Dear Parents,

For those of you who are unable to bring your children to school we have attached this week’s phonics, literacy and maths learning. In maths we have been adding two numbers by putting the biggest number in our head then using our fingers to count on to find the total.

Thank you

Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey

Good Morning,

We hope that you are all safe and well.  

You will find below DAILY phonics, literacy and maths activities, devised especially by your child’s teacher, please take your time to read the instructions and please have fun completing them.

We are very sorry that you are unable to attend school now that we are open. Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

from, Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/ (variety of ideas with video clips)

https://www.thenational.academy/  (literacy, maths)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (everything)

https://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/  (Variety of early years activities)

 http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Good Morning,

We are really missing all of you so much and we hope that you are all safe and well and having fun completing your home learning challenges.  It would be lovely if your child could draw a picture of what they miss the most about reception class and write a small sentence ‘I miss ……’. If you could photograph your child’s picture with their name on it and send it to us via email we could put it on the class page.

At school we teach phonics every day we often play a game called the yes no game. All you need are two boxes or jars one labelled yes and one labelled no. The children read the questions and decide whether it is a yes or no question.  You can make this game more exciting by hiding the questions.  Attached below are some phase 3 and 2 questions for your child to read.

At school we have circle time to support your child’s personal and social development.  We understand that the current situation is quite confusing and can be frustrating to young children who want to play with their friends.  We hope your children are still feeling happy and self-confident.  Attached below is a Peppa Pig  circle time game for you to play with your child, there are also two worksheets for you to complete with your child to support their self-esteem.  Please talk to your child about their feelings and encourage them to talk about themselves positively. After all they are all so very special, fantastic and amazing!  

We have also planned daily writing, phonics and math's activities which you will find below.

If you need extra activities below are some more links we hope you find them useful. 

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

from, Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/ (variety of ideas with video clips)

https://www.thenational.academy/  (literacy, maths)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (everything)

https://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/  (Variety of early years activities)

 http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Good Morning,

Hope you are all safe and well and looking forward to this week’s home learning activities that we have devised especially for your children.

At school we teach phonics every day we often play a game called buried treasure which all of the children know and love.  All you need to play buried treasure is a treasure chest, a bin and treasure with nonsense and real words written on them. The children pick a word, read it and decide if it is a real word or a nonsense word. If it is a real word they put it in the treasure chest and if it is a nonsense word it goes into the bin!  We talk to the children about the meaning of the words to check their understanding.  Attached to this email is a copy of phase 2 and 3 buried treasure for you to play at home.

At school the continuous provision is carefully thought-out and planned to meet the physical needs of your children to help them develop their gross motor skills and reach the physical development early learning goal, ‘children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing’.  Your child also has a weekly PE session which teaches these skills.  Attached to this email are some activity cards that you can complete with your child to develop their gross motor skills.

If you need extra activities below are some more links, we hope you find them useful. 

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

from, Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/ (variety of ideas with video clips)

https://www.thenational.academy/  (literacy, maths)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (everything)

https://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/  (Variety of early years activities)

 http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Home Learning Week 6

Good Morning,

Hope you are all safe and well and have enjoyed the wonderful sunshine we have been graced with over half term. We hope that you are all ready and looking forward to this week’s home learning which we have devised for your children.

Remember at school we teach a daily discrete phonics session which will focus on a new sound and recap previously learnt sounds. Phonics is also applied to all learning throughout the day.  So please make the most of opportunities to break words down into the sounds that they can hear and support your child with sounds that they cannot hear.  We also teach children tricky words. We cannot sound out tricky words because they are not phonetically plausible.  This means that your child has to use their memory to recognise and read them on sight.  At school we love a tricky word hunt.  We write the tricky words down and place them in different locations.  You can give your child a notepad and a pencil, they search for the word and write it down and then read you the list.  There are variations to this game you could use a timer to see how many tricky words they can find before the timer runs out? If your child finds this difficult use less tricky words and ask them Can you find the tricky word ‘she’? Attached to this email are the phase 2 and 3 tricky words that you children need to learn. 

Every week at school we have a creative challenge our children love junk modelling.  We support children to design with a purpose in mind and we encourage them to take their time and adapt and improve their work and to discuss what they have made and what it is for.  Remember your child’s creative outcome does not have to be perfect it is their own representation.  Attached below are some creative ideas. Have fun!

We have also planned daily phonics, literacy and maths activities, please take your time to read the instructions and please have fun completing them.

If you need extra activities below are some more links I hope you find them useful. 

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

from Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/ (variety of ideas with video clips)

https://www.thenational.academy/  (literacy, maths)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (everything)

https://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/  (Variety of early years activities)

 http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

Home Learning Week Five

Good Morning,

Hope that you are all very well and making the most of these unusual times.  We hope you enjoyed last week’s home learning activities which are on the school website if you have missed any.

At school we have many games and activities that support your children’s communication and language skills.  How able your child is to communicate affects so many areas of their learning as well as their personal and social development.  At school we use lots of language rich stories to build your child’s vocabulary.  We also place props in the provision so they can act out the stories that they have learned and use the new language in context.  A brilliant way to do this at home is to have a puppet show use anything wooden spoons, toys, sticks from outside or simply draw a face on your hand.  Take turns with your child at acting out that story language encourage them to say those tricky sounds and do not forget to explain what those unfamiliar words mean.  We have attached some ideas for you to have a look at.

Remember mathematical opportunities are everywhere at school we teach number and shape, space and measure.  Why not go on a shape hunt. What did you find? Was it a cylinder, cube, cuboid, sphere or a cone? Have a look in the kitchen cupboards.  There is an additional 3D shape activity attached this week as well.

If you need extra activities below are some more links we hope you find them useful. 

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

 Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/ (variety of ideas with video clips)

https://www.thenational.academy/  (literacy, maths)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (everything)

http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Home Learning Week Four

Good Morning,

Hope you enjoyed the VE day celebrations at home and have had wonderful weekend in the sunshine.  Thank you so much for completing your home learning activities. Remember keep applying you phonic knowledge chopping up those words into the sounds you can hear.  A great game to support this is eye spy but instead of using the initial sound you say “eye spy with my little eye can you see ‘M’ ‘u’ ‘d’?”  You can do this anywhere at home, in the car or on your daily walk.  Another brilliant game to play that your children will know and love is Golden River.  First write some cvc words onto card ‘fox’ ‘vet’ ‘jam’ ‘buzz’ ‘zigzag’. Next place a length of material onto the floor to be the river.  Your child sits on the opposite side holding the cards, they then say “Farmer, farmer may I cross your golden river?” then you reply “you may cross my golden river if you have a word with the x sound” your child will then read the word and jump across the river. Repeat this until your child has read all of the words. Remember to pronounce the sound correctly if you say letter name i.e. x, (pronounced ‘ex’) they may not be able to find it.

At school your child completes the pink challenge every week which is a funky fingers activity.  This is designed to strengthen and improve your child’s fine motor control which is essential for writing.  Threading beads and pasta to make necklaces or bracelets is a brilliant way to promote this.  Can you use tweezers to pick up pasta? How long does it take you to fill the cup?  Even better you could incorporate maths and funky fingers. Get some red paper and cut out five circles about the diameter of a cup draw a black line down the middle.  Get some black paint and a cotton bud and a dice.  Now you are ready to do ladybird doubling. Roll the dice if they roll a three they put three spots on one side and three on the other and voila double three is six. 

If you need extra activities below are some links I hope you find them useful.  If you are looking for something entertaining and purposeful try searching ‘dough disco’ the dough disco lady will certainly liven things up.

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (every thing)

http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Home Learning Week 3

Good Morning,

Hope you are very well and making the most of these wet spring days to do some fun home learning activities.  We know you are doing your very best to educate your child from home and to support you in doing this we have attached daily literacy, maths and phonics activities for you to complete with your child.  We have also updated our class page on the school website with the same activities and links. Daily phonics is really important for your child to develop reading and writing skills.  They need to apply their phonic knowledge at every possible opportunity because if they don’t use it they will lose it!

 A great way to learn and decode a new word is to use the word rap and spell it out song you could even use a puppet to make it even more exciting. Here is an example using the word ‘vet’.

When sentence writing encourage your child to say their sentence out loud and repeat it until it is stuck in their memory.  When writing each word in the sentence remind you child to chop it up into the sounds that they can hear.  Use the sound mats and tricky word maps as a reference, being able to find a sound or tricky word independently is an important skill.  Encourage them to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.  Can they read their sentence back to you and check their work to see if it makes sense?

Make sure to maximise those mathematical learning opportunities.  Your children are little mathematicians in the making so show them that maths is everywhere.   Use everyday opportunities to make maths fun and challenging.  Can you brush your teeth for 2 minutes?  How can you measure this? If you brush your teeth twice a day how long is that?  Can you measure your toys? It could be competition where the winner is the tallest, shortest, longest, widest.  What could you use to measure them with? Can you find the difference between the tallest and shortest?   

Attached to this email are DAILY phonics, literacy and maths activities, please take your time to read the instructions and please have fun completing them.

If you need extra activities below are some links I hope you find them useful.

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (every thing)

https://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/  (Variety of early years activities)

 http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Home Learning Week 2

Good Morning,

Hope you are very well and ready for this week’s home learning activities.  We appreciate all the hard work you are doing to educate at home.  It is really important for your children to keep using their phonic knowledge to write simple sentences, lists and labels. Remind them to say their sentence out loud and chop up each word into the sounds that they can hear.  Encourage them to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.  Can they read their sentence back to you and check their work to see if it makes sense?

It is also very important to continue to apply their mathematical knowledge every day.  Counting out objects, sorting, sharing, matching amounts to the number, and finding more and less, through practical activities will really improve number sense. You could have a teddy bears picnic at home.  Ask your child which toys they are going to invite. Can they write invitations and list of what they need?  Can they work out how many bananas they will need for each teddy? If everyone wants two biscuits, how many would that be altogether? Can they share the crisps equally? Let you child work out the problems practically.

Remember a child at this age may struggle to stay focused on an activity for longer than 15-20 minutes, so little and often is the best approach and most of all have fun!    

Below are some links I hope you find them useful.

Take care and stay safe we look forward to seeing you all soon,

from, Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey. 

Do not forget Purple Mash you were given a login with your first pack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-early-years (every thing)

https://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/  (Variety of early years activities)

 http://www.ictgames.com/  (maths and English)

https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/  (science/ experiments)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes  (art and craft)

Home Learning Week 1

Good Morning,

We hope you are well and have enjoyed the Easter Break as much as possible in the current situation. We have included below some useful learning links that cover a variety of topics that will help keep your child busy over the next couple of weeks. If you can also download the weekly learning activities week four on the twinkl website they include a large variety of activities across all the areas of learning and will reinforce everything we were teaching before school closed. If you carry on looking at the Phase 2 and Phase 3 phonic mats as well (included in the pack we sent)and get your child to write simple sentences each day that include words that contain these sounds.

Take care and Stay Safe and we hope to see you and your child back at school soon.

Mrs Taylor and Miss Healey

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn (daily maths and english learning)

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/buried-treasure  (phonics games)

https://www.worldbookday.com/resources/ (literacy based ideas/activities)

https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses-catch-up/  (listen to stories)

https://bpes.bp.com/resources/list/primary  (science/ experiments)

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/try-this-at-home.html (craft and science(dinosaurs)

https://www.crayola.com/education (art and craft)

Please find below a list of useful links during your child's time at home:

https://m.youtube.com/channel/ucjOshfH3dOrsj-prw

https://m.youtube.com/channel/ucjOshfH3pzhrf3dOrSi-pRW

https://play.numbots.com

Early Years Foundation Stage

WELCOME TO THE EYFS CLASS PAGE!

This year we have 45 children in our EYFS/Year One class.  We have two teachers; Miss Healey and Mrs Taylor who is the Early Years Leader.  Mrs Stocks, Miss Edwards, Mrs Bevan and Mrs Field are our wonderful Teaching Assistants.

Excellence is at the heart of everything we do

'Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential.  Children develop quickly i the early years and a child's experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances.  A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in it's own right.  Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up'  (EYFS Statutory Framework 2012)

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is based on four principles:

• A Unique Child
• Positive Relationships
• Enabling Environments
• Learning and Developing

Areas Of Learning

The EYFS is made up of seven areas of learning and development of which three are "prime areas",  and four "specific areas".  The prime areas are

• Communication and Language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

The specific areas are 

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the world and 
• Expressive arts and design

"Each area of learning and development is implemented through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity.  Play is used as an essential part of children's development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others.  Children learn by leading their own play  and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.  There is an on-going judgement to be made by practitioners about the balance between activities led by children and activities led or guided by adults.  Practitioners must respond to each child's emerging needs and interests, guiding their development through warm positive interaction.  As children grow older and as their development allows, it is expected that the balance will gradually shift towards more activities led by adults, to help children prepare for more formal learning, ready for Year 1. (Statutory Framework for EYFS 2012)

Class Organisation

The children are split into registration groups and are taught in small groups for phonics, guided reading, writing and mathematics throughout specific times in the day.  The rest of the time the children have access to continuous provision both indoors and out.  Throughout this time the children also complete rainbow challenges that link to all the areas of the curriculum, including a home challenge.  The children are encourage and supported by staff to complete all eight challenges during the week.  If they complete all their challenges then they take part in the class treat on a Friday afternoon.  Please look at our class newsletters to give you an idea of some of the exciting things we take part in every half term.

Come and look around!

The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children's development and learning.  When children feel emotionally safe and secure they are able to explore and find out about the place they are in and the things they can see, touch, manouvre or manipulate.  In the EYFS the environment is described in terms of three aspects:  The emotional environment, the outdoor environment, in indoor environment.  These three aspects of the environment make up the environment for learning in the EYFS.

At Thorn Primary School our vision is that all children are taught in a stimulating learning environment with high quality resources.  Our Reception classroom is organised into separate areas, each of the areas are carefully planned and resourced in order to provide the children with many different learning opportunities in their play.