Author: Reception Team

This week, we’re going to find out what happens when Mr Wolf decides to cook some delicious pancakes. Listen to the story ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ and look at the illustrations in the video carefully as you watch. You might spot some familiar characters!

Here’s are this week’s activities to download in a PDF.

Reading

• Can you spot any other story characters that you recognise? Which story are they from? Have you read it?
• Why does Mr Wolf need some help at the beginning of the story?
• Were Mr Wolf’s friends helpful and kind? Why do you think they didn’t want to help?
• What happened when Mr Wolf started to cook his pancakes?
• Can you remember what happened at the end of the story? Do you think Mr Wolf should have shared his pancakes?

Phonics

Being able to copy a rhythm is part of our Phase One phonics learning; we often play simple ‘copy me’ type games as we’re waiting to wash our hands. Today, you’ll need two sticks or wooden utensils, or anything else that is similar! Listen to Mrs Gosper and then have a go at tapping the rhythms too.

Phonics – Rhythm pattern sticks

 Mark-Making

• Mr Wolf said he wasn’t very good at writing. Can you help him write out a shopping list for going to the shops? What does he need to make his pancakes?
• If Mr Wolf wanted to have a pancake party and invite some friends to his house, what would he need to send them? That’s right, an invitation. Perhaps you could plan a Pancake Day party for next week and make some invitations to send to people in your house.
• Have a go at drawing or painting your favourite type of pancake. What toppings would you put on it?
• Open up your own ‘Pancake parlour’ and take orders. You’ll need to write down and tick off what your customers would like on their pancakes.
• Have you remembered it’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday 14 February? Why not make a card for someone in your family or see if you can post one to someone special that you might not be able to see at the moment?

 Mathematics

This week, we’re going to practise our counting skills. In the story, Mr Wolf made lots of pancakes and we thought it’d be fun to make our own playdough pancakes. If you don’t have any dough, you could follow this simple recipe and have a go at making your own.  Whilst making pancakes and playing, you could introduce ‘counting’ in different ways.

• How many pancakes have you made?  Count each pancake, touching them as you say each number. Sometimes it helps to line objects up to ensure that you count each one only once and try to remember to stop at the last pancake. How many were there? Count again to make sure.
• Have you got more pancakes than me? How do you know?
• Who has the fewest pancakes? Children often understand the word ‘more’ or ‘most’ but struggle to understand the word ‘fewer’ or ‘fewest’.
• The Little Pigs are going to Mr Wolf’s house for a pancake party, how many pancakes do we need to make? Think about your child’s ability and keep the numbers below 5 or 10 as appropriate.

Extension ideas

• Introduce some real coins into your game. Children don’t need to be able to tell you what the denominations are in Nursery, they may just give you a handful of coins or some may count out 3 coins (of different values) and say “Here’s £3”. It’s all a great way to introduce and familiarise them with money. You could look at the different coins and try to sort them. How could you sort them? Big/little? Circle/not circles? Copper/silver?
• Do you remember playing ‘What time is it Mr Wolf’ at school? Children love to play this at Nursery still and it’s a good way of practising counting out the correct number of steps.

Creative

• We couldn’t read Mr Wolf’s pancakes and then not suggest that you make some pancakes! It’s a great, simple recipe for children to join in with and whisking is great for building upper arm strength too.
• What’s your favourite topping? Do you always have the same one? Use this as a time to try something new and talk about different flavours. Do you have sugar and lemon or golden syrup? Is it bitter/sweet/sour?
• With supervision, ask children to help you cut some soft fruit to put on their pancakes such as bananas or strawberries. Talk to them about using knives safely.
• If you don’t mind a bit (or lot!) of mess, allow your child to enjoy ‘play baking’ pancakes with some flour, water and mixing bowls.
• Join in a role play game and make your own ‘Pancake Parlour’ using some of the mark making and maths activities at the same time.

If you have a play kitchen, you could cut out some cardboard pancake shapes or you might want to use playdough instead. Take turns to order, cook and pay for your pancakes.  If you don’t have a play kitchen, have a go at making one. It doesn’t have to be fancy or take a long time; at Nursery, we sometimes make ovens/hobs using a cardboard box with some circles drawn on top. Children always love to use ‘real’ objects so grab a frying pan and spatula and let them pretend!

• There are lots of songs about cooking pancakes! Here’s a Pancake rap from CBeebies and a Pancake rhyme to join in with Mrs Gosper.

Understanding the World

• Part of the Early Years Foundation Stage is to begin to recognise some of our family traditions and celebrations and to begin to recognise how we are similar and different to others. In Nursery, teaching children in detail about Shrove Tuesday is too complicated, but we do talk to them about how Christian’s might celebrate this day and that it’s sometimes referred to as ‘Pancake Day’. We discuss that some families will celebrate by making pancakes and that others might not. We talk about it being a time where Christians begin to prepare for another special day, known as Easter.
•  If you have a laptop or a device that supports the game, let your child practise some simple computer skills by playing this game. You need to help Curious George make some pancakes and add his toppings. How many eggs will you need and how many strawberries does George put on?

•  Talk to your child about the ingredients in pancakes and ask them to think about where they come from. One of the most common answers is usually “the supermarket”! Try to find out more and talk about the origins of milk and eggs by watching these videos. One is all about milk and the other is an episode of ‘Do You Know’ where Maddie finds out about eggs and bread.

How does milk get to the farm shop?

Do you know? Eggs and bread

Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

In Nursery, we always get lemons to squeeze when joining in with pancake day celebrations. If you have a lemon squeezer and can add an extra lemon or two to your basket, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy squeezing lemons and talking about what’s inside the lemon. This is also a great activity for strengthening little fingers!

Another good activity for helping to build strength in children’s upper arms, is ‘whisking’. You can do this whilst making pancakes but you could also let your child play with some soap and water and enjoy whisking it to see what happens. If you don’t want lots of mess around the sink, try it at bath time instead.

Also, remember that playing with playdough is a great way to develop finger and arm strength. So, using a rolling pin to flatten playdough to make pancakes is another good activity to do. Tip: If your child is struggling to put enough pressure onto the rolling pin to flatten the dough, try asking them to stand up and do it on a surface/table at their height. 

Movement

The weather is very unpredictable at the moment, so taking part in a pancake race may or may not be possible! If you have space inside/outside and a frying pan/tennis racket, make a play pancake or use a bean bag to see if you can move around an obstacle course without dropping it!

Lots of you emailed to say that you enjoyed the Cosmic Yoga session so here is another, all about something you might enjoy eating on top of your pancakes – bananas!  Cosmic Yoga – Betsy the Banana

Independence skills

During lunch time at Nursery, children are encouraged to be as independent as possible. This might involve knowing how to feed themselves when they’re given a meal or snack, learning how to put a straw into a carton or being able to open a sandwich box. Children that have a hot meal at Nursery are also encouraged to be able to use a knife, fork and spoon to feed themselves. Whilst lots of family meal times may involve finger foods, being able to use a knife and fork is an important skill to learn for when your child starts in Reception.

This week, depending on your child’s abilities, have a go at encouraging them to do the ‘next step’ themselves. This might mean taking the top off a yogurt pot by themselves or for other children, it could be learning to use a knife to cut something soft, like a fish finger, into smaller pieces.

If you wanted to practise using a knife and fork outside of meal times, have a go at chopping up your playdough pancakes!

Key Worker activity and videos

This week, we’re going to help Mr Wolf with his counting. He has lots of friends that would like to eat his pancakes but he needs some help to count how many he needs. To join in with the second part of the Key Worker session, you’ll need to sit at a table and have some playdough. (If you don’t have any playdough, cut out some paper pancakes and use those instead.)

Key Worker session part I – Mr Wolf’s Pancakes

Key Worker session part II – Mr Wolf’s Pancakes with playdough

Key Worker song –Pancake song

 

Friday Story Time

This week’s story is also about pancakes! Listen carefully and then see if you can remember some of the toppings that Buddy’s family had on their pancakes.  Story time – Buddy’s Pancakes

Zoom sessions (for children learning at home)

For our Zoom meeting this week, you’ll need a small blanket/towel and a small, soft toy.  Make sure you have some space and somewhere to safely position your device (mobile/laptop etc) – we’re going to be bouncing our toys!

 

We hope that you enjoyed the weekend (as much as we can at the moment!) and enjoyed a break from screens and work responsibilities. We love to see your photos and read your emails so please make sure you send us one each week. scholesf1@spherefederation.org

This week, our learning is going to be based on a book that lots of families will already be familiar with, ‘Dear Zoo’ written by Rod Campbell. We’ve saved all of this week’s remote learning ideas to a pdf – we thought that this might be an easier way for some people to view them.

Reading

• Before you read the book, ask the children if they are familiar with it. Have they read it before? Can they remember what the story is about?
• If you have a copy of the book, as you’re reading, pause each time for children to guess what animal is next.
• Listen to the story a few times and encourage your child to join in with the words that are repeated. Once they’re familiar with the book, use the pictures to have a go at retelling the story using the repeated pattern of words. “So they sent me a_____. He was too ____. I sent him back.”
• What do you think would be a good pet to have? Why? Can you think of any animals that wouldn’t make a good pet?

Phonics

Listening to rhymes and being able to keep a simple beat are all important elements of our Phase One phonics teaching in Nursery. Here’s a new rhyme to learn all about going to the Zoo. Watch this video and join in with drumming the beat at home. You’ll need something to bang like a drum so see what you can find at home, a pan/box and wooden spoon work well!

1,2 We’re going to the zoo. 

3,4 crocodiles by the door.

5,6 Monkeys doing tricks!

7,8 Lions at the gate.

9,10 Elephant’s stomping in his pen.

Do you remember our ‘Guess the animal’ Key Worker game? Here’s another one for you to try; we need to keep practising our listening skills!

 Mark-Making

• Have a go at drawing your own pet or an animal that you would like to have as a pet. Think carefully about what it looks like. Does it have big, floppy ears? Does it have legs?
• In the Key Worker video this week, some of the teachers have drawn patterns on a snake. Draw a snake outline yourself, or ask a grown up to help, and have a go at adding your own patterns. Will it be a spotty or stripy snake?
• You could have a go at making your own ‘Dear Zoo’ book. Draw some pictures of different animals (or print some pictures if you prefer and have a printer) and then cut out some flaps to stick over them. Have a go at telling your own version of the story! We’d love to see it – send us a photo or video of you reading your book.

Mathematics

Do you remember learning about shapes during our ‘Zog’ themed week? This week, we’re going to continue learning about shapes. First, watch this shape video to remind yourself of the names and properties (such as the number of sides and corners) of the basic 2D shapes (circle, square, rectangle and triangle).  Then, draw one of each of the shapes on a piece of paper and go on a shape hunt around your house.

• Can you find each of the shapes? If you find more than one, you could put a tick or tally on your sheet. Which shape did you find the most of? We’d love to see some photographs of the shapes that you find.
• Next time you go for a walk, try and spot some shapes along the way. What shape are the road signs?

Extension ideas

– Have a go at feeding the ‘shape monsters’ on this Topmarks game.

– Do you remember creating a repeating colour pattern? Ask a grown up to help cut out some different shapes. Have a go at creating a repeating shape pattern with just 2 shapes. Circle, square, circle, square, circle…. What would come next?

– In Nursery, we often use different objects to investigate what shape they make when we dip them in paint and print with them. Find some objects (eg. a tin, Duplo brick, a small cardboard box – like a toothpaste box) and pour a bit of paint onto a plate. Dip the object in and then print with it! What shape can you see?  (You could use these to print a repeating pattern, too.)   Are there any shapes that are tricky to find?

Creative

• What is your favourite animal from the story? Have a go at making it using boxes and other recycling materials that you may have.
• In the story, each of the animals was delivered in a different shaped box or container. Find your favourite animal toy and have a go at making it a home. What would it need to be comfortable? What size and shape would it need to be?
• If you have some toy animals, you could make your own small world area. You might use Duplo bricks or you could go outside and collect some leaves, sticks and pebbles to add to a tray or an empty shoebox.

https://entertainyourtoddler.com/safari-small-world-play/ – Photo credit

• Here’s another of the songs that we enjoy listening to before lunch time – Walking through the jungle.

 Understanding the World

• Have you ever been to a safari park or zoo? What did you see? Whilst it’s not possible to visit animals at the moment, you could watch some snippets from the virtual tours on Chester Zoo’s website and find out about meerkats and giraffes. (The information from the Keeper is quite tricky for Nursery children, but your child may enjoy just watching and talking to you about the animals they can see in the video). In Nursery, we often talk to children about why some animals are looked after in wildlife parks and where the animals would normally live, in their natural habitats.
• In the ‘Dear Zoo’ story, the boy wanted a pet. Do you have a pet? If you have a pet, talk about how you look after it and what it needs to be healthy. If you don’t have a pet, which animal would be a good pet for your family? Would you be able to look after a pet and give it everything that it needs?
• Are you ready for some quiet time? Find out about different pets in an episode of My Pet and Me.

 Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

We’re going to make our own snakes in this activity, so you’ll need some small strips of paper and some glue.  Show your child the picture and talk about how to make the snake. Look carefully at how the body is made. They might remember making paper chain decorations in Nursery before Christmas.

Make a paper chain, linking each strip of paper together and then make a head to add on at the end. How long will your snake be?  Linking the paper strips is a great way to get your child moving their fingers and hands to increase dexterity.

Movement

We love to have a good boogie at Nursery and dancing is a great way to get us all moving in different ways! Join in with the Animal Boogie at home and have a go at some of the actions.

Movement play is really important in Early Years; it helps children to develop and strengthen connections between their body and brain. These connections lay important foundations for children’s future learning and development. We encourage all kinds of movement in Nursery, including crawling like animals and laying on the floor to slither like snakes – just as this song encourages children to do!

 Independence skills

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been trying to encourage you to help your child to become more independent, ready for their return to Nursery. We’ve been practising getting our coats on and fastening zips, putting on our own gloves and how to blow our own nose.  This week, we’d like you to have a go at putting on and taking off your own shoes. This is where Velcro or elasticated fastenings make it much easier!

If your child is already confident at doing this, can they put their own socks on? Have a go and see!

Key Worker activity and videos

For this week’s Key Worker activity, you’ll need some paper to draw your own snake or a snake outline and some crayons or colouring pencils/pens.  Watch the video to see how each of the teachers draws a different pattern onto the snake’s body. When you’ve finished watching, have a go at your own.

Key Worker video – Snake patterns

Here’s another activity for you to join in with – you’ll need two wooden spoons or utensils. It’s a song you might already know, all about ‘Going to the zoo’ and afterwards, you can learn some signs for some of the animals that you might see if you went on a trip to the zoo!

Key Worker song- Going to the zoo

Video –  Zoo animal signs

Friday Story Time

This week’s story time is with Mrs Gosper. She’s going to read ‘What a Mess!’ by Adria Meserve. Find a comfy spot to sit and enjoy the story!

Story – What a Mess!

Zoom sessions (for children learning at home)

This week, we’re going to do a ‘Scavenger hunt’ with the children. They’ll need to listen carefully to what they have to find and may need a bit of support to go and find the item and to return to the camera to show us.

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

Reading

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

Phonics

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to make some sound effects linked to ‘Zog’ using your voice. In Nursery, we use voice sound cards during group time to make different noises. Have a go at home and see if you can think of some more sounds. What would Little Bear say when he sees his chair has broken? What does Goldilocks say when she tastes Little Bears porridge?

If you’d like to continue learning about ‘Voice sounds’, here’s a video link to a voice sounds game with a cheeky character, Felix! At the end of the video, there’s a funny face paper plate craft activity too.  You could play the same game at home and make or print some picture cards.

• If you’d like to continue learning about ‘Voice sounds’, here’s a video link to a voice sounds game with a cheeky character called Felix! At the end of the video, there’s a funny face paper plate craft activity too.  You could play the same game at home and make your own picture cards (or print some).

 Mark-Making

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

Mathematics

• Ask your child to help you find 3 different sized bowls and spoons. Which is the biggest? Smallest? Arrange them in size order.

• Watch this week’s Key Worker video. Create your own repeating colour pattern using Duplo or Lego bricks. Keep it simple, just pick two colours.

Extension ideas

– You might have a threading set at home or some coloured beads. Can you make a repeating colour pattern using the buttons or beads?

– Create a repeating pattern using pictures or objects instead of colours. Remember to keep it simple, choosing just 2 different items. E.g.  Apple, carrot, apple, carrot, apple…

Creative

• • This activity is always a big hit in Nursery, but it is messy! Use your different sized bowls and spoons and put them inside an empty plastic storage box/tray to catch some of the mess. Add some porridge oats (or some rice crispies/rice/pasta) to the bowls for your child mix, scoop and pour the oats. Children love to scoop and pour in our sensory area – it’s easily swept or vacuumed up at the end of the day. We usually use dry ingredients, but you can add water if you want to add to the sensory play experience (and mess)!

• Make your own porridge together and taste it. What does it taste like? Do you add anything to your porridge? Does it make it sweeter?
• Need some quiet time? Grab a drink and some fruit and snuggle on the sofa to watch this CBeebies ballet version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
• In the story, Goldilocks thinks that one bed is too soft and one is too hard. What does this mean? Can you find any objects in your house that are soft and hard? What other words could you use to describe the texture of items? Rough, bumpy, smooth, furry etc.
• Here’s another of the songs that we enjoy listening to before lunch at Nursery.

 Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

This is linked to our ‘Independence’ activity this week. What can you find that uses a zip? For example: Zip-lock bags,  purses/wallets, bags, pencil cases, wash bags, jackets and clothing. Allow your child time to investigate ‘zips’ and how they work. If you have an old bag or purse/wallet, let your child use it in their role play at home – they love to fill them with items and incorporate them into their play. Becoming familiar with how zips work, and learning how to use them in a range of contexts, will help them progress onto eventually fastening their own coats.

Movement

Get a few pairs of socks and roll them into a balls. Cut out some different sized spots (big/small) using paper and spread them out on the floor. Ask children to aim at the spots. Did it land on the big or small spot? How many are on the big spot? If the bowls you chose for the maths activity aren’t breakable, you could aim into Daddy Bear’s bowl instead!

 Independence skills

Next time you go out for a walk, make sure you allow some extra time for your child to put their own coat on. If they can already do this, encourage them to do their own zip up. This is a really important skill and one which we would be teaching daily at Nursery. If you’d like a few ideas on how to help, there are some hints and tips available on the links below – check which are appropriate for your child.

• Putting coats on – Scroll to the bottom of the web page for 2 video clips. In Nursery, we usually start by putting our hoods on first and then finding the arm holes. We don’t always have much space for ‘through the rabbit holes’ and flipping coats over our heads, although children love to do it this way!
• Zips fact sheet – Here’s a fact sheet with a few ideas or you could watch this video clip that shows small steps in teaching children how to use zips. In the video, the lady refers to the zip as ‘food’ and a ‘mouth’. In Nursery, we often call the zip the ‘train’ and put it into the ‘station’ so it can run up the track.

Key Worker activity and videos

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

Key Worker activity – Bear sorting

Key Worker Song – When Goldilocks went to the house of the Bears

 Friday Story Time

Miss Morris is going to read this week’s story, which is also about a bear. In this story, the little bear is trying to learn the names of different colours. It’s called ‘Wobble Bear says Yellow’ and is written by Ian Whybrow.

Zoom sessions (for children learning at home)

This week, in our Zoom Key Worker sessions, we’re going to sing some of our favourite Nursery rhymes. Join in at home and sing a-long to the rhymes with Mrs Gosper; she loves music and rhymes!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Incy Wincy Spider

I’m a Little Teapot

Next week, if your child is learning from home, they will be invited to a Zoom session along with some of their friends from Nursery. Your child does not have to join in with these Zooms, they are optional. Unfortunately, the timings cannot be changed as most staff are teaching in school.

The Zooms will replicate the Key Worker sessions that your child is part of at Nursery. Sometimes, your child will need something to help them to join in with the session. Watch out for a website post each Friday – this will tell you what you will need to have ready. Don’t worry, hopefully it’ll be something you already have and quick to find!

Our first Zoom will be a dough disco session. Your child will need a small piece of dough, about as big as a ping pong ball.

Look out for an email on Friday 15th January, this will contain the invite to your child’s Zoom session.  This invite will be the SAME each week, so make sure you save/mark the email as important as you will need it every week.  If your child is learning from home and you don’t have an email by the end of the day, please send us an email. (scholesf1@spherefederation.org)

An adult will need to be present during these Zooms to ensure that your child can join in.

We are really looking forward to seeing you all next week at our very own dough disco.

In Nursery, when we get some wintry weather, we often quickly adapt our daily plans to learn about ice and snow and to read winter themed stories. Obviously, planning for remote learning makes this a bit trickier, so we’ve planned these activities based upon the forecast of some more cold weather heading in our direction! If this doesn’t happen, please pick and choose the activities that you can do, and save some of the others for the next cold day!

Reading

There are lots of great stories that take place in a snowy setting. You might have ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ at home or a favourite story that involves penguins or polar bears. Here’s a story for you to watch called ‘The Snowy Day’.

• How do you feel like when you open the curtains, look out of the window and see snow?
• Can you remember the sound that Peter’s feet made as he walked through the snow? We love listening to the ‘crunch’ of freshly fallen snow!
• What tracks did Peter find in the snow? Have you ever seen some tracks in the snow? What made the tracks?
• Peter put a snowball in his pocket. What happened? Where did the snowball go?

Phonics

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

 Mark-Making

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

Mathematics

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

• If your child is working confidently counting up to 6, introduce a dice. Roll the dice once each and add the corresponding number of buttons to your snowman. Which snowman has the fewest/most buttons?

Extension ideas

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

Creative

• Create a winter tree picture using some twigs that you collect from your garden or a walk. You will need some coloured paper, twigs, glue, cotton buds and white paint.

• Need some quiet time? Grab your favourite snack and a blanket and enjoy watching ‘The Snowman’ by Raymond Briggs.
• Are you wearing a woolly jumper to keep warm? Here’s Aunty Mable and Pippin in an old episode of ‘Come Outside’ telling us all about how they are made.

Understanding the World

• Talk to your child about the seasons. The BBC has a short video clip that you could watch to discuss things that you can see changing as the seasons change. Children might be able to spot some of the autumnal changes that we talked about in Nursery before Christmas.
• What season is it now? How do we know? What clothes do we wear in winter? How is this different to summer time? Listen to this song all about winter – Did you talk about some of the things in this video?
• On your next walk, have a look for some signs of winter. We’ve created a Winter Scavenger Hunt sheet for you to print or copy. Take it with you on your walk and tick off the items as you find them.

If your child comments on some of the changes that they see and you have time, please make a note of the words that they use and send us an email with their comments. (Please note it down word for word, just as they say it!)

• Investigate freezing and melting. Choose a selection of objects (that can go in water and be frozen!) and put them into some empty pots (yogurt pots, ice cube trays) with a small amount of water. Freeze them overnight (or longer) and remove once they’re frozen. Put the frozen items into a tray and allow your child to investigate. What does it feel like? What has happened to the water? Play with the ice and watch what happens to them over time. Talk about the changes that children can see happening. What’s happening to the ice? Discuss the basic process of melting and think about other things that might melt such as ice-creams on a sunny day.

 

Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

Lots of us have memories of making paper snowflakes as a child and we thought that this would be a great activity to practise our ‘snipping’ skills. You will need some paper (cut it into a square shape) and a pair of children’s scissors. Loosely, follow these instructions on how to fold your paper – don’t worry too much about this part! In Nursery, we’re interested in learning how to fold and use scissors safely, rather than a perfect snowflake at the end of the process!  Please ensure that your child is supervised when using their scissors.  Show your child where to cut and let them enjoy snipping the paper. What does it look like when you open it out?

Movement

Join in with these Cosmic yoga sessions at home. There’s a shorter clip, Winter Wonderland, and a longer story called Joybob The Polar Bear.

Independence skills

At this point of the year in Nursery, we usually have a long line of children needing help to put their gloves on before we go outside! Over the next few weeks, encourage your child to put on their own gloves. Teach them to close their fingers at first to get their hand into the glove and then to open them slightly and wiggle each finger into place. Keep trying – it’s tricky!

Key Worker activity/videos

In our Key Worker session this week, we’re going to do our ‘Dough Disco’ song. Those of you that join our Zoom sessions will be able to have another go and practise each of the moves. You’ll need a small ball of playdough (or similar), just enough to fit in your child’s palm.

We also like to sing this song on cold, snowy days. It’s called ‘5 Little Snowmen’.

Friday Story Time

Are you sitting comfortably?  Great, here’s Mrs Long with our story for this week. It’s called ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers.

This week, our learning is going to be themed around the popular children’s books ‘Zog’ and ‘Zog and the Flying Doctors’. We’re sure that lots of you will have enjoyed watching the new animation over the holidays.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, you can listen to it here and if you would like some quiet time, why not snuggle up on the sofa and enjoy watching it on BBC iPlayer.

Zog

Zog and the Flying Doctors

Reading

• What was your favourite part of the story?
• Can you remember the characters that the Flying Doctors helped in the story?
• What do you think princesses should be like?
• If you’d like a challenge, try completing this quiz

Phonics

As part of our Phase One phonics learning, we practise making different noises with our own voices.

– Can you roar like a lion?

– If you don’t want to wake the sleeping King, what could you say? ( Shhhhh)

– What noise does Zog make when he lands? (Bang, crash, thump!)

– What noise do you think Princess Pearl says when she sees a silly, frilly dress? (Eugh!)

Can you think of any other sound effects that you could make from the story?

 Mark-Making

Do you have some wrapping paper left over or some old wall paper? Turn it over and roll it out on the floor. Hold it down at the corners using some tins/books/tape. Can you draw a giant map for Zog to show him where to go? What will be on your map? You could draw some trees for a forest or a tall mountain. What about a castle or a river?

Remember, in Nursery, the process of mark making is the most important part. The end product may not ‘look’ exactly like you think it should, but the marks that your child has made will mean a lot to them. If you have time, try to draw a little bit with your child before leaving them to continue alone. As you draw, talk about your marks and what they show (keep them simple). It’s great if they can talk to you about what they are drawing as they make each mark.

•  Here’s a Zog colouring sheet if you have a printer at home. We try to talk about choosing the correct colour for things at Nursery.
• You might also like to try and follow the lines very carefully with your pen to help Zog win a golden star .

 Mathematics

Watch this song about 2d shapes and talk about the names of the basic 2D shapes (circle, square, triangle and rectangle). Then, look at these pictures of castles and see what shapes you can spot. How you know it’s a triangle? How many sides does that shape have? Can you see a shape with a curved side?

 Pictures taken from Twinkl Google images.

 Extension ideas

– Cut up a selection of different sized shapes and ask your child to create their own castle or maybe even a dragon picture. There are lots of ideas online.  What shape would be good to use to make a doorway or window?

– Have a look on Google images at castles to see what other shapes you can spot.

Creative

• We love to create buildings using Duplo in Nursery. If you have Lego or Duplo at home, can you build a castle?
• Sir Gadabout has a shield and a sword in ‘Zog’. We know that some of you love to play ‘knights’ so maybe you’d like to have a go at making your own shields using any recycling items that you have such as cardboard delivery or cereal boxes etc.
• Role play being a doctor/nurse and help to make some of your toys better. Use your imaginations to think about what could be wrong; in the story, the mermaid has sunburn and the lion gets a sore throat. You could make a bandage (toilet roll) or use some old plasters that are hiding at the back of a cupboard somewhere.
• Before lunch, we often choose to listen to this song about a dragon on the doorstep.

 Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

Draw or print a dragon outline. Get some clothes pegs and show your child how to squeeze them to open them. Use the pegs to add spikes onto the dragon’s back (like in the dinosaur photo below). You could challenge them to add 2 blue spikes or 3 yellow ones.

Movement

Get moving and join in with this Happy Dragon dance!

Independence skills

In the story, the Lion has a sore throat and cold and needs to blow his nose a lot! Can you blow your own nose? Next time you need to blow your nose, get a tissue and look in the mirror.  Hold the tissue to your nose, pinch your fingers gently around the tissue and blow.  Remember to pinch and pull as you move the tissue away from your nose. Look in the mirror to check that your nose is clean and do it again if you need to. What’s the last thing that you need to do? Throw your tissue in the bin or flush it away and then wash your hands well.

Key Worker activities

Watch these videos (click on the two links below) and join in our Key Worker activity at home. Listen carefully to the clues and animal noises. Which animal is it?

Animal Guess Who video

If you enjoyed playing, have a go at the game at home. We’d love you to make up your own clue and send a video for us to guess which animal you have!

We often play games that help to develop our visual and memory skills. Look carefully at the animals and see if you can work out which is missing! You can easily play this game at home- just choose 5-6 items and find a tea towel or towel to hide them.

Animal memory game

Friday Story Time

This week’s story time is a book called ‘Do not bring your dragon to the library’ and is read by Miss Whitaker. We hope you enjoy listening at home; click on the video link below.

‘Do Not Bring Your Dragon To The Library‘ written by Julie Grassman.

Have a great week of home learning. Please make sure you e-mail us each week to let us know how you all are and which activities you’ve enjoyed.

Well done for making it through the first week of lockdown (again)! When we heard the news late on Monday evening, we quickly adapted our Nursery plans to include some learning activities that you could enjoy at home. We hope that you enjoyed listening to ‘The Gingerbread Man’ story and that you found some time to join in a few of the activities.

Here’s a short video message from Mrs Beesley and Mrs Long.

Our theme for next week is all about a little orange dragon… Can you guess which book we’re going to listen to?  We’ll post all of the activities and videos for next week on Sunday.  Please choose as many of the activities  as you would like to do. We know that most families are trying to juggle both work and learning at home, often with two or more children in different year groups. This is very hard and it’s impossible to replicate ‘Nursery’ at home. Try to just have fun together when you can and remember that  we learn through play in Nursery.  We also try to follow children’s interests so if they’re interested in something else, don’t worry about adapting our activities to suit your child.

From next week, we will post all of our learning activities for the following week on Friday afternoon. Hopefully, this will give you a chance to read through them and gather any bits that you might need.

Please try to email us each week to let us know how you are. It doesn’t have to be a long email, just a quick hello and maybe 1 or 2 photos of what you’ve enjoyed. We’ll post some of these photos at the end of the week so that your child can enjoy seeing their friends learning at home too.

Scholesf1@spherefederation.org

If you have any feedback on things that you enjoyed or anything that you found difficult, please do let us know.

Have a good weekend at home and enjoy getting some fresh air on one of your favourite lockdown walks.

Well, it’s not quite the welcome back that we had planned! We’ll provide you with more information regarding our remote learning activities this week, but here are some activities to get you started.

This week in Nursery, we were going to read a very popular and familiar tale, ‘The Gingerbread Man’.

If you have a copy at home, share it together or you could watch this online version.

Reading

As you read the story, see if your child can join in with the repeated phrases such as… “Stop! I want to eat you!” and “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread man!”

Talk to your child about the story. What happened? What did the Gingerbread Man say? What happened at the end of the story?

 Mark-making

We love drawing our own gingerbread people in Nursery. Draw, paint or print an outline and add in some details. Give your gingerbread person some eyes, a nose and a mouth. How many buttons will you draw? What shape are they?

Mathematics

There are some fun Gingerbread Man counting activities on this website. In Nursery, we don’t expect children to recognise digits at this point so you may need to help your child recognise the numbers as you play together. Count the buttons and remember to say the numbers slowly, touching each button as you count it.

You could continue to play this together using the gingerbread person that you drew. Find something to use for buttons (buttons, pompoms, sweets, coins…) and challenge each other to put on 1-5 buttons. We’d expect some children to be working with numbers up to 3,4 or 5, but some children may be able to count more confidently up to 10 with one to one correspondence.

Here are a few ways to extend the activity…

• Which Gingerbread Man has the most/fewest buttons? How do you know?
• How many buttons would s/he have if we added one more? Ate one?
• If you put 1, 2 or 3 buttons on the Gingerbread Man, can you tell how many there are without counting?  Try it!

Creative

• If you have the ingredients, have a go at making your own gingerbread people. It’s always a great hit in Nursery. If you don’t have time this week, add the ingredients to your weekly shop and save it for a weekend treat together.
• Watch ‘Melody’ as she listens to some music that reminds her of the Gingerbread Man story. What did it make you think of?
• If you have playdough at home, have a go at making gingerbread people.

 Phonics – Nursery rhymes

During group time this week, we were going to re-visit some of our favourite Nursery rhymes. Sing some together at home. There are lots to choose from here.

As you’re singing, try missing out a word from the end of a line. Can your child fill in the missing word? E.g. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great….. ?

Please remember to let us know how you’re getting on throughout the week and send us a quick e-mail to scholesf1@spherefederation.org.  We love to find out about your home learning – in whatever form it takes. Gingerbread Man related or something completely different!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please see the whole school announcement regarding school’s closure today, including Nursery.

 

https://www.scholeselmet.leeds.sch.uk/find-out/news/#news0 

 

Happy New Year! We hope that you’ve had a happy and healthy break over the Christmas holidays.

Remember, we have a training day on Monday 04 January. We’re looking forward to welcoming you back to Nursery on Tuesday and can’t wait to hear all about the fun that you’ve had over the last two weeks. We’re also looking forward to meeting our new families on Friday, when our new children will join us for a settling in session.

This week, we will focus on settling children back into Nursery routines and we’ll be looking for any new interests that children have. Don’t forget to send us an email if your child has suddenly become engrossed in something new at home! We will add their new interests to up-date our ‘What makes us tick’ notice display in Nursery. We use these interests to inform our planning and learning activities in Nursery.

See you soon! Foundation One Team