Week 3 - 20th April 2020

Weekly inspiration for you at home

Tapestry Update

There is an issue with the Android Tapestry app which is preventing users from viewing clickable links or copying text. The best thing to do for now is to access Tapestry through a web browser using www.tapestryjournal.com where you will be able to login to your account as normal. 

School Readiness Challenge: getting dressed and changed independently 

Pick one part of getting dressed or undressed that you find tricky. It might be your shoes, it might be putting your top on or that top button on your jeans, it might even be tying a knot in your laces. If you want to get out your winter gloves and hat you can practise with these too! Practise dressing by yourself this week whenever you can. You can even have timed ‘dressing’ or ‘changing’ challenges. 

Let us know how you get on, on Tapestry! 


Literacy

    • Splat reading words. Depending on where your child is, you can use letters, digraphs or simple words on paper/post it notes/chalked onto your patio. When you say the letter/word the child has to splat it as quickly as possible by jumping on it or hitting it with any available stick!
    • Lego letters and lego words. Build letters or words with Lego or other construction materials – you might look at commonly confused letters like ‘d’ ‘p’ and ‘b’. Another common confusion is ‘s’ and ‘3’.
    • Play alphabet bingo – there are lots of free templates online including this one. 

    Numeracy, Shape and Time

    • Sorting and measuring in the garden. Can you sort leaves/twigs/flowers by size, colour or shape? Can you use string or a ruler to measure them? Maybe you can record the different sizes. 

    • Spider leg pegging. Print the spider body template and write numbers on the body. Peg the correct number of legs on! This can focus on 1-10 or 11-20 depending on your child’s counting and the number of pegs you have! 
     
    • These 3D shape play dough mats are popular at Montessori for more advanced shape work. We use cocktail sticks and modelling clay but you can use whatever you have to hand. The children can use it purely for building but also start to discuss faces, edges and corners. They are often very good at spotting the 2D shapes at the base of the 3D shapes.

    Understanding The World

    • Use your favourite animal toys to make different tracks using paint and paper or sand or mud or clay! Then you can ask someone in your family to play a guessing game about which tracks come from which animals. You could even research more animal tracks in the wild. See how you get on with the animal tracks quiz online. (I bet you do better than Lucie!)

    • See what different scents you can find in your garden or on your walk. In my garden I love smelling lavender and bay leaves. Can you use jars and bowls to make different perfumes? Which ones are your favourite? Maybe you can use some herbs and spices from the kitchen to add to your perfumery! 

    Being Imaginative 

    • Make your own Mr Potato Head with a potato (or rock/clay) and whatever resources you have! See our ‘Crafts for a Rainy Day’ Pinterest board for inspiration! 
    • Make puppets – either hand puppets with gloves or socks or marionette puppets with string and lolly sticks! See our ‘Crafts for a Rainy Day’ Pinterest board for inspiration! You can make one of Charlotte's Spring Bunnies, which you'll find on Tapestry from 23rd April. 
    • If your child is missing family and friends (as we all are) then why not try a memory book – they can fill it with pictures of people and things they love. There are some ideas here. 
    • Another idea is to make a ‘I can do’ book full of their brilliant achievements – from cleaning their teeth to writing their name. There is more information here. 


    Physical Development & Self-Care

    • Threading is a great way to refine fine motor skills and make all sorts of beautiful creations. ‘How We Montessori’ has a fantastic guide to starting from the most basic threading and moving through to simple sewing.

    Online and on TV

    BBC Bitesize 'Starting School'

    • BBC Bitesize have launched a page dedicated to thinking about getting ready for primary school.The Bitesize page is also launching ‘daily online lessons’ from Monday aimed at Primary children – we will keep an eye on these to see if they might suit our cohort. 


    BBC: Play It
    • The BBC ‘Play It’ game allows children to explore music – such as changing rhythm or layering different instruments in a song. 

    Caterpillar Creative Play
    • This app takes inspiration from Eric Carle’s much-loved ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ book and encourages children to draw, paint, colour, design and create using a range of templates, textures and canvases.