Good morning everyone. I can’t believe we are already starting week 5 of our home learning. As we enter February there are many things to celebrate such as Valentine’s Day, Pancake Day, Chinese New Year and of course some people may have birthdays. We may not be able to celebrate in our usual way, but hopefully we may find some ways to do so.
This week is Mental Health week, we will be completing daily activities throughout the week and then on Friday we will be having a technology free day and celebrating rainbow day. Please check Marvellous Me to find out more information about this.
We have two zoom sessions a day for children who want to attend. The sessions are at 11am and 1.30pm and I will read a story during each session.
- Share stories with your children daily, they are hugely important in their learning.
- Please sing or say rhymes with your child. If you do not know the tune, don’t worry. Your child might know it, or you can make up a tune or you could always say it rather than sing it. See Day 1 for the words to some of our popular rhymes.
- Please find opportunities for counting daily. This might be when playing with toys, having tea, or walking up the stairs.
Pre-nursery
Talking Box – Use an empty box with a lid, basket (which can be covered), pillow case or canvas shopping bag. Put everyday items from home in your talking box, which will help with conversations. These could include: Finger puppets, games/puzzles, themed items e.g. dinosaurs, your child’s favourite animal or toys, pictures of different things such as vehicles, places, families, baby toys/equipment, animals or TV and book characters or natural materials such as pine cones, acorns and conkers, different coloured leaves, pebbles and bark. When using your talking box your child could pick one thing and you could ask ‘What’s this?’ or ‘Tell me about your….’, you could talk about similarities and differences, or your child’s likes and dislikes. You could talk to the puppets or make up a story about them. you could play with a puzzle, talking about what happens next, taking turns etc. You could chat about the things your child had or did as a baby.
Diary of a toy – let your child choose one of their toys. Make sure the toy spends time with your child and does what they are doing. Write down some of the things the toy has been doing and ask your child to draw a picture. I would love to see a photo of your diary.
Nursery
Phonics – Environmental Sounds – Watch the following clip and see if your child knows what each sound is. It is really important for children to be able to distinguish between different sounds.
Talking Box – Use an empty box with a lid, basket (which can be covered), pillow case or canvas shopping bag. Put everyday items from home in your talking box, which will help with conversations. These could include: Finger puppets, games/puzzles, themed items e.g. dinosaurs, your child’s favourite animal or toys, pictures of different things such as vehicles, places, families, baby toys/equipment, animals or TV and book characters or natural materials such as pine cones, acorns and conkers, different coloured leaves, pebbles and bark. When using your talking box your child could pick one thing and you could ask ‘What’s this?’ or ‘Tell me about your….’, you could talk about similarities and differences, or your child’s likes and dislikes. You could talk to the puppets or make up a story about them. you could play with a puzzle, talking about what happens next, taking turns etc. You could chat about the things your child had or did as a baby.
Diary of a toy – let your child choose one of their toys. Make sure the toy spends time with your child and does what they are doing. Write down some of the things the toy has been doing and ask your child to draw a picture. If you continue this over time this will produce a diary. I would love to see a photo of your diary.
Please can you keep in touch with me via email to let me know how your child is getting on. Alternatively you could send me a message below. It would be lovely if you could send a photo or two of your children in their play. My email address is: clister@handale.rac.sch.uk
Take care,
Mrs Lister
