Week Beginning 20.4.20 Reception Home Learning Weekly Overview

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and a well deserved break.

As it is St George’s Day on Thursday, this week’s learning theme is derived from the story of ‘St George and the Dragon’.

I would also like the children to focus on communicating with others.

Please start the week by reading/ listening to/ watching the story of St George and the Dragon. There are lots of versions of the story.

This is a nice simple version of the story: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/george-and-the-dragon

Please also watch the two film clips about St George’s Day on this page:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/lets-celebrate-st-georges-day

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

  • Think about a time when you have been brave like St George. Talk about it with an adult and then draw or write about it.
  • Think about the neighbours who live near you. Do any of them live on their own? With the help of your adult, make a happy, colourful picture, or write and decorate a letter for them and post it through their door, to brighten their day.

Communication and Language

  • Think about a friend or member of the family that you haven’t spoken to for a while and talk to them over the phone or by video calling them.
  • Upload a video to Tapestry telling Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer about your Easter holidays.
  • Think of lots of words to describe the dragon in the story.
  • Retell the story of St George and the Dragon in your own words. You could even use props to help you.  

Physical Development

  • Make St George flags and poles. Does your flag pole stand up on it’s own without falling over? If it doesn’t, how can you solve the problem?
  • Play traditional English games such as cricket, skittles and tennis.
  • Decorate the inside and outside of your house with the St Georges Day bunting/ flags that you made. (See expressive arts and design)
  • Make red roses from junk modelling material.
  • Make paper dragons with moving arms and legs. (use split pins or something similar to join)
  • Make models of dragons from various construction/ junk modelling materials.
  • Make shields and swords from different materials.
  • Get yourself dressed in red and white clothes on St Georges Day. (Thursday)

 Understanding the World

  • Use the internet to find out which countries also have St George as their patron saint of their country. How many are there? Can you find these countries on a map? What do their flags look like?
  • What is armour? Who uses it and why? Can you think of any jobs where people need to use armour?
  • How has armour changed over time?
  • Can you think of any animals that use armour to keep themselves protected? Write a list.
  • Who was St George? Find out some things about him.

Expressive Arts and Design

  • Design your own dragon-proof protective clothing.
  • Design and make a shield that reflects your interests/ nature/ favourite colours.
  • Make red and white bunting or flags.
  • Paint your face with the St George Cross on St George’s Day.
  • Draw what you think the dragon looked like.
  • Paint still life pictures of red roses.
  • Create your own dragons from junk modelling materials.
  • Use tin foil and cardboard to make armour for a roman soldier.
  • Sing daily, using the BBC Schools Radio website- https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/eyfs-early-years/z6bgnrd The class love this website and it will be very familiar to them!

 

 

Maths

Focus: number recognition 1-20.

Does your child recognise all numbers within 20? If not, please continue to work on these numbers through playing number games- board games such as snakes and ladders, online games, finding numbers in the environment etc.

If your child does recognise all numbers within 20, please reinforce previous learning by asking your child to place numbers 1-20 in order, counting out objects of a given amount,(for example, ‘Please count out 18 stones from the pile and place it on the number 18’) and asking them to tell you the number that is one more or one less than a given number from 1-20.

On-going Maths Activities – try at least one a day

  • Go on a walk and count how many rainbows or teddies you can see in the windows of different houses. Which road has the most?
  • Counting objects within the house-This could be anything as simple as counting the cutlery in your drawer!
  • Looking for shapes in the environment- Can you see the rectangle on the table? The square on the oven door? How many edges does the bookcase have? Can you name the 3D shape that your cereal box is?
  • Using positional and directional language- Where is the teddy? On top, under, behind, in front of, next to. inbetween etc. Use directions to get from one room to another e.g. walk two steps forward, turn left…
  • Capacity-Fill the bath and give them your child whichever containers you have at home (jugs, Tupperware). Encourage the language of full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty, empty. Will the water to fill this container fit into another container?
  • Time- Create an ‘at home’ timetable together. What shall we do first? What shall do next? What shall we do at the end of the day? Begin to recognise o’ clock times on a clock.
  • Money- Empty your purse or money box. Learn the names of the different coins. Use 1p coins to count and add with.
  • Patterns- Use every day objects around the home to create patterns e.g. pen, fork, sock, pen, fork, sock. Can the continue and copy your pattern? Can they make their own pattern.
  • Length and height- Find three objects from around the home. Can they order them from smallest to largest? Use your feet to measure the length of items in your home (e.g the sofa). How many feet long is it? Counting objects within the house. This could be anything as simple as counting the cutlery in your drawer!
  • Addition using objects found within your home- If we have 5 spoons and 3 forks, how many do we have altogether? Include missing numbers e.g I have 5 buttons. How many more do I need to make 10?
  • Subtraction using objects found within your home- If we have 7 biscuits and I eat 2 how many biscuits are left?
  • Subitising (recognising how many without counting) the amount of objects in a set. How many candles are on the fireplace? How many plates are on the table? etc
  • Watch a Numberblocks episode each day at: BBC ​iplayer or ​CBeebies​.
  • Practise counting up to 20. This can be done through playing hide and seek, singing number songs, chanting, board games etc.
  • Write out the digits 0 – 9.
  • Sing Number songs to practice counting, reciting numbers in order, one more, one less using number songs: Five Little Ducks, Five Little Men, Ten Green Bottles
  • Practise counting backwards from 20.
  • Look for the numbers on the doors of houses. Do the numbers get bigger or smaller as you go up and down the street?
  • Listen to a number song from the CBeebies​ website. After listening to them, watch again and sing along if you can. Talk about the maths you can see in the video clip.
  • Look out of the window and count how many houses or buildings can be seen
  • Explore weighing and measuring food on the kitchen scales. Ask, what happens as you place more on the scales?
  • Look for numerals on packaging you find around the house. Can your child recognise the numerals and count out a matching amount?

Maths Websites

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years

https://matr.org/blog/fun-maths-games-activities-for-kids/

https://www.primarygames.com/math.php

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy

https://apps.mathlearningcenter.org/geoboard/

.

White Rose Maths has prepared a series of five maths lessons for each year group from Year R-8. They will be adding five more each week for the next few weeks. Every lesson comes with a short video showing you clearly and simply how to help your child to complete the activity successfully. Click on the link to find out more.

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/

 Literacy

  • Write a letter to a friend or relative and post it to them if you can, when you are on your daily walk.
  • Write signs warning people about the dangerous dragon.
  • Write about how you would trap and get rid of a dragon that was living in Potters Bar? For example, would you use magic? Send it to a zoo? Talk to the dragon about it’s behaviour? Find it a new place to live?

Parents, please encourage your child to write as often as you can, using their phonics and tricky word knowledge. Please take a close up picture of any writing they do and upload it to Tapestry. If they are forming their letters incorrectly, the wrong way around or hold their pencil the wrong way, please correct your child immediately. Please refer to the inside cover of their original home phonics book for the handwriting phrases, if you find yourself in this position.

Phonics

It is highly important that your child practises their letter sounds and tricky words and applies them through a reading and writing activity daily. Reading will help improve their vocabulary and a child’s academic success depends upon the ability to read and write and so this should be a priority.

Please continue to practise all of Phase 2 and Phase 3 sounds and tricky words on a daily basis.

Phase 2 tricky and high frequency words

Read: is, it, in, at, and, the, to, no, go, I, on, a

Phase 3 tricky and high frequency words

Read: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, they, her, all, are

Write: the, to, no, go, I

For those children who know all of the above, please begin to teach the following words from Phase 4. (Consolidating phase)

 Phase 4 tricky words

Read: said, so, have, like, some, come, were, there, little, one, do, when, out, what

Information about Phase 4 Phonics

During the this term and only when the children are secure in Phase 2 and 3, Reception usually move over to the Phase 4 stage of Letters and Sounds. When children start, they will know a grapheme for each of the 42 phonemes. They will be able to blend phonemes to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and segment in order to spell them.

Children will also have begun reading straightforward two-syllable words and simple captions, as well as reading and spelling some tricky words.

In Phase 4, no new graphemes are introduced. The main aim of this phase is to consolidate the children’s knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and milk.

If your child knows all of the Phase 2 and 3 sounds consistently and the high frequency and tricky words, then please begin to introduce your child to the Phase 4 online games and activities.

Important- Please be aware that if you go onto this phase before they are ready, it may cause your child to have issues with spelling later on in their school life.

The following websites are fantastic for practising phonics phases, word recognition and sentence reading.

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

http://www.familylearning.org.uk

https://www.topmarks.co.uk

www.letters-and-sounds.com

https://www.spellingcity.com/spelling-games-vocabulary-games.html

Twinkl also have some great phonics and cross curricular resources and are also currently free if you follow these instructions:

Go to https://www.twinkl.co.uk/offer  and enter the code: UKTWINKLHELPS

Phonics Play in particular is a fantastic resource for the actual teaching of the Letters and Sounds program. It is currently free to parents due to the Coronavirus situation.

 Reading

As well as Oxford Owls, Harper Collins Publishers are now giving parents free access to their Big Cat e-books and activities, which are also organised according to book band colour.

Go to Collins Connect and click on the Teacher portal and enter:

Username: parents@harpercollins.co.uk

Password: Parents20!

and then click Login.

To login to Oxford Owl please continue using the school’s login.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

Username:popepaul2020

Password:Ilovereading2020

You must put the detail into Class Login not the general login otherwise it will not work. Once logged in, you can go into the bookshelf. Select 2 books from your child’s book band colour and practise reading them every day. There are two activities to go with each book and parent tips at the end of the book. If you click on the parents section too, you should find even more books and resources.

RE

To show that RE is a special learning time, we always light a candle to mark the beginning of lesson and ask ‘Who is with us when we light the candle?’ and ‘Who do we learn about in our RE lesson?’

We then say the school’s Mission Prayer together.

Parents, please begin by re-capping the stories learnt in our previous topic- ‘Lent to Easter’. -Jesus arriving in Jerusalem, washing feet, last supper and Good Friday.

Remind your child about any religious experiences you shared as a family during the Easter holiday.

Tell your child that our new topic is called ‘Easter to Pentecost’. Explain that in school, the new colours on the prayer table and RE display would change from purple to the colours of the Easter season, which are gold and white.

Tell the story of the Resurrection from a child’s bible using pictures and props and discuss Jesus as a special person – God in human form.

Make models of the empty tomb from any material such as:

Salt dough- Follow this very simple recipe here: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-salt-dough-recipe

Paper Mache- Follow this very simple method if you do not have any glue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTKQGMy1Joo

Materials found in the garden such as earth, sticks and stones.

When you have finished, ask your child to tell you the story of the Resurrection and discuss how special Jesus must be.

Ask your child: What happened to Jesus in the story? Is Jesus like us? Why / why not? What can you tell me about the Resurrection? How do you think Mary felt?

 

Remember, you do not need to do everything on this overview- even if you just pick one or two things to do from each area over the week, you will be doing a great job!

Finally, if you need to get in touch with me about your child’s learning, I will be picking up emails between the hours of 8.50am and 3.30pm Monday- Friday.

The email address is:

yearR@popepaul.herts.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support and have a great week!

Mrs Theo

Message From Francesca Khaliq at Our Lady and St Vincent Church

Holy Week Quiz for FRHC. Primary School (Key Stage 2).FK.01.04.2020

Holy Week Quiz Younger Children (Key stage 1).Fk.01.04.20

Message from Francesca Khaliq at Our Lady and St Vincent Church

Dear families,

I hope you are all keeping safe and well during this unsettling time.

As it is Holy Week next week I am attaching some quizzes for the children to do, there is one for key Stage 1 (reception to Year 2) and Key Stage 2 (Year 3 to Year 6). Entries will need to be sent back to Deacon Axcel by Tuesday 14th April at  pbalpha@rcdow.org.uk, so just put the answers into an email, or you can print the quiz and fill it in and post them to the parish, whatever is easier for you. Axcel will put all the names into a hat and pick a winner, the prize is a £20 voucher, so worth having a go, please encourage them to take part; the answers will be emailed out when the winner is announced.  There is a quiz for older children in secondary school (Key Stage 3), you can request this quiz by emailing pbalpha@rcdow.org.uk and Deacon Axcel will email it to you, there are £20 gift vouchers for the winner of each of the three quizzes.

It is wonderful that we have the capability of live streaming (remember you can access our live streaming by logging on to our website olasv.org.uk and clicking on live streaming link) but sad to see the benches empty without all our wonderful parishioners. So we would like you all to send a photo of your family so Fr Shaun and Deacon Axcel can print them out and stick them on the benches in church, so we are all there together. So please take a family photo and email it to pbalpha@rcdow.org.uk

I have prepared a Children’s Liturgy for the children to do on Good Friday at home, all the information has been emailed to parents via schoolcomms, there is a run through and 3 attachments for the liturgy, have a read through and see if you can spend some time with the children to do this on Good Friday. Please don’t feel obliged to do it all if you can’t or if you don’t have the resources but have a look before Friday to see if you can get anything ready in advance, you will just need access to a laptop/IPad or mobile to watch the videos and access the music.

I pray that you and your families keep safe and well during this time.

God bless

Fran

Francesca Khaliq

Catechetical Co-ordinator

Our Lady & St Vincent

 

Computing! Childnet Film Competition

Childnet Film Competition 2020

The Childnet Film Competition is now in its 11th year and is open to all young people based in the UK. The challenge is to create a short film or a storyboard with a script in response to this year’s theme.

The theme of this year’s Childnet film competition is:

We want an Internet where we’re free to….

Think about all the things we love to do online. Create a film or storyboard that explains why we want an internet that allows people to feel free and safe online and how we can can make this happen.

Childnet have released packs to give more information about the competition and to help you to plan and make your films at home. All details can be found at https://www.childnet.com/resources/film-competition/2020

Childnet understands that young people may not have access to specialist equipment at home but don’t let that stop you. Get creative with the technology you have, including phones and tablets, or enter the storyboard category, which doesn’t require any film making equipment.

I am sure there are some great filmmakers in our midst.

Good luck and happy filmmaking.

From Miss Davey

Computing Subject Leader

 

PE snakes and ladder fun

Good Morning,

I hope you are all well. I thought you might like to try this PE version of snakes and ladders with your family instead of (or in addition to – if you’re feeling super fit!) joining Joe Wicks this morning. There are many different challenges included. All you need is a dice, appropriate clothing, water and a safe space. Enjoy and send me some pictures of you having fun if possible.

Love Miss Pringle

pe snakes and ladders

Week Beginning 30.3.20 Reception Home Learning Weekly Overview

Dear Parents and Carers,

Firstly, can I start by thanking you for all of your hard work last week. I have been overwhelmed and delighted by the amazing learning uploaded to Tapestry over the week. You are all doing a fantastic job!

If you haven’t already done so, please ensure that you do this as soon as you can, even if it’s just one or two photographs. Thank you.

You will see that I have repeated some information from last week’s blog. This is simply because it is ongoing or important information.

This week’s focus is ‘Transport and Journeys’

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

  • Road safety- Remind your child about the time the Road Safety Officer came to visit Reception. She taught the class to Stop, Look, Listen and Think. What do they remember about her visit? Use the internet to find childrens’ road safety videos.
  • Discuss different/ special journeys that your child has been on with the family.
  • Talk about healthy and eco ways of travelling – walking, biking, public transport.
  • Rescue vehicles – ambulance/fire engine/helicopter/life boat. Talk about what makes them different to regular vehicles and why they are so important.

 Communication and Language

  • Explore and talk about photographs of different types of transport. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-e-499-new-transport-photo-pack
  • Has your child experienced travelling on every type of vehicle? What is your child’s favourite way to travel? Why? What would they like to travel in that they haven’t already?
  • Role play – (See EAD) travel agents/airport check in/train station/garage.
  • Story making using props found around the house – a magic carpet ride/a hot air balloon ride/ a ride on a broomstick.
  • Memory and list games – ‘I packed my bag and in it I put…’
  • Step outside your front door and close your eyes. Can you hear any traffic sounds?
  • Listen to these audio recordings from different vehicles. Can your child identify them? http://soundbible.com/tags-traffic.html

Physical Development

  • Transport mimes – ask your child to role play getting on a train/into a boat/in a car. Can you guess the vehicle?
  • Wash your family car together.
  • Wash your scooter/bike/ sit-on toys/cars.
  • Make ramps to ride down or push your cars down and explore what happens when you raise or lower the ramp or make the ramp longer of shorter.
  • Ask your child to create movements based on vehicles that you call out. “Move like a helicopter” for example.
  • Play ‘Follow My Leader’ using prepositions- up, down, under, over, next to, in-between etc.
  • Play stop/go games using traffic light colours.
  • Play fast/slow games based on modes of transport.
  • Build bridges and tunnels using construction kits/ junk modelling.
  • Make tracks with footprints.
  • Set up an obstacle course inside/outside to travel along.
  • Dance daily, using the free Go-Noodle website- https://www.gonoodle.com/ The class absolutely love this website!
  • Participate in the daily PE lesson with Joe Wicks Body Coach at 9am on YouTube.

 

Understanding the World

  • Map making – which way do you come to school? Can you draw it?
  • Find your house/school on Google Earth/Maps
  • If you have a holiday postcard in the house, look at it closely. Ask your child: Who wrote it? Where is it from? What date is on it? Can you find the country it was sent from on a map? What journey did the postcard make to get to your house?
  • Look at road maps with your child.
  • Draw your own maps of your house and garden.
  • Compare past and present transport by clicking on London Transport Museum link here- https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/vehicles
  • Ask your child the question- How do animals travel? Ask your child to sort animals into different categories according to how they travel.
  • Joint project with parent and child- Take a bike apart using spanners, screwdrivers etc and put back together again.
  • Find an insect in your garden and follow it’s journey.
  • Go on Earth Cam https://www.earthcam.com/ and look up different landmarks all over the world. Look at cities in lockdown such as New York, Times Square. How many vehicles drive past in 5 minutes? (This website is fascinating!)

Expressive Arts and Design

  • Help your child to take prints/rubbings from the wheels of your car.
  • Have fun making paintings using the wheels from toy vehicles dipped in paint.
  • Construct vehicles with moving wheels from junk modelling material.
  • Use a selection of large cardboard boxes for imaginative play- large cardboard boxes/packing crates can be transformed into any vehicle!
  • Imitate vehicle sounds with things found in your home.
  • Use chairs to be an impromptu bus/plane/car/train.
  • Make paper aeroplanes.
  • Make up own lyrics to the song, ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. For example, The wheels on the tractor go…….record and upload to Tapestry.
  • Play with small world cars, garages, planes and trains.
  • Support your child in setting up a travel agents/airport check in/train station/garage/car wash and ask them to make signs and props to go inside.
  • Twinkl usually have resources to support this- you will need printer access though. Role play is by far the most popular activity in Reception. By creating an area such as suggested above, they will be occupied for long periods of time. Just add teddies if there are no other children in the house or join in yourself!
  • Ask your child to draw some of the landmarks you see every day on your journey into school.
  • Show your child some road signs- ask them to make some of their own.
  • Create a race track/ road map to use with small world cars on the floor. Make some houses to go alongside.

 

Maths

  • Count parked cars when you go on your daily walk. Keep a daily tally. Are there more/less cars than yesterday? Than Monday?
  • Look out of your window- how many vehicles drive past in 2 minutes?
  • Keep a tally of the different types of vehicles/colours that drive past your window.
  • Encourage your child to measure the distance that a toy car travels when pushed over different surfaces.
  • Use a ramp at different heights and measure the distance the car has travelled each time.
  • Find different ways to sort toy vehicles.
  • Count total of wheels of 1/2/3/4/5 cars.
  • Songs and rhymes- 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer, How Many Passengers on the Bus?
  • Making 3D models of vehicles.
  • Count down for a rocket launch.
  • Using money in role play – e.g. buying tickets.
  • Make paper aeroplanes- measure distance flown

 

White Rose Maths have prepared a series of five maths lessons for each year group from Year R-8. They will be adding five more each week for the next few weeks. Every lesson comes with a short video showing you clearly and simply how to help your child to complete the activity successfully. Click on the link to find out more.

 

 

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/

 

Ongoing Maths Activities – try at least one a day

  • Watch a Numberblocks episode each day at: BBC ​iplayer or ​CBeebies​.
  • Practise counting up to 20. This can be done through playing hide and seek, singing number songs, chanting, board games etc.
  • Write out the digits 0 – 9.
  • Sing Number songs to practice counting, reciting numbers in order, one more, one less using number songs: Five Little Ducks, Five Little Men, Ten Green Bottles
  • Practise counting backwards from 20.
  • Look for the numbers on the doors of houses. Do the numbers get bigger or smaller as you go up and down the street?
  • Listen to a number song from the CBeebies​ website. After listening to them, watch again and sing along if you can. Talk about the maths you can see in the video clip.
  • Look out of the window and count how many houses or buildings can be seen
  • Explore weighing and measuring food on the kitchen scales. Ask, what happens as you place more on the scales?
  • Look for numerals on packaging you find around the house. Can your child recognise the numerals and count out a matching amount?

Maths Websites

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years

https://matr.org/blog/fun-maths-games-activities-for-kids/

https://www.primarygames.com/math.php

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy

https://apps.mathlearningcenter.org/geoboard/

 

Literacy

  • Ask your child to write down a list of all the different types of vehicles that they know, using their phonics.
  • Make role play posters and tickets – travel agents/airport check in/train station/car wash/garage
  • Ask your child to imagine that you are all on holiday. (maybe use a place where they have been before) Ask them to write a holiday postcard to another family member or friend explaining what they can see.
  • Support your child in thinking of some story ideas that involve a journey with your child, maybe a magic carpet ride/a hot air balloon ride/ a ride on a broomstick for example. Ask them to draw a story map or write a few simple sentences about what could happen.
  • Play memory and list games – ‘I packed my suitcase and in it I put…’
  • Ask your child to write about the best/worst/longest journey that they have ever been on.
  • Ask your child to write about where they would like to visit and how they would travel there.

Please encourage the children to write as often as you can, using their phonics and tricky word knowledge. For example if they make a wonderful model, tell them to write a sign asking family members to not touch it.

You can support them by getting them to independently sound out each letter sound in the word. PLEASE do not do it for them. They will not make any progress in their writing if you sound it out for them, get them to copy your writing or tell them what to write. They are all independent writers in class. They just need to be making a plausible attempt- I would not expect it to be perfect. If necessary, when they have finished writing, write the words above, if you think they are hard to read.

Please take a close up picture of any writing they do and upload it to Tapestry- I am sure I will be able to read it! If they are forming their letters incorrectly, the wrong way around or hold their pencil the wrong way, please correct your child immediately. Please refer to the inside cover of their original home phonics book for the handwriting phrases, if you find yourself in this position.

Phonics

It is highly important that your child practises their letter sounds and tricky words and applies them through a reading and writing activity daily. Reading will help improve their vocabulary and a child’s academic success depends upon the ability to read and write and so this should be a priority.

Please continue to practise all of Phase 2 and Phase 3 sounds and tricky words on a daily basis.

The following websites are fantastic for practising phonics, word recognition and sentence reading.

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

http://www.familylearning.org.uk

https://www.topmarks.co.uk

www.letters-and-sounds.com

https://www.spellingcity.com/spelling-games-vocabulary-games.html

Twinkl also have some great phonics and cross curricular resources and are also currently free if you follow these instructions: Go to https://www.twinkl.co.uk/offer  and enter the code: UKTWINKLHELPS

Phonics Play in particular is a fantastic resource for the actual teaching of the Letters and Sounds program. It is currently free to parents due to the Coronavirus situation. Last week, I assessed every child that was in school and put the assessment sheets in their book bag. This will give you a good idea of the sounds that your child needs to work on. For those children who were not in, or were absent towards the end of the week, the assessment sheet is on the Phonics Play website under ‘Assessment’.

Please also look on websites such as Pinterest for fun, practical and creative ways to reinforce phonics, reading and writing.

Reading

Frustratingly, we cannot change reading books anymore, but we think we may have come up with a temporary solution. Please login to Oxford Owl using the school’s login.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

Username:popepaul2020

Password:Ilovereading2020

You must put the detail into Class Login not the general login otherwise it will not work. Once logged in, you can go into the bookshelf. Select 2 books from your child’s book band colour and practise reading them every day. There are two activities to go with each book and parent tips at the end of the book. If you click on the parents section too, you should find even more books and resources.

RE

Following on from the story of the Last Supper, please reinforce your child’s understanding of Holy Thursday by doing the following:

Explain that when we gather to celebrate Jesus’ Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the Priest washes the feet of some of the congregation. He does this because this is what Jesus did. As Jesus washed the disciples’ feet he told them that he was doing it as an example: to serve each other.

Talk about serving others with your child: when do we take care of others and look after them? What sort of things do we do? Make ‘good server’ badges for those who take care of others.

Sequence and talk about the actions of the Holy Thursday Liturgy.

1. We come together

2. We listen to the story of the washing of the feet

3. The Priest washes the feet of some people

4. We have Holy Communion together, remembering Jesus’ last supper

5. We put in a special place of repose the bread which has become the body of Christ.

Then choose from the following:

  • Paint with feet! Use purple paints and ‘walk’ on paper. Cut out the footprints and display them.
  • Role-play the action of washing the feet.
  • Measuring using feet.

Finish by singing: Heads, shoulders knees and toes!

Remember, as I said last week, you do not need to do everything on this overview- even if you just pick one or two things to do from each area over the week, you will be doing a great job!

Finally, if you need to get in touch with me about your child’s learning, I will be picking up emails between the hours of 8.50am and 3.30pm Monday- Friday.

The email address is:

yearR@popepaul.herts.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs Theo

Week beginning 23.3.20 Home Learning Weekly Overview

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you know EYFS have a completely different curriculum to the rest of the school and the way we plan is also very different. As a result of this, I will be uploading a weekly overview of ideas for potential learning opportunities, based on a theme or a book and covering all 7 areas of the EYFS curriculum. Please note, this will be more detailed this week, as I have covered on-going learning, such as phonics, maths and reading.

You do not need to do everything on this overview- even if you just pick one or two things to do from each area over the week, you will be doing a great job! It is highly important however, that your child practises their letter sounds and tricky words and applies them through a reading and writing activity daily. Reading will help improve their vocabulary and a child’s academic success depends upon the ability to read and write and so this should be a priority.

Important- Please take a photo or where appropriate, a video of your child’s learning and upload it to your child’s Tapestry account. I will be looking at this throughout each day and will be able to give encouragement, by liking posts and making comments. It will be very helpful to me if you write a brief comment about the learning, describing what your child has been doing. Remember, it is only Mrs Gymer and myself who have access to your child’s learning journal.

Finally, if you need to get in touch with me about your child’s learning, I will be picking up emails between the hours of 8.50am and 3.30pm Monday- Friday.

The email address is:

yearR@popepaul.herts.sch.uk

Remember, there is no such thing as a silly question; we are all trying to do our best in a very difficult situation.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs Theo

 

This week’s focus is the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’

The children are familiar with this story and so it’s a good book to start with. If you do not have the story at home, there are hundreds of different versions of the story online.

This version from the BBC Schools website is quite nice as it breaks the story up into lots of small film clips. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks1-jack-and-the-beanstalk-index/zn9hxyc

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

  • Discuss the character of the giant. Why did he behave the way he did? How would you feel if Jack took your belongings? Encourage your child to think about the story from a different perspective.
  • Talk about Stranger Danger- Discuss the importance of not talking to people that we do not know. Make a ‘Stranger Danger’ poster and display it in your home to remind your family of the danger.
  • Make some leaf shapes from plain paper. Think about your different friends and family. Write about/ draw and label why they are a good friend/family member on a leaf and decorate it. Stick the leaves on the wall to form a beanstalk. As each leaf is added, Jack gets to climb higher up the beanstalk!

Communication and Language

 

  • Retell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in your own words- record and upload to *Tapestry. (*optional)
  • Say as many real and  nonsense words as you can that rhyme with ‘Jack’ or ‘bean’. Why not set a timer and see if you can think of ten words by the time it finishes. Can you beat your own score?
  • Hotseating characters from the story. We do this a lot in class. The children sit in a chair and pretend that they are one of the characters of the story. The adult asks the child a question, for example, ‘Jack, how did you feel when the giant was chasing you?’ or, ‘Jack, why did you steal from the giant?’ They particularly like it when the adult is in the ‘hotseat’ and the children ask questions. This will show you how much they understand the story!

 

Physical Development

  •  Build a large scale castle from cardboard boxes or pieces of furniture.
  • Build giant furniture and objects.
  • Build castles from small construction.
  • Play a game with some tweezers, jelly beans/different dried beans or pulses and a 30-second timer. Challenge the children to see how many beans they can sort into colour categories in the 30 seconds.
  • Fine motor skills – Paint some broad beans in different colours to make them look like magic beans.
  • Use things around the home, (tins, cereal boxes, toilet rolls, pillows) and stack them on top of each other. Can you stack them higher than a beanstalk?

 

 

 

Understanding the World

  • Research the internet and find out about the things a plant needs in order for it to grow properly.
  • Spend lots of time in your garden or any outdoor space and really look at all the wonderful things that grow there.
  • Learn about the life cycle of a bean using a lapsed video. See an example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg92cspLy0I
  • Plant some cress seeds or runner beans and keep a bean/ cress diary. See the above video on an idea of how you can closely watch a bean germinate in a glass jar and then begin to grow.
  • Take a long roll of paper outside and lay it out.(wall paper, wrapping paper) Gather lots of leaves, twigs and other natural materials to create a beanstalk on the paper.
  • Research on the internet- what is a harp?

Expressive Arts and Design

 

 

Maths

  • Reinforce the language of size, using the beanstalk from the story as a starting point- Tall, taller, tallest, short, shorter, shortest, long, longer, longest, small, smaller, smallest, big, bigger, biggest, high, higher, highest, low, lower, lowest. Use things around the home to make direct comparisons.
  • Draw and cut out a giant’s footprint on card- can you find something bigger and smaller than it?
  • Use beans and seeds to create repeating patterns.
  • Count beans and seeds after sorting.

 

Maths Activities – try at least one a day

  • Watch a Numberblocks episode each day at: BBC ​iplayer or ​CBeebies​.
  • Practise counting up to 20. This can be done through playing hide and seek, singing number songs, chanting, board games etc.
  • Write out the digits 0 – 9.
  • Sing Number songs to practice counting, reciting numbers in order, one more, one less using number songs: Five Little Ducks, Five Little Men, Ten Green Bottles
  • Practise counting backwards from 20.
  • Look for the numbers on the doors of houses. Do the numbers get bigger or smaller as you go up and down the street?
  • Listen to a number song from the CBeebies​ website. After listening to them, watch again and sing along if you can. Talk about the maths you can see in the video clip.
  • Look out of the window and count how many houses or buildings can be seen
  • Explore weighing and measuring food on the kitchen scales. Ask, what happens as you place more on the scales?
  • Look for numerals on packaging you find around the house. Can your child recognise the numerals and count out a matching amount?

Maths Websites

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years

https://matr.org/blog/fun-maths-games-activities-for-kids/

https://www.primarygames.com/math.php

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy

https://apps.mathlearningcenter.org/geoboard/

 

Literacy

  • Imagine that you have found some magic beans. What do they do? Write about them.
  • Write instructions about how to plant seeds.
  • Begin a bean and cress diary.
  • Write directions to get to the giant’s castle.
  • Write a simple letter to the giant from Jack saying sorry for stealing his belongings.
  • Write about what could be at the top of your beanstalk

Please encourage the children to write as often as you can, using their phonics and tricky word knowledge. For example if they make a wonderful model, tell them to write a sign asking family members to not touch it.

You can support them by getting them to independently sound out each letter sound in the word. PLEASE do not do it for them. They will not make any progress in their writing if you sound it out for them, get them to copy your writing or tell them what to write. They are all independent writers in class. They just need to be making a plausible attempt- I would not expect it to be perfect. If necessary, when they have finished writing, write the words above, if you think they are hard to read.

Please take a close up picture of any writing they do and upload it to Tapestry- I am sure I will be able to read it! If they are forming their letters incorrectly, the wrong way around or hold their pencil the wrong way, please correct your child immediately. Please refer to the inside cover of their original home phonics book for the handwriting phrases, if you find yourself in this position.

Phonics

Thankfully, we have now finished introducing all of the required sounds for Reception. Please continue to practise all of Phase 2 and Phase 3 sounds and tricky words on a daily basis.

The following websites are fantastic for practising phonics, word recognition and sentence reading.

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

http://www.familylearning.org.uk

https://www.topmarks.co.uk

www.letters-and-sounds.com

https://www.spellingcity.com/spelling-games-vocabulary-games.html

Twinkl also have some great phonics and cross curricular resources and are also currently free if you follow these instructions:

Go to https://www.twinkl.co.uk/offer  and enter the code: UKTWINKLHELPS

Phonics Play in particular is a fantastic resource for the actual teaching of the Letters and Sounds program. It is currently free to parents due to the Coronavirus situation. Last week, I assessed every child that was in school and put the assessment sheets in their book bag. This will give you a good idea of the sounds that your child needs to work on. For those children who were not in, or were absent towards the end of the week, the assessment sheet that I used is on the Phonics Play website under ‘Assessment’.

Please also look on websites such as Pinterest for fun, practical and creative ways to reinforce phonics, reading and writing.

 Reading

Frustratingly, we cannot change reading books anymore, but we think we may have come up with a temporary solution. Please login to Oxford Owl using the school’s login.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

Username:popepaul2020

Password:Ilovereading2020

You must put the detail into Class Login not the general login otherwise it will not work. Once logged in, you can go into the bookshelf. Select 2 books from your child’s book band colour and practise reading them every day. There are two activities to go with each book and parent tips at the end of the book. If you click on the parents section too, you should find even more books and resources.

RE

Our RE topic this term is ‘From Lent to Easter’. So far, we have learnt about Lent, fasting, almsgiving, Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday. Last week, we learnt about Holy Thursday and the story of the Last Supper. Please re-read and discuss this story with your child. If your child was in school last Monday, please get them to watch the video of them acting the story out with their friends on Tapestry.

Finally, please do not feel overwhelmed by all of the above. Just do whatever you can. I am fully aware that many of you are trying to work from home, while looking after your children. Some of you have older children to support or little ones in your house demanding all of your attention. For some of you, there is illness in your family or other more worrying priorities taking over.

Keep safe and God bless you,

Mrs Theo

Reception Spring 2 Week 3

What an exciting week of science learning Reception have had!

The class started the week with a science problem set by Mrs Heymoz. She told the children that she enjoyed dipping her biscuit in her tea, but she was tired of her biscuits breaking apart and dropping to the bottom. She asked the children to investigate which biscuit was best for dunking.

The children had fun predicting which biscuit would be best and they had lots of really good reasons as to why they had chosen their particular biscuit. The most exciting part however, was when the children took part in the practical part of the investigation!

The whole class were astonished to find that the Rich Tea biscuit was the best!

During the week, Reception also joined the rest of KS1 listening to Mrs Worrell (Lucy and Caitlin’s mum in Year 2) explain how she uses science in her job as a nurse.

Reception class also took part in a colour hunt. First, the class coloured in their own strip of boxes in different colours and then placed double sided sticky tape down the centre. Next, the children went outside and searched the schools grounds for natural objects that matched their colours. When they found something, they stuck it onto their chart. The children found out that the hardest colour to match was blue!

Reception finished their week with a special assembly and celebration morning. It was wonderful to see so many parents and grandparents! Thank you for your continued support!

Next week we will be  learning about plants and growing. Our story focus will be Jack and the Beanstalk.

 

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reception Spring Term 2 Week 2

Reception started the week by asking themselves the question,

‘How can we look after our planet?’

The children have learnt about food, water, material and energy waste and ways to cut pollution. They also learnt to identify the recycling logo on packaging and sorted rubbish into different groups according to their material.

Reception have also continued to learn about the importance of Fairtrade and have been busy designing their own Fairtrade promotional posters.

On Thursday, Pope Paul school celebrated World Book Day. The children looked fantastic in their costumes and enjoyed sharing the stories about their chosen characters from the Bible.

Next week, the children are looking forward to taking part in ‘Science Week’ alongside the rest of the school.

Today we said goodbye to our wonderful student Mia. She has been a great asset to the Reception team and we will all miss her!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer

 

Spring 2 Week1

We hope you all enjoyed your half term break!

It was lovely to see you all at the Parent Consultation evenings this week. Mrs Gymer and I were delighted to hear how much your children are enjoying the learning opportunities here at Pope Paul School! We also had a fantastic response to how parents feel about Tapestry. Thank you to all the parents who frequently upload photos/ observations of their child’s experiences at home! They really do help us when it comes to assessing how well your child is developing.

This week saw the start of the whole school English book focus- The Tin Forest. The children have been very busy writing about different themes from the story, thinking about their own hopes and wishes for the future, learning about rainforests and making their own tin art.

On Wednesday, Reception took part in the KS1 Ash Wednesday service, where they received ashes. As usual, they made their teachers proud with their reverent behaviour and beautiful singing.

On Friday, Reception joined the rest of the school in the special Lenten assembly where their Lenten promises became part of the whole school display.

Next week, we will be continuing our learning focus on themes from The Tin Forest, looking closely at ways in which we can help protect our planet.

Enjoy your week,

Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer