Hello everyone,
This week we are reading Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. A little monkey loses his mum and a ‘helpful’ butterfly tries to find her for him. This is a delightful story highlighting the importance of giving all the information needed and being specific! It’s also a wonderful example of how we all have different families and homes.
Literacy – Please practice those Talk 4 Writing actions. Can your child ‘retell’ the story? What do they remember? Ask them what a variety of ‘babies’ and ‘parents’ look like. Does a baby sheep look the same as its adult? What about a chicken’s offspring? Do they look the same? Swans are beautiful, however, they do go through a bit of a funny looking stage when they’re first born! How about a frog’s life cycle? It goes through several stages before it even begins to resemble its parent. It’s interesting to hear what their ideas are and how much knowledge they have regarding this.
Maths – There are all sorts of different maths skills to be practiced using this book. How many legs, arms, wings, etc do the different animals have? Before you count them to check, ask your child to guess how many there might be using their reasoning skills. This is called subitising or being able to look at a group and know the amount without counting (but always remember to check your amounts). You can play this game with anything. What does a group of 2 look like, or 5? Can they make an educated guess at the amount without counting? Stick to numbers 0-5 and practice, practice, then go onto numbers up to 10 if they’re feeling confident with their skills. Below are a few links to songs which may help, there are some easier ones and the last is up to 10 and can be a bit tricky but we need to stretch ourselves!
Subitize Up To 5 (soo-bi-tize) | Math Song for Kids | Jack Hartmann – YouTube
Subitize Up to 5 (soo-bi-tize) | Math Song For Kids | Jack Hartmann – YouTube
The Subitizing Song! [suhb-itizing] (Version 1– dots, ten-frames, fingers- up to 10) – YouTube
With the glorious weather ahead it’s great opportunity to go to some petting farms (there are so many in our area) to see babies and their parents, lakes and canals in the locality to see water fowl, or a walk in our many wooded areas to see new life emerging after the dark winter months.
Until next time, do good looking for adventures, clean your ears out for good listening and turn your noggins (brains) on for good learning.
Take care and stay safe,
Mrs Howe, Mrs Bain, Mrs Mitzman, Mrs Hill and Mrs Bence