Term 1 Week 5 Revision of s,a,t,i,p,n and new letter h

Term 1 Week 5 Revision and Letter h

So far we have finished working on the first set of the jolly phonics letters.  The letters were s,a,t,i,p,n.  In class we went through all the rhyme songs and actions of these letters, as well as their formation.

The children experimented with trying to write the letters sounds on their mini whiteboard after doing the formation on the big whiteboard with their finger.  We also created a story where Harriette the witch made a delicious soup with various ingredients all starting with the s,a,t,i,p,n letters and pretended to put them in our class cauldron.

We then moved on to discovering one of the new letters for this week – h for hat.  This letter was associated with the h for hat we tackled during our topic work.

The children found out that there are many words which start with the letter h sound.  Some of which are linked to Halloween too.  Words like hat, haunted, house,  We then moved on to other objects starting with h, such as hill, hand, hair, hedgehog, hot, horse, heart.  Some of these words are found in the jolly phonics picture story below.  We also mentioned the two Haileys we have in class.

The jolly phonics story for the letter h sound is this.

It is the school’s summer fun day.  Some children are in the hopping race.  It is a hot day and by the time they have finished, the children are huffing and puffing, saying, /h,h,h,h/.

Action of the letter h sound

The action done when saying the h sound is associated with the picture story like all the other letter actions are.  Hold up your hand in front of your mouth and pretend to pant, saying h,h,h.

Jolly Phonic Rhyme Letter h sound

Formation

• Step 1 – Start at the top , go down
• Step 2 – A small bounce up
• Step 3 – Tunnel
• Step 4 – And tail

 

 

Practice Ideas For Home

• You can practice the letter formation by using a white board and colourful washable markers using the steps above.
• You can place about 5 objects or pictures on the table, amongst which you have objects starting with the letter h sound.
• Look for things around you which start with the h Say the name of each object emphasizing and exaggerating the first letter sound of each object and ask your child if that object or picture starts with the letter sound h.  This is a skill which needs loads of practice, so don’t get worried if they are not understanding as yet what this means.  Praise at this point is very important to build their confidence   🙂

When working with this letter besides using the interactive whiteboard the children also worked on their letter scrapbook where they created their own magic hat by gluing some fairy dust (glitter) on top and then stuck 5 stars stickers.

Happy Birthday Aiden

Happy Birthday, sweet Aiden.

This is the lovely moment when your friends were singing Happy Birthday to you   🙂

 

 

Term 1 Week 5 – The Triangle

This shape was linked to the witch’s hat already mentioned in previous blogs since it has a triangular shape.

The children learnt that just like the square we talked about last week even the triangle shape has its own properties or rules.

Wilf helped us see these triangle rules:

• A triangle has three sides.
• These sides all touch each other.
• A triangle has three pointy parts (angles).
• A triangle cannot roll over.

With these properties in mind the children were able to distinguish triangular shaped objects from other shapes on the interactive whiteboard.

These are some of the objects they came up with: a slice of pizza and watermelon, flat cone, hat, bat wings, a clothes hanger, and one side of a pyramid.

The children worked on their shapes workbook where they had to choose and colour in the triangle shape amongst other shapes.  They also sponge painted triangular shapes on the same workbook.

The lesson came to a close with a craft which linked this entire concept to our topic work Halloween.  The children created a nocturnal animal which has triangular shaped wings – the bat.

Triangle songs

 

Practice Ideas for Home

When you are out and about you can play the game Spot the shape, with your children.

They have to look out for and say the various shapes that are made by the objects around them.

 

Term 1 Week 5 Number 5

Number 5 is the new number for this week.

During the topic work we spoke about the witch’s hat in the book Room on The Broom.  We mentioned that the hat is a magical one like all witches’ hats.  So the children decorated an orange hat with some magic dust (glitter) and stuck 5 stars on top.

Wilf our robot showed the children to successfully count till 5.

• Step 1 – Point or pick each object one at a time. In this case the star stickers.
• Step 2 – Say each number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Step 3 – Say stop. We cannot keep on saying the numbers if there are only 5 objects (stars).

(Whilst counting objects on a paper we can also cut them out one by one to avoid counting them more than once).

To help us learn the formation of number 5 we use three ways.

• Number Story – We have animals for every number.

Mrs. Duck helps us see the shape of number 5 –

Mrs. Duck has 5 little ducklings.  They went for a swim on the lake because it was a very hot day.  The 5 little ducklings wondered off and mummy duck could not see them anymore.

She was very worried and  went to look for them.  Her feathers were all flustered and soaking wet because of the heat.  She had to wear a hat to protect her head.

 

• 5 little ducks nursery rhyme –

 

• To remember the formation of this number we can use the shape of Mrs. Duck. This is what we say:

1. Start at the eye
2. Go down the neck
3. Go round the body to wipe her feathers dry
4. Lift
5. Hat on head

 

• We also had the number five rhyme to help us see the formation of this number.

• The children were also exposed to the numicon shape which helps them see the value of five. The children were also given table top counters such as buttons, bottle caps, blocks and interconnecting camels to count till 5.  They also practiced their counting skills on the interactive whiteboard by playing various games.

 

Now the children got used to using the number scrapbook.  They rainbow coloured the number 5 as well as coloured in a ghost on this same book.

They put 5 dots at the bottom of the ghost using cotton buds and paint, counting 5 in the process.

Practice Ideas for Home

• It is important that you practice the numbers done so far by using the animal stories and the rhymes so the children become more confident in their number work.
• They can draw various objects on a piece of paper or small whiteboard, count them and help them write the corresponding value using rice, flour and sand saying the story or rhyme in the process. Please praise every little effort the children make.  If they do mistakes just correct them with no fuss at all and tell them to try it again together.  Repetition, practice and praise help build their confidence.

 

Term 1 Week 5 Nocturnal Animals

During week 5 we also spoke about animals which are portrayed in Halloween stories.  Usually these are creatures that stay awake during the night.

These are the animals the children came up with: bats, owls, and cats.  We saw pictures of these animals as well as spoke about why they remain awake at night and what they hunt for.  The children also mentioned other animals which stay awake at night but which are not usually found in Halloween stories such as hedgehogs, badgers and rats.

As part of the topic work we created bats with toilet rolls and kite paper.  The children learnt that bats hang upside down and have triangular shaped wings.  This fact linked us to the numeracy shapes concept – triangles.  (More details about the triangle topic is found under numeracy section).

Our class bats are hanging on our wall in class !!!!

Home Fun Ideas

Nocturnal animals could be one of the topics you could discuss at home with your children during these mid-term holidays.  You could also research some simple fun facts together and create a craft.

Enjoy   🙂

 

Term 1 Week 5 Halloween

Halloween Week

Storytime and Discussion

This week’s topic work was based on the theme of Halloween.  We started off the week with reading the story of Julia Donaldson, Room on the Broom.  This is a very good story because it makes children listen to rhyming words and so become aware of rhyming word patterns which will eventually help them in their reading.

We talked about the characters in the book and how some of these characters feature in many Halloween stories such as the witch, the broom, the cauldron, the cat, dragons and funny monsters etc.

We also spoke about the witch’s magic hat which linked us to the first letter that the children were exposed to this week – h for hat.  (You will find the explanation of letter sound h in the under the literacy section.)

The children loved the animated part the most.  They were given little finger puppets with the pictures of the characters printed on them.  Whenever the words depicted on the finger puppet are mentioned they had to put up their puppet finger.  This helped them listen carefully to what was being read.

This lesson ended with the children colouring in a picture of the witch and all the characters on the broom and also creating their own magic wand which is hanging outside our class room along with the square cat.

Term 1 Week 4 Noah’s Ark

Noah’s Ark

Our religion lesson this week was tied with the well-loved event that takes place at school animal awareness day.  I read the story and animated it with a Noah’s Ark play set I have in class.

The children learnt that even animals are God’s creation.   In this story they see that animals are so special that God asked Noah to save them.  They are special and they are there for us to love and take care of.

We also spoke about animals that they don’t quite like or which might scare them and tried to reason through their fear.  The children ended the lesson by colouring an animal picture which will be transformed into a craft and hung up in class.

Noah’s Ark Story.

Song -The animals went in two by two

Term 1 Week 4 Letter i

The second letter tackled this week was the letter i sound.  Even this letter was associated with animal awareness – i for insects.

During this lesson the children mentioned that they like very few insects such as butterflies and ladybirds.  The general feeling was that they do not like most insects.  The children learnt that insects have 8 legs.

Other objects mentioned were igloo, iguana, ink, ice and ice-berg. It was pointed out that the last two words start with the letter name rather than the sound, they are special.

The jolly phonics story for the letter i sound is this.

A family has a white pet mouse.  One night the cage door is left open and the mouse escapes.  It runs along the desk and knocks over an ink bottle.  The mouse is splashed by the ink.  It squeaks, /i,i,i,i/ and tries to scrub it off.  Now the mouse is called Inky.

Jolly Phonic Rhyme Letter i sound

The action done when saying the p sound is associated with the picture story like all the other letter actions are.  Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at the end of nose and squeak /i,i,I,i/.

Formation

• Step 1 – Start at the top , go down
• Step 2 – tail, lift pencil
• Step 3 – Dot

 

Practice Ideas For Home

• You can practice the letter formation by using a white board and colourful washable markers using the steps above.
• You can place about 5 objects or pictures on the table, amongst which you have objects starting with the letter i sound.
• Say the name of each object emphasizing and exaggerating the first letter sound of each object and ask your child if that object or picture starts with the letter sound i. This is a skill which needs loads of practice, so don’t get worried if they are not understanding at first what this means.  Praise at this point is very important to build their confidence   🙂

When working with this letter besides using the interactive whiteboard the children also worked on their literacy workbooks and letter scrapbook where they created their own colourful insects and decorated it with square shapes.

This shape was tackled this week during the numeracy lessons.  See the numeracy section for further information.

 

Term 1 Week 4 Shapes – The Square

The Square

In the topic work blog I mentioned that we read a book in class called Square Cat.  This was the introduction to our numeracy lesson tackling the square shape.

The children learnt that shapes have their own properties or to make it simpler they have their own rules to give them the shape they have.

Wilf helped us see these square rules:

• A square has four sides.
• These sides are all of equal size. There are no sides which stretch out.
• A square has four corners.
• A square cannot roll over.

With these properties in mind the children were able to look around the classroom for square objects.

Their treasure hunt was successful as they found these square objects, different blocks, books, cushions, the light switches, flashcards, boxes, lunch boxes amongst other things.

The children worked on their shapes workbook where they had to colour in the square shape amongst other shapes.  They also drew a face on the square shape to bring this shape to life just like Mr. Square the character we have in class.

The children also created a craft representing the Square Cat which you will see hanging next week near our classroom.

They stuck square shapes onto the insect craft as part of the literacy letter i lesson.  They also created square shapes with blocks.

The Square Cat Story

The Square Song

Term 1 Week 4 Number 4

As I mentioned in the topic work blog we spoke about several animals this week.  The children got used to counting how many paws most of these animals have. 4 – the number for this week.  Besides the paws children counted various objects such as blocks, animal counters, and their own crayons.

Wilf our robot showed the children to successfully count till 4.

• Step 1 – Point to each object one at a time.
• Step 2 – Say each number 1, 2, 3, 4.
• Step 3 – Say stop. (We cannot keep on saying the numbers if there are only 4 objects).

(Whilst counting objects on a paper we can also cut them out one by one to avoid counting them more than once.

To help us learn the formation of number 4 we use three ways.

• Number Story – We have animals for every number.

Mummy and baby caterpillar help us see the shape of 4 – Baby caterpillar is tired and wants to stay on mummy.  So mummy caterpillar sits down and baby caterpillar stands on her lap.

• The children are also exposed to the numicon shape which helps them see the value of four.

• We also had the number four rhyme to help us see the formation of this number

The children practiced their number 4 with their crayons on the number scrapbook.  They also stamped 4 animal characters on four different frogs.  Part of their play routine was to put objects in groups of 4.  They also made a square shape with four blocks and stickle bricks which leads us to the next numeracy topic for this week squares.  See next blog.

Practice Ideas for Home

• You can play games at home with the children by counting steps, cutlery when setting the table, toys and many other objects around the house and out and about.
• They can draw 4 objects on a piece of paper or small whiteboard.   🙂