Summer Term 2- Learning at home

Well, I can't quite believe that we are still not all back together. it seems such a very long time and I am missing you all. If you haven't managed to keep up with the learning at home please don't worry, pick up what you can and I will put some more packs together to collect if needed when I am next in school. We can do this together! Please remember that although we are not in school, I am still here to support you as much as I can and you can always message me on here if you have and concerns. 
Our topic in Summer 2 was going to be 'The Farm'. We learn about farms, farming, animals, living and growing. For now we can start this topic on here together and then see how things go over the next few weeks.  
Your new packs are ready to collect in the main reception. Take a look at the new activities that you can have a go at at home...
Here are some learning challenges all about the farm. They look like lots of fun!
There are some maths challenges too, linked with our Shape, Space and Measure learning. These challenges make our learning have a bit more purpose and keep it fun! Don't forget to send me photos of you completing the challenges so that I can see how you get on!
I've also added an addition sheet to try using a number line! Some money addition (try to use real coins when you have a go at filling the purses yourself as it will have more meaning) and a subtraction challenge.  
There is a living and growing challenge in the pack too. I'd love to see who can try this at home. There is so much discussion to have around this!
Finally I've popped in some farm animal paper and a little farm writing activity for you to enjoy!
A bit of Dough Disco practise today! woohoo
Mag has been learning about the farm at home. 
Pheebs has been loving her learning at home too, take a look at her wonderful photos. 
Look at Piper's amazing vegetable garden! I might need a few tips when we get back to school Piper xx
Piper the birthday girl has been to the farm this weekend, take a look...
Today in school we are very busy. We are making masks to help us to tell the story of What the Ladybird Heard. We have been ordering numbers, practising our phonics and playing out. 
It’s been so warm today. We enjoyed ice lollies in the sunshine. 
This morning we did our Oscar winning performance of What the Ladybird Heard. We had a lot of fun together. Take a look!
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We are reading The Scarecrows' Wedding in school. Have a look at the wedding cakes we have designed today...
As part of our learning about The Scarecrows' Wedding today we made wedding cakes. We read the instructions, measured out the ingredients and made cakes. Tomorrow we will decorate them! 
This afternoon we made rings for the wedding tomorrow!
We went outside and collected scarecrow confetti to dry for tomorrow.
Piper went on the farm safari at Thornton Hall farm. I am going next week so I loved having a sneaky peek at the photos. 
Hollie has been learning about the Scarecrows' wedding at home. 
Yesterday I went to the Thornton Hall Farm Safari and learnt a bit more about life on the farm. It was great fun and I learnt lots of facts. It is well worth a trip if you have time during the holiday time. 
Thank you for the beautiful home made cake! Well done for baking this all by yourself! Yum Yum
Reading, writing and topic
Well this term we have a new book to focus on. I will post a photo of the front cover for you to discuss at home just like you did last time...
There are four clues. Look at each one. Talk about what you can see, what do the clues mean? what do you think the story might be about? Can you guess which book it might be? 
Alongside looking at this front cover and your usual daily reading, as a start to our topic on farms I would like you to create a list, poster or display telling me what you already know about farms? It would help me a lot if you don't let your grown ups tell you the answers. Try to record just what you know and send me the photo. That way I can see what we might like to learn about when we finish the topic, hopefully we will be able to see how many new things you have learned (grown ups can help you to do the recording). 
In school I would do this as a circle time. I would make a big class poster showing what we all know and use it to plan the term. As I don't have that,  a few photos from home would be great and we can use it as a starting point to our new topic. 
Have you guessed our new story yet? It's written by Julia Donaldson. What do we call a person who writes a story? This is a fiction book, what do we mean by 'fiction'? What other stories has Julia Donaldson written? 
Our story is 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. It links really well to our farm learning. I am trying to add a video of me reading the story but it is proving tricky again. I'll keep trying but i'll add a couple of other links whilst you are waiting for me. 
Have a listen to the song too. William and I have this to sing along to in our car! 
This week take some time to listen to the story together. Listen to the song too and sing along. Singing the song helps me to remember the story when I try and write it down. It might come in handy later in our learning if you need to remember the story? When you have read the story have a think about how we did the colourful story boards to link with The Three Little Pigs. Start with the orange... The characters. Then do the red... The setting. xx
It's worked!!!!! Woohoo!
Whilst I am working in school with some key worker children this week we are doing some work linked to our farm topic together. We have had a go at using our phonics to write down the animal names? Can you do this at home too? Can you look at the animals below and have a go at writing a list of the animals you can see using your phonics fingers to help you. 
Have a look at what we did in school...
Today we had a go at matching mummy animals with their young. 
Today we used split pins to make horses. We learnt a bit about horses and why they live on farms. We learnt about what they eat. 
Today in school we had a go at painting horses. Maybe you could paint your favourite farm animal at home? I would love to see photos of your paintings and we could display them on here with the other horses. 
We also read farm sentences and matched the sentences with pictures. We tried to do this without any help. 
Why don't you grab a piece of paper and a pencil and have a go at our farm quiz? 
Quiz Answers
1. A Kid
2. By looking at it's teeth. Horses teeth change shape and size according to their age.
3. Milk which then produces dairy products such as cheese and ice cream.
4. A pig
5. False
6. A Bull
7. Eggs
8. A duck or a goose
9.  A Foal
10. A dog might help a farmer by rounding up and moving sheep around the farm. A dog might protect the farm animals from other animals such as foxes. 
Today in school we have been reading our book and we have started to make some animal masks. We re-capped the 'ow' digraph together and practised using our phonics to write a list of the animals from the story. The children spotted 'ow' in the word cow. They had a go at writing a sentence about the cow in the story. 
Can you write a list of the animals in the story at home too? Maybe you could write a sentence to match each animal. We are using paper plates to make masks in school. At home could you create a mask for your favourite animal from the story? 
Today Malachy drew a wonderful picture to match our story.
This morning, the children in school have started to make salt dough ladybirds. They have made the shape out of dough and added holes ready to attach the legs. Tomorrow we are going to paint them. Can you make a salt dough ladybird at home too?
Today we tried our masks on and practised reading the story making the animal sounds. 
Now we have finished the masks we are going to write independent sentences about our chosen animal. You could do this at home. When you have created a mask you could write sentences about your animal. Try to do these sentences without your adult helping you. In Year One you need to be able to write independently so it will really help if you practise now. 
Take a look at the sentences the children at school wrote independently. 
Today we painted our ladybirds and added legs using pipe cleaners. 
Down in the Reception classroom the other group of children are working with Miss Philip, Mrs Pringle and Mrs Brooke. They are learning about the story of the Enormous Turnip. I'll add some photos of their learning too. 
This week in school we are exploring another story linked to our learning about the farm. We are reading the Scarecrows' Wedding by Julia Donaldson. This morning we looked at the front cover of the story and talked about what we thought the story might be about. We noticed the scarecrows and talked about why a scarecrow would be used on a farm. We talked about what a scarecrow might be made of. 
Below, I will attach the rhyming pairs sheet and the story board in case you want to have a go at home or do something similar. For the rhyming pairs we chopped up the words, read them together and then tried to match them as rhyming pairs. For the story board the children re-told the story to an adult in their own words and then had a go at writing a sentence independently below each picture. We reminded them to use their phonics fingers, use finger spaces and add a full stop to the end of each sentence. 
Today in school we talked about celebrations.We focused on weddings. We talked about wedding traditions. We made wedding cards and wedding hats. Maybe you could talk about celebrations at home and make a card or hat? 
This morning we did a circle time and learnt all about weddings. Mrs Lister brought in her own wedding photos to show us.
6th July- This week we are reading another farm book in school. I'll give you some clues...
Our new story is Farmer Duck. I'll show you the front cover and the back cover. Take a look. Who is the author? What do you think that the story might be about? Can you spot any clues about the characters, setting or story? Can you read the blurb on the back? 
Now listen to the story...
We have been playing the game 'Quack Quack' this morning. 
Today we painted sheep. We thought about the features, and then added the wool and eyes. If you are at home, maybe you could make a sheep?
We have been writing captions to match the story. Then we can make a class book. At home could you write some sentences to match this part of the story?
We each wrote a page of the story and we are putting all the pages together to make the complete story. This afternoon we talked about the features of a front cover and designed and made a front cover for our own Farmer Duck story books. 
This week we are reading The Enormous Turnip in school. This morning we read the story. We used the computer to search for images of real turnips growing. We then had a go at ordering turnips according to their size. We also talked about plants and thought about ordering the seed cycle. 
Everyday we are trying to practise our reading in school. I hope that you are all finding the time to practise at home too. Today we looked at reading longer words. Have a go at home, can you read these two syllable words?  
I will pop the answers below so that you can check and see if you read the words correctly. Can you write each of these two syllable words in a sentence? I would love to see your sentences, send me the photos and I'll pop them on the website for everyone to see. 
Can you have a go at writing some words with two syllables?
Number and Shape, Space and Measure

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.

  1. Get your teddy (or whatever you chose) and put it on top of the chair. Oh that feels a bit high!
  2. Now put him on top of the book. That’s better.
  3. Teddy is feeling a bit worried, he wants to hide behind the book.
  4. He is getting a bit braver, can he try sitting next to the book?
  5. Well done teddy, now you are feeling better can you try sitting in front of the book?
  6. Wow lets try the chair again? Can you sit underneath it first?
  7. Now try sitting at the side of the chair? How about the other side?
  8. 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

  1. 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?
  2. 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?
  3. 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?

 

Take a look at this wonderful learning at home...
You can subtract on a number line too...

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?

Hollie is loving her maths. 
Today in school we did a number hunt. We searched for farm animals, counted them and wrote down the matching numbers.
Maybe you could make a number hunt at home?
Hollie has been exploring pattern at home. 
Today we are exploring pattern in school. We have made repeating patterns on paper and with lego. We are going to make pasta necklaces and paint them in a repeating pattern. 
After reading the story we talked about the list that the scarecrows made. We decided to make our own repeating pattern necklaces using pasta. We selected 12 pieces of pasta (practising careful counting) and shared them into two equal piles (practising sharing and halving). We painted the pasta and threaded the pieces to create a repeating pattern. 

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?

Today we started competing in our Olympic events. We went show jumping. We made show jumps and made a course. We used a stop watch to time each rider around the course. We kept the times in a big list. At the end we found the smallest number. Logan was the winner. He rode around the course in 9.05 seconds! Super speedy! Sean wasn't so quick!
Our Olympic medals...
We did a long jump competition and measured our jumps. How far can you jump at home? 
Today we are practising patterns. We are using potatoes to print patterns. have a go at home, its lots of fun and very easy. you just need a couple of potatoes, some poster paint and some paper to print on.