Story Time
We loved seeing the photos of your scavenger hunt items. Did you find any tricky to find? Which ones were difficult?
On Monday, we asked you to save your telescope if you made one – you might want to use it during today’s story. Don’t worry if you didn’t make one, you’ll still enjoy the story without one, or you could quickly find a tube that you could use!
Have you guessed which story Miss Backhouse is going to read? It’s about a little boy who loves his telescope and he takes it everywhere with him. Guess what he spots when he goes to the park!
Did you spot the sharks that Timothy saw? Watch the story again and try and join in when he shouts “SHARK IN THE PARK!”
Here are a few activities linked to today’s story if you enjoyed it.
- There are few stories in this series of books. Here is the original ‘Shark in the Park’ story read by the author, Nick Sharratt. There’s a drawing lesson afterwards that might be a bit tricky, but you could have a go at drawing your own sharks. What shape do you need to draw for the fin? Can you draw some zig-zags for the shark’s sharp teeth? Alternatively, here’s a printable shark colouring sheet that you might like to do.
- What can you see in the park? Enjoy a visit to a local park and have a look to see what shapes you can see. Are there any triangle shapes that look a bit like a shark’s fin? You could take your telescopes to see what you can see.
- Watch – If you’re interested in sharks, you can learn more about them with Steve Backshall in these short clips on the CBBC website.
- We know that lots of you love this very catchy song and will have fun joining with the actions at home. Turn it up and have a dance! Andy from CBeebies has also written a rap song about sharks.
- Some of the older Nursery children may notice that the words ‘shark’ and ‘park’ rhyme. Can you think of any other words that rhyme? Listen for rhyming words in stories that you read or you could try giving your child a word and thinking of other words it rhyme with. Start with easier ones such as cat, hat, bat, rat… There’s also a rhyming game called ‘Cake Bake’ on the Phonics Play website and it is still free to play using the login details given on the site.
Home Learning
Another week has ended and we can’t believe that there are just two weeks left until the Summer holidays. We’ve loved reading all of your emails this week, thank you. Please keep sending them for our last few weeks of learning together. Here are a few photos from this week. Can you spot the different items that your friends found in the scavenger hunt? There were lots of smelly socks!
Zoom call
If you contacted us to say that you wanted to take part in our Nursery Zoom call, you should have received the details via email on Wednesday. We’re looking forward to seeing you next week!
2 July 2020: Home learning
Phonics
→Need more of a challenge? Can you help the alien escape?
Maths
Watch the number block 15 and 16 videos.
Mrs Palmer has 15 challenge cubes. She has shown the number 15 in 3 different ways.
Can you show the number 16 in 3 different ways?
→Need more of a challenge? Print the part part whole model or draw your own to show the number 15 or 16 in different ways.
Let’s talk!
This week we will be focussing on developing your child’s communication and language skills through fun, family activities. Your child’s communication and language development is so important. It encompasses speech development, listening skills and understanding. The games this week will focus on these skills to support your child in becoming a good communicator.
What you will need:
- Building bricks e.g. lego or duplo
- Building instructions – pattern instructions OR rainbow instructions
- 2 players – 1 ‘engineer’ and 1 ‘builder’
How to play: The aim of the game is for the ‘engineer’ to look at the instructions and tell the ‘builder’ how to build the model.
Why this game?
This game is a great way to support your child’s communication skills. When being the ‘Engineer’ they are encouraged to really tune into their listeners needs – all whilst giving instructions! When being the ‘Builder’ it is a great chance for your child to practice being a good listener. Responding with relevant comments or questions shows that your child is understanding what the ‘Engineer’ is asking them to do.
Scavenger Hunt
We love listening to stories about pirates hunting for treasure so we thought that you might like to go on your own ‘treasure hunt’ today. Your Nursery teachers are going to give you two items to find. Listen carefully and then pause the video when you see Feridie Fox and go and see if you can find something that is …
When you’ve found all of your items, please take a photo of them and email it to us at scholesf1@spherefederation.org. We can’t wait to see what you find that is smelly!
If you enjoyed this, you could have a go at making your own scavenger hunt clues to play with your family. Have fun!
1 July 2020: Home learning
Phonics
Watch Geraldine Giraffe learn about ‘oo’
Read:
Can you read the oo words?
Which words had the long ‘oo’ sound and which words had the short ‘oo’ sound?
For example;
Food has the long ‘oo’ sound
Book has the short ‘oo’ sound
Activity:
You will need: magazines/newspaper, scissors, paper and glue.
Can you find any words in your magazine or newspaper with the digraph ‘oo’?
Cut them out and stick them on your ‘oo’ page.
Challenge: You could sort them into the long ‘oo’ and short ‘oo’ sound.
Here is an example of what it might look like (we have used different digraphs here).
→Need more of a challenge? Can you read the ‘oo’ words you have found? How many syllables do they have?
Maths
Let’s talk!
This week we will be focussing on developing your child’s communication and language skills through fun, family activities. Your child’s communication and language development is so important. It encompasses speech development, listening skills and understanding. The games this week will focus on these skills to support your child in becoming a good communicator.
Follow my instructions
What you will need:
- Simple ingredients and utensils to make a snack – this could be cheese spread on crackers, cut up fruit or toast.
- 2 players
How to play:
The aim of the game is for your child to follow your instructions when making a snack. Your child will need to listen very carefully so that you don’t have to help at all. For example, verbal cues only rather than non-verbal (such as pointing).
To make this more challenging you could have different sized utensils or different coloured ingredients.
Here is an example below:
Making fruit salad
1.Get the largest banana from the fruit bowl.
2.Get one small and one large orange from the fruit bowl.
3.Get a handful of red and green grapes from the fruit bowl.
4.Use the smallest knife to cut the banana into slices and put it into the large, green bowl.
5.Peel the orange and separate into segments. Put it into the large, green bowl too.
6.Put 8 red grapes and 10 green grapes into the large, green bowl.
Make sure your child listens to what you say and doesn’t ask you to point. The aim of the game is for your child to understand your language through verbal instructions.
Why this game?
This game supports your child’s listening and understanding skills. Using size, colour and quantity when giving instructions will challenge your child to really tune into and understand what you are asking them to do.
PASS IT ON! Your child could then ‘pass it on’ and give the instructions to another family member. Challenge your child to only use their words and not use actions when giving their instructions.
Hall of Home Learning Fame
Thank you Amelie for sharing your circulatory poster and your homemade pillow.
30 June 2020: Home learning
Phonics
→Need more of a challenge? Can you use a narrative in your ‘oo’ writing? You could write a story all about an ‘oo’ word. It could be about a ‘book adventure’, ‘a search for food’ or ‘the magical boot’.
Maths
1.Watch the numberblock 15 and 16 videos.
2.Draw the number 15 and 16 on the floor using chalk or draw the numbers 15 and 16 on two pieces of paper.
3. Is the answer 15 or 16 to the following statements (adults please read the statements out loud):
- I am an odd number.
- I am the bigger number
- I am one big ten and 5 ones.
- I am an even number.
- I am one big ten and 6 ones.
- I am an odd number.
- I can make a square shape with my blocks.
- Half of me is 8.
- I am the smaller number.
→Need more of a challenge?
Let’s talk!
This week we will be focussing on developing your child’s communication and language skills through fun, family activities. Your child’s communication and language development is so important. It encompasses speech development, listening skills and understanding. The games this week will focus on these skills to support your child in becoming a good communicator.
Pirate treasure!
What you will need:
- An object to represent ‘treasure’. This could be a coin or a favourite teddy bear.
- 2 players/pirates
How to play:
The aim of the game is for one pirate to hide the treasure and describe where it is hidden. The other pirate needs to listen to the description and find that treasure!
Take it in turns to either hide the treasure or find the treasure. Remember only use words – no pointing or actions allowed!
Encourage good language skills such as;
- Pre-positional language e.g. underneath, on top, in front of, behind
- Descriptive language (what size is it? Colour?)
- Adventurous words
For example: “The treasure is in the largest room in the house. It is hiding underneath something red, sparkly and tiny.”
Why this game?
Just like yesterday’s game this activity supports your child’s vocabulary, listening and understanding skills. When describing where the treasure is hidden your child is challenged to use adventurous vocabulary and tune into the listeners needs. When finding out where the treasure is hidden your child is challenged to listen to the speaker and understand what they are saying.
Important reminder
Are you interested in the class zoom call? If so, please email today to let us know.
Some information if you missed it previously
Before the end of the school year, we are offering Zoom calls with children who remain at home . This will be a great opportunity to get together via zoom in small groups to end the school year.
If your child is still learning at home, and you’d like your child to be part of a Zoom call with Mrs Flynn, Mrs Palmer and some of their classmates, please email us.
Please email us by Monday 29th June to let us know if your child would like to take part.
When you email, you’ll need to provide the name that will appear in the Zoom call – we won’t allow anyone into the meeting if we’re not expecting them. Ideally, the name would be the child’s first and last name, but it can be your name. (And please make sure the name is appropriate.)
We will decide a date and time for this to happen – the zoom calls will be organised for the week beginning 6th July. We’ll send an invitation with the log-in details back to you. We’re sorry – there can’t be much flexibility about the date and time.
29 June 2020: Home learning
Phonics
Letter formation:
Can you practise your letter formation using the letter formation ditty’s?
Read:
Can you read the sentences and scan the QR codes to check you were correct? You can also click on the links below to reveal the answer.
→Need more of a challenge? Can you play the polysyllabic game?
Maths
This week we are going to learn about two teen numbers.
Numberblock 15 calls himself The Super-Secret Step Squad Agent.
What 5 numbers add together to make 15?
Numberblock 16 can make itself into a square. What other numbers are also square?
Can you solve the following problems?
What is half of 16?
What is half of 8?
How many sets of 4 make 16?
How many sets of 2 make 16?
How many ones make 16?
→Need more of a challenge?
Let’s talk!
This week we will be focussing on developing your child’s communication and language skills through fun, family activities. Your child’s communication and language development is so important. It encompasses speech development, listening skills and understanding. The games this week will focus on these skills to support your child in becoming a good communicator.
Describe that thing!
What you will need:
- A collection of objects from around the house e.g. a teddy, banana, spoon, book.
- A bag/box to hide the objects inside
- Building bricks i.e. lego or duplo – these will be used as points in the game.
- 2 players – 1 ‘describer’ and 1 ‘listener’
How to play:
The aim of the game is for the ‘describer’ to describe the object hidden in the bag and the ‘listener’ to guess what it is.
Every time the ‘listener’ guesses correctly they get a brick for their tower. The ‘describer’ can collect bricks for their tower if they use any adventurous words.
Take it in turns to be either the ‘listener’ or the ‘describer’.
The person with the tallest brick tower at the end is the winner!
Why this game?
This game is a great way to support your child’s communication skills. When being the ‘describer’ they are encouraged to really tune into their listeners needs – as well as use adventurous words to describe something! When being the ‘listener’ it is a great chance for your child to practice being a good listener. When your child responds with relevant comments or questions it shows that they understand what the ‘describer’ is saying.
Pirates Love Underpants!
There were some noisy thunderstorms over the weekend and lots of heavy rain showers. Did you hear the thunder or see any lightening? It made us think of stormy seas…
This week’s story is one of the very popular books from a series of stories written by Claire Freedman; they’re all about aliens, dinosaurs and pirates that love underpants!
We hope that you enjoy listening to ‘ Pirates Love Underpants‘; it’s all about a crew of cheeky pirates that are looking for some golden treasure.
We hope that you enjoyed listening to the story.
- What was your favourite part?
- Did any parts of the story make you laugh?
- Can you remember which animal was waiting underneath the bridge?
- How did the pirates trick the rival pirate crew to steal the treasure?
Here are some activities for you to try that are linked to the story.
Creative – Have a go at making your own pirate hat, patch, telescope or treasure chest. Before you start, gather together some cardboard boxes or tubes from your recycling pile. You could cut out the shape of a hat from an opened out cereal box or you could simply roll up some paper to make a telescope. A clean, empty egg box would make a great treasure chest. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it! We’ve added a few links if you need some help or a starting point.
Music – This week, we thought we’d share another of the songs we enjoy listening to before home time at Nursery. It’s called ‘Port Side Pirates’. We hope you enjoy singing along at home.
Mark making – Every good pirate needs a map! Draw where the pirates have hidden the treasure on the island. Is it next to a tree or in a cave? How will you show where the treasure is? That’s right, X marks the spot. When we were little, we used to use a teabag to stain the paper to make our treasure maps look really old. Did you?
Role play – Grab your hats, telescopes and treasure maps and come aboard! We’re sure that you can make a pirate ship on your bed/sofa/picnic blanket and enjoy sailing the Seven Seas together. What can you see through your telescope? Is that a desert island ahead? Look for the landmarks on your map and go and find some treasure! Ahoy, Maties!
Mathematics
- Investigate capacity using a selection of different containers, bottles and tubs. This activity might be a good one to do in the bath or outside with a bucket or storage box full of water. Children love to play in the water and investigate pouring and filling containers. As they pour, talk to your child about which containers/bottle holds the most/least water. Is it nearly full? Half full? Empty? If you have a funnel or colander in the kitchen, let children explore using these too. If you want to add to the discussion, you could put a hole in one of the bottles. What happens to the water as you try to fill the bottle?
- Treasure hunt – Hide 5 coins outside. As children find them, ask how many there are left to find. Once you have found 2 coins, how many are still missing?
- Listen to this counting story about ’10 Little Pirates’ . Can you join in each time and work out how many pirates are left each time?
Physical development – Can you walk the plank at home? Have a look in your garden or whilst on a walk in your local area to see if you can find something to practise balancing along to ‘walk the plank’. You might have a plank of wood that you could lay along the floor, or you could use a rope or rolled up blanket. Children will enjoy carefully balancing along it and then jumping off the end.
We’re sure that you’ll all love the pirate theme this week! Remember to send us photos of your telescopes and eye-patches and save your telescope as it might come in handy for Friday’s story time.
Reminder – Zoom Call
If you would like your child to take part in the Nursery Zoom call, please e-mail us by Monday 29 June. Refer to our previous post for more details.
Calling all library books!
Library books: If you have any Scholes library books at home, then please can you return them to school, where possible.
There will be a box outside school for this. Thank you!
