse might find in a deep dark wood.
2. Can you make a sign to warn people about the Gruffalo ? What would you write on your sign? Think of some interesting warning words.
3. Can you draw and label a map of the mouse’s journey through the deep dark wood? Who did he meet first in the story? Where did he find the owl?
Understanding the World

1. Find out about owls and some other birds of prey by watching Andy’s Secret Hideout. Can you find out some more interesting facts about owls?
2. Do you have any dried spaghetti at home? How does it feel, is it hard or soft?  Adults could you cook the pasta and watch it with your child. Talk about the changes. How does it feel once it has been cooked? Now you have your own bowl of scrambled snake to enjoy.
Expressive Arts and Design
Can you make a Gruffalo or a mouse headband? Use some paper and Sellotape then colour it in. You could then act out the story.
Are you going to be the mouse or the Gruffalo?
Physical Development
1. Using your fiddly fingers thread some tubes of pasta onto a piece of string, ribbon or an old shoelace. Can you add on eyes and make your snake slither around?
If you haven’t got any pasta you could make a paper chain snake or cut out a spiral snake from some paper.
2. Have a go at doing some Cosmic Yoga. It tells the story of Tallulah the owlet. We really enjoy cosmic yoga at school and we hope that you do at home too.
Online Gruffalo Activities
Click here and play some Gruffalo games.
1. Monster maker – make your own Gruffalo – choose your own face, body and legs. What would you call the new Gruffalo? If you have access to a printer, print it out and colour it in.

2. Hide and Seek – play the matching game with the Gruffalo cards.

3. Menu matcher – is a short quiz about the Gruffalo story.

I hope you all enjoyed the nursery rhyme themed Zoom. It was lovely to see all your smiling faces. Don’t forget next Wednesday’s Zoom is a Scavenger Hunt. You will be asked to go and find lots of different things.
Parents: be prepared to help your child look for things.
See you then!

F1 Home Learning: Week 4

This week, our learning is going to be themed around the well known traditional tale, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. If you have a copy at home, read it together before starting the activities. If you don’t have a copy of the story, you can listen to it using this link.

Reading ·        Have you heard this story before? Can you remember what happens?·        What do the Bears say each time they find something else that Goldilocks has touched? “Someone’s been eating/sitting/sleeping…”  Try to encourage your child to join in with the repeated phrases as you read the story. ·        Once you’ve heard the story a few times, have a go at re-telling the story. This is an important part of the Early Years reading curriculum and we often use pictures and props to help us re-tell stories. Do you have 3 teddy bears that you could use to retell the story at home? You could find 3 different sized bowls and spoons too.  If you’d like to make some story props instead, and you have a printer, you can download some printable ones here. ·        If you have the CBeebies Story Time App, you can download the story to read, too. Details on how to download the App are available on the link.

Phonics A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to make some sound effects linked to ‘Zog’ using your voice. In Nursery, we use voice sound cards during group time to make different noises. Have a go at home and see if you can think of some more sounds. If you’d like to continue learning about ‘Voice sounds’, here’s a video link to a voice sounds game with a cheeky character called Felix! At the end of the video, there’s a funny face paper plate craft activity too.  You could play the same game at home and make your own picture cards (or print some).What would Little Bear say when he sees his chair has broken? What does Goldilocks say when she tastes Little Bears porridge?

Mark-Making ·        Can you draw a picture of Goldilocks? Make sure you give her lots of long, golden curls. If you like to paint, you could paint a picture of your favourite teddy bear. ·        How many bears are in the story?  Try to draw a big bear for Daddy Bear and a smaller bear for Baby Bear. What size would Mummy Bear be? ·        Where do the Three Bears live? Draw a picture of their house. What shape are the windows and door?

Maths ·        Ask your child to help you find 3 different sized bowls and spoons. Which is the biggest? Smallest? Arrange them in size order. ·        Watch this week’s Key Worker video. Create your own repeating colour pattern using Duplo or Lego bricks. Keep it simple, just pick two colours.

Maths Extension ideas –  You might have a threading set at home or some coloured beads. Can you make a repeating colour pattern using the buttons or beads? – Create a repeating pattern using pictures or objects instead of colours. Remember to keep it simple, choosing just 2 different items. E.g.  Apple, carrot, apple, carrot, apple…

Creative ·        This activity is always a big hit in Nursery, but it is messy! Use your different sized bowls and spoons and put them inside an empty plastic storage box/tray to catch some of the mess. Add some porridge oats (or some rice crispies/rice/pasta) to the bowls for your child mix, scoop and pour the oats. Children love to scoop and pour in our sensory area – it’s easily swept or vacuumed up at the end of the day. We usually use dry ingredients, but you can add water if you want to add to the sensory play experience (and mess)! ·        Make your own porridge together and taste it. What does it taste like? Do you add anything to your porridge? Does it make it sweeter? ·        Need some quiet time? Grab a drink and some fruit and snuggle on the sofa to watch this CBeebies ballet version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. ·        In the story, Goldilocks thinks that one bed is too soft and one is too hard. What does this mean? Can you find any objects in your house that are soft and hard? What other words could you use to describe the texture of items? Rough, bumpy, smooth, furry etc. ·        Here’s another of the songs that we enjoy listening to before lunch at Nursery.

Physical Development Funky Fingers This is linked to our ‘Independence’ activity this week. What can you find that uses a zip? For example: Zip-lock bags, purses/wallets, bags, pencil cases, wash bags, jackets and clothing. Allow your child time to investigate ‘zips’ and how they work. If you have an old bag or purse/wallet, let your child use it in their role play at home – they love to fill them with items and incorporate them into their play. Becoming familiar with how zips work, and learning how to use them in a range of contexts, will help them progress onto eventually fastening their own coats. Movement Get a few pairs of socks and roll them into a balls. Cut out some different sized spots (big/small) using paper and spread them out on the floor. Ask children to aim at the spots. Did it land on the big or small spot? How many are on the big spot? If the bowls you chose for the maths activity aren’t breakable, you could aim into Daddy Bear’s bowl instead!

Independence skills Next time you go out for a walk, make sure you allow some extra time for your child to put their own coat on. If they can already do this, encourage them to do their own zip up. This is a really important skill and one which we would be teaching daily at Nursery. If you’d like a few ideas on how to help, there are some hints and tips available on the links below – check which are appropriate for your child. ·        Putting coats on – Scroll to the bottom of the web page for 2 video clips. In Nursery, we usually start by putting our hoods on first and then finding the arm holes. We don’t always have much space for ‘through the rabbit holes’ and flipping coats over our heads, although children love to do it this way! ·        Zips fact sheet – Here’s a fact sheet with a few ideas or you could watch this video clip that shows small steps in teaching children how to use zips. In the video, the lady refers to the zip as ‘food’ and a ‘mouth’. In Nursery, we often call the zip the ‘train’ and put it into the ‘station’ so it can run up the track.

Key Worker activity and videos In our Key Worker activity this week, Mrs Beesley has some bears that she needs your help to sort. We’ve done a similar activity in group time before so see if you can remember what to do. When you’ve watched the videos, have a go at sorting some of your own toys, such as Duplo bricks or cars. Maybe you’ll have a tin of Quality Street left over from Christmas that you haven’t eaten yet and you could sort the sweets! (You don’t? We’re surprised!) Key Worker activity – Bear sorting Key Worker Song – When Goldilocks went to the house of the Bears

Friday Story Time- Veggies Assemble Click here to watch today’s story read by Miss Marsden. Sit back, relax and enjoy the story. After listening to the story, have a look in your kitchen and see if you can find any vegetables. Can you name any of the vegetables? Now, have some fun and make some ‘Super Veggies’ like these below.

I hope you all enjoyed the nursery rhyme themed Zoom. It was lovely to see all your smiling faces. Don’t forget next Wednesday’s Zoom is a Scavenger Hunt theme. You will be asked to go and find lots of different things.
Parents- be prepared to help your child look for things.
See you then!

Super home learners

How are you all getting on with your home learning? We have been enjoying our daily zoom’s.  We have loved speak to you each day and seeing all that you have been getting up to. Each day, we have been doing a quick quiz – this has been great fun. If you’re shy and don’t want to speak, but still want to see us and join our zoom, that is fine by us – we have a few children who just give us a thumbs up and a wave.

Here’s a quick picture of one of our zooms this week – we even got to see the chidlren who were in school!

Home learning heroes

I’ve had some lovely emails from people learning at home. Thank you for keeping in touch with me and keeping your brains busy.

Things are feeling tough for some people, but just do what you can and have a day off every now and again, if you need to!

Aubree is really enjoying the geography videos.

Home Learning

Well done to all the children who have been doing their home learning this week. It’s been lovely to see some of you on Zoom and to see and hear about the learning you’ve enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed seeing some of the drawings and models of the solar system as part of the science learning. It’s also been great to hear other ways you’ve been spending your days such as going on walks, reading a book, tie dyeing t-shirts and playing football in the garden. I look forward to seeing some more home learning next week. Remember, if you’re struggling with any of the home learning and you need some support, please ask an adult to email me and I will get in touch to help or you can ask me on Zoom. Happy home learning!

Week Commencing 18.01.21: F2 Home Learning

Monday	Book of the week- Watch the story SUPERTATO or read the book if you have it at home. SUPERTATO Questions to discuss: Where is the story set? Who are the main characters in the story? What fruit and vegetables do you like to eat? Why is it important to eat fruit and vegetables?
	Phonics- x Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1: Write a word, caption or sentence to match the picture. Activity 2: Go to phonicsbloom.com. Choose phase 2 games. Play: Fishy Phonics
	Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6,7,8! Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 1 Activity: Click here for today’s activity.
Tuesday	Phonics- y Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1:  Write a word, caption or sentence to match the picture. Activity 2: Click here to play Buried Treasure on Phonics Play. Select phase 3 then +y.
	Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6,7,8! Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 2 Activity: Click here for today’s activity.
Wednesday	Phonics- z/zz Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1: Be a ‘z’ detective! Can you find anything (or anyone) in your house, that has the initial or ending sound ‘z’?
	Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6,7,8! Click here to be taken to the correct web page. Choose Session 3 Activity: Click here for today’s activity.
Thursday	Phonics- Tricky words Click here to watch today’s phonics video Activity 1: Be a Tricky Word Detective. Can you find any of the phase 3 tricky words in the books you have at home? Activity 2: Play Run to the Tricky Word. 1. Write each tricky word on separate pieces of paper. Click here to check you have used all of the tricky words. 2. Stick them around your garden or a big room in your house. 3. Get an adult to spell the tricky words aloud using the letter names. 4. Run to the correct tricky word. Activity 3: Play the Reading Robot game on Phonics Play. Parents: Login details are… Username: Sphere Password: Spher3 Search Phonics Play > Resources > Phase 2 > Reading Robot > Start > Phase 2 Word Passport Click here for this week’s word list. Remember to use your phoneme fingers when blending!
	Maths- White Rose Maths: Growing 6,7,8! 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; – Keeping warm in winter Click here to watch this week’s video with Professor Myers. Can you design an outfit to keep Professor Myers warm when she goes out for her winter walks? Can you think of some ways of moving to keep warm when it’s cold outside? Which one worked best?
	Story time- The Very Lazy Ladybird Click here to watch today’s story read by Miss Marsden. Sit back, relax and enjoy the story. Questions to discuss: 1. What did the ladybird like to do all day and night? 2. Whose tail did the ladybird hop onto? 3. What did the elephant do? 4. Did you like the story? What was your favourite part?

 Story Link activities to select throughout the week

Literacy

1. Design and label your own character to match the story. You may choose to draw, paint or use real vegetables.
2. Pick a character to draw and add a speech bubble. What is your character saying?
   

Understanding the World

1. Find some fruits and vegetables around your house. Sort them into different groups. You might sort by colour, size or texture.
2. If you have frozen peas in your freezer have a look at them in their frozen state. Feel them, what do they feel like? Watch them defrost. How long does it take? Does it defrost more quickly in different places around your house?

Expressive Arts and Design
1. Draw a vegetable.
Use your own imagination or this drawing tutorial.
How to draw broccoli

2. Use a mash potato masher to make some super art.

Physical Development
1. With an adult, cut some fruit and vegetables to make a healthy snack.
How many pieces did you cut? 

2. Superhero PE!
Be a superhero and try out some of these stretches and movements.
Superhero 1
Superhero 2


Zoom sessions
Next week the children who are learning from home will be invited to a zoom session with their teacher. This zoom session will be with a group of children from their class. You will find the  focus of the zoom session  on the website each Friday. Sometimes your child will need to bring something along with them. Your child does not have to join in with these zooms, they are optional. Unfortunately, the timings of these zooms cannot be changed as most teachers are teaching in school. Look out for the link to your child’s zoom, which will be sent, via email on a Friday. Look forward to seeing you all next week.

F1 Home Learning: Week 3

Reading There are lots of great stories that take place in a snowy setting. You might have ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ at home or a favourite story that involves penguins or polar bears. Here’s a story for you to watch called ‘The Snowy Day’. ·        How do you feel like when you open the curtains, look out of the window and see snow? ·        Can you remember the sound that Peter’s feet made as he walked through the snow? We love listening to the ‘crunch’ of freshly fallen snow! ·        What tracks did Peter find in the snow? Have you ever seen some tracks in the snow? What made the tracks? ·        Peter put a snowball in his pocket. What happened? Where did the snowball go?

Phonics In Nursery, we practise our listening skills when we’re singing and using instruments. We have to shake the instruments until we hear the music stop. Find something at home that you can use to make a noise – this could be an instrument, a pot with rice in or a wooden spoon and a pan! Shake or bang along to the music and remember to listen carefully for when to stop.

Mark-Making ·        Draw a snowman. Think carefully about what shape you need to use for the body and head. How many eyes do you need to draw? What shape could you use for a carrot nose? ·        Paint a winter picture.  What colours would you use? ·        Draw around your hands and carefully cut them out to make some paper gloves. Add patterns to decorate the gloves. Will they be spotty or stripy? ·        Add a small amount of water to a baking tray (shallow) and put it out overnight when the weather forecast is cold. Hopefully, when you return to it in the morning, you will have a thin sheet of ice. Bring it inside and have a go at painting on it. What happens?

Mathematics ·        You will need a large snowman outline (cut out white paper circles or draw one onto paper) and some buttons/pompoms/beads for buttons. Just like in our previous Gingerbread Man activity, put 1-6 buttons on the snowman and count how many buttons the snowman has. Encourage children to count carefully, pointing/touching each button as they say each number. Some children will work with numbers up to 3 confidently, others may be able to work with numbers to 5 or 10. Choose the number of buttons according to your child’s confidence levels. ·        On a different day, instead of counting how many buttons are already on the snowman, ask children to select a given number of buttons from a pile. They may find this tricky and sometimes forget to stop! Keep the numbers small, below 3-4 to start with. (If your child can do this, increase the numbers up to 10.) Remind your child how many buttons they need to get and what number they are going to ‘stop’ at. Keep checking as they count – have they reached the ‘stop’ number yet? ·        If your child is working confidently counting up to 6, introduce a dice. Roll the dice once each and add the corresponding number of buttons to your snowman. Which snowman has the fewest/most buttons?

Extension Activities Some of our older children might enjoy playing the Snowman Dice Game from Twinkl. The mark making skills required might be a too challenging for some children, but you could always draw the pieces onto paper and then collect each part as you roll the dice.

Creative ·        Create a winter tree picture using some twigs that you collect from your garden or a walk. You will need some coloured paper, twigs, glue, cotton buds and white paint. ·        Need some quiet time? Grab your favourite snack and a blanket and enjoy watching ‘The Snowman’ by Raymond Briggs. ·        Are you wearing a woolly jumper to keep warm? Here’s Aunty Mable and Pippin in an old episode of ‘Come Outside’ telling us all about how they are made.

Understanding the World ·        Talk to your child about the seasons. The BBC has a short video clip that you could watch to discuss things that you can see changing as the seasons change. Children might be able to spot some of the autumnal changes that we talked about in Nursery before Christmas. ·        What season is it now? How do we know? What clothes do we wear in winter? How is this different to summer time? Listen to this song all about winter – Did you talk about some of the things in this video? ·        On your next walk, have a look for some signs of winter.  We’ve created a Winter Scavenger Hunt sheet for you to print or copy. Take it with you on your walk and tick off the items as you find them. If your child comments on some of the changes that they see and you have time, please make a note of the words that they use and send us an email with their comments. (Please note it down word for word, just as they say it!) ·        Investigate freezing and melting. Choose a selection of objects (that can go in water and be frozen!) and put them into some empty pots (yogurt pots, ice cube trays) with a small amount of water. Freeze them overnight (or longer) and remove once they’re frozen. Put the frozen items into a tray and allow your child to investigate. What does it feel like? What has happened to the water? Play with the ice and watch what happens to them over time. Talk about the changes that children can see happening. What’s happening to the ice? Discuss the basic process of melting and think about other things that might melt such as ice-creams on a sunny day.

Physical Development Fiddly Fingers Lots of us have memories of making paper snowflakes as a child and we thought that this would be a great activity to practise our ‘snipping’ skills. You will need some paper (cut it into a square shape) and a pair of children’s scissors. Loosely, follow these instructions on how to fold your paper – don’t worry too much about this part! In Nursery, we’re interested in learning how to fold and use scissors safely, rather than a perfect snowflake at the end of the process!  Please ensure that your child is supervised when using their scissors.  Show your child where to cut and let them enjoy snipping the paper. What does it look like when you open it out?Movement Join in with these Cosmic yoga sessions at home. There’s a shorter clip, Winter Wonderland, and a longer story called Joybob The Polar Bear.Independence skills At this point of the year in Nursery, we usually have a long line of children needing help to put their gloves on before we go outside! Over the next few weeks, encourage your child to put on their own gloves. Teach them to close their fingers at first to get their hand into the glove and then to open them slightly and wiggle each finger into place. Keep trying – it’s tricky!

Key Worker activity/video In our Key Worker session this week, we’re going to do our ‘Dough Disco’ song. Those of you that join our Zoom sessions will be able to have another go and practise each of the moves. You’ll need a small ball of playdough (or similar), just enough to fit in your child’s palm.We also like to sing this song on cold, snowy days. It’s called ‘5 Little Snowmen’.

Friday Story Time The Very Lazy Ladybird Click here to watch today’s story read by Miss Marsden. Sit back, relax and enjoy the story. Questions to discuss: 1. What did the ladybird like to do all day and night? 2. Whose tail did the ladybird hop onto? 3. What did the elephant do? 4. Did you like the story? What was your favourite part?

Zoom sessions Next week the children who are learning from home will be invited to a zoom session with their teacher. This zoom session will be with a group of children from their class. You will find the  focus of the zoom session  on the website each Friday. Sometimes your child will need to bring something along with them. Your child does not have to join in with these zooms, they are optional. Unfortunately, the timings of these zooms cannot be changed as most teachers are teaching in school. Look out for the link to your child’s zoom, which will be sent, via email.We are looking forward to seeing you all.

Super home learning

Thank you to everyone who has emailed me letting me know how you are getting on at home.

It has also been lovely to see lots of faces and hear about what you have been doing on our daily class Zoom meetings.

I have enjoyed reading ‘The Last Wolf’ with Mr Gathercole.

Email me if you need the invite re-sending.

katieharker@spherefederation.org

Here are some examples of what people have being getting up to at home. Do what you can and, most importantly, stay happy, healthy and safe.

So far… so good…

So, we’re two weeks into the new term… how are we all doing? It’s lovely to hear how you are getting on at home. Thank you for those of you that have sent in pictures of your learning experiences at home.

Mr Roundtree was very impressed with the video that we received this week from one of our Y4s. This is what he thought: ‘What a well-presented video – very clearly introduced and explained. I enjoyed watching this immensely.‘ Click here to enjoy it for yourself!

It’s also been great to see those of you that have logged in to our 2pm zoom calls this week. Don’t forget, they’re available every weekday and it’s fun being able to see other classmates and share our experiences of home learning and lockdown life.