This week's story

This week we are going music mad! I love music and we've been doing lots of singing and dancing in my house to keep us occupied. I thought you would really enjoy this story. I am going to apologies to all the Mum's and Dad's in advance as this week it could get rather noisy! 

Your first task is to listen to the story 'Giraffes Don't Dance' by Giles Andreae using the link below. I have a feeling you will all be dancing along to the music. 

Abc game - literacy

We are going to play a little game. Look carefully at the image below taken from the story 'Giraffes Can't Dance'. Challenge your child to find something you describe i.e. can you find a small, green leaf? 

You can use the abc grid below or simply write out the letters of the alphabet on a piece of paper. Can you see if you can find something in the picture that begins with each of the letters? Don't worry if you can't find every letter, just see how many you can do. You can be as creative as you like with your answers. 

Rhyming Words - literacy

In the story 'Giraffes Can't Dance' there are lots of rhyming words. Did you hear any when you were listening to it? Words that rhyme sound very similar and often it's only the first letter of the word that is different. Listen again to the story and see if you can write a list of rhyming words that are in the story. 

To extend your learning, you could choose one of the rhyming words from your list and think of other words tat rhyme with it? 

Writing song lyrics - literacy

Today you are going to become song writers. You have practiced rhyming words earlier in the week so we are going to use this skill to help us write some lyrics for our own song about the jungle. Talk to your child about the jungle, what kind of place is it? Jot down some of their ideas. Think about some words that rhyme linked to the jungle and write these down also. 

Help your child to think of some lyrics for a song about the jungle. You can either base your song on a familiar tune i.e. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or make up your own tune. 

Write down the lyrics and practice singing your new song. You could even use the musical instrument you made earlier in the week. 

Here is an example I wrote:

(Based on the tune Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

In the jungle way up high,
Sits a monkey near the sky.
He looks around for food to eat,
But then he hears a very strange beat. 
In the jungle what do you see?
Lots of animals dancing like me. 

They all hip and they all hop.
Some they say even bop.
Up and down they move around
All singing the very same sound. 
The monkey climbs down from his tree.
To see what all the noise could be. 

He joins in with the special dance.
Where he leaps about and takes a chance.
All the animals then join in,
They use their voice to sing, sing, sing.
In the jungle where the animals meet,
Come along and dance to the beat. 
 

Phonics

This week we are going to be re-capping and focusing on the sounds 'j' and 'ie'. 

Re-cap these sounds with your child. Can they read them and write them with correct formation? Below are some simple games and PowerPoint  you can use to consolidate these sounds. 

If the weather go outside and write some 'j' and 'ie' words on the floor or wall with chalk. Say one of the words out loud. Your child needs to find the correct word and using an empty washing up liquid bottle or spray bottle your child can squirt water at the correct word. 

Keywords - Phonics

We need to keep practicing our tricky words. Tricky words are words that we need to read but we are not able to use our phonic knowledge to sound them out as they contain some sounds that may be different from the ones we know. Today we will focus on the words: 

I, the, no, to, go, into

Using the word mat attached or you could write them out on paper, can your child read these words? If they are not sure of some of them, keep practicing them regularly. You could make flash cards with the words on them and play a simple pairs or snap game. Practice writing the words individually and within a sentence. I have also made a simple PowerPoint presentation for you to use to practice reading the words.  

Measuring Animals - Maths

How many different animals can you spot in the story Giraffes Can't Dance? There are so many different animals that live in the jungle and they range from being tiny to huge. Today we are going to investigate how tall some of these animals are. Ask your grown up to help you find out how tall some of these animals are and complete the table below with your results. Which one is the tallest / shortest. Maybe you could measure yourself and find out which animals would be taller or shorter than you. You can use the animals I have included on the chart or pick your own. 

Choose two of the animals and ask a grown up to help you measure how tall they are against the wall (hopefully they won't be too tall and your grown up can reach). 

If you want to extend this learning, you could ask your child to find items around the house that are taller or shorter than themselves. Encourage your child to use the words tall, short, taller, shorter, tallest and shortest rather than using the words 'big, bigger, small and smaller' to describe the height of items. 

Addition and subtraction picture - maths

For this activity you are going to draw a jungle picture by following the instructions. You have to solve the addition and subtraction questions to find out the number of each items you need to draw. 

In your picture you need...

2 + 1 trees
5 - 1 birds
3 + 2 snakes
2 - 1 sun
1 + 1 elephants
6 + 2 flowers 

Big Maths Learn Its

It's that time again to challenge yourself on the Big Maths Learn Its. Just a reminder to play the song and when the music stops your child has 20 seconds to fill in all the answers. If they have all the questions right 3 weeks in a row then they can move onto the next Learn It. I have included the next Learn It (step 2, 3 &4) for those of you who have conquered step 1, 2 &3. 

Measuring online game

This week we have been focusing on measure. Click on the link below and play the game. Can you order the animals according to their size?

Finding out about Kenya - Knowledge & Understanding

The author of 'Giraffes Can't Dance' Giles Andreae wrote the story after visiting a place called Kenya. Kenya is a very different place to where we live. Ask a grown up if you can find it on a map and see how far it is from where we live.  Can you find out some information about Kenya and how it is different from here? You could watch the video below or ask a grown up to help you research it. After finding out about Kenya, you could divide a piece of paper in half and write the word 'Wales' on one side and 'Kenya' on the other. Underneath each heading you could write things that are different between the two places. These could include weather, animals, food, land, money, homes, schools etc... You could even colour in your own flag of Kenya. 

Making a musical instrument - Creative development

This week we are focusing on music and dance. For this activity you are going to making your own musical instrument. You can use any materials you have at home including recyclable material. Below are some pictures to give you some ideas. You could make a shaker, drum, tambourine, guitar and the list goes on. Keep this instrument safe as you may want to use it for another activity later in the week. 

Let's Dance & Sing - Wellbeing

We're going to end this week with a good sing and a dance. Click on the links below and have fun dancing and singing along. We would love to see some videos of you all dancing! 

Giraffes Can't Dance Challenges

Here are some fun challenges you can do throughout the week based on the story 'Giraffes Can't Dance'. 

1. The story is set in a place called Kenya which is in Africa. Can you make your own African necklace? You could use either the outside edge of a paper plate and decorate it or paint some pasta tubes and thread them on some string. See the pictures below for some ideas. 

2. The main character in the story was a giraffe. Can you find out some facts about giraffes? You could find out things such as where do they live? How tall are they? What do they eat? Can they really dance? or any other interesting facts. I have included some useful videos below you may find interesting. You can record the information in any way you like. Maybe make a poster, mind map or a simple fact sheet. 

3. Can you make up your own Jungle Dance? I have included a song that I'm sure your Mums and Dads know from a long time ago. You could use this song or find one of your own.  It would be great if you could post a video of you dancing on here for us all to see! 

4. Can you make a giraffe of your own? I have included some pictures for ideas. You could print one using your hand, paint one, make one from a cardboard tube, the ideas are endless. Can you give your giraffe a name? I would love to see some pictures of your creations.