This week the work is all linked to the story ‘The Gingerbread Man’. Here is an animated version for you to enjoy.
Here is a familiar face reading the story to you. Mrs Kenning is missing you all very much!
Here is another version of the story.
And finally, here is our favourite Mr Tumble reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’
Communication, Language and Literacy
Cut out the story sequencing pictures from your resource pack. Ask your child to put them in the correct order. They will need lots of verbal prompts. Ask them what happens at the start of the story? What happens next? What is next? What happens at the end of the story?
Man (as in gingerbread man) starts with ‘m’. When teaching phonics, we say a long mmm sound rather than the capital ’em’ letter name. This is the picture and phrase we use to teach the sound in school.
When we are writing a ‘m’ we tell the children to start at Maisie’s head, go down Maisie and the over the mountain and over the mountain (Maisie mountain mountain)
This video will help explain.
Encourage your child to have a go at forming a ‘m’. Perhaps they could use their finger in a plate of flour/sand/glitter/salt. They could use their magic pointy finger and write a ‘m’ in the air or on the floor. They will enjoy trying to form it. They might enjoy writing ‘m’ in water. They could dip their finger, a cotton bud or a paintbrush into water and try to write a ‘m’ on a piece of paper or card. If you can go outside, they could try writing with water on the floor outside and then watch it disappear. Or encourage them to hold a pencil correctly and have a go at writing it on paper.
Here are the Alphablocks on CBeebies learning about the gingerbread man and practising the ‘m’ sound.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/alphablocks-man
Gather a selection of items that begin with a ‘m’ (monkey, mat, mirror, man, milk, moon, map, mop, mouse). Place them on the table or floor in front of you and play I spy. Emphasise the ‘mmm’ sound at the start of the word.
Here is Mrs Allcock playing I Spy with ‘m’ objects.
Practise name writing with your child.
Here is a link to access some listening game activities with your child. Learning to listen and hear specific sounds is part of the crucial Phase 1 level of teaching phonics.
T-L-5619-General-Sound-Discrimination-Environmental-Sounds-Home-Learning-Challenge-Sheet-FS1
Here are two online games that support listening skills. Your child will have to listen carefully and identify the sounds they can hear.
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/match-sounds?phase=1
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/whats-behind-the-door?phase=1
Maths
Use a sheet of paper, card or cardboard box and cut out a gingerbread man shape (a cereal box is perfect for this). If your child would like a brown gingerbread man like the one in the story they could colour or paint their gingerbread man. Using bottle lids, ask your child to give their gingerbread man 2 eyes. Can they give him a nose? How about some buttons? Can they count how many buttons they have put on the gingerbread man? Can they count the eyes? Nose?
If your child is confident at recognising numbers, you could use the number cards from your resource pack. Show your child a number and ask them to put that many buttons on the gingerbread man. You could extend them further by asking them to try and write the number too. Or find it on their number tracing mat and trace over it.
Here is the link to an online maths game. Your child will be asked to give the gingerbread man a certain number of buttons.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/gingerbread-man-game
Expressive Art and Design
Melody listens to a piece of Greek music in this clip which makes her imagine the story of the gingerbread man.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/melody-gingerbread-man
Encourage your child to move slowly and then faster to the music as it changes.
Make a shaker by using the cardboard tube from a kitchen or toilet roll. Cover one end with paper or foil and sellotape it in place. Put some pieces of dry pasta or some rice into the tube and cover and tape the other end securely. Ask your child to use the shaker as they listen to the music again. Can they shake it quickly? Can they shake it slowly? Can they make a loud sound? Can they make a quiet sound?
Your child might enjoy decorating their shaker with crayons, paints or stickers.
Cut out the story character stick puppets from your resource pack. Sellotape them to a pencil, lolly stick, paintbrush or spoon and encourage your child to retell the story using puppets.
Physical Development
Follow this link to work with Duggee and Rebecca and practise some yoga moves.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/yoga-with-rebecca-and-duggee
Here is a dance and freeze song for your child to join in with.
This video combines yoga poses, movement and the gingerbread man story.
Understanding the World.
Here is a simple playdough recipe. Perhaps you could make some with your child? If you add a little chocolate powder it will make a brown dough. If you add some ground ginger spice, your dough will smell like the gingerbread man!
You need:
- 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (baby oil and coconut oil work too)
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
- 1 to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
- gel food colouring/chocolate powder (optional)
- few drops glycerine (my secret ingredient for stretch and shine!)
Method:
- Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
- Add food colouring TO the boiling water then into the dry ingredients
- Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
- Add the glycerine (optional)
- Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. * This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!*
- If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right
Make a real gingerbread man! If you don’t have a gingerbread man shaped cutter you could use a plastic cup to cut out circle shapes and make gingerbread man faces.
Ingredients
- 375 g Plain Flour
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 2 tsps Ground Ginger
- 120 g Unsalted Butter (cold & cubed)
- 175 g Light Brown Sugar
- 5 tbsps Golden Syrup
- 1 Large Egg
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 190C/180C Fan and line 3-4 Baking trays with Parchment paper (or do it in two batches if you only have two trays!)
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Add the flour, Bicarbonate of Soda, and Ginger to a large bowl and add the Cold, Cubed Butter to the bowl –
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Rub together with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs! (Or mix the four ingredients in a food processor till its breadcrumbs!)
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Mix the sugar into the mix and combine, and then add the Golden Syrup and Egg – beat with a spatula/your hands until it is a smooth dough.
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Knead the biscuit dough, and then Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.
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Roll it out to 1/2cm thickness and cut out your gingerbread men!
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Place them on the lined baking trays and bake in the oven for 10-11 minutes, cool on a wire rack fully, and then decorate how you please!
Jojo and Gran gran bake together in this Cbeebies programme. They bake banana bread.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000gqjy/jojo-gran-gran-spring-6-its-time-to-bake
Crossing the river activity.
This is an activity you could do with your child at bath time! Or if you’d rather, use a washing up bowl with some water. The bath, or bowl of water are your river.
Make a little paper gingerbread man, and pop him in a boat (a boat bath toy, empty plastic tub – yoghurt or margarine tub, a boat made from plastic building blocks or even a washing up sponge). Challenge your child to get the gingerbread man from one side of the river to the other without touching him. Encourage them to blow the boat or move the water with their hands or feet. Can they get him across without the gingerbread man falling into the water?
