Project/Finding Out Tasks
This may involve a project based task, such as, recording the weather for a week, recording the family members who live in your home, etc. Or, this may involve bringing in an item of interest from home, asking questions of family members, making simple observations or finding the answer to a simple question. If required, please help your child to:
- Find a suitable item to bring to school.
- Find the answer to a question / problem.
- Answer any question set in their own words.
A task like this will link directly to work that is happening in class.
Reading
Reading will begin with a selection of pre-reading activities in school, followed by simple books. Reading books will go home when your child is ready. Children will usually read their book in school before taking it home to practise. You should do reading every day if you can. Parents are asked to hear their child read aloud and talk with them about the story. Encourage your child to read with some expression (you may read the story to them first to model this). If your child becomes stuck on a word, help them to sound it out or ask them to look for clues in the story or pictures to help. If they are still unsure, give them the word. Ask them simple questions about the contents of the story, the characters and what they like/ dislike about the book. You may want to play games with the vocabulary, e.g. make up silly sentences, play ‘spot the word’, look for long/short words, trace the shape the word makes, etc.
Phonics/Spelling
We begin our phonics programme by introducing initial sounds / letters. We ask that parents spend time at home reinforcing the oral practice of sounds, the actions and the blending together of 2 or more sounds to make words. Children will be given word building activities home and should be encouraged to form the letters correctly at all times.
Maths
You can assist your child by helping them to count, recognise and write numbers using fun activities. These may include:
- Verbalise numbers using songs, rhymes and stories.
- Count objects verbally, e.g. 6 plates, 9 coins, etc.
- Play board games using dice or that involve counting, e.g. dominoes.
- Begin to read numbers in the environment, e.g. road signs, bus numbers, etc.
- Begin to discuss larger numbers from their daily lives, e.g. door numbers, birth dates, ages of family members, etc.
- Begin to recognise coins.
- Begin to use the language associated with shape, position and movement, e.g. up, down, high, low, above, below, over, under, etc.
- Begin to use language associated with size, measure and time, e.g. more, less, the same, lots, many, all, morning, afternoon, night, day, etc.