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Monday 6th July 2020

Hello Geckos, We hope you have had a fantastic week and managed to get outside and enjoy some outdoor fun with your families.

Below are the activities for you this week. If you are coming into school, we will be exploring the maths lessons together on the day’s that you are in. The math activities that are available on day’s that you are not in school can still be completed at home. We will also be having a go at the English activity as a class. All other activities are suggestions of things to continue your learning on the days that you are at home.

Maths

This week your maths work will look at fractions, finding halves and quarters. Have a look at the lessons on White Rose Maths home learning for year 1 https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-1/ for your daily maths lesson. Then access the BBC bitesize website https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons for activities to support what you have been learning. Click on year 1 and there will be clips, activities and games available to you to complete.

English

Over the last two weeks we have explored information texts. We are now going to set you a two week English challenge. We would like you to research and create your own information text. We would like this text to give lots of information about the 5 different groups of the animal kingdom, can you remember what they are? (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish). You can present your information text in any way you wish. We would like you to use as many of the features of information texts as you can:

Contents Page

Heading

Photographs

Captions

Diagrams

Glossary

Index

Remember you have two weeks to complete this task. Make sure you take time to research and make notes about the different animal groups before you create your final text. Most of all have fun and enjoy the task.

Reading and Phonics

Remember to continue to practise your reading at home. We recommend that you read for at least 10 minutes every day. Bug Club has books in both the guided and independent sections of your virtual bookbag. If you need more books added to your virtual bookbag please email us and we can allocate some more to you. Remember to complete the ‘bug’ questions as you read through the texts to make sure you understand what you have read. If you attempt these challenges, it will also complete the book for you. The Oxford Reading Tree website also has a library of books for you to read.

For phonics this week, we will be revisiting the long vowel phoneme that is represented by the graphemes igh, ie, i_e, y. Watch this song to remind yourself then complete the alternative igh spelling sheet (in the resource section) by writing the word that matches the pictures. We have also found a phoneme spotter story to search all of the words with this phoneme.

Science

This week we would like you to investigate how many carnivores, herbivores and omnivores are in your local environment. We would like you to record your data by completing a survey throughout the week to record this. You can include animals in your home as well as those that you might see when on a walk. A tally chart is a good way to record your findings but you can record what you find in any way you wish. What is the most popular group of animals in your local environment (carnivore, herbivore or omnivore)?

Create

This week we are going to continue our thinking about sounds and music. We would like you to think about the sounds around you, in your garden, in your home and if you make a journey out of the house.

For example:

• What does the journey to the park sound like – what may we hear on the way?

• A journey around a supermarket will involve a range of different sounds.

• A journey to school, whether by foot, by bus or in a car will also involve a range of sounds.

• What sounds do you hear in your kitchen?

• Is your garden peaceful or noisy? Can you hear birds or maybe cars going by?

Listen out for the different sounds and think about how you could recreate them?

Draw your journey or place you listened for sounds (for example your kitchen or garden) and then play this journey or represent the room by using body percussion, vocals and sound makers in the home.

Finally, this week would have been our Sports Day. Why don't you attempt your own mini sports day with your families? You could practise throwing balls at a target, try some skipping, do running races or perhaps see who can jump the furthest/highest. I bet you will all be winners!

We look forward to seeing your home learning tasks and hearing from those of you who are not coming into school. Email us both lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com and lking@holytrinityhalstead.com

Monday 15th June 2020

Good morning Geckos! It has been lovely to see some of you back in school and great to see the fantastic things from those of you who are working hard at home.

Once again, below are the activities for you this week. If you are coming into school, we will be exploring the maths lessons together on the day’s that you are in. The maths activities that are available on day’s that you are not in school can still be completed at home. We will also be having a go at the English activity as a class. All other activities are suggestions of things to continue your learning on the days that you are at home.

Maths

This week your learning will focus on grouping and sharing, with a focus on arrays and doubling. Have a look at the lessons on White Rose Maths home learning for year 1 https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-1/ for your maths lesson. Then access the BBC bitesize website https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons for activities to support what you have been learning. Click on year 1 and there will be clips, activities and games available to you to complete.

English

Well done for being so creative with your new story ideas from last week. This week we would like you to use these ideas to write a new version of the story. Firstly we need to plan our story by creating a story map. Much like the one we created for ‘The Snail and the Whale’ on purple mash. We have created a template for you which we will email to you on the Gecko email to print off. When you have completed the story map, use this as a guide to write our own version of the story, we will also email you a sheet for this. When writing your story remember to follow your story map to help remind you of the order of the events. Try to use your adjectives to describe the places that the snail and your animal visit.

Phonics

Continue to share and enjoy books with people at home and practise your reading skills. Using Bug Club and the Oxford Reading Tree Website https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/ is a great way to access and explore books online.

Remember to look at and practise the sounds and words on your phonics cards. This week we have attached a phoneme spotter story for you to read and search for all the words in the ‘ai’ sound family. If you have a printer, you can print off the story and underline/circle/highlight all the words you find. If you do not have a printer, you can make a list of the words you find.

Science

Last week you explored the five groups within the animal kingdom - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. We will email a sorting animal worksheet to cut and stick the animals to group them. If you do not have a printer, you could create a poster to show examples of animals that belong to these five groups in the animal kingdom.

Create

We have had lots of fun exploring sound over the last few weeks and the sounds made by different instruments. This week we would like to set you the challenge of creating your own instrument to make sound. Be creative! Think about the type of sound that you like - is it a loud or soft sound? Is it a beat or a rhythmic sound? Think about the type of instruments that make that sound. A drum makes an excellent beat, whereas a stringed instrument, like a guitar, can make a rhythmic sound as can a wind instrument like a flute. We have put some ideas on the resource page to help you.

In class this week we will be exploring some yoga under the sea. If you are at home you can join in too using this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhYtcadR9nw.

Have a fun week and remember you can email us the work you have been doing or the fun things you have been up to at lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com and lking@holytrinityhalstead.com .

Monday 1st June 2020

Good morning Geckos, we hope you enjoyed the lovely weather over half term and are still having lots of fun at home with your families. We have been enjoying being in the garden with our families, Mrs King got to go paddle boarding on Mersea and Mrs Gladen enjoyed going on walks around the Discovery Centre.

Below are the activities for you this week. If you are coming into school, we will be exploring the maths lessons together on the day’s that you are in. We will also be having a go at the English activity as a class. All other activities are suggestions of things to continue your learning on the days that you are at home.

Maths

This week you will be continuing your work on measuring, exploring mass, volume and capacity. Access the BBC bitesize website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons . Click on year 1 and there will be daily maths lessons, activities and games available throughout the week to complete.

English

Look back at ‘The Snail and the Whale’ story. The Whale and the Snail were unlikely friends but they were able to help each other. The Whale was able to take the Snail to all the places he had dreamed of, while the Snail’s quick thinking ensured he was able to get help to save the Whale. This week we would like you to write a thank you letter, this can be from the Snail thanking the Whale for the great adventure or the Whale thanking the Snail for saving his life.

Look on the resource page for help with this.

Reading and Phonics

It is so important to keep up practising your reading and phonics/words cards. Remember that bug club is available to you by logging in with your username, password and school code. The bug club site has recently been updated and so you have books available in both the independent section and the guided section of your virtual book bag. Click on the bug pictures to answer questions as you read through the books. The Oxford Reading Tree website https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/ also has lots of books for you to access free to read and enjoy.

To practise your phonics, try playing a game of bingo. Use your phonics cards and choose six phonemes to create a bingo board for yourself by writing them down. Ask somebody to say the phoneme on your phonics cards in a random order and you cross off the phonemes as they are called. Shout ‘bingo’ when you have crossed off all of your six phonemes.

Science

Last week we investigated our sense of smell. We heard that lots of you had fun with the smelling test. This week we would like you to explore your sense of touch and create a texture sensory board. Collect a number of things from your home to attach to a large piece of card which has a different texture. You might like to label your sensory board pieces to describe what it feels like. Here is an example of the kind of thing that you might do.

Create

This week would like you to continue to explore sound through a task we have put for you on purple mash. Go on to you 2dos and explore putting different sounds together in one sequence to create a piece of music. Select different sounds and place them in the grid and play to hear how they sound together. What sounds do you like? Can you describe the sounds? What instrument is your favourite?

This week we will be revisiting our sketching skills. Look around you for an interesting scene of nature. This could be a tree you could see from your window, a corner of your garden or the park down the road. What is it about this area that interests you? Make a sketch either of the whole area or focused on one particular feature for example a tree, leaf or flower. We have put some sketching examples on the resource page to help you.

Monday 1st June 2020

Good morning Geckos, we hope you enjoyed the lovely weather over half term and are still having lots of fun at home with your families. We have been enjoying being in the garden with our families, Mrs King got to go paddle boarding with her family on Mersea and Mrs Gladen enjoyed going on walks around the Discovery Centre.

Below are the activities for you this week. If you are coming into school, we will be exploring the maths lessons together on the day’s that you are in. We will also be having a go at the English activity as a class. All other activities are suggestions of things to continue your learning on the days that you are at home.

Maths

This week you will be continuing your work on measuring, exploring mass, volume and capacity. Access the BBC bitesize website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons . Click on year 1 and there will be daily maths lessons, activities and games available throughout the week to complete.

English

Look back at ‘The Snail and the Whale’ story. The Whale and the Snail were unlikely friends but they were able to help each other. The Whale was able to take the Snail to all the places he had dreamed of, while the Snail’s quick thinking ensured he was able to get help to save the Whale. This week we would like you to write a thank you letter, this can be from the Snail thanking the Whale for the great adventure or the Whale thanking the Snail for saving his life.

Look on the resource page for help with this.

Reading and Phonics

It is so important to keep up practising your reading and phonics/words cards. Remember that bug club is available to you by logging in with your username, password and school code. The bug club site has recently been updated and so you have books available in both the independent section and the guided section of your virtual book bag. Click on the bug pictures to answer questions as you read through the books. The Oxford Reading Tree website https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/ also has lots of books for you to access free to read and enjoy.

To practise your phonics, try playing a game of bingo. Use your phonics cards and choose six phonemes to create a bingo board for yourself by writing them down. Ask somebody to say the phoneme on your phonics cards in a random order and you cross off the phonemes as they are called. Shout ‘bingo’ when you have crossed off all of your six phonemes.

Science

Last week we investigated our sense of smell. We heard that lots of you had fun with the smelling test. This week we would like you to explore your sense of touch and create a texture sensory board. Collect a number of things from your home to attach to a large piece of card which has a different texture. You might like to label your sensory board pieces to describe what it feels like. Here is an example of the kind of thing that you might do.

Create

This week would like you to continue to explore sound through a task we have put for you on purple mash. Go on to you 2dos and explore putting different sounds together in one sequence to create a piece of music. Select different sounds and place them in the grid and play to hear how they sound together. What sounds do you like? Can you describe the sounds? What instrument is your favourite?

This week we will be revisiting our sketching skills. Look around you for an interesting scene of nature. This could be a tree you could see from your window, a corner of your garden or the park down the road. What is it about this area that interests you? Make a sketch either of the whole area or focused on one particular feature for example a tree, leaf or flower. We have put some sketching examples on the resource page to help you.

25.05.20 - The May Half Term Quiz

For half term week we have another quiz for you and your families. There will be two rounds posted each day this week at 10am - the answers follow the next day at 9am.

Full details and all the questions (plus the complete Easter Quiz if you didn't get around to that at the time) are on www.holytrinityhalstead.com/quiz and linked to via www.tabecat.com

We hope you enjoy the quiz, and perhaps find it interesting researching some of the answers you didn't know.

Stay safe,

Mr. Handy

Monday 18th May 2020

We hope you had fun last week. We have had lots of emails and pictures sent to us with some amazing creations and activities that you have been doing. We love to see what you have been up to and when we see your big smiles it brightens up our day.

We have heard that lots of you liked the stories that we read for you and this week we have a story read by Mrs Jamieson for you to enjoy.

Here are your challenges to complete this week...

Maths

This week you will be learning about measuring. Access the BBC bitesize website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons . Click on year 1 and there will be daily maths lessons, activities and games available throughout the week to complete.

English

Look back at ‘The Snail and the Whale’ story. The pair visit a few different settings on their adventure together. Pick one of the places that the snail and whale visit e.g icebergs, island, caves. Imagine you are there with them. Create a picture of this setting and write descriptive words and phrases that you might use to describe the setting. Last week in science you explored your five different senses. When describing a setting we can imagine the things that we might smell, touch, hear and see using adjectives to make them interesting.

Reading and Phonics

Keep up all the reading and phonics practise at home. Do you have any animal/creature books at home that you could read? They could be story (fiction) or information (non-fiction). Remember you have access to Bug Club and there are also lots of online books available on the Oxford Reading Tree website https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/. The books available here also have interactive questions to answer as you read through them as well.

In the title ‘The Snail and the Whale’ the two creatures have the same phoneme but different grapheme, meaning they have the same sound which looks differently. Can you spot it? There is one more grapheme on one of your sound cards that would fit into this ‘family’. What is it?. Make three lists of words that include these different ways of making the same sound (phoneme).

Science

Mrs King has recently got a new puppy. Dogs have an amazing sense of smell. Continuing on from the work that you explored last week, let’s explore our sense of smell. Can we tell what something is just by smelling it? You will need an adult to help you with this activity.

Ask an adult to blindfold you and then put something near to your nose to see if you can identify what it is just by your sense of smell. Good ones to try are: vinegar, shampoo, perfume. Think about when our sense of smell might help us in a dangerous situation.

Create

Origami is an art of paper folding. We thought you might like to have a go at creating an origami creature. Here is a link to show you how to make an origami whale https://youtu.be/kOm47eh2AYk but there are lots of YouTube clips to show you how to make different creatures if you ask an adult to help you find one.

We hope you enjoy some of the activities here. Remember to email us both with anything you would like to share with us. lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com lking@holytrinityhalstead.com

Monday 11th May 2020

Happy Monday Geckos!

We hope you had another fantastic week.

Maths

This week you will be continuing with your addition and subtraction learning. Access the BBC bitesize website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons . Click on year 1 and there will be daily maths lessons, activities and games available throughout the week to complete.

English

We are going to explore the story ‘The Snail and the Whale’ by Julia Donaldson. If you have the story book at home you could share it with somebody and also watch https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000cslw/the-snail-and-the-whale . Talk to your grown up about the story - can you remember all the wonderful adventures the Snail and the Whale had? See if you can retell the story to someone in your family.

We would then like you to complete a story map. We have added a template to your 2dos in purple mash. Complete a picture for 6 different parts of the story and add a caption for the picture underneath.

Science

Last week you were busy labelling the parts of the human body. Now we are going to explore our five senses - taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch. What parts of your body do you use for these senses? Go on a sense hunt through the day. Divide a page into five parts with a heading of each sense. Record what you find under each heading. You could draw and/or write the things you find. When using your senses, was there anything that you really liked or disliked?

Create

We continue to get creative this term and this week we wanted to explore Music. Go to your 2dos in Purple mash and explore the sound buttons. Try arranging the sounds to make a piece of music. What sounds do you like best? We also would like to see you use your creative skills to make some art work using nature, perhaps you could create a picture using natural objects in your garden like sticks or stones or a collage by sticking leaves and grass and flowers onto paper. It’s up to you what and how you do it. Mrs King's children have created some of their own artwork to help inspire you, have a look at what they did on the resource page.

We hope you have fun completing your challenges for this week!

Mrs Gladen & Mrs King

Remember we love hearing about all the things that you are doing at home. Email both of us on lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com lking@holytrinityhalstead.com

Monday 4th May 2020

Hello Geckos!

We hope you had a fun week jumping and jiggling!

Maths

This week, maths is on a different website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons . Click on year 1 and there will be daily maths lessons, activities and games available throughout the week to complete.

Continue to challenge yourselves with the 2s, 5s, 10s,and if you really want to challenge yourselves 3 times tables, on Times Tables Rock Stars.

English

Last week we read the poem Jump or Jiggle by Evelyn Beyer, the poem lists animals and uses interesting verbs to describe how they move. We have added the poem to the resource page for you to refer to. This week we would like you to try to write your own poem by listing some of your favourite creatures and thinking of a verb for how they move.

Here is an example:

Monkeys swing

Elephants stomp

Butterflies flutter

Dolphins splash

If you are feeling particularly clever you could try to think of rhyming pairs for the verbs.

For example:

Dolphins splash

Greyhounds dash

Phonics and Reading

Keep up all of the practise by learning your tricky words and sounds. As mentioned last week you can access letters and sounds for home and school here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP_FbjYUP_UtldV2K_-niWw where new lessons are uploaded each week day at 10:30am.

This website has some fab ideas and activities to help you to learn your tricky words: https://www.phonicshero.com/tricky-words-activities/

Remember that bug club has some books for you to explore if you haven’t accessed that already. If you complete all of your books in bug club, send us a little email and we can allocate some more to you.

Science

This term we would have started to think about ‘animals which include humans’ which links in well to ‘All Creatures Great and Small’. Can you name the main parts of the human body? Have a go at labelling these parts of the body - mouth, hair, foot, head, eyes, ears, teeth, leg, elbow, shoulder, thumb, knee, nose, toes, fingers, hand. Mrs Gladen and her girls have had a go at a labelling activity that you could try at home! (see resource page).

Create

You created some fantastic Gecko sculptures last week, well done. This week we are going to practise our sketching skills. Use a pencil to draw one (or more) of the creatures you used in your poem. Sketching can be tricky particularly with animals, as you have seen from many Mrs King’s drawings in class (the Big Bad Wolf), but the more we practise the easier it becomes. It is helpful to have a picture to look at. We have shared some images on the resources page to help you or you can ask an adult to help you find some images of the animals you choose.

Finally, we know these are strange times and it can difficult to make sense of what is going on. Here is a link for a book for you to share with your grown up which helps to explain things. https://www.holytrinityhalstead.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Coronavirus-A-Book-for-Children.pdf

As always we would love for you to share your fun and learning at home. And we look forward to seeing what you get up to.

Take care and keep smiling.

Mrs Gladen and Mrs King.

lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com / lking@holytrinityhalstead.com

Monday 6th April 2020

Happy Monday Gecko Class!

We are celebrating Easter over the next two weeks and so we have some fun Easter challenges for you.

Easter Egg Design - We are challenging every child in the school to design their own Easter egg, if you have an egg at home you can hard boil you could decorate this but if not why not draw your own egg design on paper. You can email your creation or design to us, or if you are happy to, why not share it with your friends and post to the ‘At Home’ page of the website.

Sumdog Challenge - This week Sumdog has launched a national challenge. Why not take part and see how you score.

The Easter Story - Easter is a time to reflect and think about the story of Jesus. If you do not have the story at home, you could watch this. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/religious-studies-ks1-the-christian-story-of-easter/zhgv47h

Write in sentences to retell the main events of the Easter story in your own words. You might like to illustrate your story by drawing pictures to go with what you have written.

If you have not already done so remember you can brighten people’s day by putting a rainbow up at your window. Make sure that when you go out for a walk that you see how many rainbows you can spot. If you have a rainbow displayed you can email a picture of it to us and we will pass it to Mr Handy who will display it on our school website.

Keep yourselves active, join in with Joe Wicks or Mr Wiskin for their P.E. lessons. Look for signs of spring around you. Play games with your family and keep reading.

Most of all keep smiling and enjoy this time with your family.

Happy Easter Geckos!

Mrs King & Mrs Gladen

Something to make you smile : ) What happened to the egg when it laughed? It cracked up!

Please feel free to email us both if you need our support. We also love to see what is keeping you busy at home. lking@holytrinityhalstead.com lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com

Next update: Monday 13th April.

Hello Gecko Class!

We hope you have had a good week and had fun exploring Tabecat. Here is your home learning for the week beginning 30th March.

Maths

To continue the fabulous work that you have been doing in Maths, access the White Rose home learning website and complete tasks set under year 1 this week. There is one to do each day. https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ . If you do not have access to a printer for the daily activity, why not talk through the questions with an adult.

English

In English we had started to look at instructions. We had explored the use of imperative verbs (bossy verbs) and identified them in some instructions. Find some instructions at home. This could be a recipe or instructions on how to do something like playing a game or making something. Can you see any imperative verbs? Write some instructions on how to do something of your choice. Remember that instructions have a title, a list of things you will need and then a method which is arranged in a numbered sequence.

Phonics and Reading

Keep reading at home. You have your school book but remember you can access lots more on Bug Club. The Oxford Reading Tree website also has ebooks that you can read online https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/ .

It is important that you continue to practise your phonics and learn the sounds and words on the cards in your wallet. We know how much you love playing ‘Picnic on Pluto’ at school, you can access this at home as well! https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/picnic-on-pluto

To continue your learning this week, play a board game with your family. Read the instructions and make sure that everybody is playing the game correctly. Remember most of all, HAVE FUN!!!

It is important to keep yourself active, why not try Joe Wicks’ live P.E lessons each day at 9am. Make sure your mums and dads get involved too! Mr Wiskin is also posting activities on his P.E. page. If you like to dance (we know lots of you do) Oti Mabuse from ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ has some dance lessons for kids on youtube also.

Have a great week Geckos and remember you can share what you've been up to with your friends on the 'At home' page or by emailing Gecko@tabecat.com. You can share your work with your teachers by emailing lking@holytrinityhalstead.com / lgladen@holytrinityhalstead.com.

Mrs Gladen and Mrs King.