Chestnut Class Home Learning

There are many activities you can do with your child at home, to keep them busy and support their learning. To continue to support your child’s learning while school is closed, please see the activities that can be done each day. We have suggested some fun tasks below. Play based learning is the most fun and effective way for your child to acquire new skills, as well as practise and consolidate prior knowledge. Please note that the activity ideas, and suggested times for each activity are a guideline, and will depend on each individual child. Please don’t put pressure on yourselves or your children to get these activities done, they are just suggestions. Enjoy the time you have with each other at home, playing and talking together.

English Activities

Reading (15-20 minutes)

Please read with your child every day. You can use the reading books sent home from school, as well as books you have at home. Please listen to your child as they read to you, but also take any opportunity to read to them as well. After reading together, it is important to talk about the text that you have just shared. You could discuss your favourite parts of the story or how the characters were feeling.

Please click on the link reading-support for guidance on the types of questions you could ask and discussions you could have.

For free audiobooks by David Walliams go to: https://soundcloud.com/harpercollinspublishers/sets/david-walliams-1

For free online books and guidance with reading, please visit Oxford Owl: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-site/find-a-book/library-page?type=book&view=&query=gingerbread

To listen to stories for free, go to: https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

High Frequency Words – Reading & Spelling (10 minutes)

Children can practise their bookmark words at home, and make sentences with the word packs. Please refer to their reading diaries for the list of 45 sight words that the children should know. If your child can read these words already, the next step is to spell them! A few word games that the children have enjoyed are: snap, tic tac toe, and bingo.

Handwriting (10-15 minutes)

Please click on the links below for handwriting sheets you could do with your child. Remember to encourage your child to start from the correct place in order to ensure correct letter formation. Fine motor skills can also be exercised through fun activities such as junk modelling, Lego, painting and playdough.

phase-2-handwriting-pack

phase-3-handwriting-pack

Phonics Practice (20 minutes)

Using the sound sheet in your child’s reading diary, go through all the sounds we have learnt in class, along with their rhymes, eg ‘ai, snail in the rain’. Choose a phase 3 sound to focus on eg ‘sh’. Together, think of words that have this sound in it eg ‘shed, sheep, rush, fish’. Robot the words eg ‘f-i-sh’, ‘sh-e-d’. Write some words with the ‘sh’ sound. If your child can do this, try writing some sentences with the ‘sh’ sound.

Please click on the link new.phonicsplay.co.uk for fun phonics games.

Key English skills for children to work on:

-Reading their 45 reception words and bookmark words by sight in any context, and writing them from memory if they are able to read them.

-Recognising all phase 2 and 3 sounds, and using this knowledge in their reading and writing.

-Correct letter formation for all letters.

-Writing for different purposes. Children have enjoyed many forms of writing in class, and could practise their writing skills at home. We have written stories, lists, diary entries, cards and letters.

-Using capital letters and full stops in their writing.

Maths Activities (20 minutes)

Maths can be done in many practical ways at home. Whether it is counting toys in a toy box, sharing pencils with siblings, measuring flour when baking a cake, or halving tomatoes for a salad, please take any opportunity to help your child exercise their maths skills. Board games with dice, such as snakes and ladders and ludo are another fun way to practise number skills. Children can practise their number formation or go on a shape hunt around the house!

Key Maths skills for children to work on:

-Recognising and ordering consecutive and non-consecutive numbers to 20.

-Identifying 1 more and 1 less than a given number to 20.

-Counting in 2s to 20, and 10s to 100.

-Naming basic 2D and 3D shapes and discussing their properties.

-Telling the time (o’clock times only).

-Practical adding and taking away, and recording number sentences.

Online Maths Games and Activities

White Rose is the scheme of work we use for Maths. They are offering Live Lessons and daily maths activities: http://www.whiterosemaths.com

Games to re-enforce Maths skills:

http://www.topmarks.co.uk

https://uk.ixl.com/math/reception

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/kids-activities/fun-maths-games-and-activities/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=37

Physical Development Activities (30 minutes)

Here are some links for physical activities online, that children can do at home.

Joe Wicks’ P.E every morning. It’s on at 9am live (or you can do it later in the day). Choose ‘P.E with Joe’: https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1/videos

https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/activities – Disney shake up games to get young people active and moving. Video clips and instructions to play games at home.

https://mommypoppins.com/new-york-city-kids/boredom-busters/build-an-indoor-obstacle-course-for-kids-in-7-steps – An at home indoor Obstacle course using everyday household objects.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.todaysparent.com/family/activities/15-ways-to-keep-kids-active-indoors-even-if-you-dont-have-much-space/amp/ – Lots of indoor game ideas to do with children at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X655B4ISakg– Yoga for kids.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L_A_HjHZxfI – Other videos on YouTube to put in the search engine:
Kids workout videos
5 minute move: The Body Coach
Kids workout for 3-9 Year Olds
Yoga for Kids
Kids exercise- workout at home
Home exercises for kids

Getting ready for the Summer Term

Our next topic will be all about plants. You could talk to your child about the types of plants they know, research plants on the internet, and discuss the foods we eat that come from plants. You could also look at the different parts of a plant, like the stem, petals, roots etc, and talk about how to plant a seed, and look after a seedling.

Other Educational websites

Here are a few more websites that are both fun and educational:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games  – cbeebies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/early-years-teaching-resources/zhhf92p – bbc early years

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

www.twinkl.co.uk/offer.Use the code UKTWINKLHELPS  to register for free.  On this website you will find activities and resources for all primary aged children.

Thank you for your support. Please also look below at our main class webpage, for more information about what we have been learning in class. We appreciate any consolidation of learning that you do with your child at home, and look forward to seeing you soon!

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Curriculum Overview

RE

Our RE topics this half term are ‘Gathering’, ‘Lent’ ‘Growing’ and ‘Easter’. Children will discuss how they feel when they come together with friends and family, and learn how the church community gathers to celebrate the Mass. We will celebrate Shrove Tuesday by making some delicious pancakes with toppings of our choice. On Ash Wednesday, Father Sean will visit us, to give us a blessing and mark the beginning of Lent. We will make a Lenten promise tree, with promises that we will try our best to keep throughout Lent.  We will learn about the Easter story, and will role play the main events, including Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We will also have an Easter celebration, which you are all very welcome to attend.

English

This half term in literacy, we will be doing shared reading and activities around our big books, which are: The Meanies came to school, The Ugly Duckling and Who will be my mother. Please continue to help your child to use their bookmarks regularly.

We will continue doing individual reading sessions in which the children will be encouraged to talk about the pictures, characters and sequence of events. Please don’t forget to write in your child’s reading record on a regular basis.

We are now nearly at the end of Letters and Sounds Phase 3, and will commence Phase 4 very soon. Phase 4 does not introduce any new sounds, but reviews all the sounds we have learnt so far, in the form of more complex words. We will have fun Phase 4 activities every day. If you would like some ideas of what you may do at home, please find a link at the bottom of the page. We will continue to practise our Phase 2 and 3 sounds, and also segmenting and blending our words to help us with our reading and writing. Please encourage and support your child to use their phonics when reading and writing at home, in order to consolidate what they have learnt at school. The sounds we have learnt are on our windows.

The children have lots of opportunities to write and draw. We encourage children to form their letters correctly when writing. Please continue to support children in forming their letters correctly at home, according to the school’s handwriting policy.  We are also working on the correct use of capital letters, full stops and finger spaces when writing.

Communication and Language

All the children will be encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas with their classmates. Children will be supported to speak in full sentences and use as much interesting vocabulary as possible. Our talk topics for this half term are: Differences, Sports Relief and Our Garden.

Mathematics

Every day we have problem solving, reasoning and numeracy activities.  We are continuing to teach the children to recognise, say and use numbers in the correct order. We are also learning to count in 2s, and 10s. We are exploring mathematical vocabulary such as more and less, tall and short, before and next etc. We are learning to copy and make repeating patterns, make sets of different objects and discuss the methods used. We are exploring and talking about 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. This half term we will be exploring practical activities linked to basic time (using o’clock) comparing weights, using language such as heavier/lighter and using bucket balance scales.

We will also continue learning to add and take away practically, and have started to record our answer. Please take any opportunity to reinforce number recognition, counting and basic practical adding and taking away.

Understanding of the World

Our topic for this half term is Life cycles and Growing.  Here, we will be learning about animals and their young. Farmer Ted will deliver our duck eggs to us on the 2^nd March. We will observe our eggs with magnifying glasses, carefully looking for any cracks in the shells. Once our ducklings are born, we will tenderly look after them, and the children will be actively involved in feeding them.  We will learn all about ducklings and how to care for them. The children will also have the opportunity to handle the ducklings and watch them learn to swim in our water tray. This will be a very exciting time for the children and will provide lots of fun opportunities across the curriculum.

We will also be learning about plants and how to grow them, as we will be sowing some seeds in preparation for our next topic after Easter. As we welcome spring, we will go for a spring walk, looking at beautiful flowers around our local area, such as cherry blossoms, tulips and daffodils.

The children will continue to use ICT to support their literacy and numeracy skills as well as creative work. Children have enjoyed learning from websites such as BusyThings, topmarks, phonicsplay and cbbc. We will focus on keyboard skills this half term, and children will be encouraged to type their name.

We try to cook or bake with the children every Friday and would appreciate a weekly contribution of 50p to go towards the cost of ingredients. This can be placed in ‘the post box’ money box on the left shelf as you come in to the classroom. We have cooked lots of delicious treats, including scones, flapjacks and noodles. This half term, we hope to make pancakes, chocolate nests with mini eggs, hot cross buns and much more!

Expressive Arts and Design

Our artwork this half term centres around spring, and our ducklings.  We will make observational drawings of our ducklings, paint pictures of flowers and make clay pots for Easter.

We will also continue to enjoy messy play with playdough and shaving foam, and will also be doing some junk modelling. We love using a variety of materials, textures and colours on our creative table, so old magazines, clean bottles and boxes are always appreciated.

Physical Development

In PE we are focusing on gym and dance. Children will learn to balance and travel on apparatus, as well as moving expressively to music. Our PE days are Monday and Thursday. Please support your child in learning to put their jumpers, cardigans and coats on.

We will be encouraging children to further develop their fine motor skills through tactile activities with shaving foam and playdough as well as through tasks involving threading and using tweezers. The children will be given lots of opportunities to write and draw, and we shall be encouraging them to form all the letters correctly. If you would like to help your child with letter formation, please refer to the pre-school booklet you were given. Those children who are not quite ready for writing will practise fine motor control and mark making with a variety of writing tools.

Please feel free talk to us after school if you have any questions or queries, or arrange an appointment at your convenience.