Communication, Language and Literacy

• Use the resources from your child's 'Next Steps Learning Pack'.
• Listen to rhyming stories and other stories; discuss stories with your child.
• Encourage your child to retell stories in their own words or for your child to think up alternative endings to stories.
• Write rhyming strings, e.g. cat, mat, hat, rat, including pseudo words cat, lat, nat, yat.
• Write a sentence of up to ten words. Read the sentence with your child a few times. Cut up the sentence and encourage your child to order it, looking for the capital letter to begin the sentence. Read the sentence together as your child orders it. Is the sentence making sense? Finish off with the full stop. Maybe your child can copy the sentence and add a picture.
• Draw a story character. What is the character saying/thinking? Write what the character is saying/thinking and draw a speech or thinking bubble around the writing.
• Play the 10 free phonic games from Phonic Workshop (see School Website for activity sheet).
• Practice spelling Phase 2 and Phase 3 high frequency words using 'Look, Cover, Write, Check' method.
• Read books on Bug Club. Your child's log in code is on the front inside cover of their red reading record.
• Play phonics games on website Phonics Play. Click on the section 'free resources' and then click on Phase 2 or Phase 3 and there are activities for the children to complete. Alternatively, you can subscribe to Phonics Play, it is only £12 for the year.
• There are many phonic apps available on a tablet such as 'Meet the Aphablocks', 'Phonic Street', 'Teach Your Monster to Read' to name a few.
• Play turn taking games.
• Making up a story. A good idea is for you and your child to make up a story with you each taking turns to say a sentence and then letting your child run away with their imagination! E.g. Once upon a time there was a rabbit. The rabbit lived in a huge castle. He had twenty seven thousand carrots to eat. The rabbit put them in a little fridge to keep them cool for breakfast. 
• Draw a story character and encourage your child to use their phonic knowledge to label different parts of the character using WOW words, e.g. fair hair, rosy cheeks, weak arms, long legs.
• Make books by folding paper in half. Design a front cover, write a simple story and add illustrations.
• Make a non-fiction book. Write facts.

Mathematics

• Practising number recognition, counting objects accurately (1:1)
• Ordering numbers from one to five/ten/twenty. Take a number away, which number is missing?
• Play 'What is one more than....' using objects to support or a number line from 'Next Steps' Learning Pack.
• Create simple addition and subtraction calculations using objects and then count out the objects. Was their estimation close to the actual amount of objects?
• Compare two groups of objects. Which group has 'more/fewer'?
• Play 'Shape Detectives' and search for 2D shapes in the home and garden.
• Weighing objects at home using scales - heavy and light.
• Create repeating patterns using everyday objects.
• Measuring objects using non-standard unit of measurement such as measuring with paper clips, cars, Lego pieces.
• Make potions using coloured water. Use the language of capacity to discuss the volume in containers, e.g. Full, half full, nearly full, etc.
• Use an analogue clock to teach o'clock times.

Expressive Arts and Design

• Make simple playdough (1-cup flour and 1 cup of salt, add water gradually and form a dough). This dough can be baked in the oven.
• Recycle empty food boxes, Pringle tubes, etc to make models.
• Listen to music by different musicians. Use a tablet to find out facts about a musician. The children this school year have found out facts about Georges Zamfir, Louis Armstrong, Edvard Grieg, George Handel, Adele, Peter Tchaikovsky and Bill Hailey. Make a fact sheet about a musician.
• Make musical shakers using a container and rice/pasta/dried ingredients. Let your child use their shaker whilst listening to different genres of music.
• Let your child respond through dance.
• Make puppets to retell a traditional tale.
• Practice cutting skills using scrap pieces of paper.

 

Exercises for children

 

These are available online:

 

• Joe Wicks - 5 Minute Move
• Just Dance for Kids
• GoNoodle
• Cosmic Kids Yoga
• Jack Hartmann
• BBC Supermovers

 

Understanding the World

• Create a simple family tree, who is in your family? Discuss why they are special to you.
• Look at some photographs and encourage your child to recall the occasion.
• Look out of the window and what can you see? Using observational skills.
• Bird Survey - How many birds can you see in 1 minute? Count how many and make a note/ Do this a few times during the day.
• Make some cookies, weighing the ingredients, what changes can you see happening to the cookies. Write together simple instructions for making cookies.
• Sorting food into packets, tins, fruit and vegetables or sorting food into healthy/unhealthy.
• In the garden, be a detective and search the garden for signs of the season.
• Investigate ice cubes. What happens if an ice cube is left on a plate on a windowsill or if an ice cube is placed in your hand? What happens if salt is sprinkled onto an ice cube?
• Use senses to investigate different objects and foods, encouraging them to describe what they can see, smell, hear, touch and taste (if applicable).
• Sort a range of objects into what materials they are made from (wood, plastic, glass, fabric, paper, metal).
• Search the house for objects, which use electricity and write a list.
• Get your child to pretend to be a robot. Give them instructions to move, e.g. 2 steps forward, turn left, 1 step forward, 3 steps backward, turn right.

 

E Safety at home 

 

Please click on the link below for activities about online safety. 

 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/home-activity-worksheets/early-years/