Mrs Byrne
Teaching Assistant
Useful links and downloads
Fitter Future
From now until April 16th all children can access an online well – being and fitness programme called ‘Fitter Future’. The details below show you how to log in – please do not change the log in – it does ask for a parent email address to get you started but you can decline any marketing etc from them.
Username for EYFS / KS1
classes: acre hall primary1
Password for EYFS / KS1 classes: 19nr3
Username for KS2 classes: acre hall primary2
Password for KS2 classes: 2doa1
Class Twitter
See all our latest activities in our class Twitter feed below. Follow us @AHMrGillan
Home Learning
In the case of school closures we have prepared some home learning activities for your child to ensure their learning continues with as little disruption as possible. Your child’s learning is paramount and as much engagement with these activities as possible will ensure their learning continues to flourish. There are many home teaching packs online to support us during this time. We have researched these over the past few days and have listed below a number of school supported websites and activities to support you in your home learning journey.
Twinkl: This is a home/school learning tool available across all curriculum areas (EYFS-KS2) and ages.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/ – Twinkl is an excellent website supported by school that maximises coverage over all curriculum areas and age ranges. They have set up a free parent access tool during this time to coach and support home tutoring. Please sign up to Twinkl – Parent Tool to access lots of FREE, exciting and creative lessons and home learning activities.
Quick link: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/search?term=school+closure – Select the appropriate age range/ability range for you child and begin to work through the home learning packs. If you notice your child experiences difficulty in a specific area, make a note of this and use this as a focus point for future teaching and learning. E.g. If your child struggles with calculation and is confident with shape, focus more on calculation teaching and learning at this time. To encourage variety in teaching/learning look across the different curriculum areas and project based activities available. Choose a topic of interest where possible to encourage high levels of engagement. Use positive feedback and targets to enthuse and challenge your child.
Daily teaching:
Where possible, continue to teach the core areas of the curriculum as much as possible. In the EYFS/KS1 phonics, reading, writing, maths, physical development alongside PSHCE/PSED is crucial for a child’s development. Being at home provides perfect opportunity for your child to develop their self-care skills. Continue to encourage independence through hand-washing, hygiene exercises, cooking, cleaning, tidying up, fitness etc. Talk to your child about why we carry out these tasks and your own daily routine. You may wish to create calendars, timetables and rotas making links to maths teaching – days of the week, months of the year etc. By giving your child responsibility over domestic tasks you could then create a home reward chart to celebrate completion. Where possible, make learning experiential and relevant. If you can complete home baking, planting, domestic projects this will be invaluable for your child and they can discuss these upon return to school.
Phonics: Use phonicsplay.co.uk as a daily tool to revise key sounds taught in phonics. Encourage your child to continue to read and write sounds in a range of ways and continue to support this in their home reading. Alphablocks and Mr Thorne on Youtube are also great ways to familiarise yourself and child with synthetic phonics.
See below for the appropriate phase/s for your child:
Nursery – Phases 1 and 2
Reception – Phases 2-4
Year 1 – Phases 4-5
Year 2 – Phases 5-6
Reading: Continue to encourage your child to read as much as possible, throughout the day and before bedtime (3 times a week is our school recommendation). You could continue to document this in the school PAL, providing feedback for school upon return. Encourage your child to continue to segment and blend words drawing upon their phonic knowledge. If you have limited home reading books please go online to Oxford Reading Owl https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/ for free online reading books which are in line with school’s approach to reading/phonics teaching.
After your child has read the book they can complete a series of extension tasks:
- A book review – discuss the book or write sentences, captions and/or draw illustrations to highlight their favourite part of the story.
- Draw the setting of the story and label key parts
- Create a character profile of a main/favourite character. Can your child draw upon their phonic knowledge and handwriting teaching?
- Practise writing sentences about the text drawing upon spelling, punctuation and grammar.
- – Change the way the story ends through language play – orally, written or through illustrations.
Parents could then write a small comment under each piece of written work to reflect upon the child’s learning and achievements.
Handwriting: Now is a perfect time to practise those tricky letter formation skills at home, at a pace that suits your child. Encourage your child to practise forming lower and upper case letters. Encourage them to say the letter name and the corresponding sound/sounds that letter makes.
Supporting links:
Websites to support reading and Literacy in the EYFS/KS1:
Maths key skills:
Continue to practise counting forwards/backwards and from any given number using the below age range criteria.
Nursery – Count forwards/backwards using numbers 0-10 and beyond when possible – practise writing numerals and quantities.
Reception – Count forwards/backwards using numbers 0-20 and beyond when possible. Write numbers in order – forwards/backwards.
Year 1 and 2 – Count forwards/backwards using numbers 0-100 and beyond when possible. Write numbers 0-100 on a number square
Using the above number ranges for specific age groups practise calculating in a range of ways – adding, subtracting, doubling and halving. You could use concrete objects such as toys, money, pencils to support. You may wish to extend to drawing pictures to support calculations in the EYFS. In KS1 practise evidencing how you work out a calculation – what model have you used?
In Reception – look at skip counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10s to 100
In KS1 – look at multiplication and division
Key Websites for Maths:
Educational Videos and Television Programmes on Youtube:
Mr Thorne, Alphablocks, Learning with Blippi, Numerblocks, Numberjacks, Fairy Tales and Stories, All things animals, Jack Hartman, Come Outside, Cbeebies, etc.
We have provided links for parents to the Early Years Foundation stage and National curriculum if needed:
EYFS Curriculum link for Nursery/Reception parents – https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf
KS1 Curriculum link for parents – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4/the-national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4
If you did wish to complete additional/personal home learning projects and share them upon return to school, teachers will provide opportunities to share these in class upon return.
KS2 Acre Hall Home Learning
In the case of school closures we have prepared some home learning activities for your child to ensure their learning continues with as little disruption as possible. Your child’s learning is paramount and as much engagement with these activities as possible will ensure their learning continues to flourish. There are many home teaching packs online to support us during this time. We have researched these over the past few days and have listed below a number of school supported websites and activities to support you in your home learning journey.
Twinkl: This is a home/school learning tool available across all curriculum areas (EYFS-KS2) and ages.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/ – Twinkl is an excellent website supported by school that maximises coverage over all curriculum areas and age ranges. They have set up a free parent access tool during this time to coach and support home tutoring. Please sign up to Twinkl – Parent Tool to access lots of FREE, exciting and creative lessons and home learning activities.
Quick link: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/search?term=school+closure – Select the appropriate age range/ability range for you child and begin to work through the home learning packs. If you notice your child experiences difficulty in a specific area, make a note of this and use this as a focus point for future teaching and learning. E.g. If your child struggles with calculation and is confident with shape, focus more on calculation teaching and learning at this time. To encourage variety in teaching/learning look across the different curriculum areas and project based activities available. Choose a topic of interest where possible to encourage high levels of engagement. Use positive feedback and targets to enthuse and challenge your child.
Daily teaching:
Where possible, continue to teach the core areas of the curriculum as much as possible. In the KS2 SPaG, reading, writing, maths, physical development alongside PSHCE/PSED is crucial for a child’s development. Being at home provides perfect opportunity for your child to develop their self-care skills. Continue to encourage independence through hand-washing, hygiene exercises, cooking, cleaning, tidying up, fitness etc. Talk to your child about why we carry out these tasks and your own daily routine. You may wish to create calendars, timetables and rotas making links to maths teaching – days of the week, months of the year etc. By giving your child responsibility over domestic tasks you could then create a home reward chart to celebrate completion, older children can be more independent with this and help out with larger tasks/ younger siblings. Where possible, make learning experiential and relevant. If you can complete home baking, planting, domestic projects this will be invaluable for your child and they can discuss these upon return to school.
Reading: Continue to encourage your child to read as much as possible, throughout the day and before bedtime (3 times a week is our school recommendation). You could continue to document this in the school PAL, providing feedback for school upon return. Encourage your child to continue to segment and blend words drawing upon their phonic knowledge. If you have limited home reading books please go online to Oxford Reading Owl https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/ for free online reading books which are in line with school’s approach to reading/phonics teaching.
After your child has read the book they can complete a series of extension tasks:
- A book review – discuss the book and write a review.
- Draw the setting of the story and label key parts – you could create a an additional spin off story etc.
- Create a character profile of a main/favourite character.
- Practise writing sentences about the text drawing upon spelling, punctuation and grammar.
- – Change the way the story ends through language play – orally, written or through illustrations.
Parents could then write a small comment under each piece of written work to reflect upon the child’s learning and achievements.
Handwriting: Now is a perfect time to practise those tricky letter formation skills at home, at a pace that suits your child. Encourage your child to practise forming lower and upper case letters.
KS2 cursive approaches:
Spelling: Continue to practise and develop your child’s spelling look at the appropriate spelling lists for their age range/ability.
Useful websites:
Parentguide:http://www.fox.rbkc.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/KS2-Parents-Spelling-Workshop-1718.pdf
Curriculum link for parents – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4/the-national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4
If you did wish to complete additional/personal home learning projects and share them upon return to school, teachers will provide opportunities to share these in class upon return.