Pioneers Class

Pioneers children are Reception aged (four or five years old). Children enjoy a range of creative and engaging play based activities, as well as formal inputs, to support their development and growth. Children in Pioneers are taught by Mrs Hann, Mrs McGill and Miss Greaves.

Learning begins the minute they walk through the door. The classroom is a carefully curated collection of wonderful things to allow the children to flourish. The classroom is theirs and everything in it is there for a purpose. What they chose to do may be completely different for each individual. This is when the learning happens. The resources are ready to use and accessible and the team work together to create, to communicate, to count and to grow 

Each day starts with exploration of the resources and suggestions for learning set out around the room. The Pioneers will come together for teaching. This will happen in small groups, as a whole class and often one to one. Across the day we will gather for mathematics, reading, writing and phonics sessions, to share stories and to learn about the world.

PE kits are in school all week to allow us to do PE at any time. This term, the Pioneers have dance on a Tuesday afternoon. 

Mrs Gurney teaches computing on a Thursday morning.

We are rolling with phonics and children will bring a book and their reading record home each day. Please read little and often and write a message in the reading record. All reading is good reading. This is such an exciting time.

Please look out for a text message to let you know when we will go to the forest. We will use our wonderful outdoor space as much as we can and this will not always be on the same day each week. 

Children’s progress and activities are recorded in their own Learning Journeys. These act as a summary of the journey children embark upon during their time in Reception and demonstrate the progress and success that has been achieved, as well as the next steps that may need to be taken.

Monday the 13th of July -Have a Wonderful Day Pioneers!

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zn22pv4/articles/z846gdm
This is an introduction to different teeth types in animals
And this next one is mainly humans:
https://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/learning-activities/science/teeth-and-eating/uses-of-teeth/
And this is a fun one about types of teeth:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z27kng8/articles/zsp76yc

Take a look at your own teeth to identify the differences.
Do you have any missing?
Happy Learning.

https://apps.mathlearningcenter.org/number-pieces/

Experiment with counting in 10’s and recognising what each number looks like.
Make the number using the 10 sticks.
Write the number and find it on the 100 square

.https://primarygames.co.uk/pg2/splat/splatsq100.html

Repeat this in a different order.
Give your Pioneer the 10 sticks image and ask them to write the number and find it
That’s Maths Magic

Thursday is the last day of term and we always have a Teddy Bear’s Picnic.
Encourage your Pioneer to do some writing for the picnic.
Begin with an invitation to the toys that will be joining them.
On the photographs you will see suggested vocabulary that fits with the phonics they have experience of.
Happy Planning.

Thursday the 9th of July – Pioneers Learning Suggestions

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

Find a selection of 3D shapes- cube,cuboid,sphere,cylinder.
Place them one at a time in a bag.
Ask your Pioneer to put their hand in and feel the shape and to describe what they feel.
Here are some words to try out –sharp, slopey, pointy, like a brick, arch, box.
Here is a list of mathematical shape language – corner, side, edge, flat, curved, rectangular, cylinder

Next,place a selection of shapes in the bag. Ask your Pioneer to bring out the shape with a curved surface or six flat faces or the one with rectangular faces.
This is tricky so you will need to model this.
Can your Pioneer ask the questions?
Happy Learning!

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/z96vb9q

Make a collection of your toy animals. Look at my photographs.
What do you think these animals eat?
Can you say if they are a herbivore, a carnivore or an omnivore?
What do you know about the teeth of the animals in my pictures?
Could you sort the animals into groups depending on what they eat?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALyrYqxhwiI Mr Thorne reads and blends for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emb2yvwAHtc&t=5s and a classic.

Go back through all of your Phase 3 soundmat and the words from Monday.
Reread yesterday’s reading book together.

Happy Phonics

Wednesday the 8th of July – Happy Learning Pioneers!

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

Here is a new funny book for you to enjoy together.
Happy Reading

Here is your race to rehearse today:
Daddy penguins need to keep their egg safe. To do this they balance it on their feet and waddle around.
Get a Potato and pretend that this is your penguin egg. Can you walk around with it balanced like a caring daddy penguin?
Its tricky!
Enjoy

 

Penguins eat fish. Polar Bears eat seal.Rabbits nibble grass.
Food chains are fascinating.
This is another of my favourite songs explaining food chains.
Take a look.

Here are links to two excellent videos to explain who is eating who:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zx882hv/articles/z3c2xnb Food Chains-an introduction

Today your building challenge is to recreate a famous landmark with your building material.
Use your increasing knowledge and vocabulary to describe which shapes you have used and where they are.
If it is appropriate,introduce horizontal and vertical to your vocabulary.
Use next to,on top of,beside,underneath,above to describe the position of the shapes.
That’s Maths Magic.

Tuesday the 7th of July – Pioneers Suggestions for Today

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

Take a look at my photographs.
Can you draw what you see?
Alternatively,make your own structure and draw it.
Get someone else to check how accurate you have been.
Can you add colour to your plan?
Can you name the shapes that you have used?
Enjoy

This book is all about birds and the different things they do.
Can you spot the line that may apply to penguins?
Why do you think that they have the kind of feet they have?
Why are they different to a seagull’s feet?

Sports day is coming up so this week I will suggest a different race each day to try out.
Today is my favourite and it is the potato and spoon race-much less risk than egg and spoon. Especially if you have dogs.
Get yourself a nice spoon and a potato but really any vegetable will do.
You could make a finish line and start to prepare the medals for each event.
Enjoy.

This week is all about revision for phonics. Revisit yesterday’s photographs and take a look at these videos. Do them with the sound on and the sound off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sSpqLJUbiQ – Mr Thorne again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eftL7XywLi0 – This is a good one

And to finish off:

This might be a good idea to try out this very difficult job.
It is always a good idea to learn to tie your laces.
Enjoy

Friday the 3rd of July-Pioneers -Suggestions for Learning

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/pick-a-picture

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/sentence-substitution-ph3

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/4/sentence-substitution-ph4

Here are some wonderful phonics games to play today.
Enjoy

Take another look at this week’s Numberblocks episodes then have a go at this task.
Name the shape.
Is it a square or a rectangle?
Can you say why?
How many squares are covered up?
How do you know?
Can you say how you know?
Use the dotty paper to draw squares and rectangles of your own.
Enjoy

Theere is a little song for you to learn over on Tapestry. We have not sung this in school before. I can’t think why!
It is one of my favourite.
Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfbE5AUG5tM&list=PLmTANLv-GyXXqmwkIkdXcNYoY6Sy1t0Pg&index=4&t=0sThe Hedgehogs have had a house so the Bees certainly need a cafe.
This video contains some ideas to help out the bees in your garden.
Just for fun.
Enjoy

Thursday the 2nd of July Pioneers,Have a Busy Day!

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M93qXQWaBdE – piano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd9xha3vk58 – Xylophone

 

Here are two versions of The Flight of the Bumble Bee for you to enjoy.
In the classroom the Pioneers had a baton or a conducting stick. You could use a pencil or a spoon to move to the music.

Take a look at the animation too. It is beautiful.

Here is a wonderful piece of music played on different instruments and a beautiful animation to accompany it.
Could you talk through what is going on as you watch the animation?
Try out using these words to retell the action:
First
And then
Next
Because
When
If
At the end
Enjoy.

https://nrich.maths.org/10071

This is a wonderful game to play together online or on paper.
This will encourage your Pioneer to think carefully. This will need to be modeled first but I think they will begin to work out what to do next.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000271w/numberblocks-series-3-the-way-of-the-rectangle

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00064v6/numberblocks-series-4-loop-the-loop

Now that you have got the hang of the square and it’s properties,take a look at the rectangle.

Make some rectangles on squared paper to match the Numberblocks.

Hello Pioneers! It is the 1st of July Happy Learning

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

Here is a nice quick little read.
Enjoy it together.

 

Bees love flowers. Flowers love bees.
Cut up a plastic bottle to create a flower.
The bottle will cut with ordinary scissors. You can also cut leaves very easily from the big bits.
Decorate with felt pens,paint or stick things on.
It’s tricky and this is one to do together.
Enjoy.

 

Here is another small section to add to your reading and writing about bees.
Use this to complete your story map.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00063vq/numberblocks-series-4-square-club

Take a look at this episode and then explore how many bricks you need to make a square. You could use squared paper
Take a look at Numberblock 4 ? Hwo many squares across? How many squares down?
Colour in 8 squares. Can you make a square?
Colour in 5 squares.. Can you make a square?

Make a square? .How many blocks do you need?
What is special about a square?

That’s Maths Magic!

Tuesday the 30th of June – Pioneers,Here are your Suggestions for Learning

Latest News, Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

https://www.maddiemoate.com/busybees

Maddie Moate has a wonderful collection of science videos and one of her passions is Beekeeping.
Take a look. There are some amazing facts to collect.

Use the question words again when watching the video. It goes hand in hand with the Bee book.
How
Why
When
Who
What

Once you have listened to The Bee book and watched Maddie Moate’s videos have a try at some Bee Reading and Writing.
I have written a short text which you can read together,learn and write.
You could try a short story map to go with it.
Discuss pairs.
The bee has 3 pairs of legs,2 pairs of wings and 1 pair of eyes and antennae.
This is another opportunity for counting in twos
Happy Learning

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp2qlb/numberblocks-series-3-flatland

Here are two videos to watch to get going on your shape work.
I have also attached a vocabulary list for you.

The Tangram is a fun mathematical puzzle which allows comparison and conversation about shape and measure.

A set of shapes has five pieces.
First, make a square using four pieces.
Then, make a square using all five pieces.

Then add another set of five pieces (so now there are ten) and make a square with all of them.

https://nrich.maths.org/5528
If you have Flash Player then there is an online version here too.

And there is also a 7 piece Tangram set to have a go with.

See Tapestry for Tangram pieces.

Enjoy

Monday the 29th of June 2020 -Have a Wonderful Windy Day

Latest News, Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

Walter was determined to make a wonderful web but it was hard work.
Listen to the book together and discuss the shapes he used.
Take a look outside. Can you spot some wonderful webs?
Take a look at the other links posted today to start building up your knowledge of shape.

 

Once you have listened to Walter’s Web have a look around the house to find some shapes. I suggest food tins,jars and packages and perhaps some building blocks.
Get some play dough or even mud in the garden.
Press the shape into the dough.
Ask your Pioneer:
Tell me about what you’ve made.
Can you see other blocks/packets that might make the same footprint?
Look at the block and the footprint it has made side by side. What’s the same and what’s different?

What will happen if we turn the shape over and make a new footprint?
How many different footprints do you think you can you make with this shape?
Which shapes might have made this footprint?

Draw around a block or packet. Look at the shape you have made.
Is it the same shape as the footprint?

If you dont have dough you could use paint or try out talc on black paper for a different kind of messy work.Enjoy

Here is our book for the week. This book is full of questions. To begin the week we are going to focus on the question about bees and flowers.
Hopefully your Pioneer will be curious and have lots of questions to pose.
Try using all of the question words to construct sentences
How?
Why?
When?
What?
Who?

This is a wonderful book to begin our learning about bees.
Listen together.
Do you know what a miracle is?
Use the question words,”Who,what,where,when,why and how”
What does the bee collect?
Why does the flower smell nice?
Where does the bee take the pollen?
What is a bee’s special job?
Where do bees live and work?

 

https://7esl.com/parts-of-a-bee-vocabulary/

Here is an annotated diagram of a bee.
Ask your Pioneer to draw or to paint the bee,looking closely at the structure of the body and naming the parts.
I hope that they enjoy learning the new vocabulary.
Thorax is one of my favourite words.

Friday the 26th of June 2020 Suggestions for Learning for Pioneers

Pioneers Class, Pioneers' Home Learning

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/picnic-on-pluto

Here is a quick link to Phonics Play.
We have not used this in the class yet or discussed real and fake.
This would be an interesting chat to have.
Enjoy..

 

Here are a few fun videos with Geraldine to revise your tricky words which is always useful.

As always,if you are happy reading them then have a go at writing them for yourself.

Happy Phonics Y’all.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2xfxbk

Work with a numbersquare is always good.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares

Let your Pioneer spot the patterns.
Stat by marking vounting in 2’s
You could mark all the 10’s
You could splat all the 5,s
Tallk about the pattern that is made.
Can you say why?
Happy Counting

 

Geraldine is also going on a journey.
Maps and mapping are fascinating to discuss with the Pioneers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/pshe-eyfs-ks1-go-jetters-uk-places-and-landmarks/zkyjkmn

Here is another suitcase to play the memory game with.
I went on a journey and in my case I packed…
There is a change in each photograph. Can you spot it?