We hope you had a lovely Easter holiday, wasn’t the weather glorious! We are missing the children a lot but we are always thinking of them. The learning for Week 1, Term 5 is below, but please remember that if a member of your household is unwell or you are unable to complete some of the work, do not worry. We would like you to focus on doing the ‘Tasks’ and complete the suggestions if you would like to.

Our topic for Term 5 and 6  is ‘In The Garden’. This term we will be focusing on growing. While we cannot do this as a class we hope you will be spending lots of time in the garden watching things change as they grow. If you do not have your own garden you can look out for things growing when you go out for your daily exercise and we can all grow some things in pots.

Resources will be in the shared folder as well as hyperlinked throughout this page. To go to the shared folder, click here.

Reading and Phonics tasks

• For 3 of your daily phonics recap and learning sessions please watch the 3 phonics lessons below. They have been recorded by The Phonics Hub that we have been working with this year. You can use your whiteboards for these activities. You will notice that they use a different writing style to ours but this should not be a problem. Also the term ‘Common exception words’ is used instead of ‘Tricky words’.
  • Lesson 1 – j
  • Lesson 2 – v
  • Lesson 3 – w
• On other days please continue to recap phonemes, blending and spelling using the phonemes and words list in the shared folder.
• Complete the ‘Phase 3 pictures and captions worksheet’ in the shared folder. The children need to match the picture to the sentence. Children should use their phonics skills to read the captions themselves. NB: If this activity is not at the right level for your child, there are similar worksheets for Phase 2 and phase 4 – go to the Twinkl website to download these.
• Continue reading the phonics ebooks available on Oxford Owl. Remember to begin by looking at the phonemes and practising the words in the book, building up to reading the whole book over a few days. Then re-read the book each day to build up confidence and fluency. Talk about the meaning of any new vocabulary and ask lots of questions to develop comprehension skills.

Reading and Phonics suggestions

• Continue sharing any books that you have at home. Encourage the children to join in by blending regular words using the phonemes and digraphs that they have learn. They can also look out for any of the tricky words that they know.

Please continue to refer to the useful website links. We are continually updating it and recommend:

• Watching Mr Thorne’s Phonics. While reading with your child, if you notice they are continually struggling with a phoneme or digraph, you can find the YouTube video on his channel to recap the sound. Click here to go to Mr Thorne’s YouTube channel.
• Jolly phonics songs including digraphs
• Phase 3 digraphs
• Tricky words song (Phase 2)
• Tricky words song (Phase 3)

Writing tasks

Please see the updated guidelines for writing below.

• Read or watch the story of Jaspers beanstalk (Click here to watch the video).
• Write a diary for this week using the days of the week as in the story.
• Model the first sentence with your child and encourage them to have a go at the following days independently. Eg:
  • On Monday I went to the shops.
  • On Tuesday I made a cake.
  • On Wednesday I played in the garden….
• This can be continued throughout the week, do as many days as you can. Draw pictures on the opposite page to illustrate the sentences.
• At the end of the week please take a photograph of your child’s writing and send it to us via the 2Buildaprofile email address – inbox@2buildaprofile.com . We can then respond to the work and help you with some next steps.

Updated guidelines for writing

• Children should do the writing tasks in blue writing books with drawn lines (landscape layout) approx. 2cm apart.
• Ask the children to write simple sentences starting with a capital letter and ending with a full stop.
• Please remind the children to use finger spaces between each word and to write the letters correctly sitting on the lines. Use the letter formation sheet to remind children of letter formation. You can find this in the shared folder.
• The children should not copy the sentence but sound out the words using the phonemes they can hear and using tricky words that they have learnt.
• The spelling should be phonetically plausible -that means that you should be able to ‘read’ the word using those phonemes. E.g. caik would be cake, gardn would be garden. If you can read the word you do not need to correct spellings.
• Tricky words – Use the list of tricky words in the shared folder to help children spell them correctly. If they can read it from the list, they can copy it down.
• Please refer to the ‘Everytime we write’ poster in the shared folder. The children will be familiar with this as we use it at school.

Writing suggestions

• Name writing – Letter formation copied from name card/from memory.
• Spelling tricky words (List in shared folder, click here). Practise a few at a time and when they can do it from memory, they can move onto the next. N.B. Some children will be able to spell a few tricky words, other will be able to spell more.
• Writing shopping lists for your weekly food shop.

Number tasks

• Daily number games on Number Gym: Please login and click ‘Early Maths’. You will need to enter your personal login. Click here to see instructions to log onto Number Gym. Explore the games on Counting and Understanding Number tab. Some of our favourites include: Counting Hoop Challenge, Guess My Number, Reading Number Lines and Number Track.
• Daily counting to 20/Daily counting back from 20.
• Daily 1 more/1 less to 20. (E.g. 1 more than 3 is __ / 1 less than 12 is __)
• Writing numerals to 0-20.
• Click here to watch a video to help you count to 100 while getting fit!

We would love to see some 2Build a Profile observations of the activities below.

This week’s focus: Odd and even numbers

• Watch the Numberblocks episode ‘Odds and Evens’ (Click here) and the BBC bitesize video (Click here). Play the BBC bitesize game once you have watched the video.
• Give your child some pots with a different quantity of items in each (up to 20). Ask the children the following questions:
  • Can you count how many items are in each pot?
  • Is it an odd or even number?
  • How can you check? (If it is an odd number, they will be able to group the items in 2s with none left over. If there are any left over, it’s an odd number!).
• When you go out for your daily walk/exercise, point out to your child that houses with odd numbers and on one side of the street and houses with even numbers are on the other side. Using cardboard boxes from the recycling, make a street of houses and write numerals 1 – 20 on them. Sort them into two sides of the street, an odd side and an even side.
• Ask your child to collect some items (between 1 and 5) and bring them back to you. Ask your child to count them. Ask them is it an odd or even number? Ask your child to go and collect one more item. Ask them again if it is an odd or even number? Repeat this a few more times adding one more item each time. Ask your child if they notice a pattern. They should notice the pattern is odd, even, odd, even, odd, even etc.
• Set up a teddy bears picnic with 2 teddies. Using some pretend or real food share it between the teddies. Ask your child the questions:
  • Was there an odd number or an even number of that food?
  • How do you know? (If they have successfully shared it equally and there is one left over it is an odd number and if they were able to share it equally and there is nothing left over, it was an even number).

Number suggestions

• Sort the Easter Eggs into the odd and even baskets. Find it in the shared folder. As there are two resources for this, there is a folder called ‘Odd and even Easter eggs’. Click on it to access the resources.
• Colour and complete the odd and even caterpillar worksheet. You can find this in the shared folder. 
• Play this game. Most children should select 1 to 20. (Click here)
• Board games such as snakes and ladders, number lotto, dominoes, dice games.
• Play dice addition. You can find this in the shared folder. 
• Play mathopoly – an addition and subtraction to 20 board game! You can find it in the shared folder.  As there are a number of resources for this, there is a folder called ‘Mathopoly’. Click on it to access the resources.
• Addition and subtraction monster colouring. Click here to find it in the shared folder.  
• Number jigsaws.
• Number quizzes.
• Writing number sentences on whiteboards.

Shape, Space and Measure tasks

This week’s focus: Capacity.

We would love to see some 2Build a Profile observations of the activities below but please make sure pictures are not of the children in the bath!

During the below activities, please use the language full, half full, nearly full, nearly empty, empty. The activities suggest using water and can be done in the bath but you can substitute this for sand, rice, cereal and a variety of loose objects e.g. Lego pieces, corks, beads, buttons, seeds.

• Find a variety of different sized and shaped containers and talk to your child about them using the language tall, thin, narrow, wide and shallow. Fill them with water and encourage your child to make direct comparisons between the containers by pouring the water between them. Give your child a ladle and ask them how many ladles of water it takes to fill each container. Which container holds the most water? Which one holds the least? Encourage your child to record the results of their experiment in any way they choose. (You can repeat this activity by changing the ladle for a cup and the water for another material).
• Still having available a range of containers, ask your child to choose one. Ask them to make it full, empty, nearly full, nearly empty and about half full. Can they find one that holds more than their container? Can they find one that holds less?
• Find a measuring jug with a scale on (preferably ml and l). Have a look at the scale on the outside and talk to your child about the times when you may use it. Ask your child to fill it up to different numbers.

Shape, Space and Measure suggestions

• Find and colour the ‘2D shape colouring’ sheet in the shared folder. (Click here to access the shared folder).
• While cooking and filling up measuring jugs, talk to your child about what you are doing and the scale. Can they help you?
• Play this capacity game (Click here). Select litres and half litres. (The children will need an adult to support them while playing this)
• Find and complete the caterpillar pattern sheet in the shared folder.

Understanding the World

• Watch the video below of beans being planted in a jar.

• If you have been able to buy any bean seeds plant your own in this way.
• If you have any carrots cut the tops off and place them in a saucer with a bit of water. (They will sprout leaves from the top).
• Water daily to keep the paper in the jar moist and make sure there is some water for the carrot tops.
• Observe any changes daily – If possible, support your child to take their own photos to record changes as they happen.
• NB: Next week we will be looking at and planting other types of seeds, either bought or from inside any fruits you are eating so please save them for this activity.

Expressive Arts and Design

• Linking to PSHE can you make a handprint on a piece of paper, you could either use paint or draw around your hand. You can use this to support the mindfulness activities below.
• Use some fruits in your house and chop them up, have a look at the seeds inside (it would be great if you can keep these for week 2 when we look at seeds). Then use some paint to do some fruit printing, discussing the different shapes, sizes and where they come from.
• Practice singing the days of week song together. Click here to sing the days of the week song.
• Continue to explore Purplemash and the games and activities in the Minimash area. (especially Simple city where you can visit and make a garden centre). Click here to see instructions for parents.
• Start saving the cylinders from the middle of your toilet rolls. Paint or colour them green and start joining them together to begin making your own giant beanstalk. (Later we will be counting, measuring and comparing the heights of our imaginary beanstalks! Whose will be the tallest?)

PSED

•  Click here to watch a video about breathing. You can copy it before you do some work to make sure you are calm.
• We follow a scheme called Jigsaw and this term the children will be learning about relationships. This week the focus will be on families. Talk to your child about what a family is and discuss the photos on the Families PowerPoint in the shared folder. You could also have a look at photos of your own family too. Ask your child if they know who is in your family and discuss this with them (this can be your immediate family or extended). Talk to your child about your role and others role within the family (helping the children learn, feeding your family, giving baths etc.). Ask your child what would happen if no one did these jobs? Talk to your child about their role within the family. Do they have jobs to do or roles to play? You could ask your child to draw a picture of your family.

Physical Development

• Continue to do Joe Wicks daily P.E sessions daily at live on YouTube 9am. These can also be accessed at any time during the day on his YouTube channel. (The teachers are finding some of the exercises quite tricky!)
• Learn some new games you can play with the people in your household. This is a great opportunity to spend some time outside. Some games everyone can be involved with are: What’s the time Mr Wolf, throwing and catching games, such as throwing a ball into a hoop or bag or you could make your own obstacle course using resources from your house.
• Take part in a yoga class, using cosmic kids. Click here to watch one about a busy bee.
• Listen to BBC Let’s move; you can involve other members of your household with this.Click here to listen to The Enormous Turnip – Part 1.
• Find the next letter formation activity sheet in the shared folder – g, q, s, f.
• Make some play dough at home and sing along with this video (Click here). This is also a good activity to do before a writing task to make sure the muscles in your child’s fingers are warm.
• Here are some recipes to make your own playdough – No cook play dough (our favourite one) or BBC.