● Practice this week’s spellings and common exception words using the type of activities we usually do in our spelling journals

● read, read, read (try the e-books on Oxford Owl)

● Numbots

● card games, board games or cookery

English:

We are continuing our work on The Lonely Beast book this week. Again, please do not read any further than this second part. We will be building on the work you have done at home with this book over the next few weeks at school. Please note, that the story maps they create on day 5, will be needed in school next week.

Day 1: Ask: What is a verb? Encourage your child to give a definition (it expresses a physical action, a mental action or state of being – so, it shows what someone is thinking or doing is a child friendly definition) and to give some examples of verbs. If they find this challenging, play a miming game where they guess the action (verb). Now visit the BBC Bitesize site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z8d6wnb to find out about verbs and explore using them.

Day 2: Today, we’re going to use our verb knowledge in relation to The Lonely Beast. Look at the text only version of the story so far and identify together some of the verbs. Then talk about whether they are past or present tense. (Remind your child of the spelling work last term involving ‘ed’ and ‘ing’. You could ask if it is happening now or has already happened.) Look at the sentence “A seagull rested on his head and he played with some dolphins.” Find the verbs together and change the sentence from past to present. Finally ask your child to try the past to present sheet (can be done on screen and the present version written on paper) to find verbs and change them from past to present.

Day 3: Spelling investigation and spellings – continue to explore homophones

Day 4: Listen to my reading of the next 5 pages of The Lonely Beast up to him staying in park and people coming to visit. Explain that this could be the end – he’s reached somewhere where he has a beautiful garden and lots of people visiting him - but it isn’t. However, for the next few pieces of work, we’re going to concentrate on this part of the story and we need to know it well. Now, listen to my reading of both the parts of the story. Look back over the story, finding and talking about the repetitive patterns (eg the overuse of ‘and’), the different things he does, the different lands he covers and the creatures he meets. Ask your child to pretend to be the Beast and act out the story. (To aid memory, they could listen to the story as they act it out.)

Day 5: Ask your child to retell the story so far (with your help) - if they are still not familiar with it, listen to it again. Now ask your child to tell you what has happened in the story as a summary rather than telling the story. (A nice but lonely Beast decides he wants to find other beasts so he goes on a journey. There are lots of perils on the way – forest, mountain, river, cliff, waterfall, cave, snowy mountains, sea and the things he comes across in the sea and a ride from whale. Finally, there’s more walking to find the city where he finds his new home.) Finally ask your child to create a story map of the journey. We are going to use these in school next week, so please send it in with your child on Monday.

Maths:

This week, we are continuing to explore position and direction. Below are the MP4s, worksheets, challenges and answers.

Science:

This week’s science is continuing to explore healthy humans, focussing on healthy bodies. Use the Healthy Body - Exercise PowerPoint to find out about why we need to exercise. The PowerPoint includes a link (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zvdkjxs) and your tasks.

Learning Journey:

To find out more about maps this week, we are looking at map symbols and routes. Use the Map symbols, making maps and routes PowerPoint (which includes this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/geography-ks1--ks2-maps/zdwhpg8) to explore maps a little further and access the Learning Journey tasks for this week.

Computing:

Visit http://monstercoding.com/app.html#lab/:en/:mystery_island/:4/:17 to have a go at coding following the step by step guide to eventually help your monster find the treasure on the mystery island.

Hanwriting practice is about building muscle memory for how letters are formed which can be done though the standard copy handwriting practice, but, whilst it is an important way to practice, this can be seen as dull and boring. So I would suggest interspersing it with more 'fun' muscle memory skills (either way the importance needs to be on formation). Using coloured pencils or even felt tips or using a finger or stick in sand/flour/shaving foam to practise formation and joins. Giving handwriting practice a purpose - to write a note/letter, to write a shopping list, etc where the emphasis is on what each word looks like can also help.

I have included a PowerPoint which demonstrates how to form individual letters, which can be used for reference or practice.

There is also the cursive formation sheet which shows all the letters, grouped in letter families.

This week, the sheets focus on 'zigzag' letters which are the letters that are formed by repeating a straight movement.