This week has been incredibly busy as we all get used to our new lockdown routines. The children both at home and at school have all been enjoying lots of exciting learning.
The children have been having lots of fun using the Bear Hunt story in their learning both at school and at home.
Our first Google meetings were a great success, despite all the difficulties logging in! Thank you all for being like the tortoise and persevering with this! We really loved being able to see and talk to all the children who are working at home and meet all their favourite Teddies.
We will be sending out invitations for the same times next week, look out for any extra details about what we will be doing on the invitation.
Thank you so much for the support that you are giving your children and all the amazing photographs and observations of the work that they have been doing at home this week. We have literally been overwhelmed by the quantity of observations that we have received.
It is really lovely to see so much exciting learning going on at home. However please dont feel that you need to submit observations of every activity; just choose 1 observation a day to include the specified writing and mathematics activities and at least one other curriculum area throughout the week.
Notices
Amazon wish list – if you are shopping and would like to support the school don’t forget that we have an Amazon wish list and are always very grateful for your contributions.
Reception Home learning
Our plans this week include:
- Daily Phonics, Number and Reading.
- Literacy and Mathematics activities that we would like you to do and submit observations of. These are highlighted for you.
- Other suggested Literacy and Numeracy activities which will support your child’s learning.
- Daily wellbeing and physical activities.
- A range of ideas for activities covering all the other curriculum areas. We may sometimes identify which ones we would like an observation of.
Links to recommended Websites and Apps
Twinkl Homelearning hub Lots of downloadable resources to support home learning
Numberblocks Series 2 We all love numberblocks. Series 2 includes some of our recent mathematical learning
Todo math – a free App with lots of games to practise number skills.
Number gym see the instructions here
Purple Mash
Home learning logins below are accessible from this page https://www.purplemash.com/sch/henleaze
Username class12019 Password cat
Username class22019 Password dog
Username class32019 Password ant
This week’s timetable
Here is a suggested timetable for this week to help you plan your work time. You can of course swap it round to suit your day. Please use it in conjunction with the planning notes and instructions below.
Monday morning – Watch the Monday message to the class from your class teacher that will have been emailed to you through Schoolcomms this morning.
A Lot of our work again this week is linked to the ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ story so please read the book again or watch it here. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Story time
The Reception Team have recorded some stories for you to watch and listen to.
One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth read by Ms Thoburn
Animalium by Jenny Broom explored by Ms Thoburn
Penguin by Polly Dunbar read by Mrs Wood
Old Bear by Jane Hissey read by Mrs Browne
Winter Stars by Shirley Hughes read by Mrs Brand
Mrs Fricker’s Monday Assembly – click here
Resources
The resources for this week can be found here: Week 3 Resources
PSED
Setting a Goal
Learning Objective: I can set a goal and work towards it
Act out building a tower and then make it fall down. Don’t rebuild it and say that you’re giving up and leave it. Try doing some writing/drawing but again give up because you can’t do it. Then sit looking bored, saying things like you can’t do it, it’s too hard.
What will happen if I don’t try and give up easily on everything? Explain that there are things we may not be good at and want to get better at. Give some examples of things they could work at.
PAUSE (Stop), take a deep breath in and out. Give your child some thinking time to think of something they want to get better at.
Questions: What will happen if we don’t try and give up easily on everything? What would you do? How can you achieve your goal?
Ask your child to share their idea of what they would like to get better at. Explain that this is going to become their goal. Write the idea down.
Daily wellbeing
Monday – Connect – Say hello to a friend or family member on the phone
Tuesday – Take notice – Make a calming bottle
Wednesday – Exercise – Keep active moves to try
Thursday – Keep learning – Blindfold puzzle game – direct someone to complete a simple puzzle whilst they are blindfolded
Friday – Give – Make a bird feeder
Communication and Language
When you are working and playing with your child you can support their communication and language development by being a good role model. Here’s a checklist of the kinds of behaviour you should be modelling when you interact with children:
Speak clearly and calmly
Use age-appropriate language
Make eye contact (get down to the child’s level if necessary)
Repeat sentences back to children, replacing mistakes with corrections
Repeat sentences back to children, expanding on the words they’ve used
Describe and comment on what you’re doing
Describe and comment on what the children are doing
Label objects and actions
Listen carefully when the children are talking to you – be patient and give them plenty of time to find their words. (This is particularly important to remember, as it’s a skill that many children find difficult to master themselves.
This week please play some describing and guessing games:
There are lots of games that involve describing and guessing but here are a couple of specific ideas:
- Choose some objects with the children, put them in a bag and get the children to take turns feeling and describing them while others guess what they are.
- Play ‘What am I?’, in which you describe something and the children work out what it is (eg “I’m red and made of metal, I stand on the pavement and you put letters in me”
Read or watch the Bear Hunt story again. This time focus on looking carefully at the pictures and talk about what you can see and what is happening. Encourage your child to extend their ideas using descriptive vocabulary.
Physical
Enjoy Joe Wicks video’s or similar each day. Joe Wicks has a new series of PE with Joe which is streamed on his YouTube Channel at 9.00 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday started on Mon 11th January
Dynamic Balance to Agility skills. Jumping and landing over ropes/ scarves and off of blocks. Support them to risk assess with questions like Is there enough room for a good jump? Is the landing space clear? Feet shoulder width apart. Looking forward. Using arms to balance. Arms up in a V to finish.
For example go on a highly physical bear hunt using the story as a prompt to go over and under and through the different habitats. Don’t forget to instil good habits and do a cool down: Children to lie down and listen to you talk them through climbing a freezing mountain with sparkly icicles, snowflakes falling etc
Moving to music, practising gross motor skills;
- Sesame Street: Bruno Mars: Don’t Give Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWp6kkz-pnQ
Fine Motor
- Encourage exploration of the texture gloop cc UW
- Use Playdough at the start of phonics to warm up fingers use dough disco if needed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-IfzeG1aC4 Here is a playdough recipe https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/playdough-recipe
- Opportunities to use pencils, pens and crayons throughout the week.
- There is a folder of ideas and resources for supporting the development of fine motor skills here
Health and Self care
- Encourage children to be inquisitive like the cat, to try new foods and to eat lots (or all) of their lunch.
- Talk to children about how to stay healthy for example; getting enough sleep, drinking water, exercising, eating fruit and vegetables and a healthy diet.
- Covid. Share with children the good vaccine news but stress the importance of continued good practice; Good hand washing, fingers and resources out of mouths, catch it, kill it, bin it etc.
Literacy
Phonics
This week we are asking if you continue to recap all of the phonemes and tricky words that we have learnt so far. You can access the ‘sound grid’ and a copy of our ‘tricky word’ list here. Please do this twice a day if possible.
We will be learning 3 new digraphs this week ng, ai and ee
Please click on the links above to watch the phonics videos recorded by St Peter Church of England Primary school. Children will need a whiteboard and pen or pencil and paper.
Please also introduce these 2 new tricky words to your children ‘said and have’. Talk to your children about why they are tricky words (because they can not be blended) and they need to be learnt by sight. You could model putting the words into a sentence and ask them to put them into a sentence verbally.
Daily Reading
Please continue to support your child with our online ‘Bug Club’ reading scheme.
Teacher’s have assigned your child specific books according to their phonic knowledge, blending skills and fluency. Please let your teacher know how your child is getting on with these books.
It is really important to talk to your children about what they are reading, ask them about the characters, what is happening, what do you think will happen next? If you can, encourage your child to use expression when they read to help support prosody with different texts.
Writing
This week we will be continuing to focus on our story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.
Please send us a photograph and observation of this activity.
We would like you to get your children to write about their favourite part of the story. Maybe when the family goes through the thick oozy mud or when they stumble and trip through the big dark forest. Why do they like this part of the story?
Eg I like it when….. because…..
- Once your child has decided on a sentence about the story, ask them to say the sentence out loud, count how many words are in the sentence and sound out some of the words.
- Get your children to begin to write the short sentence in their writing books, please encourage them to focus on one word at a time, to listen to the phonemes and to write as independently as possible.
For example: I like it when the family went through the river, may look like this: I like it wen the familee went froo the rivr.
- Encourage your children to use a capital letter at the beginning, fingers spaces and full stops. Use the Every Time We Write poster in the folder.
- If your child is finding this difficult they could write a shorter captions instead e.g. I like the grass.
- Some children may be able to write more than one independent sentence. Ask your child to think about what other areas of story they would like to write about.
Please encourage your child to use the correct tripod grip throughout the writing session and again please refer to our ‘Everytime We Write’ poster before you start any writing activity.
Find a copy of a letter formation sheet here to help support your child’s writing.
Please remember children are unlikely to get the right spelling, finger spaces or every sound. Encourage children to use their stickability like the tortoise!
Mathematics
Daily:
Use number cards from the shared folder or make your own.
- Practise recognising numerals from 0 – 10 (or to 20 if your child recognises all numerals to 10)
- Practise putting numerals in order and identifying which number is 1 more and 1 less.
- Use objects such as pasta, buttons, lego bricks to practise counting out objects carefully from a larger amount. Count up to 10, then up to 20.
- NumberGym Early Years games are good warm up activities – see the instructions here
This week we are going to use online lessons from the Oak National Academy to learn about Addition and subtraction within 10
Before you start:
Vocabulary
In school when we talk about making addition and take away number stories using the language: ‘First there was….. Then… and Now……there are……’ as we work through our number stories together.
The Oak National Academy calls these number stories First, Then and Now stories
We use a variety of ‘counters’ to assist our learning. The Oak Academy calls these ‘Manipulatives’.
Resources
You will need:
- A teddy to be your talking partner,
- tens frame from the shared resources folder
- 0-10 number track from the shared resources folder
- 10 objects for counting Eg pasta, lego bricks , buttons
- White board and pen / paper and pencil
Please watch one of these lessons each day in order to ensure the correct progression.
Extension activity – Ask your child to record some of their First, Then and Now stories either pictorially or using numerals and symbols (+/-/=)
- Adding and subtracting using a number track Please send an observation of today’s activity
Your child can practise their takeaway skills here. Winter subtraction sheet
Differentiation
Some children may find the Oak Academy lessons challenging. Your teacher may email you to suggest using these White Rose lessons as an alternative. White rose Maths
Bus Stop from Orchard Toys is a great game for practising addition and takeaway skills.
Understanding the World
People and Communities
Take time to chat about your wider family.
The World
Explore stories to help children connect with winter – see the links for One Snowy Day and Animalium at the top of the page
Make gloop! Make different textures feely bowls that link with the We’re going on a bear hunt story. Supply model animals for collaborative storytelling or draw and cut out characters. Encourage lots of expression and introduce rich descriptive words. This is messy!! Ask your child to help mix these.
Grass – Pick some real grass or use bits of wool or cut up paper
Mud – Use Cornflour and gradually add water. You can add food colouring to make it look like mud.
Snow – Use cornstarch packing material or use less water with equal parts of cornflour and Baking powder . If you would like more info see this link https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/make-fake-snow-winter-sensory-play/?jwsource=cl
Please send an observation of this activity.
Technology.
On going;
- Explore children’s questions about ELLI animals. Use Andy’s Adventures.
- Use Explorify to explore seasons https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/en/activities/zoom-in-zoom-out/white-and-spiky
- Purple Mash/ Mini Mash. Help children to explore the drawing tools by clicking on the baked potato picture (3rd from the left on the washing line). A perfect dinner for a cold day!
Home learning logins below are accessible from this page https://www.purplemash.com/sch/henleaze
Username class12019 Password cat
Username class22019 Password dog
Username class32019 Password ant
- Continue to support your child to read bug club books online. Could read to a relative on zoom or to a sibling occasionally.
Further resources
Cbeebies is free and has lots to stimulate young minds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies
Teach Your Monster to Read is free under the current circumstances.
Khan Academy is also free.
RE
Special times – Prayer times for Muslims
Learning Objectives: Begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people.
What is prayer? [Talking to God]
Look at the powerpoint together.
Reflect: Why do you think it is so important for Muslims to have these special times to pray?
Expressive Arts
- This week in expressive art we are asking that you make sensory bottles. This ties in with our ‘Understanding the World’ (please see above).
- Get involved with some more yoga, we have loved seeing all the pictures and videos of your amazing yoga poses. Here is one about Tallulah the Owlet.
- During our Online circle time, we asked you to bring a teddy bear. Can you draw a still life picture of your favourite teddy bear? You could use pencils, crayons, paint, oil pastels or any means of media you wish. We would love to see your creations.