Summer Term 2- Learning at home
Number
Week 1- (Monday 1st June)
This week again please continue practising number sentences for addition and subtraction, practise counting, ordering numbers, and quick fire number bonds and doubles.
Begin this term looking at sharing. In school I do this practically starting with a pair of children. We use little cubes and find a total. (I always give them an even number at this stage as they don’t need to understand about finding a remainder). We count the total number and then have a go at sharing the cubes equally. At home you could use lego bricks or counters or pieces of pasta? We talk about making it fair and what is meant by sharing fairly. When they are confident in doing this, move on and add another person or a teddy will do. Share between three (make sure that you give them a total which can be shared equally three ways). You can continue this activity sharing between, four, five or even six.
Running along a sharing topic in maths I usually talk about sharing during circle times and at this point in the year we encourage lots of competitive board game playing to enforce the importance of playing fairly, sharing and understanding winning and losing. If you can try to spend some time playing board games together and talk about how it feels when you win and lose. I know that some children find sharing and game playing very difficult but it is an important part of their learning. Some children are used to always being able to win and losing is not something that they have experienced. If this is the case, really focus on modelling behaviour and show your child how to lose.
Shape, space and measure
Week 1- (Monday 1st June)
Time
This week I’d like you to enjoy investigating the concept of time. The children in reception don’t need to be able to tell the time but they should be able to talk about time. So they should be able to talk about the things that happen at the different times of the day?
Can you make a poster and split it into three parts? Can you put a title at the top of each section, Morning, Afternoon and Evening? Could you think of the tasks or activities that take place in your house during these times of the day?
Can you make a timetable for your day? Choose three or four activities from each of you poster sections and make a little card for each? For example, for morning you could choose, ‘get up’, ‘have breakfast’ ‘go for a walk’. When you make the card, write the activity on the top and then draw a little illustration underneath. When you have finished you should have a little set of cards to represent activities through a typical day.
Have a go at putting the cards in order so that you can see a visual time table of the day and you can see how the day moves forwards.
Practise saying the days of the week together in the morning each day and talk about which day it is, which day it is tomorrow and which day it was yesterday?
If you want to do any more, then practise reciting the months of the year. Make some months of the year cards and display the cards in a circle so that your child can see how the calendar is circular and repeats. Colour code the cards according to seasons and talk about the differences in the seasons and key events that happen each month.
Shape, space and measure
Week 2- (Monday 8th June)
Shape, Space and Measure- Position
This week I’d like you to think about the position of items and use some positional language. Choose a soft toy or an action figure or doll (whichever is your favourite). Then get a couple of props, a chair and a book. First of all talk about the language we use when we talk about position. Let your grown up show you if you are a little confused. Use the phrases, in front, behind, at the side, on top, underneath, next to. Use the teddy to demonstrate the positions using the chair.
Next see if you can follow my instructions? Your grown up can help if you get confused.
- Get your teddy (or whatever you chose) and put it on top of the chair. Oh that feels a bit high!
- Now put him on top of the book. That’s better.
- Teddy is feeling a bit worried, he wants to hide behind the book.
- He is getting a bit braver, can he try sitting next to the book?
- Well done teddy, now you are feeling better can you try sitting in front of the book?
- Wow lets try the chair again? Can you sit underneath it first?
- Now try sitting at the side of the chair? How about the other side?
- How about behind it? Oh teddy I think that you could sit on top again? Have a try?
If your child is struggling to follow the instructions then continue to practise similar tasks with other toys and props this week until their confidence improves.
If your child is feeling confident then try a different game. Lego or building bricks are best but any toys will work.
Sit with your child either back to back or with a partition between you, make sure you have two sets of props, an identical set each. Use positional language to describe to your child how you have arranged your props in front of you. See if they can listen to the language and set their props up in an identical way? If they can do this then swap and see if they can use positional language to describe their items back to you.
Number
Week 2- (Monday 8tht June)
This week again please continue practising number sentences for addition and subtraction, practise counting, ordering numbers, and quick fire number bonds and doubles.
One skill that we try to encourage in maths is estimation. We tell the children that estimation means ‘a sensible guess’. This week can you do some estimation? Children only need to estimate up to 20 objects and then should be able to count the objects to check how close their estimation was. It is important that when you play with estimation that you keep using the word estimation and reminding your child what it means to estimate.
Ways of playing with estimation
- Get a bag of 20 bricks, pasta, coins (doesn’t matter so long as they are all the same thing- ideally the same size and colour so that your child doesn’t get distracted). Take out or shake out an amount, give your child about 5 seconds to look and then cover the items quickly with a towel. Ask them to estimate how many there were. Write down their estimation and then uncover the items. Line them up and count them accurately. Was is a good guess?
- Put a set of up to 20 items in a glass jar (sweets or 1ps are good to get their attention). Give them 5 seconds to guess the amount inside. If they guess within 3 then they win the contents. If not they try again?
- Estimate capacity- select a plate or glass or bowl and estimate how many of a certain item/object will fit inside? For example if I had a bowl I might find out how many oranges I could fit in it? Or how many spoonfulls of cereal or how many jigsaw pieces etc. If I could fit 6 oranges in the bowl how many apples would fit? Can your child think about the size of the orange/ apples and make a sensible guess?
Number- Week 3
(15th June)
This week, continue to practise you quick fire maths, doubles, number bonds to 10 and counting. Let’s really focus on your addition skills again this week though. I want you to really think about using a number line to solve addition number problems. This will put you in a good position to start Year One. I will add a video below to support you learning about number lines. Then have a go together at home. You can use a small version like me or if you have an energetic child who is really struggling to sit down and learn, you could make a massive one on the floor to physically jump on? Chalk is great for doing this outside but pieces of card taped down will work well too.
Try to solve these number sentences for me using a number line …
4 +3 =
6 + 3 =
2 + 7 =
4 + 2 =
5 + 1 =
2 + 8 =
If you still find it hard then continue to practise similar addition number sentences together. If it is easy and you have understood this then move on to these addition number sentences…
5 + 6 =
7 + 5 =
6 + 10 =
10 + 4 =
9 + 9 =
8 + 6 =
If it is challenging enough, leave it here and keep practising during the week to develop your confidence. If you are still finding it easy try these…
2 + 3 + 3 =
4 + 1 + 5 =
2 + 2 + 2=
2 + 3 + 4 =
Shape, Space and Measure (Week 3)
(15th June)
This week try to have a go at some of the Shape, Space and Measure problems in your pack. Maybe try to keep a little display of the ones you have solved and show how you went about solving the problem?
Number- Week 4 (22nd June)
This week can you continue to practise using a number line to solve some subtraction number sentences.
Start off by having a go at finding one less, have a go at the number sentences below and try to use a number line to support you in finding the answers.
3 – 1 =
6 – 1 =
5 – 1 =
4 – 1 =
If your child finds this difficult then continue practising practically with counters to represent the numbers as they are not ready to look at a number line for subtraction. If they were easily able to solve the above sentences then try the next set.
5 – 2 =
8 – 2 =
9 – 2 =
6 – 3 =
7 – 3 =
Finally, if they are still able to confidently solve the number sentences have a go at these…
10 – 4 =
9 – 7 =
8 – 5 =
10 – 8 =
Shape, Space and Measure- Week 4 (22nd June)
We have now covered all the objectives for the Shape, Space and Measure part of the curriculum. This week I would have been looking for any areas where the children have struggled in order to provide extra support and strengthen their learning. As I am not able to assess them as usual I’ll leave that up to you. If there has been something you feel your child needs to re-visit please spend some time this week doing that. If they are secure then I would suggest that you do a little bit more on talking about and identifying shapes (2D and 3D) as this is an area which we often find the children struggle.
Number- Week 5 (29th June)
This week I would really like you to focus on addition and subtraction. I would like you to practise a combination of both each day where possible. When we move to year one it will be really important for your child to be able to use the number line to count on and back in order to solve number problems.
When the children begin Year One in September we will be introducing a maths challenge. It is a bit like the envelope words. The children will be given a maths challenge to practise at home. We will test them in school and when they have met the objective consistently three times in school they will move up to the next challenge. The first part of the first challenge is to count to 100 starting from 0. Please can you start practising this at home now as often as you can. It would be helpful if you use a number line or 100 square at the same time so that your child is familiarising themselves with what the numbers look like. Use the ‘Big Numbers’ song on you tube to support their learning. Let’s get ready to have the best possible start to year one!
Shape, Space and Measure- Week 5 (29th June)
Let’s recap pattern work. This week can you make a pattern poster? Can you take photos of patterns that you spot whilst you are out and about? Can you create repeating patterns to display on your poster using anything that you can find at home? Can you send me a photo of your poster to put on our website?
Number- Week 6 (6th July)
This week can you play a board game which involves counting on and/or back? Snakes and ladders is especially good for this. Snakes and ladders also links our learning to a hundred square. Being familiar and confident using a hundred square would be a great start for Year One. If you are feeling particularly creative then perhaps you could have a go at designing your own board game with an adult? You could include instructions to add on or take away a particular number? Try to have a bit of fun with your numbers this week.
Shape, Space and Measure- Week 6 (6th July)
This week we have been learning about The Scarecrows’ Wedding. In the story the scarecrows get married. In school we have been planning and designing a wedding cake for the wedding. Perhaps you could plan and design a wedding cake at home too and if you would like a challenge to support your learning you could have a go at measuring out ingredients and make a cake or cupcake to decorate? I would love to see photos of your cakes!
Number (13th July)
For our last couple of weeks in Reception can you spend time together really embedding addition and subtraction using a number line. Can you practise your number ordering and quick fire questions for doubles and number bonds? In any other time that you might have, can you focus on number formation? Can you practise forming each of the numerals 0-9 correctly ready to begin Year One?
Shape, Space, Measure (13th July)
This week can you practise singing the days of the weeks and the months of the year? Can you say which day is before or after a given day of the week? Can you do the same with months of the year? Can you remember which months fall in which seasons?