Mr Muddles our maths monkey set the children a mathematical challenge to help him share his banana’s fairly.  How many different ways could the children find to share 12  into equal groups?  

They discovered that 12 could be shared into equal groups of 2, 3, 4 and 6.

Mr Muddle’s favourite number is 5.  Can we make equal groups of 5?

Year 1, along with the rest of LHPSN, helped to support Sport Relief by wearing sporty clothes and carrying out 1 minute challenges including balloon keepy uppy.  By raising money through our fun activities and dressing up will help support others who are living incredible tough lives in the UK and around the World. Congratulations to those children, who represented their classes, in the whole school assembly.

Hi everyone

Next week I’m going to attempt a live science lesson for KS1 and Year  3/4 – other years may follow in later weeks if successful. I’m going to keep this lesson fairly simple as it will be a test of the technology as much as anything. I ask that a parent/carer remains around to deal with any technology issues from your end and also to offer hands on support to your child. More information about setting up the software is below. I’ve no idea how many will turn up for the lesson but there is a limit of 100 and roughly 120 children in each of KS1 and LKS2 so apologies if you end up being number 101 – if you have siblings in both those groups both sessions will be the same so take a pick as to which they want to join in with.

– Dr Fishwick

LO: How does sound travel?
LO: Set up and carry out a simple investigation.   

Time/location:  
Y1/2, Tuesday 31/3/20,  1pm, https://zoom.us/j/8168811198 access code 816 881 1198 
Y3/4, Tuesday 31/3/20, 2pm, https://zoom.us/j/8168811198 access code 816 881 1198    

You will need:  
– Some coat hangers made from different materials (eg plastic, metal or wood) or smallish kitchen objects (eg sieve, mug) that you can tie string to 
– String (you won’t need more than 1m, try a shoelace if stuck) 
– A metal spoon

I’d advise setting up Zoom in advance. If you go to the lesson link above it will provide instructions on how to install the app (Apple and Android supported) or PC software. I’ve only used it on an iPad. Once installed and you’ve entered the access code it will probably say I’m not there or words to that effect. You can choose a display name each time you start (tends to default to your device name) – please use child’s first names only. During installation give permission to access your mic, camera, etc, if asked.

The image above shows the basic controls as they are appear on an iPad, they are arranged slightly different across platforms. Tapping on the screen brings the controls up.

Your camera does not need to be on (so don’t worry about tidying the house!) in fact the software will run much smoother if only my camera is on – use the Stop Video button to turn yours off.

Mrs Williams reads ‘Dave the Dog is Worried About Coronavirus‘, a book to help children to understand the current situation a little better and to hopefully ease some anxieties. 

Our last week at school together was a bit different to our usual routine but we managed to find an exciting new online music activity to keep the children engaged and interested in creating sound and how it can be changed. You can access this yourselves at home! www.musiclab.chromeexperiments.com Is a brilliant tool to teach children about beat, tone, tempo and pitch. If you want to try a new activity with your children at home during this time, give this a go!

Some recent funky fingers activities including dancing with ribbons, using tweezers to rescue the pasta from the tomato soup, construction with k-nex and popping bubble wrap! We take part in funky fingers activities several times a week to help build up the strength and muscles in our hands so we are ready for holding and using a pen correctly and to make other fine motor activities easier to do.

At the start of March, we turned up the colour in the nursery as the children learned all about the Hindu festival, Holi, the arrival of spring! We served up rainbow spaghetti in the role play pizzeria, made marks in the multicoloured sand, made flower garlands and played with the incredibly satisfying Orbeez! The children also took part in an experiment in which they filled a balloon with paint, blew it up and popped it in a bag along with paper to see what patterns and shapes they could make with the paint.

Some of our activities from St David’s Day and World Book Day including painting Dragon Wings with forks, mark making with leeks, making egg cup daffodils, book making, school classroom role play, and messy play with farm animals.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Over the last few days, we have come across lots of online resources that are available to support children’s learning at home during the unprecedented times. This list is by no means exhaustive, nor are we promoting anything in particular, but we thought we’d share some of them with you. All children have different learning styles and interests – maybe something below will click! We will also update our learning packs on the class pages as time goes on.

With very best wishes from the staff of Lickey Hills PSN.

https://www.themathsfactor.com/ THIS IS GREAT!! Carol Vordermann is offering free access to her great website for maths offering games, challenges and daily lessons to support learning. There are motivational medals to earn too… Also lots of fun times tables games at https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/times-tables . Finally – great online, live lessons and follow up activities from Gareth Metcalf at http://www.iseemaths.com/home-lessons/

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/ – Fantastic resources and games for reading, writing, spelling and maths.

Some lovely reading opportunities to share at https://www.storylineonline.net/

https://www.literacyshed.com/home.html Go to The Literacy Shed for some great ideas for story writing. The Literacy Trust have developed a fantastic portal of resources for families – go to https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/ . Also there’s a list of virtual author activities at https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-author-activities/

Joe Wicks – The Body Coach is running a daily workout, Monday – Friday at 9am. https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/pe-with-joe-1254.html?fbclid=IwAR13SHNgsUZEGLVRZYjbFzTf8PDAJvD4I8BxOASuWkVmjSNI6fsKHP1vs40

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zhyb4wx (KS1) and https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zxsvr82 (KS2) to practise your Spanish skills

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/mar/23/10-of-the-worlds-best-virtual-museum-and-art-gallery-tours The Guardian published 10 of the World’s best virtual museum and art gallery tours – but this list is not exhaustive!! The Tate Modern, for example, will give you some ideas for really crazy art to try!!

https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/ Learn about all the animals around the world!

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/ for geography and science ideas and fascinating facts. https://bpes.bp.com/the-emperors-new-clothes Some great science activities on BP’s website for Primary children – including this fun activity to help the Emperor find the right clothes for each season!

More science fun at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/collections/primary-games/1

Worcestershire’s schools and education settings will be trying to operate on the following principles:

 When it is safe for them to do so the best place for every child in Worcestershire is to be at home. This will help to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

 We will provide a safe place for the children of those workers critical to the response to coronavirus if their children cannot safely stay at home.

 Provision is limited and will only be sustainable in the coming weeks and months if people use this as an option of last resort

 Where only one parent/carer is a ‘critical worker’, please consider keeping your child/children at home with the other parent/carer

 Critical workers may need to provide evidence with ID or similar

 Provision may be at a different site to your child’s usual school