I hope you had a good half term week.

In maths this week we are looking at halving quantities by sharing items into two equal groups. Children should share small quantities out fairly. Talk about unfair sharing, where one person has more/fewer.

Once children are confident with halving small quantities, they can explore sharing between 3 or 4 people. They will notice that there are sometimes leftovers and may come up with how to resolve this. Can you share the left overs?
Provide children with opportunities to share amounts around the home and garden.

The Doorbell Rang story book by Pat Hutchins puts sharing into context of everyday life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLx7Oxr5ZlU

Bean Thirteen is another story which shows sharing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqFKbdtbiMw
If you want to find the stories read by different people than the ones I’ve found, feel free.

Phonics – Ruth Miskin’s Read Write Inc is still online – I have put a link to the speed sounds which would be really good to revisit frequently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eh_RQ0Pkhg

In writing children could write a diary of what they have been doing recently.
Encourage children to:
• leave finger spaces between words
• use good ‘pincer’ pencil grip
• start with a capital and finish with a full stop.

Have a lovely week.
Mandy Turner

Hi Pandas, I hope you are all well. I really enjoyed playing the ‘Guess the object’ game on our Zoom session on Friday and you were all amazing, asking brilliant questions. Well done!

Thank you for all of the communications over Class Dojo I really enjoy seeing what you have been up to. Last week saw some… very fast running, putting animals and their facts in to alphabetical order in excel, great maths work, lots of reading, gardening, bike riding, baking, a very sparkly blue spider in the spider game, some super writing and a poorly finger!

Following on from last week’s maths- her is a challenge! Still using the First, Then, Now strategy, try changing part of the number story to make it an unknown. This is a good activity to show how much understanding your child has of how the numbers change.
So, first there were 2 frogs on the log.
Then, some more frogs get on
Now there are 4 frogs.
How many frogs joined the group?
Alternatively, you could have an unknown amount at the start.

This week in maths we are looking at doubling. This can be doubling numbers, amounts in a group or doubling of patterns. Resources for doubling can be found below.

Nrich maths resource for doubling.
https://nrich.maths.org/content/id/12746/DoubleTrouble.pdf

BBC Numberblocks Series 2 Episode 9 – Double Trouble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bot83VxMLqM

Games and activities to support doubling:
Play a doubles game with 2 dice. Roll both dice and see if you get a double – if you do, you score 2 points. The winner is the first person to 10 points.
Make towers or rows with Lego. Can they build towers that are double the length or double the height?
Can they find items around the house or garden to make double patterns?
Play matching snap.

English – finding out about dinosaurs
Can you create a fact file about dinosaurs? Which is your favourite dinosaur? What is it called? What food did they eat? (start to include terminology such as carnivore, herbivore, omnivore) Where did they live? Did it fly? How big was it? Include any interesting facts that you can find!
An interesting fact about a T-Rex is that its tooth is the same size as a banana!! AMAZING!

Below is an example for the ‘Dinosaur fact file’:
‘A diplodocus is my favourite dinosaur – it eats plants, so it is an herbivore. It has a very long neck to reach high up into the trees and has a very long tail. It weighed 12 tonnes which is as much as a large truck.’

Use pictures from the internet and drawings copied from books. Label the parts. Add extra interesting facts. Use text boxes and speech bubbles.

Enjoy the dinosaur links below:

Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTjQeCspMkY
The Prehistoric Animal Brigade-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bENtOFR66YY&vl=en-GB Can you copy the dinosaur actions?
The Dinosaur Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0FOZ0-VpcU

Reading – Lots of reading and listening to stories being read.

Phonics – Ruth Miskin’s Read Write Inc phonics is now extending the home learning until 12th June. There is a full schedule on their You Tube channel. They have also added several poetry activities for Reception age children.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ

Something completely different…
Live broadcasting from the National Aquarium
https://aqua.org/Experience/live

Have fun and stay safe
Mandy Turner

Hi Pandas,

it was so lovely to see so many of you on the Panda Zoom session. I will schedule another one for Friday 15th May – I think I’ll set a challenge this time . Keep working hard. You’ve done lots of amazing things and should be very proud of yourselves. I am certainly very proud of you all.

Maths – This week the children use real objects to see that the quantity of a group can be changed by taking items away. Encourage the children to count all the items at the start, take away the required amount practically, and recount to see how many are left.
Use the first, then, now strategy to tell simple maths stories to practise taking away in familiar contexts.

First, there were 5 people on the bus
Then, 2 people got off the bus
Now, there are 3 people on the bus.

Your child could draw and colour a big red bus with windows – then place ‘people’ on/off the bus.

Other stories that involve numbers changing by adding or taking away are:
Kipper’s Toy Box by Mick Inkpen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rzP_HWtaBY 

Incey Wincey Spider game (a lovely home – made game that you could recreate at home)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7SUpivcWBI

Maths songs – encourage your child to adapt and re-enact favourite rhymes such as 10 Green Bottles by making 1,2 or 3 fall each time. Similarly, they could have 10 Currant Buns and choose to buy 1,2, or 3 buns each time. Prompt them to say how many are left each time.

Hidden items game – Count out five cubes (any small item will work) Get your child to check that there are 5 objects so everyone knows there are 5. Cover the cubes with a cloth, check that your child is happy that there are still 5 under the cloth. Then, as they watch, take 2 cubes from under the cloth. Ask how many cubes there are now. Encourage them to tell you the First, Then, Now story.

BBC Numberblocks Series 5: Episode 2 ‘On your Head’ and Episode 14 ‘I can count to Twenty’ are good to re-enforce the concepts and numbers.

English

Reading  Lots of reading and listening to stories being read.
This is a link to Story Time from Ruth Miskin Read Write Inc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ

Writing  In writing this week encourage your child to think of things they like and then say the sentence out loud several times. Then say the sentence out loud and hold a finger up for every word. How many words in the sentence? Then begin to write the sentence saying it as they go along. So, for example: ‘I like walking in the park.’ The link below has some sheets to print off or you could write on plain paper, chalk on the path, painting, anything at all that can record the sentence. Encourage good letter formation and spaces between words.
https://teachmykids.co.uk/worksheet/simple-sentences-i-like

Phonics  These are brilliant free resources that will really support your child’s phonic knowledge – I definitely recommend watching them.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/api/interactives/29317.html This is an online booklet for sets 2 and 3 speed sounds from RWI phonics.
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/help-during-school-closure/  This is a Ruth Miskin Speed Sounds lesson schedule, it runs to 19th May at the moment.

The link below gives lots of creative ideas for a variety of activities.
https://abcdoes.com/home-learning/

Have a good week.
Mandy Turner

Hi Pandas – Another huge effort from you last week – you are working so hard on a variety of wonderful things. Your photos and videos have really shown the determination you have to learn whilst having fun. A huge well done to you all!
Maths
The pattern work last week was very impressive. This can be continued to create more complex patterns. It is important that each pattern has at least three full units of repeat. The more units of repeat the easier it is to identify the pattern. Encourage your child to say the pattern aloud.

Patterns can also be found in stories – such as We’re going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Encourage your child to build their own bear hunt journeys using things you find around the house/garden and repeat the patterned language from the story as they travel through them. They could also invent language patterns of their own.

If you feel you have completed enough work on patterns then we are moving on to Adding through change. Which is when the children will use real objects to see that the quantity of a group can be changed by adding more. This is the first, then, now structure.

For example: First, there were 5 people on the bus. Then 2 more people got on. Now there are 7 people on the bus. This structure uses mathematical stories to create a meaningful context. Create these ‘stories’ for your child and then see if they can make one for you.

Draw them or use every day objects to create the ‘story’.
A good story for this is Mr Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham – After reading the story ask your child to create a boat and make their own first, then, now stories as different groups of characters climb aboard. This is a link to Mr Gumpy’s Outing

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+mr+gumpy%27s+outing&&view=detail&mid=CCE4919A115A6F76DD8CCCE4919A115A6F76DD8C&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dyoutube%2Bmr%2Bgumpy%2527s%2Bouting%26%26FORM%3DVDVVXX

All of the above is very practical and done through talk but if you feel it could be recorded then that is great but not to be pushed if your child is unwilling. Monster Points seem to be working well as a bribe…

English
Reading – Lots of reading and listening to stories being read.
This is a link to Story Time from Ruth Miskin Read Write Inc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ

Writing – Create lists.
This could be linked to the maths work – ‘Who was in Mr Gumpy’s boat?’ Write a list of each character. Shopping lists and ‘To Do’ lists are also good activities.

Children could make stick puppets of the characters and act out the story. They could also act out the story themselves, using props from around the house and garden.

Phonics – These are brilliant free resources that will really support your child’s phonic knowledge – I definitely recommend watching them.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/api/interactives/29317.html   This is an online booklet for sets 2 and 3 speed sounds from RWI phonics.

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/help-during-school-closure/  This is a Ruth Miskin Speed Sounds lesson schedule, it runs to 19th May at the moment.

If you need any information or support please send me a message and I will gladly get back to you. If you need more guidance and ideas, I have added a link below with some ideas and information about supporting young children with their mental well-being.
https://www.annafreud.org/what-we-do/anna-freud-learning-network/coronavirus/
Have a good week.
Mandy Turner

Well Pandas, you have all blown me away with your effort and determination!  I can see from your messages and photos on Class Dojo that you have been very busy doing lots of wonderful things, such as: daily phonics lessons, baking, learning to ride a bike, amazing adding and taking away, wonderful writing, planting seeds, bug hunting, painting, making volcanoes, building railways and the list goes on. A huge thank you to you and to the grown-ups who are supporting you to do such amazing things.

This week…

Hungry Little Minds is a good source of information with lots of different ideas for learning through play.  Well worth a look.

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/#3

On the Hungry little minds site there are lots of Apps which are suggested and look good, particularly:

• Fonetti

A Listening Bookshop

The App actively listens to children as they read aloud and holds their attention by turning the words green in real-time when they get them right. This interactive experience motivates the child to read more and then rewards them with fun animations, fanfares and badges.  Free for 3 months then is chargeable.

• Teach your monster to read

This is a game that makes learning to read so much fun.

• • Covers everything from letters and sounds to reading full sentences.
• • Designed in collaboration with leading academics.
• • Complements all synthetic phonics programmes used in schools.
• • Computer version is 100% free.

This week in maths children will hopefully enjoy exploring and learning about repeating patterns.

Children should copy, continue and create their own patterns.  They focus on AB and ABC patterns (Where A, B & C just represent a different item in the pattern).  It is important to provide patterns with at least three full units of repeat. Encourage your child to say the pattern out loud as this will help them identify the part which repeats and supports them to continue the pattern.

If possible, try and provide opportunities to explore pattern in a range of contexts including shape, colours, size, actions and sounds.  Encourage them to build patterns both vertically (this could be with Duplo/Lego) and horizontally.

The link to You Tube below is a really good visual to get children started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBjjxSx45-Q

Twinkl has a lot of patterns to download – but if you don’t want to print you could make the pattern out of items around the house and garden.

In English please continue with the Literacy work from last week.  If anyone has finished and needs more then let me know.

Read Write Inc Phonics is still online, daily – I know a lot of you are really enjoying these brilliant online daily lessons and it is fantastic that the children are continuing to practice their letters and sounds. Thank you.

Have a good week learning through play ?  Please message me if I can help with anything.

Mandy Turner

Hello Panda Parents/Carers, I hope you are all well and have had a good Easter break.

Thank you so much for your continued positivity in continuing to support your child’s learning at home. The sunflowers are all doing well and getting quite tall! I will send some pictures on ClassDojo.

I have put together some links for this week’s learning.

There are links to:

How to use the correct letter formation when forming lower case letters. If at all possible, please do all 26 over the next couple of weeks. This uses the Read Write Inc rhymes too which your child will recognise.  I really believe that using the correct letter formation from the start is far easier than having to undo ‘bad habits’ in later years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmUH2TCsfIc

Talk for Writing – This is in the form of a booklet which guides children and their adults through guided literacy exercises. This is a great resource and starts with a text and then followed by lots of ‘talk for writing’, so important for early writers.

https://www.talk4writing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Reception-Unit.pdf

In Maths this week we are looking at Composition using the Part / Whole Method. (Adding 2 numbers to find the whole/total). To put this in to more context there is a link to The Main Areas of Early Years Maths (From the National Centre for excellence in the teaching of Mathematics) Then there is a link to a YouTube video showing the Part / Whole model for adding.

https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/52500

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fc3x3nF0Rg

I hope you have a great week – if you need any help/support at all please do contact me through ClassDojo.

Best wishes

Mandy Turner

Hi Panda Parents/Carers,

I hope you are well.

I wanted to highlight a great resource from Read Write Inc – our phonics lessons / resources.

There are live films for teaching phonics lessons, available everyday for 2 weeks with each episode available for 24hrs.

Set One Speed Sounds @ 9:30am  (These are really important for revision)

Set Two Speed Sounds @ 10:00am  (This is where we are up to currently – we have covered ay, ee, igh, ow, oo (as in moon) & oo (as in book)   New learning would be ar, or, air, ir, ou & oy

Set Three Speed Sounds @ 10:30am  For when children have completed Set Two Speed Sounds (This set is for learning more ways of writing the same sounds)

I would recommend watching Set One Sounds, then have a break and watch Set Two Sounds a little while later.

There are also further films for parents/Carers which help with understanding the process of teaching phonics and how to say the sounds.

Please follow the link below and hopefully you will enjoy tuning in every day.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ

Your children will be so pleased and proud to show you how well they can do – I’m sure you could use Dojo rewards to add Monster points! Keep the wonderful communications through Dojo, I love hearing about what you have been doing.

Happy Phonics

Mandy Turner