I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the sunshine :)

Listen out for the postman this week, he might be delivering something special for you!

I know how much you all enjoyed the story of 'Supertato' and the Evil Pea, so this week I have sent over some activities linked to this story. Don't worry though - you don't need a copy of the book.

You can listen to the story here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlaMeNmTG6c , if you'd like!

The activities are all attached below, once again, these are just ideas - do not feel that you have to do everything! We would love to see some photographs on Tapestry of things that you are enjoying and new skills that you are learning.

Don't forget to keep up with Doodle maths and Bug Club and keep practising those letter sounds each day :)

1.5.20

Wow - what a busy week you have all had! I have seen so many photographs and videos of all your amazing home learning - riding bikes without stabilisers, phonics hunts, baking cakes, building beautiful bug hotels, creating number sentences, painting rainbow posters, reading stories...the list goes on and on!

I wanted to say a huge thank you for your continued support in this tricky time - I think you are all doing such an amazing job of tackling home learning, juggling your own jobs and most importantly keeping our little Puffins safe, happy and excited about their learning.

I would like to arrange a virtual 'show and tell' next week to give each child a chance to share something they have been working on with the class - this might be a new skill, a craft project or a piece of work they are proud of - whatever they feel comfortable with. I have also arranged for a special guest (Mr Plunkett) to join us!  We will mute everyone except the 'speaker' to ensure that everyone gets a chance to be heard and the meeting doesn't feel too overwhelming - watch out for an email invitation coming soon!

This week I have attached some activities that I hope you will enjoy. From the feedback you are giving me and the photographs you are uploading,  I can see that you are enjoying worksheet based activities so I have attached some more of these. 

Maths - number bonds to 10 workbook

Phonics - reading phase 3 sentences, yes or no game

Minibeast mindful colouring

I have also attached a scavenger hunt that looks fun - you may want to give this to the children to complete indoors, or wait for the wet weather to pass and get them to have a go at this out in the garden.  

Don't forget to access Doodle Maths daily for your 5-a-day questions and Bug Club for plenty of independent reading opportunities. 

I look forward to seeing you all at our meeting next week :)

Take care and stay safe,

Kat Harper

21.04.2020

Hello Everyone,

Dear Puffin Parents and Carers,

Thank you so much for the feedback, emails and Tapestry updates - it has been lovely to hear about all the fantastic activities that you have been doing. Such a creative bunch! Please continue to add photos to Tapestry so we can see how you are all getting on.

I have attached a few extra phonic activities as well as some number work - I hope you find these useful. A few parents have requested some guidance for letter formation and handwriting practice, this is also attached.

During our Zoom chat this morning we talked about the weather and signs of Spring. How about keeping a weather diary for the next week? What is happening to the weather in Spring? Can you make a weather chart or maybe present a weather forecast? I have attached an example or you are welcome to make your own - don’t forget to add these to Tapestry so we can see how you are getting on!

Signs of Spring 

Do you remember that we went for a walk around the school grounds to look for signs of Spring? Maybe you could look out of your window, explore in the garden or have a look for signs of Spring when you are walking or scooting for your daily exercise.

See if you can spot 3 signs of Spring - maybe take some photographs on a tablet or draw what you spot.

Some examples might be...buds, flowering bulbs, blossom., bluebells, bumble bees, butterflies or tadpoles. Happy hunting!

It was really lovely to see so many familiar faces on Zoom last week! Congratulations on all making it through your first week! I just wanted to send some information out to you that will hopefully assist with home schooling our little Puffins. Please find attached some documents that you may find useful. I have included:

Maths:

Colour by addition monster sheets, Numicon addition sheet, Number formation sheet - I have tried to choose activities that the children will be able to access independently - just print them off and the children should be able to work on their own. They may just need your guidance with the monster addition in terms of which colours are which. If you do not have access to a printer at home, then hopefully you can take some inspiration from these sheets and your child could practice their number formation using chalk or a white board pen or even a paintbrush and water on a patio. For the addition, you could perhaps draw dots to represent the numbers and then let the children work out the total.

One activity that I have had success with in my own house consisted of using some masking tape to create a grid on the floor (5x4) to total 20 squares. I then put a post it note with the numbers going from 1-20, one in each square and set my child the challenge of finding items to go in each square e.g 1 item in box one, 2 items in box 2 etc. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy the challenge!

Phonics

Rhyming family words - We have worked on this sort of activity in class before - we would usually only concentrate on one or two rhyming family words, but I have sent over a few for you to work on with your child. If you have access to magnetic letters, you might find that your child will benefit from using them to build up their confidence. Again, please feel free to recreate these on paper if you do not have access to a printer. You could put one word in the middle of a circle (e.g pin) and then draw some petals to create a flower, each petal could then hold a word that rhymes...tin, fin, win etc. This could also work with leaves on a beanstalk or in many other contexts. Please start with the more basic ones, but I know that some of the children will be ready for the challenge of a digraph blend e.g sh/ch or ck.

I have also added a CVC word cut and paste sheet as an easier alternative.

I will leave it at that for now, but I would be happy to send further items like this if you find them useful. Please do feel free to pass email any feedback to me directly and please continue to bear in mind that this is a whole new side of teaching for me and I really want to ensure that you feel as supported as possible.

For your information, I took all of these sheets from Twinkl - who are now offering free access to parents, so do feel free to have an explore, they have a wealth of fantastic resources  available, but please stick to the EYFS pages.

Keep in touch and please stay safe

Kat Harper (kharper@wymondley.herts.sch.uk)