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1st June

 

Dear Parents,

I hope you have had a fabulous half-term and thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful weather.  This half-term, the learning will continue as before however, I will be teaching in school 2-3 days per week so please bear with me when replying to e-mails. 

I will carry on planning two-week blocks for art / DT and topic subjects which allows flexibility when planning your learning day.  Our topic this term is Castles, which all the children thoroughly enjoy. 

Numeracy

This week we will focus on time including days of the week and months of the year.  Earlier in the year, the children learned o’clock and half-past but many may have forgotten or need consolidation. The expectation is that the children are able to spell correctly days and months.

Task One

Days of the week.  We regularly sing days of the week song in class so the children should be familiar.  Practise asking what comes next / before / 2 days after.  What days start with a T / S? Today is about learning to spell them correctly so get the children to practise writing them.  It doesn’t have to be written, they could paint them, use scrabble tiles, sticks or invent different ways for each word.  A photograph can be stuck in their books to evidence this if you wish.

Task Two

Play Uncle Tom’s Months of the Year game  https://www.roythezebra.com/reading-games-high-frequency-words.html  Make their own months of the year cards, colouring and decorating them with seasonal images if they want.  Lay them out on the floor.  Can they collect up all the ones that start with J?  How many end with ber / ary?  Get them to order them forwards and backwards.  Lay or peg them out in the garden – ask questions and they have to run / jog / skip to the right one?  Over the week practise spelling them.  An easy way is to put them in groups identifying spelling patterns but start with the easiest May, March, April before trying the harder ones.  Another fun game is to put them in a word search.  Print out a grid / table and get them to write the words in and then fill around them with random letters.

Task Three

Recap o’clock and half past and introduce digital time (see ppt).  Print out the time lotto cards and the clock and time boards.  They are not playing the game today but recapping on reading the time. Can they sort them into piles of half past and o’clock?  Get the children to use their arms to tell the time.  Point up for 12 o’clock.  Can they make their arms / bodies show half past one?  Make sure they have a long hand (hold a stick in one) and a short hand.  Finish off by going outside and play “what’s the time Mr Wolf?”

Task Four and Five

Play time lotto.   Each take a board and put the cards face down.  Take a card.  Read the time and say it. As an extension can they tell you what they might be doing at that time eg 5 o’clock is dinner.  Can they tell you what the time is in half an hour?  For those that are proficient at telling the time already, begin to improve their knowledge of the relationship between analogue and digital time getting them to write/draw it both ways.  You can also introduce the 24 hour clock, (if they need further extension).

 

Literacy

This week we are covering stories with repeating patterns and they will create their own version.  We will share a familiar story “We’re going on a bear hunt,” but change it to do with our topic on castles.

Task One

Whether it’s a youtube retelling or you have the book, share the story.  Many children will be familiar with it.  Practise retelling it a few times, ultimately getting them to read it to you with expression.  Identify the adjectives and nouns.  Recap the terms adjectival / noun phrase and what it means.  Stand up when you hear a noun, make a silly noise when you hear an adjective.  Think of a place they could put in the story.  Get them to draw it and write a description of the place, focusing on including as many different adjectives ie Dark, spooky woods with giant, grey, twisted trees. There are bright orange eyes glowing in the black, inky darkness.

Task Two

Share the story again.  Explain that they will be creating their own “Hunt” based on our topic of castles.  Discuss what they could hunt for ie unicorn, dragon, treasure, princess.  Draw a picture of it and write adjectives and phrases around it that they could use to describe it on their last page.   

Task Three

Think of four places they could travel through on their way to their chosen thing.  Today is about planning their story and thinking of great descriptive phrases for each place. Surround the place with different adjectives but focus on using ambitious synonyms.

Tasks Four and Five

Create their own mini booklet (see sheet) and write their own story, paying particular attention to handwriting and presentation.  Draw a picture to go with each page.  

 

History

Share the ppt Where do people live today? Barges, tents, flats, houses etc. LO Why do all living things need homes? Shelter, safety, comfort.  Share the ppt.  On an A4 sheet, draw as many different types of homes as they can.  Pay attention to detail.  What type of house do they live in?  Write a short paragraph about it.  Is it detached / terraced? How many floors does it have?

Art

Over the next two weeks the children will learn about shades and tints.  We would begin by exploring a range of the colour mix paint charts that can be picked up from DIY stores however, this will be difficult during lockdown.  The children will learn that by adding white or black to a colour the shade will change.  There are two tasks to complete.  For the first activity you will need strips of thin wasi or masking tape.  Get the children to section off a piece of paper, criss-crossing the tape over the page.  Choose one colour only and paint one of the sections.  Then add a spoonful of white, mix and paint another section.  Keep adding spoonfuls of white until all sections are painted.  Once it is almost dry, carefully remove the tape to reveal your shade picture.  Then try it again, but this time add a small spoon of black each time.

The second task is researching the artist Paul Klee as one of his famous paintings is the castle (which we will look at next week).  Share the ppt and print the colouring page.  Using their shade and tint skills, paint the picture using only one colour. 

DT

All children made a winding mechanism and a hoist / pulley when we created our amazing pirate ships.  Indeed, their design and technology skills have improved so much this past year that I am setting them all a challenge!  Can the children use these skills to create a working drawbridge?  A cereal box is perfect for this.  I am not including instructions or leading the children in any way as I would like them to explore how they might go about this.  There is no right or wrong, it is all about them using their knowledge and skills and applying these to a different scenario.   I

French

To coincide with our math this week, watch the videos and learn the days of the week or the months of the year in French. 

Days of the week song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpwf5N0rfVE

Months of the year song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_u2SigckNQ

Science

See attached plan.