Learning Objective: We are learning to write our names and initial sounds. 

Monday 12th July 

Practise writing your name ready for reception.  

In reception, the children will be expected to write their name so it would be really good for the children to practise writing their name daily and throughout the holidays. Remember to write the first letter using a capital letter (e.g. M) and lower-case letters for the rest (e.g. m). So Maryam not MARYAM. 

Can your child have a go at forming all the letters in their name correctly? Model how to form the letters if your child needs help and ask them to have another go?

Can your child write their name in the correct order from left to right.  

Tuesday 13th July

Who’s name is it? 

Play a game with your family. Have a few names written on different pieces of paper. Have them face down on a table or the floor. Can your child turn one over and say if it is their name or someone else’s name? Can they say what the first sound in the name is? E.g. M for Maryam, I for Ibrahim.  

Wednesday 14th July

What letter is it? 

Play a game where you say a letter sound that the children have already learnt (s, a, t, p, i , n , m , d, g, o) and they have a go at writing it.  

Can you say the letter sound out loud (one at a time) and ask your child to write it? You could also write the letter on a piece of paper and on the count of three show each other your work.  

Thursday 15th July 

Draw a picture and label it. 

Can you draw a picture of you and your family and label it? For example, your name, Mummy, Daddy, sister etc.  

You will need to keep this drawing and bring it back in September to show your new reception teacher. I am sure they will be so impressed with your writing and drawing.   

Learning Objective: We are learning mark making skills

Monday 1st March

After watching out story of the week, do you think you could have a go at drawing a picture of the tiger?  Can you remember what he looks like? How many legs and eyes does he have? What other features could you draw? E.g. stripes and a tail.   

After drawing your picture, could you have a go at labelling your picture. E.g. writing the word ‘tiger’.  

We would love to see a photograph of your drawing.  

Tuesday 2nd March

Pre-writing skills 

Use our easy playdough recipe on the website to make your very own playdough. Kneading dough and mixing ingredients can strengthen the muscles in your hands, wrists, fingers, arms and shoulders which is important if you are to become an excellent future writer. After you have made your playdough, you could then have a go at making your favourite character from our story of the week or even some food from the story for example.  

Wednesday 3rd March

Pre-writing skills 

There are lots of activities you can do at home to help strengthen those all-important muscles needed for writing. Choose one or several from below to do throughout the day. 

• Washing dishes with a sponge and drying them with a tea-towel  

• Sweeping the floor with a broom/ dustpan and brush 

• Pegging the washing out to dry 

• Practising doing up your zip on your coat 

• Putting on your socks and shoes 

• Cleaning the table with a cloth 

• Threading some pasta onto a piece of string  

• Using scissors to cut paper 

• Stretching elastic bands around bottles/ tubes 

• Helping your family clean the car/ windows 

Thursday 4th March

For tomorrow’s reading activity, you could make some invitations for your picnic and give them out to your teddies/toys. Remember to fold the piece of paper in half and then draw a picture on the front. On the inside you will need to write your name so your teddies/toys will know who the invitation is from. Always use a capital letter for the first letter in your name and then lowercase letters. E.g. Amelia.  

You could even have a go at writing the number at what time your picnic will start.  

Please share photographs of your invitations on Tapestry.   

Friday 5th March

Can your child have a go at writing and forming the letter ‘m’? 

Watch this video to form the letter correctly. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfNePyWxQN0&list=PLGCpNseRUqM4DZKJwKPKmRxTc0lsP0l47&index=12 

Can they think of something that begins with the letter ‘m' and draw a picture of it? E.g. 'Mummy', 'Monkey', 'Maze' etc. 

If you feel your child is ready, they could have a go at labelling their picture. E.g. writing the word ‘Mummy’.

Learning Objective: We are learning to make marks and talk about them.

Monday 22nd February

Pre-writing skills:

Thread different materials through a colander or cheese grater e.g. pipe cleaners, string, ribbon, straws. You could also make your own threading box using old food packaging e.g. a crisp tube, cereal box. Get an adult to cut some holes or slots into the cardboard then children can thread different items through the holes. See photos below. 

Tuesday 23rd February

Pre-writing skills:

Stretch some elastic bands over the top of a plastic bottle, around a tin can, over an up-turned muffin tin.

How far can you pull the elastic bands to make them stretch over? Can you twist them to go over twice? See photos below. 

Wednesday 24th February

Pre-writing skills:

Can you cut along a line? Draw some straight lines, some zig-zag lines and some curved lines on some pieces of paper or card. Remember to hold the scissors safely using “thumb, finger, finger” like we do in Nursery. Remember to hold the paper in your other hand and move the paper to help you cut neatly. 

Thursday 25th February

Can your child recognise their name when it is written down for them? Can they copy some letters from their name? Make sure they form each letter correctly, starting and finishing in the right places. Click the link below to see YoutTube videos for correct letter formation for the whole alphabet. The first video is the letter 'a', the next video is the letter 'b', then 'c' and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_e2z78xM4&list=PLGCpNseRUqM4DZKJwKPKmRxTc0lsP0l47  

Friday 26th February

Can your child have a go at writing and forming the letter ‘n’? Watch the video below to form the letter 'n' correctly. 

Can they think of something that begins with the letter ‘n’ and draw a picture of it? E.g. ‘nut’, ‘necklace’, ‘nose’ etc.  

If you feel your child is ready, they could have a go at labelling their picture. E.g. writing the word ‘nut’.

Learning Objective: We are learning to make marks and talk about them.

Monday 8th February

Pre-writing skills:

Can your child chop some vegetables or fruit for their lunch using a small knife? This will help strengthen their muscles in their hands/ fingers/ wrists/ arms and shoulders. This is important if children are to become excellent future writers.  

Tuesday 9th February

Pre-writing skills: 

Make some playdough using the recipe below. There are lots of actions to do with playdough to strengthen your child’s muscles in their hands/ fingers/ wrists/ arms and shoulders. This is important if children are to become excellent future writers.

Can they squeeze the playdough in each hand? Can they squash it flat on the table like a pancake? Can they use one finger at a time to poke it? Can they use their thumb and index finger to pinch the playdough? See Mrs Uredi’s video of Dough Gym below.

Easy Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:

2x cups of plain flour

1x cup of salt 

1x tsp of vegetable oil 

1x cup of cold water 

Spices, food colouring and glitter (optional)

Method:

Add all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and give it a good stir. You can also add some food colouring, spices or glitter if you would like.  If the mixture is too wet then you may need to add some more flour but if the mixture is too dry then you may need to add some more water.

Stop mixing when the dough begins to firm, as the children will now need to knead the dough using their hands and knuckles. This will help children strengthen the muscles in their hands, fingers, wrists, arms and shoulders which is important if they are to become excellent future writers. 

Making playdough is very much a trial and error activity, but this is great as you can talk to your child about how the textures are changing when making playdough. Also, it is lots of fun!

Wednesday 10th February

Pre-writing skills:

Practice tying knots in a shoe lace or a piece of string. How many knots can you tie? 

This activity will flex your finger and hand muscles and help improve your fine motor skills ready for writing. 

Thursday 11th February

Can your child recognise their name when it is written down for them? Can they copy some letters from their name?

Make sure they form each letter correctly, starting and finishing in the right places.

Click the link below to see YouTube videos for correct letter formation for the whole alphabet. The first video is the letter 'a', the next video is the letter 'b', then 'c' and so on. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_e2z78xM4&list=PLGCpNseRUqM4DZKJwKPKmRxTc0lsP0l47

Friday 12th February

Can your child have a go at writing and forming the letter ‘i’? Can they think of something that begins with the letter ‘i’ and draw a picture of it? E.g. ‘insect’, ‘igloo’, ‘instrument’ etc. 

If you feel your child is ready, they could have a go at labelling their picture. E.g. writing the word ‘insect’ or ‘igloo’ for example. 

Learning Objective: We are learning how to use our gross and fine motor skills needed for writing.

Monday 1st February 

Get a tea towel or scarf, hold it in both hands and wring or twist it backwards and forwards as tight as you can. Even better if you do this while you help to dry up the dishes! This activity will help to develop the muscles in your shoulders, arms, hands, fingers and wrists which will help you to become a super writer.  

Tuesday 2nd February 

Can you do some yoga with your family at home?  Click on this link: (13) Pedro the Penguin | A Cosmic Kids Yoga Adventure! - YouTube

You will be taken on an adventure while copying the different yoga moves, it is so much fun! 

Yoga can be a great way to help strengthen your core muscles as well as the muscles in arms, hands, wrists, fingers, arms and shoulders which is important if you are to become an excellent future writer!  

Wednesday 3rd February 

Design your own gingerbread person. You could make some playdough using the recipe below. Think about how you want your gingerbread person to look. You could roll out the playdough with a rolling pin and use your hands to roll a head, body, legs and arms. You could also use buttons or beads for the eyes, nose and mouth. We would love to see some photos on Tapestry. 

Thursday 4th February 

Writing Activity 

Can your child recognise their name when it is written down for them? Can they copy some letters from their name? Make sure they form each letter correctly, starting and finishing in the right places. See videos for correct letter formation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_e2z78xM4&list=PLGCpNseRUqM4DZKJwKPKmRxTc0lsP0l47  

Friday 5th February 

Writing Activity 

This week you have been learning all about the letter sound 'p'. 

Can your now have a go at writing and forming the letter ‘p’. Watch the video from yesterday if you need help remembering how to form the letter correctly. After this, can you think of something that begins with the letter ‘p’ and draw a picture of it?. E.g. ‘pig’, ‘panda’, ‘pizza’ etc.

If you feel your child is ready, they could have a go at labelling their picture. E.g. writing the word ‘pig’ or ‘panda’ next to their picture for example. 

Monday 25th January

Pre-writing skills 

Draw some patterns on the ground or an outside wall or fence in your garden or on the pavement using chalk or with water and paintbrushes.

You could draw straight lines, curved lines, circles, squares etc.

Can your child talk about what they are drawing? You could draw around your hands and feet too. 

Tuesday 26th January

Pre-writing skills 

Pour some salt or sand or glitter or rice onto a tray or large plate.

Get your child to use their index/pointing finger to draw in the salt/sand/rice/glitter.

Can they draw a straight line, circle, wiggly line? Can they write the letter ‘t’? 

Wednesday 27th January

Pre-writing skills

Can your child thread some pasta/ beads or buttons onto a piece of string?

Use a timer for 1 minute and ask them to count how many they threaded.

This will help strengthen their muscles in their hands/ fingers/ wrists/ arms and shoulders. This is important if children are to become excellent future writers.  

Thursday 28th January

Can your child recognise their name when it is written down for them?

Can they copy some letters from their name? Make sure they form each letter correctly, starting and finishing in the right places.

Click the link below to see YouTube videos for correct letter formation for the whole alphabet. The first video is the letter 'a', the next video is the letter 'b', then 'c' and so on. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_e2z78xM4&list=PLGCpNseRUqM4DZKJwKPKmRxTc0lsP0l47 

Friday 29th January

Can your child have a go at writing and forming the letter ‘t’?

Can they think of something that begins with the letter ‘t’ and draw a picture of it? E.g. ‘teddy’, ‘tiger’, ‘train’ ‘tomato’ etc.  

If you feel your child is ready, they could have a go at labelling their picture. E.g. writing the word ‘teddy’.  

Learning Objective: We are learning to make marks and talk about them.

Monday 18th January

Pre-writing skills:

Make some playdough using the recipe below. There are lots of actions to do with playdough to strengthen your child’s muscles in their hands/ fingers/ wrists/ arms and shoulders. This is important if children are to become excellent future writers. Can they squeeze the playdough in each hand? Can they squash it flat on the table like a pancake? Can they use one finger at a time to poke it? Can they use their thumb and index finger to pinch the playdough? See Mrs Uredi’s video of Dough Gym below. 

Tuesday 19th January

Pre-writing skills: 

Fast finger challenge. How many small objects (e.g.  paperclips, marbles, pompoms or buttons) can you pick up using only your thumb and index finger? Use your thumb and finger like tweezers to pick them up and put them in a bowl. Get someone to time you and make it a competition with your siblings. Who can pick up the most objects in 1 minute? 

Wednesday 20th January

Pre-writing skills:

Picking things up with your feet challenge! 

Can your child take off their own socks and pick-up small objects using their toes, e.g. pompoms, raisins, tissue, stones, marbles, a pen etc.  

Can they carry and put the objects into a basket/ bowl while still holding the object with their toes? 

Thursday 21st January 

Can your child recognise their name when it is written down for them? Can they copy some letters from their name? Make sure they form each letter correctly, starting and finishing in the right places. Remember you need one capital letter at the start and lowercase letters for the rest of your name.

Click the link below to see YouTube videos for correct letter formation for the whole alphabet. The first video is the letter 'a', the next video is the letter 'b', then 'c' and so on. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_e2z78xM4&list=PLGCpNseRUqM4DZKJwKPKmRxTc0lsP0l47

Friday 22nd January 

Can your child have a go at writing and forming the letter ‘a’? Can they think of something that begins with the letter ‘a’ and draw a picture of it? E.g. ‘apple’, ‘ant’, ‘ambulance’ ‘astronaut’ etc.  

If you feel your child is ready, they could have a go at labelling their picture. E.g. writing the word ‘apple’.