1. Reception Home Learning Grid Spring 1 2018-19
You will receive a sticker for completing your homework
At the beginning of each half term we provide a list of suggested activities for you to do with your child at home. These activities are designed to reinforce your child’s learning, develop their vocabulary, understanding and knowledge about the topics and curriculum areas we are covering in class. Over the half term, you and your child can choose to do as few or as many of these as you would like. As a guide, you might like to do one per week. Your child can record it in the homework book provided or in any way you choose – photographs (these can be uploaded onto your child’s online learning journal), drawing, writing etc. Please send the book to school when your child has completed an activity so the teacher can share and enjoy your child’s home learning. We will be sharing and celebrating children’s homework on Thursday afternoons.
What is the biggest number you can count down from? Practice at home so we can test your countdown skills in class!
Make a simple cardboard tube rocket with a deflated balloon taped to it. Thread a string through the tube and ask 2 people to hold either end. Then ask an adult to blow up the balloon and release it. How far will your rocket travel?
Look outside your window and draw a picture of what you see in the sky. Use paint, chalk, felt tips, pencils or crayons.
Develop and teach your family your own alien language – what words could you use for ‘hello’? How about ‘blooba’ or ‘cookaboo’? You choose – it’s your alien language!
Make up an alien shape or number maths game. Think about the rules and write them down. You can even make a board game to go with it!
Create a vehicle that you could use to travel into space. What would it look like? You could create a spacecraft or a space buggy using old boxes and junk modelling materials available at home.
Find out about Space. What makes the planet Earth special? Design and make your own Earth poster.
Plan a tea party on the Moon for the aliens. Draw pictures and label the food you want at the party. Think about what kind of food an alien might like – star biscuits, rocket jelly or moon cheese balls, the possibilities are endless!

2. Last term we have learnt the following Tricky Words:
Tricky words are frequently used words that the children cannot read and write by blending and listening for the sounds. They are words that need to be remembered. Children learn not only to read these words but also to write them.
There is a lot of fun things you can do to help you practise:
Listen to the Phase 2 Tricky Words song you love to sing in class: (AVAILABLE ON OUR CLASS’ WEBSITE)
Think up sentences with these words and have a go at writing them.
Look for tricky words in the books and magazines you read at home.
Mnemonic – that’s a memory device to you and me
There is a classic mnemonic to help children remember how to spell ‘because’: big elephants can always understand small elephants. Make up your own silly mnemonics together to help your child remember tricky words they struggle with.
Spelling bingo
The old ones are the best! Playing games that help the children recognise the spelling words on sight can really help. The more they see a word the more familiar it becomes and the more likely they are to remember it; if they can visualise it, they are more likely to spell it correctly.
Print and cut out the words your child has to learn. Draw out a bingo board and write some of the spellings in the boxes. This works best with more than one player, so see if you can rope in someone else to play. Every time your child ‘gets’ a spelling word, go through the spelling together and then cover it and ask them to spell it again.