I hope you are well - I will be calling each of you tomorrow (Tuesday) for our weekly telephone call.
Please keep watching the videos which are being uploaded every day in the 'shoots' category. You are of course welcome to explore the learning videos in the 'roots' and 'leaves' categories too.
My video this week is attention skills where you can see me creating a rainbow out of skittles. The children in blue class will love this video as my kitten 'Luna' is also in the video - blue class enjoy seeing pictures and videos of Luna.
Creating a picture of a rainbow is one of the children's targets - identifying and copying the order of colours. You can create rainbows using pencils, pens, paints, chalks, clothing, teddies, fruits and vegetables, rainbow cookies using coloured icing tubes (also great for fine motor skills), rainbow pizza, rainbow toast using food colouring - have a go this week at home.
When discussing rainbows, ask lots of cross curricular questions e.g.
Where rainbows are seen? In the sky or on the ground? When? What is the weather like when a rainbow can be seen? What else might you see in the sky? Is the sun hot or cold? How can you protect yourself from the sun? What colour are the clouds? What might happen when the clouds are grey? What clothing will you wear if it rains? Why? Is the rain wet or dry? What might you see on the ground? Which animals might be seen in the sky? Which transport might be seen in the sky? How many colours are there? Are they bright or dull? What is your favourite colour?
Please continue to ask your child to help you with 'fiddly' fine motor tasks such as helping you to fasten your buttons or help you with your zip - make it for a 'real' purpose.
Below are some songs, videos and pictures for inspiration of activities related to developing fine motor skills at home and rainbow / colour / pattern depiction.
Hello blue class - it is Monday 21st June already!
I hope you have been enjoying the videos which have been uploaded by all of the teachers. My video this week will be a maths activity - patterns. I will show you how to develop your pattern skills using household objects, food, shapes and colour.
Describing, continuing and copying patterns are all targets which the children in blue class are currently working on.
Their current ability level is a 2 part pattern e.g:
red, yellow, red, yellow, red, yellow ...
You can challenge and extend these tasks by forming 3 part patterns: a b c a b c a b c
Please explore this week's new videos which will be uploaded each day under the 'shoots' section. Feel free to explore the videos in the 'roots' and 'leaves' sections too.
On Sunday it is Father's Day - a day to celebrate your father, grandad, uncle, brother or any male relative or person who cares for you.
Say THANK YOU by making a card or an acrostic poem - here are some ideas for you and some for inspiration.
Please click on the links to the videos in the 'shoots' section to access learning videos spanning our curriculum to watch, join in with and enjoy from home.
New videos will be uploaded each week.
My video this week is a maths activity, next week will be attention skills.
ENJOY!!!
Summer 1
Hello lovely blue class and parents!
THIS WEEK'S INDEPENDENCE AND REAL LIFE SKILLS CHALLENGE: LEARN TO MAKE CORDIAL SQUASH COLD DRINKS.
Begin with a cold drinks tasting session - use every juice you have in the cupboard and water. Can your child use their senses to describe the colour, taste, smell, what it sounds like when shaken in the bottle and feel the temperature with their fingers?
Taste each drink and identify which ones they like and dislike. Can they answer if they like it by saying "Yes" or "No"? (Answering questions with yes / no is one of their targets.
For the second session teach your child how to make a cup of blackcurrant or orange squash. Experiment what it tastes like if too much juice is added - not nice! Repeat this with pouring in too little squash - again not nice! Can your child compare the colours of the drink with too much and too little squash?
Use a dry wipe pen, sticker or piece of tape to mark on the cup how much cordial squash to pour in - can your child accurately pour to the line?
Do the same to make a mark higher up the cup as a water line - can your child accurately pour water to this line?
This should make the perfect cup of cordial squash juice drink - they can then enjoy and drink it.
To extend this - transition to a cup without the marker lines on until your child can accurately and independently make a cordial drink with the correct ratio of cordial to water. To extend this further use opaque cups or mugs - can your child accurately make a cold drink of the correct strength in any cup or mug?
You can then roleplay as a cafe or simply put your feet up and request a cold drink for your child to make for you each day - perfect as the weather gets hotter! Incorporate money handling and counting within this - you might ask for 5 cups which requires counting. You might ask your child to 'buy' each ingredient / equipment e.g. 2p for a cup, 1p for water.
This covers a range of cross curricular targets. Using vocabulary more, less, stop, too much, too little, hot, cold, big cup, small cup, colour names, yes please, no thank you, request language; "I want x please", how many; 3 cups, naming utensils and kitchen equipment.
Turning on and off the tap, opening and closing bottle lids and pouring are all fine motor skills. Tidying away by reaching up high and low to put the cup away are gross motor skills. The hand to eye coordination for accurately pouring is a valuable skill and one of their targets. Being able to carry one cup to you or even several on a tray is excellent balancing practise.
Can they learn to identify the different flavours by looking at the initial letter sound on the bottle? Or by the colour of the liquid? Can they read any other words or identify any other sounds on the labels of the bottle? Can they learn which tap is hot and which tap is cold?
This may seem like a simple task but consider how many times per day your child asks for a cold drink? Now they will be able to prepare this themself!
Please send any photos of this challenge in action to our class email address!
Good morning blue class and parents
THIS WEEK'S INDEPENDENCE AND REAL LIFE SKILLS CHALLENGE: LEARN TO MAKE A SANDWICH.
Spreading and slicing bread using a knife is something that the children in blue class practise regularly with reduced support - many can do this independently. TIP: remind your child to always use two hands - hold the bread slice with one and spread with the other, "Two hands" is a phrase they are very used to hearing.
Make this a full cross-curricular, holistic experience: maths, science, english, speaking and listening, PSHE.
Explore and discuss each food item - where it grows, which animal it comes from, how it is made, how / where to store it, how to check if it is safe to eat or has it gone mouldy? Is the fridge hot or cold? Check the packaging to see if they can identify the halal symbol. Look at the traffic light symbols - is this food healthy or unhealthy?
Incorporate maths, number work and money handling. Your child can pay for each slice of bread, knife, plate, filling, e.g. a slice of bread is 2p - your child can give you 2 separate 1p coins (only use 1p coins). They can then recount these by pointing and counting at the same time.
Practise request communication, speaking and listening - your child should use 3-4 words to request the butter, "I want butter please". Develop understanding of comparison language more/less, big/small, hot/cold.
Sabotage techniques - when your child requests the knife - give him / her the spoon. Your child will have to recognise this error and request again.
Develop senses - what does it look like, smell like, sound like, feel like to touch and taste like?
Ensure hand washing takes place before and after - counting to 20 each time.
Of course practise tidying away and washing up. Can your child correctly learn where each cutlery piece goes? Forks with forks and knives with knives? Which food items must be kept in the fridge? Why?
After the first few days, make this into a fun CAFE or restaurant. You can order your sandwich which your child can make for you...time to relax for you!
Cookery challenge for this week: TOAST! Can you support your child to safely make toast? The children of blue class are familiar with using the toaster and can identify that it is hot and dangerous. They can also slice and spread with a little support.
As you are doing this, ask what goes in the toaster, what comes out, is it hot, is it cold, what colour is it, is it hard, is it soft, has it changed, which parts are dangerous, which equipment do they need, where are these kept? Make sure they tidy up and wash up themselves afterwards!
Good morning wonderful blue class
Our story this half term is ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson. Our topic is Creepy Crawlies. Below are some links for the Superworm story and songs / videos about worms and creepy crawlies.
There are also some craft activity ideas to do at home. Why don’t you go on a bug hunt or a worm hunt in your garden? How many Insects can you find? Would you like to make your own worms in a sensory tray using cooked spaghetti or noodles? You could add paint and do ‘worm’ (spaghetti/noodle) paint printing?
Hello parents of blue class - please click the link below to the ThinkuKnow Website which offers a range of valuable resources, activities and advice for home learning.
The following link is to the e-Safety page on the Richmond Hill School website. The page shares essential information about keeping safe online - this is particularly important at a time when we are relying more on virtual communication and lots of online purchasing.
Over the next two weeks for the time of the 'Easter Holidays' you can adapt the learning tasks your child has been doing to an Easter theme (bunnies, chocolate, eggs, baskets). Below are some ideas and hoto examples for Easter themed activities:
*Decorating boiled eggs - colour / paint the boiled egg with patterns to look like an easter egg.
*Self portrait boiled eggs - this is a great chance for your child to decorate a boiled egg as themself - noticing their eye colour,hair colour and facial features...can they identify which part they see, hear, smell and taste with?
*Basket making - using cardboard, draw out the net of a cuboid - decorate / colour the net - fold the cardboard into the cuboid shape and cut off one face. Add a handle with whichever material you wish (pipe cleaner, twisted paper / material) and fill the basket with some shredded paper and home drawn chicks or bunnies.
*Healthy / unhealthy sorting - with supermarket leaflets, magazines and newspapers filled with Easter and chocolate advertisements it is a great opportunity to cut these pictures out and sort them into healthy and unhealthy.
*Easter bunny socks - take a spare sock and half fill it with rice or flour. Tie one elastic band around the middle (the body) and a second elastic band at the top (the head). Decorate using pens. With the remaining sock material on top of the head you can cut this into two parts for the ears.
*Carrot mark making / writing / stamping - use carrots and paint to make marks on paper. You can shape the end of the carrot (adult) with a knife into different shapes, your child can dip this in paint and then 'stamp' it onto paper.
*Paper plate bunny faces - decorate the plate with the features of a bunny face - eyes, ears, nose, mouth, whiskers. If you have spare cotton wool balls, these are great to stick onto the face for a more sensory bunny face.
*Chalks - draw an easter picture outside on the pavement or walls (this will wash off).
*NHS Thank You Cards / Posters - create some thank you posters / cards / signs for the NHS staff who are working tirelessly in the fight against Covid19 - hand them in your front windows.
Please contact me using the blue class email address if you have any questions, concerns or need any support (blue@richmondhill.luton.sch.uk). Please keep safe and healthy. Please share a BIG, "Hello" and a BIG smile to your child from me!
Hello blue class, 30/03/2020
I hope everyone is keeping safe and well at home. It was great to speak to most of you again on the phone this morning. Below are some descriptions and photos of different learning activities which can be done at home. These are very easy to achieve as require everyday household items and they are more engaging than pen and paper activities.
Raid your cupboards! Shaving foam, moisturising cream, salt, rice, flour, cornflour or cous cous poured into a tray / onto a plate are brilliant to practice letter formation, number formation, drawing lines and drawing shapes. The child can use their finger or hold a mark making tool. Then shake the tray / plate to reset it ready to make a new mark.
Paper plates and pegs are extremely versatile. They can be used to match colours, letters, letters of the child’s name, numerals, numerals to quantities, shapes. All you need to do is split your plate into sections, add the letters and the write the corresponding letters on the pegs (the same for colours and numbers).
Applying pegs to a plate, cup, piece of clothing or clothing line is a great way to develop a child’s fine motor skills. Make an indoors washing line and ask your child to help you with the washing...or to hand up their wonderful work.
Phonics sorting. Collect a range of household objects from all around your home and sort them into groups which match the initial letter sound of the word e.g the ball, banana and book will be placed on the ‘b’ plate / paper / basket. The children in blue class do find this quite tricky so only have 3 or 4 letter sounds to sort at one time.
Colour and shape sorting. This is similar to the phonics sorting activity above. Collect household objects of different shapes or colours. Prepare the corresponding shape or colour paper / plate / basket / tray on the floor or table. Your child can then sort the objects into the correct shape or colour group.
All of the children are learning to write their own name. Write each letter of their name on chopped up pieces of paper, mix them up and ask your child to sequence them in order.
Egg boxes - empty egg boxes should never be thrown away! Instead turn them into a self contained sorting box. Place small objects such as Cheerios or pasta tubes in one side. On the opposite side where the eggs would have been, write numerals 1-5. The child can transfer and ‘count out’ the correct number of objects into each egg hole.
Hello parents and children of blue class!
I hope you are keeping safe and healthy inside your own homes at this time and that you are being very helpful at home with your family. It has been lovely to speak with you on the telephone both times this week. I will call again on Monday to ‘check in’ with you all.
Please click on the song and video links on this class page to find familiar songs and videos that the children in blue class enjoy.
Please replicate similar work task activities which were in your activity books if you need to. These are general number work to 10 activities, letter formation, mark making, copying simple patterns, tracing shapes, pencil control activities, word recognition and learning to write their first name independently,
Below is a list of alternative ‘non work book based’ activities which can be done at home. These are to develop independence and practice real life skills and are all things which the children in blue class have experienced before in the classroom.
*UNPACKING THE ’SHOPPING’ - remove some items from your fridge, fruit bowl and cupboards and place them into a carrier bag - ask your child to help you by unpacking the shopping. Whilst doing this can they use vocabulary such as on, in, under, hot, cold, fridge, table, cupboard, big, small, colour words. Ask them do identify the names of each objec5 and describe it,
*HEALTHY FOOD CHECK - sort through food items in your cupboards into healthy and unhealthy.
*HALAL CHECK - can your child find the halal symbol on the food packaging?
*UNPLUGGED PHONE - this is amazing for numeral recognition, speaking and listening and real life skills. Allow your child to explore catalogues e.g. Argos, leaflets, take away menus, online shop website pages - role play making a telephone call to place their order. Adult respond to the child pretending to be the employee taking the order - ask for their name, age, male or female, where do they live, would they like a big or small order, how many, how will they pay, halal or non halal etc. Make sure they hold the phone to their ear whilst speaking and that they say, “Thank you, goodbye” at the end.
* GARDENING AND CLEANING - all of blue class do their own washing up and tidying each day. They also enjoy tidying the garden area with brooms and dutpan and brushes.
* MATCHING SOCKS OR SHOES - unmatch and spread out all of your family socks or shoes - can they match them?
*OUTDOORS WRITING / DRAWING / MARK MAKING - use a broom, mop, paintbrush dipped in water and make marks outside on the wall or patio. Can the write numerals, shapes, their name?
*COUNTING - everything and anything - can the count how many clothes pegs are in the basket?
*THREADING FOR FINE MOTOR SKILLS - use pasta tubes, cotton reels or cereal hoops and thread them onto pieces of string or onto a wooded kebab skewer (make sure the end of this has been cut and secured with tape so that it is not sharp).
*MAKE SOCK PUPPETS - use old socks - decorate them and bring your sock puppet to life by making it talk, count, sing, ask questions.
Hello Blue Class & Parents
Hello blue class and parents! Below are some YouTube links for songs the children in blue class LOVE to watch throughout every school day. These songs are important to signify the time of the day or what is coming next e.g.the days of the week song and good morning song we watch and listen to at the start of the day, the lunchtime song before we eat our lunch. I have put these on our webpage as they could help you with your children at home to add some familiarity and routine.
Good Morning Song for Kids (with lyrics) | The Singing Walrus
The Singing Walrus presents "Good Morning Song" - a fun, upbeat song that incorporates the phrases "good morning" and "how are you." Perfect for preschool an...
CBeebies: Monday Song
Sing along with the CBeebies Monday Song! Visit CBeebies at http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies to find even more fun games and videos for your pre-schooler in a s...
The 7 Days of the Week Song ♫ 7 Days of the Week ♫ Kids Songs by The Learning Station
The 7 Days of the Week Song is one of our popular songs for children by The Learning Station. It is from the CD,download, "Preschool Learning Fun" Download "...
Seasons Song
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Wash Your Hands Song | Music for Kids | The Singing Walrus
Get the mp3 on Apple, Amazon, or Google Play! https://music.apple.com/us/album/wash-your-hands-song-single/1357902395 https://www.amazon.com/Wash-Your-Hands-...
Feelings Song | Songs for Children | How Are You?
Let's sing about our feelings in this fun and popular Dream English Song. Original Song by Matt. Note: I am using ASL (American Sign Language) for the action...
Phonics Song 2
It's a phonics song with a picture for each letter. This is designed to help children learn the sounds of the letters in the English alphabet. Written and pe...
The Number Rock
Using Greg and Steve music Number Rock
Shapes Song 2
A shapes song for children. If this video corrupts, please try the link below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1xvpti6h0A This song was written and performed...
The Goodbye Song for Children
This is a great song to end your class or day with your students! Dream English song by Matt R. Support Dream English: Get this song on Itunes: http://itunes...
Goodbye Song for kids | The Singing Walrus
The Singing Walrus presents: "Goodbye Song", a fun interactive song for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This song gives kids a fun way to tidy up and get r...
THE NEXT LIST OF SONGS AND VIDEOS ARE SOME OF THE CHILDRENS’ FAVOURITES IN BLUE CLASS
Wishy Washy Washer Woman ♫ Silly Dance Songs for Children ♫ Kids Camp Songs ♫ The Learning Station
"Wishy Washy Washer Woman": Sing and dance as you learn the dance moves and actions to our popular silly song for kids; dance, camp, brain break and action s...
I Like the Flowers - by Beat Boppers Children's Music
A fun animation of the song "I Like the Flowers". For a free MP3 download of this song along with downloadable teaching resources visit www.BeatBoppers.com.....
Easy Beautiful Mehndi - New Stylish Full Hand Mehndi Design Step by Step - आसान मेहँदी लगाना सीखे
Easy Beautiful Mehndi - New Stylish Full Hand Mehndi Design Step by Step - आसान मेहँदी लगाना सीखे आसान मेहँदी डिज़ाइन - फ्लावर की सुंदर अरेबिक मेहँदी डिज़ाइन F...
The Color Song: A Funny Song
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Shake Your Sillies Out ♫ Brain Breaks Songs for Kids ♫ Kids Action Songs by The Learning Station
Shake Your Sillies Out (with lyrics) is a popular children's brain breaks, action song for kids. It is from the award-winning CD, "Kid's Country Song & Dance...
Weekly Update
Blue class have worked extremely hard to tidy their outside garden area and play house - amazing team work!
They also made mini muffin vegetable pizzas.
In our weekly speaking and listening lesson they used telephones to order food or toys from restaurant menus or catalogues such as Argos - they were FANTASTIC. This activity is speaking and listening focussed but also practices a lot of maths skills including numeral recognition when 'dialling the telephone number' and answering measurement questions such as a large or small pizza? how many? hot or cold? halal or non halal? how much money? etc.
Holi Festival, Speaking & Listening, Music
Blue class have been learning about and celebrating the Holi Festival - they covered themselves (pictures) in bright, colourful shaving foam paint. They have loved watching videos about the Holi Festival and have enjoyed dancing to the music.
Blue class have also been learning to make hot chocolate and have used this experience as a focussed speaking and listening session. DELICIOUS!
The children have also been expressing themselves by learning to play the keyboard and piano. They individually performed in-front of the class audience and clapped loudly to celebrate the beautiful sounds their peers made.
Enterprise Fair
Blue class prepared posters for this year's Enterprise Fair - they posted them around school. The children decorated biscuits with icing and sweet toppings. This formed part of our science lesson with a focus on colour changing. Blue class also made popcorn cones and filled them with sweet popcorn. Our total profit was £13.74!!!
WOW
What a start to the Spring 2 half term. In this first week, blue class have celebrated Shrove Tuesday by making and eating pink pancakes at our pancake party. The children tasted different toppings including sweet strawberries and zesty lemons.
Welcome Back
We have a wonderful half term ahead of us.
Our topic this half term is ‘Town and Countryside’. We will be learning about both environments and comparing similarities and differences between the two. As part of this topic we will go on a trip to find each child’s house. We will also spend time exploring the countryside and go to Harpenden Town on the train.
Our story for this half term is ‘”Stand Back”, said the Elephant, “I’m Going To Sneeze”.
Blue class will continue to share and write their weekend news every Monday. They will also have daily speaking and listening focuses throughout the day. Blue class are learning to recognize, say and write their full name.
Leading up to Easter we will have lots of exciting activities. We will develop our real life skills with our shopping trips and this time will focus on purchasing Easter eggs. Within this focus we will explore healthy/unhealthy foods and be searching for the halal symbol.
Please check our web page regularly to see all of the great things that we have been doing as I will regularly add photos.
Please see Blue Class’s curriculum overview for this half term. I have sent a copy home in the home-school books for you to refer to. You can also view our curriculum map below.
Spring 1
Snakes & Ladders
Blue class had a wonderful trip to Snakes and Ladders - they practiced road safety, putting on their own seatbelt, stranger danger, using public toilets safely, public etiquette when around other children, sharing, turn-taking and playing safely.
Fine Motor Skills and Art
Blue class have been developing their fine motor skills and art skills by applying mehndi/henna to their hands. The children LOVED doing this. They used squeezy icing to apply their patterns to their arms / hands. They had to sit very still to allow it to dry!
Cookery
Blue class have been developing their baking skills - expert muffin bakers!
Stockwood Park Discovery Center
Blue class had a wonderful trip to Stockwood Park Discovery Center - our aim was to practice travel safety, road safety, stranger danger and general 'public etiquette'. The children practiced putting on their own seat belts, crossing the road correctly, walking through the car park safely and keeping themselves safe by staying with the group.
Each child interacted with the staff at the center - they said please, thank you and were prompted to ask questions. The children were asked which adults were 'safe' familiar adults or 'stranger danger' adults - who could they talk to? The children were all fantastic and were also able to identify important signs such as 'toilet' / 'boys' / 'girls' / 'no running'. SUPER!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Blue class have 'hit the ground running' with a fantastic beginning to their new story 'Here Come The Aliens' and to their new topic 'Art Attack'.
The children already love the rhyming story and love the individual alien characters. Each child created their own alien for our display board.
Blue class have also received an alien of their own to look after as a pet - the children are voting on a name for the alien - at the moment there are 3 names in the final: John, Alien Alien and Sticky.
This term all of the children in blue class will develop their independence and life skills even more! We started today with unpacking the Asda delivery - each child selected at least one food item, said the name of the item, whether it is healthy / unhealthy, halal / nn-halal, said where it must be kept (cupboard, fridge, freezer, shelf) and took it there to carefully put it away and store it. They can achieve so much from this everyday activity - try it at home when unpacking your next shop!