Where did those shoes come from?

Hola

At the weekend I went to Warrington Museum to have a look at the canvas we have produced on the theme of Echoes. If you want to have a look it is in Gallery 4 and remember the museum is free. The work from the other school is very good and worth taking a look at too.

Last week we completed our final pieces of art work for the exhibition at the Pyramid centre ready for next week. This week, we will be composing poems on the theme of echoes to support our work.

The children also had a wonderful time demonstrating their collaborative and cooperative skills by working as a team to create a model dragon. The week finished with seven fantastic models and some lovely writing to accompany them.

Communication, Language and Literacy
In addition to the poems, we will be centring most of our work on the fantastic traditional tale ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’. There will be a range of activities available to the children through all the areas of learning. These will include:
Writing about things they can do with their feet;
Measuring the size of their feet and completing a class graph;
Writing about where they wish they could walk to;
Walking through different textures e.g ice cream, baked beans etc – messy but great fun!!
Well throwing competitions;
Adding percussion instruments to the different parts of the story;
Shoe polish leaves artwork;
Sewing our very own shoes;
Making patterned elf hats with feathers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/colour/elvesshoemaker.shtml - print out and colour to make your very own version of the story.
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/teacher/english/elves/documents/5.doc - write a diary entry if you fancy doing a little writing.

Phonics
We are nearly there with the patterns we have been concentrating on the last two weeks. Some children are transferring them into their writing which is really great! ‘Igh’ and ‘oa’ are okay but we are still a little unsure of ‘ar’ and ‘or’. Therefore, we will only concentrate on these two this week. You may wish to support your child by practising the spelling of words containing the spelling patterns or by looking for them in books.
By the end of the week, the children;
MUST be able to identify the patterns ‘or’, ‘oa’, ‘ar’ and ‘igh’ on sight;
SHOULD be able to use them to make new words;
COULD be able to read and write words containing the patterns.
Here are the websites to support this area of learning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/poems/flash/fpoem4.shtml - this looks at the spelling pattern ‘oa’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/poems/flash/fpoem9.shtml - this looks at ‘igh’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/snap/snap.shtml - a snap game to help the children quickly identify the letter patterns in words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/whirl/game.shtml - I would recommend this website to support the blending of sounds together when reading.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/phonics/index.shtml - a great website with different levels. Start at the medium level and then work on from there at your own pace.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/16022007/wordmaker_vowels1/lesson.html - I really like this one. You could easily have a go at sections 1 and 2.
http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/the-lonely-vowel/load.htm?f - a great little video!
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f - select the games to play with our spelling patterns in them.


Problem-solving, reasoning and numeracy
As I stated last week we are on a two week unit of addition linked to problem-solving. We were amazed at how much the children remembered about addition and we are ready to move on pretty quickly. The focus for this week is to count on from the largest number when adding two numbers together.
By the end of the week, the children:
MUST be able to find one more than a given number to 10;
SHOULD be able to understand that addition is the combining of two sets of objects and use 1p coins to pay for the total of two items.
COULD be able to find the total of two numbers by counting on from the largest number, and find ways of making given totals.

Suitable websites to support these learning objectives are:
Addition
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch1.shtml
www.ictgames.com/save_the_whale_v4.html - this game asks the children to select the number to add to the given number to make magic number 10. The strategy the children need to use is the counting on from the number given to 10;
www.ictgames.com/safecracker.html - the children have to choose two numbers to make the target number given.
www.ictgames.com/beaver.html - the children must select two numbers that make the magic number 10.
http://demo.iboard.co.uk/screens/thread_home.htm?thread_id=8
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/add1.html - good website for rapid recall of adding one more.
http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ - you could have a go at year 1 also.
Money
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/counting_with_money/index.htm
http://www.ictgames.com/moneysplat.html - a good website for encouraging addition

I will also send home the rhyme linked to the pairs to 10 for the children to go over too.

Any other details…
As far as I am aware this week is actually quite normal! (mmm…am I tempting fate here?) The only important date is Thursday when we welcome Mr Derek Barnes (a senior Advisor) who is assessing the school for its third quality mark in the basic skills.

Have a great week!

Best wishes
Jayne Narraway and the foundation stage team xxx