Friday 29 January 2021

01.02.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We've reached the end of another week, a week that bought some news about the return to school. Mrs Fincham and I are missing the Pearlies lots and I am so sad that we now know we have even longer to wait until they all return. I just wanted to say that you are all doing a great job with the home learning and I am loving the emails you are sending. Thank you for taking the time to send me pictures of the children and their work, they really do make my day!

Below are some ideas for this week's home learning, these are the activities we would have been doing had we been in school.

We would have been:


  • Sharing non-fiction texts to find out facts about different dinosaurs. As well as looking through some of my collection of books we would have also watched these 2 films. The first film is an overview of dinosaurs and gives lots of facts, the second film is a top ten of dinosaur facts. The films can be found here and here.
  • Starting to create our own dinosaur book. In school we would have spent a few weeks doing this, so giving ourselves time to find out facts and record our ideas to turn into a class book. As well as the 2 films mentioned above, I have added some fact cards to the English folder and there is also a Dinosaur ebook which you can download (should you wish to). I would have been encouraging the children to focus on one dinosaur to learn and write about. There are also some great facts on the CBeebies website. These can be found here
  • Continuing with our Maths work, the next set of films for "Growing 6, 7, 8!" can be found here. I have also uploaded the activities to our home learning folder. This week is about combining (adding) numbers together.
  • Learning the next vowel digraphs in our Phonics sessions. The films for each day will be uploaded to the Phonics folder. (Apologies about the sunlight for Monday's film...I moved halfway through to see if that helped, the other films will be uploaded next week).
There are also new Vocabulary Ninja words in the folder (11-15) should you wish to have a look at them. In school we would have also been watching and talking about the next 5 Numberblocks episodes from series 2 (starting from Just Add One). These can be found here.

This weekend it is also the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which you might like to join in with. The information can be found here I am going to do it too and will share my results with you next week. You may even like to try to make your own fat ball for them to eat - a link showing you how to do this can be found here

Please remember I am only ever an email or phone call away. I hope you all have a lovely weekend, who knows we may even get some snow!
Take care
Miss Wakefield


Friday 22 January 2021

25.01.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello Everybody!

Well done, we have reached the half way point of the term! I hope you are all ok at home, please know that Mrs Fincham and I are really missing our lovely Pearlies. It has been lovely to see some of their smiling faces in the emails that we have had this week. I would really like it if you could email me each week to keep me up to date with how you all are and if you need support in any area of your child's welfare and education. 

Below are some ideas for this week's home learning, these are the activities we would have been doing had we been in school.

We would have been:

  • Sharing the book Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus! This has rhyming words (like Dinosaur Roar!) and is again full of different dinosaurs. If you do not have this book at home, a version of the story can be found here. At the end of this story there are some ideas to try at home too. I have added those ideas to the Home Learning folder in the English section.
  • Finding out about 5 new Vocabulary Ninja words, these have been added to the folder, numbers 6-10.
  • Learning the first 4 vowel digraphs in our Phonics sessions. These new sounds will be in the Phonics folder along with the films.
  • Starting the new phase in White Rose Maths - "Growing 6, 7 and 8". This week's learning will build upon the Numberblocks episodes I blogged about last week. There are also 2 stories that go with this week, Six Dinner Sid for Monday and Kipper's Toybox for Friday. A version of these stories can be found here and here.
  • Watching the Andy story "T-Rex and Pumice". This can be found here. We would then have gone on to look at real pumice and carried out an experiment to create our own volcano. We usually make our volcano in the same way as demonstrated in this video from the Natural History Museum. Maybe you might like to try it too.


This week I have found this website, it enables you to make music by clicking on the different experiments. I particularly enjoyed the Kandinsky experiment. I thought you might like to take a look at it yourselves, although I apologise in advance for the noise your children may make! The link can be found here.

Don't forget the children still have their Big Cat e-book library, it would be great if you could use this as much as possible as it will help with the children's blending. Please let me know if your child needs more books as I am able to amend their individual library. A link to login page is here. If you can't find your child's login details please do ask and I will email them to you.

As always I am here to support you and your child in any way I can, please email me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com and I will get back to you.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Take care

Miss Wakefield

Friday 15 January 2021

18.01.21 - This coming week in Early Years


Hello Pearl Families!
We have got to the end of the second week, well done to everyone, you are all doing a super job! Mrs Fincham and I have been missing you all and have recorded a little message for all the children. You can find the messages in our Home Learning folder.

Below are some ideas for this week's home learning, these are the activities we would have been doing had we been in school.

We would have been:


          
  • Sharing the story "Dinosaur Roar!" and discussing the rhyming words. This story can be found here. 
  • Writing a caption to go along with one of the pictures from "Dinosaur Roar!", using describing words to match the picture. (I have filmed two versions for this activity - one for parents and one for the children - these are the English folder, in our home learning folder).
  • Sharing the book "Dinosaur More!", this is a non-fiction version of "Dinosaur Roar!" and gives information about those dinosaurs. 
  • Creating a 3D box to make a habitat for a dinosaur. A film showing how to do this can be found here. (Sorry that I can't multi-task and draw and speak at the same time!!)
  • Watching the first 5 Numberblocks episodes from series 2. (The episodes introduce the numbers 6-10). These can be found here.
  • Comparing objects by their mass or capacity in our Mathematics sessions. There are 5 short videos on the White Rose website, they can be found here. There are also accompanying activities which I have added to the Mathematics folder which is here.
  • Learning our first 4 vowel digraphs in our Phonics sessions, along with 3 more Phase 3 tricky words. Films for these Phonics sessions are in the Home Learning folder.


There are some lovely Dinosaur Roar! activities on their website, along with some information posters, this website can be found here.

The Natural History Museum have started a homework club, they are starting with Dinosaurs. A link to the website can be found here.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Please remember I am only ever an email or phone call away. 

Take care and stay safe

Miss Wakefield

Friday 8 January 2021

11.01.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Well done for getting through the first week of home schooling, you have all been amazing! I've loved getting the emails showing me what the children have been doing and I'd like to say a huge thank you for all of your lovely words and support. 

Hopefully sharing things with you all will be a little smoother this week, now that I have set up the online folder. 

I have added various things into the folder during this week:

  • There is now a film clip of me demonstrating how we write our names using the sheets I have emailed to everyone. 
  • I have made online versions of the children's sound cards and will add the relevant one each week, so the set for j v w x is already there.
  • I had an amazing camera woman in school this week and she has filmed me doing the calendar, our morning timetable and the afternoon timetable. They are just there as a bit of fun, but do show you how we do it in school.
  • A list of online resources that I hope you will find useful.
Today I will also be adding:
  • Two of the films for next week's Phonics. These will be numbered as before. If you decide to do more than one in a day please can you watch them in order as I repeat the previous learning. (The other 3 will be uploaded on Monday - apologies there has been a slight technical hitch!).
  • Two films with me demonstrating how to label one of Harry's Robots. (See below for more information). One is for you to watch first and one is for the children to watch so they know what to do.
  • The robot labelling sheets.
  • Some Vocabulary Ninja words. These are numbered, in school we would have done 1 a day.
  • Our Days of the Week song.
  • A film showing how we write our numbers in school.
  • A list of how we write our numbers in school.
This week I have updated all of the children's Big Cat e-book libraries. To find the new books simply sort your child's library by clicking on "Recently Added". As with the Lilac Books, there is a clip of how to support your child when reading these new books. To watch this you need to click on the little blue circle on the right hand side of the front cover. (As shown in the picture below).


Below are some ideas for this week's home learning, these are the activities we would have been doing had we been in school.

We would have been:

  • Sharing the stories "Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School" and "Harry and the Robots". If you do not have these at home, then they can be found here and here.
  • Discussing the story "Harry and the Robots" and thinking about how Harry wanted to help his Nan get better. We would have gone on to think about ways we could help each other.
  • Using junk modelling materials to make our own robots.
  
  
  • Labelling the parts of a robot in our English session. Please check in the Home Learning folder for a film of me teaching this along with the resources you might like to use. If you do not have access to a printer then the children (or you) could draw a robot and then go on to label it.
You may have seen there is no Mathematics listed. This is because I have now found the Home Learning area for Early Years on the White Rose website. It can be found here. In class we had already done some work around zero before Christmas which is why I had moved on. However this has made us a few days ahead, which wouldn't have mattered had the children been in school, but could prove more problematic given the current situation. So please can I suggest that for this week you could look at the video clips on zero which are here or reinforce the work from last week by using the clips here. This way we will be matched up with their resources for the following week. (Week beginning 18/01/21 - Alive in 5! Week 3). Any problems please just ask, sorry if this has caused any confusion.

As always, please email me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com with any queries, questions, to share some of your child's learning or just to say hello! You may have seen on the latest letter from school that we are asking families to check in with us at least once a week just that we know that you are all ok at home. Although school is "closed" we are all still here and are only ever a phone call or email away.

Take care and have a lovely weekend
Miss Wakefield




Monday 4 January 2021

04.01.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a happy and healthy Christmas break. I know this is isn't the start of the new term that we would wish for, but please know that I am here if there is anything you need to support the children at home. Please just email using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com

Below are some ideas for home learning, these are the activities we would have been doing had we been in school.

We would have been:

  • Sharing Harry and the Dinosaurs stories. As an introduction to our new project we would have started with the story "Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs".  If you don't have this story at home a version of it can be found here
  • Discussing our favourite dinosaurs. Following on from the story, we would have discussed our favourite dinosaurs and whether they were in Harry's bucket. My favourites are Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and Triceratops. I would love to see some pictures of your favourite dinosaurs. There are also some craft activities here that you may like. 
  • Starting Phase 3 in our Phonics sessions. I will film these sessions and then add them to this folder
  • Finding different ways to make 5 in our Mathematics sessions, learning about the parts that make a whole. We would have watched this episode of Numberblocks again as an introduction. In our sessions I would have been encouraging to find all of the different ways to split 5 objects (the whole) into 2 groups (the parts). I have added the relevant slide from White Rose Maths for this week's theme which gives more ideas. It can be found in this folder. These ideas are for the week, so maybe pick one a day and try different numbers (up to 10). I always start with lower numbers so that the children understand the concepts with numbers they are secure with.
  • Sharing and reading books together. Please remember the children have a login for the Big Cat e-book library. Reading a little everyday is so important. If you are unable to find your child's login details please email me and I will send them to you. I will be updating the children's libraries to reflect the books I would have been reading with them in school.
Finally, it would be lovely to know the children's views for our new project, I would be very grateful if you could ask them these questions and email me their answers, this will help me with future plans for our project.

Take care
Miss Wakefield