Good morning Sherkin students and parents.

I hope breakfast went well and all the dishes have been washed, dried and put away.

Here are some ideas for the week ahead 20^th – 24^th April 2020.

Literacy:

Can I remind parents of the login details for our reading scheme that is available online from Collins publishers.

Please login to https://connect.collins.co.uk/school/portal.aspx

Click on the ‘teacher sign in’

User name: parents@harpercollins.co.uk

Password: Parents20!

Please allow students to select their own book and then read this same book together for 2 days in a row to reinforce understanding and learning. If you can, please supplement reading with Lamh signs and ask a few simple questions about what you’ve just read.

As you are aware all Sherkin students joined the public library in September. The library have some wonderful resources available online as well as e-books and workshops. Unfortunately all our library cards and membership numbers are in school, but I have contacted the library and they said that parents should open another account online and then when we are back in school they will link the two accounts.

I invite parents and students to visit Louth libraries facebook live page on Tue 21^st April, Thursday 23^rd April and Saturday 25^th April at 11 am, to listen to a live storytelling session with Lisa and Annmarie.

**also please ignore any letters you may receive about overdue books – don’t worry they are all safe on our class library shelf in school !!

As part of our morning routine in Sherkin class we all sit together at the white board and sing 1 / 2 of these songs. Students really enjoy this activity and it helps get students ready for the day ahead.

We usually write our daily news – I suggest we now change this activity to a ‘daily diary’ entry. We can explore writing in the past tense. Parents can you have a little chat with your child and remember what you did yesterday then write a few simple sentences about these activities using past tense – we went, I ate, yesterday was …

Parents please encourage your child to complete this activity at an appropriate level.

1. Mark making: your child can experience making marks with gel crayons or brightly coloured markers.

2. Your child can trace over letters / words with hand over hand support or verbal prompts

3. Your child can write their name and copy sentences independently from a model.

Numeracy:

This week we will explore 2D and 3D Shapes.

You can discuss the properties of 2D shapes by describing them in simple terms

Triangle: A pointy shape with three sides and three corners (e.g.,”A slice of pizza is a triangle.”)

Square: A shape with four straight sides that are the same length or size and four corners

Circle: A round shape that has no straight edges or corners (e.g.,”A wheel

     is a circle.”)

   Rectangle: A shape with 2 long sides and 2 short sides

   Oval: A stretched-out circle that is shaped like an egg

Please have fun together as you go on a ‘shape hunt’ around your house to identify 2D circle, triangle, square and rectangle objects. Now try to extend this idea by locating different 3D items to represent the shapes – cube, cuboid, sphere and cylinder.

Lots of shape resources available on this website – www.primaryresources.co.uk

Please keep practicing how to write our numbers correctly.

This is a fun interactive worksheet  

and this is a printable one.

Personal care and wellbeing:

Each week Sherkin students enjoy 3 sessions in the soft play room at school. One of our favourite activities is massage and meditation.

Parents I recommend that you continue this activity at home – please set the scene with some relaxing music

Please invite your child to lay down on their backs and allow / enjoy a lovely foot massage  

Here are some other relaxation websites – https://mindfulness.ie is

offering daily sessions at 12 noon and Cosmic kids have some lovely guided meditations https://www.cosmickids.com/category/watch

Sensory play and activities are a big part of our daily routine in Sherkin class – I recommend this wonderful cheap sensory activity.

It is messy but great fun, also it can keep for days, if it dries out just add a little water and it will reactivate.

Being part of the community:

Helping around the house – see my earlier post which asks students to wash up their breakfast dishes.

The Arts:

We will link with the numeracy PLU where we are learning about 2D and 3D shapes.

Parents can you please cut several sheets of coloured paper / old wrapping paper into basic 2D shapes and then work with your student to create a lovely shape collage  

You can help your student explore 3D shapes by building a tower /house /robot out of clean recycled 3D boxes i.e cereal boxes, toilet roll tubes etc.

Parents you can sing along with your child to this lovely shape song as you hold up self drawn pictures of 2D shapes or as you complete the craft activities.

P.E:

In Sherkin class we often use balloons in P.E activities – we find they are great for developing gross motor skills as the balloon falls slowly and is therefore way easier to catch then a fast moving ball.

Parents why not get the whole family together and play this fun game while listening to students favourite music –

Individual skills can be practiced by doing the following ‘keepy uppy’ exercise.

**** Sherkin students keep busy during the week ahead (I know your parents will be busy), most importantly have fun and keep active.

Hope you are all keeping well and safe.

I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

M.Harris

mharris@stbrigids.net