Here are some useful websites that you can use with your child at home:

Maths websites:

NCETM Numberblocks – https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/52060

NRich https://nrich.maths.org/13371

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

Numberblocks channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPlwvN0w4qFSP1FllALB92w

Phonics websites:

Phonics play – https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase2Menu.htm

Letters and sounds – http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2-games.html

Phonics Bloom – https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/list/phonics-games-phase-2

Family learning – http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html

Cued articulation videos https://www.jameswolfe.greenwich.sch.uk/phonics-through-cued-articulation/

If there is any help you need please leave a comment. The blog will be checked daily.

Thank you

Now that school is closed to the majority of children, the school blog will be used to add activities you can do with your child at home. Please remember when you are doing any activity, keep safe and respect social distancing. The activities we are providing are for indoors mainly or in the garden.

If you want to keep a scrapbook of the activities you complete please do. We would love to see anything you do with your child.

The most important element is to have fun!

Here are some ideas that have been posted on the school website, but there will be others, especially the daily challenge!

Practice writing in pen, pencil, sand, shaving foam.

Write post-it notes, label items in your house.

Write a simple story and act it out.

Read your favourite book.

Read a book in a funny place and take a picture.

Watch videos or read books by Eric Carle. Illustrate a picture.

Can you find any non-fiction books at home?

Write a card for a friend to say ‘hello’ again.

Use the internet to find out information about plants and minibeasts.

Make a pattern using things around your home.

Explore capacity and distance.

Learn to count in 2’s and 10’s.

Go on a 2D and 3D shape hunt around your house.

How high can you count?

Solve simple word problems for subtraction up to 20, e.g. five cars were in th car park and two

drive away. How many are left?

Solve simple word problems for addition up to 20, e.g. eleven people were on the bus and six

more get on. How many people are on the bus?

Happy learning everyone

Year R Team

Welcome to the first Valentine Daily Blog Challenge!
We will be updating year group blogs each day with a new challenge for you to try at home. They will be fun, engaging and can be enjoyed by the whole family, young or old!

Today we have a science theme and the task is simple…

Do an experiment that makes you smile.

There are plenty of sites online with ideas but try this if you are struggling…
http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/

Please let us know how you get on and if you take pictures of how it goes you can send them to our blog e-mail address year_r@valentineprimary.co.uk

Have fun and stay safe.

Here are some of the experiments completed at home:

This week in phonics we introduced the children to the digraphs /sh/ and /ch/.

We read and wrote words containing /sh/ and /ch/ including:

ship

shark

shock

fish

bash

mash

chips

chick

chopping

church

itch

We also read sentences containing /sh/ and /ch/ words:

The fish was on the ship.

We went to chop the chips.

Our new tricky word this week was ‘are’ which we read within sentences as it is difficult to understand this word by itself:

We are at the park.

You are going to school.

If you have any questions about phonics, please leave comments on here or you can email myself on helen.benson@valentineprimary.co.uk.

Stay safe everyone.

This week Elm Base have had the opportunity to team up with a class in a school in Bergamo, Italy. We talked about how the children are currently not at school but are doing all their learning everyday at home. As we were talking, some of the children came up with questions they would like to ask the children in Italy. These questions included:

What are you learning at the moment?

How do you say ‘goodbye’ in Italian?

Why are you not in school at the moment?

What activities do you do?

We recorded our questions and Mrs Benson sent them to the class teacher in Italy. We are now waiting for the children to respond to our questions. Once we had sent them, Elm Base though it would be nice next time to give them a tour of our classroom and show them some of our work.

Watch this space!

Last week the children became scientists and took part in investigations, experiments and exploring. They watched what happens when mentoes are added to coke, investigated how to make holes in ice without breaking it, explored what happens when food ingredients are mixed together and cooked, and investigated what magnets can be used for.

Another activity the children took part in was to explore the outdoor area and see if they could make a rainbow using natural colours.

As the children were finding different colours, some found pieces of plastic on the floor and initially wanted to add them to their rainbows. We talked about whether plastic was a natural material. We also talked about the impact of plastic on wildlife. The children were soon spotting other pieces of plastic outside. They used the litter pickers to pick up any rubbish they found in the outdoor area ensuring the wildlife would not be affected.

This week in phonics the children have been learning the phonemes /y/ and /qu/. They have been learning these phonemes within words and sentences, such as:

The yucky yak had a yam.

The quick queen can run.

We have also learnt the tricky word ‘you’, recognising it within sentences:

You can go to the shop.

Can you go to help mum?

If you have any questions about phonics or reading, please speak to your child’s class teacher.

Thank you

Year R team

This week in phonics the children learnt the phonemes /z/ and /zz/. They learnt these phonemes within words such as:

zig-zag

zip

zebra

buzz

drizzle

fizz

The children also learnt the tricky word ‘be’, including reading the word within simple sentences, such as,

We will be in the shed.

The frog will be on the log.

If you have any questions about the teaching of phonics or reading, please speak to your child’s class teacher.

Thank you

Year R team

This week Mr Cornish has been teaching in Fir Base (a little bit different to teaching in Year 5!)

On Tuesday he told an ice hockey story to all the classes as part of our hook afternoon into Book Detectives.

On Thursday he brought in some ice hockey gear for the children to try on.

Apart from the ice skates, the children found out what it was like to dress up in the gear!

Thank you Mr Cornish!

This week in phonics we have been looking at the phonemes: /w/ and /x/.

We segmented and blended words containing these phonemes such as:

wet

wig

will

well

fox

six

fix

box

We then hunted for captions in the classroom containing words with the focus phonemes:

‘wet in the wind’

‘to the well’

‘a fox in a box’

‘fix the tax’

Our tricky word this week has been: me.

If you have any questions about phonics or reading, lease speak to your child’s class teacher.

Thank you from the Year R team