What are we thinking about? What could I talk to my child about?

Baby animal names – sheep & lamb, cow & calf, pig & piglet, goose and gosling, horse & foal, duck & duckling etc.

Jungle animals – what is different and what is the same? (E.g., Look at their patterns, how many legs, fury, scaley, colours, big/small, what do they eat?)

Farm animals – What animals live on a farm? What are the baby names of these animals?

Pets – What animals do we have as pets? Why do they make good pets? How are they like some of our jungle animals e.g., domestic cats and lions/tigers/leopard, parakeets & parrots/toucans.

Teamwork – Encourage your child to help you tidy up their toys once they have finished playing at home. Tell them that this is ‘teamwork’. Give them lots of praise for helping even if it is only putting one thing away!

• Walking Through the Jungle by Julie Lacome – focuses on exploring animal’s homes around the world and the funny noises that the animals make!
• Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell – explores a range of animal noises and gestures/repetition/rhyme/gestures to represent adjectives.
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle – focuses on repetition & rhyme, being observant about the world around us, identifying animals and their features, distinguishing between different sounds.
• Farmer Duck by Rosaku Bujk – focuses on teamwork.

Visit Tapestry to listen to Mrs Russell and Miss Evans reading our core texts.

• 5 Cheeky Monkeys
• 5 Little Ducks
• Old McDonald had a Farm

Alliteration Focus

Little Lizzy licks her lolly.
Licks, licks, licks her lolly.

Visit Tapestry to hear/see some of the Aspen team singing/acting out our rhymes. Enjoy!

Other ideas for home learning:

Continue to identify animals when you’re out and about! If you can get to a local free farm, even better! Tom O’Shanter Farm (Boundary Road, Bidston Hill, Wirral, CH43 7PD) – Free entry!

What’s that Sound games! – make the noise of an animal and ask your child to guess which animal it is! Further their knowledge by asking them, does that animal live on a farm or in a jungle/forest?

Continue to read with/to your child. Why not make a cosy space with pillows and blankets in your house. You only need to do this for 10 minutes a day to make a huge impact! Explore a book together; simply talking about the pictures (early story telling skills) is enough!

Paper Plate Snakes (see below for the ‘how to’ video). If you would like any materials to do this at home, please ask a member of Aspen Class.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEd94UeM0MM

Go on a summer walk in your local community – what do you notice? What plants/flowers do you see? What’s the weather like? What bugs/insects can you find? What do you hear? What has changed since spring?

Other stories to explore together:

• Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae
• Where’s my mom? By Julia Donaldson
• You Are My Baby by Lorena Siminovich
• What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson
• Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland

Why not visit your local library and see what other books you can find about animals!

There are also some great children’s books to be found in your local charity shops! Or try a book swap with other parents.
Don’t forget, your child will be having a fortnightly visit to our school library where they can pick a book to enjoy with you at home.

Maths at Home

• When shopping for fruit and vegetables, can you ask your child to get you 1 broccoli, 2 onions, 3 carrots etc.
• What shapes can you find in your home? Can you find 3 squares, 1 triangle etc.
• Ask your child to categorise things at home for you, e.g., vegetables in one draw and fruit in the bowl, pair the socks up, colour sorting (all the small blocks in one box and the big blocks in a different box) etc.
• Continue practising drawing your closed shapes: circle and square.
• Can you draw your mum/ dad/ grandma/ grandad – take turns with your child by drawing a feature each; this helps to guide them.

Our core text for Summer 1 is, ‘I Can Eat a Rainbow’ by Olena Rose. (Visit Tapestry for Miss Evans reading ‘I Can Eat a Rainbow’).

This term in Aspen, we are discussing the importance of eating healthy. We are looking at how colourful fruit and vegetables are and how we feel after we have eaten them. We are also thinking about how our tummies feel when we have eaten too much unhealthy/sugary food and what this does to our teeth.

Some of our key vocabulary is, ‘I like’, ‘I don’t like’ (related to safety also), ‘tasty’, ‘hot’, ‘cold’.

We have also been using words like, ‘delicious’, ‘juicy’, ‘crunchy’ to describe our food.

Some other books linked to healthy eating are:

• Oliver’s Vegetables by Alison Bartlett and Vivian French.
• The Pirates are Coming by John Condon.
• Fruit Salad by Jephson Gibbs.

You could also look at non-fictional texts linked to visiting the dentist, road safety books, and texts about the changing seasons.

Our core nursery rhymes this term are, ‘Here We Go ‘Round the Mulberry Bush’. ‘Humpty Dumpty’. ‘Mary Mary Quite Contrary’.

Road Safety

This term, we are looking at the importance of keeping safe near the road. Some of the vocabulary linked to this theme is, ‘road’, ‘car’, ‘lollipop person’, ‘zebra crossing’, ‘green man’, ‘wait’.

When you are out and about with your child, we kindly ask that you reinforce what they are learning about road safety in school.

Our Stay & Play dates for this term are, Tuesday 21st May – 1:45pm-2:45pm And Wednesday 22nd May – 10:15am – 11:15am (If these are not your child’s session times, please feel free to come along with your child and join us for Stay & Play).

The children will continue to visit the library throughout the term, so please continue to enjoy your child’s book with them. Remember, this can simply be looking at the pictures and talking about what you see.

What are we thinking about? What could I talk to my child about?

Plants and flowers – What flowers do we see during spring? What is your favourite spring flower? How can we look after plants? (Water, sun).

New life – What animals are born in spring? Where could we go to see them?

Easter – What do you like about Easter? How could we celebrate?

Growing up and changes in me – How do you know that you are growing up? (bigger, taller, faster, stronger etc).

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carlisle – focuses on change and growth.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY

Chicken Licken (traditional tale retold by various authors). Focuses on KUW and patience.

Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth – focuses on how to care for plants and growth.
We’re Going on an Egg Hunt by Laura Hughes – focuses on repetition and number.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLc6IFrYCgw (with story props and Makaton signing).

Visit Tapestry to hear Miss Evans read the story of Chicken Licken and Jasper’s Beanstalk.
Our spring nursery rhymes.

• The Grand Old Duke of York (sing the melodic shape – sing a high note for ‘when they were up, they were up’, and a low note for ‘when they were down, they were down’).
• I’m a Little Teapot.
• Sleeping Bunnies – (bunnies don’t just hop, they – dance, stretch, stomp, twirl, wiggle, tiptoe etc. What other actions can you think of?).
• Curly Caterpillar (focuses on alliteration).
• Curly Caterpillar Crawls up the Curtains.
• Crawls, Crawls, Crawls up the Curtains.
• Visit Tapestry to hear/see some of the Aspen team singing/acting out our rhymes. Enjoy!

Other ideas for home learning:

Grow a sunflower together – 1 packet of sunflower seeds (if planting straight into the ground, protect from slugs by cutting the top off a plastic bottle and placing over your seedlings). Or grow in a pot using multipurpose compost and placing in a sunny position (cover with a plastic bag and remove once the seed begins to grow). Watch it grow!

Plant some daffodil bulbs – speak to your children about how plants grow from seeds or bulbs.

Make a very hungry caterpillar – colourful pipe cleaners, googly eyes and PVA glue – be careful, don’t let your caterpillar near the fridge! www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dwFus3Rvus

Go on a spring walk in your local community – what do you notice? What plants/flowers do you see? What colour are the leaves on the trees? What’s the weather like? What bugs/insects can you find? Take some pictures and upload to Tapestry!

Try all the fruits from the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar – which do you like? Which don’t you like? What other healthy snacks can you think of trying?

Decorate an Easter bonnet.

Tom O’Shanter Farm (Boundary Road, Bidston Hill, Wirral, CH43 7PD) – Free entry!

Other stories to explore together:

• Each Peach Pear Plum by Allen Ahlberg.
• The Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks.
• Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins.
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.
• Why not visit your local library and see what other books you can find about spring!

There are also some great children’s books to be found in your local charity shops! Or try a book swap with other parents.

Don’t forget, your child will be having a fortnightly visit to our school library where they can pick a book to enjoy with you at home.

Maths at Home

• When shopping for fruit and vegetables, can you ask your child to get you 1 broccoli, 2 onions, 3 carrots etc.
• Do you notice all the things in your home shaped like a square or rectangle?
• Can you find 4 things that are square?
• Practice drawing your closed shapes: circle and square.
• Draw a house with windows and a door or make a house out of a cereal box/lying lollipop sticks flat on a surface – what shapes do you see?

Miss Evans reads the story of The Gingerbread Man.
www.tapestryjournal.com/s/nursery-school-ganneys-meadow/observation/53832

Here is a link to Mr Tumble reading the Gingerbread Man
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEf6MtglpXk

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carlisle – focuses on change and growth.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY

Chicken Licken (traditional tale retold by various authors). Focuses on KUW and patience.

Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth – focuses on how to care for plants and growth.
We’re Going on an Egg Hunt by Laura Hughes – focuses on repetition and number.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLc6IFrYCgw (with story props and Makaton signing).

You could sing along to our focus nursery rhymes for this half term.

Mrs Orr sings our core nursery rhymes:

Three Blind Mice.
www.tapestryjournal.com/s/nursery-school-ganneys-meadow/observation/53848

Jack and Jill.
www.tapestryjournal.com/s/nursery-school-ganneys-meadow/observation/53847

Three Little Men in a Flying Saucer.
www.tapestryjournal.com/s/nursery-school-ganneys-meadow/observation/53849

Some other traditional stories that you and your children could enjoy together at bedtime are:

• Three Billy Goats Gruff (mathematical language and repetition)
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears (mathematical language and PSED)
• The Little Red Hen (good for encouraging the children to help tidy up)
• Chicken Licken (rhyming)
• The Ugly Duckling (PSED)

Any books that you wish to read with your children are a great way to promote their communication and language. You do not have to read the book word for word; look at the pictures with your child and ask them to talk to you about what they can see and what might be happening. Ask them to name objects on the page and identify how the characters might be feeling based on their facial features.

Aspen children will start visiting our small library on a fortnightly basis in their keyworker groups and will be encouraged to choose a book to take home that they might enjoy with their adults. We would encourage you to spend just 10 minutes with your child enjoying this read together.