Spr.2.Wk.4-5.Words & Roads Take Us Places

Dear Family,

Communication has been a part of your child’s daily life since the moment of birth. As your child has grown physically, he or she also has evolved from crying to communicate to listening and talking to achieve the same effect. And now, as a five-year-old, your child is becoming aware of the connection between reading, writing and communicating. Each day, he or she listens as the teacher reads a story, watches as the teacher writes a Daily Message, reads some familiar words and writes in his or her book. Transport is equally familiar to your child, as each day he or she goes to school by car or bus or on foot. Your child has no doubt accompanied you to many places and by various means of transport. He or she may have been on the tram, in a taxi, on a train or even in a plane as you’ve travelled outside your local area.

In the theme Words & Roads Take Us Places your child will learn about various forms of communication and transport. He or she will learn that people can communicate in many ways, including the spoken word, which can occur face to face, over the phone or on TV or the radio; the written word, which is communicated in newspapers, magazines, books, cards and letters; or for some people, sign language. Your child will also learn about a variety of methods of transport and that people travel on foot, drive in cars or ride on buses as they go about their daily routines.

Your child will have many opportunities to develop communication skills as he or she learns a few simple signs for words; creates and posts cards, letters and pictures to classmates; builds a phone booth; or broadcasts the news from a classroom studio. He or she will also have the opportunity to pretend about various types of transport by building buses, aeroplanes or trains in the Blocks Lab or by purchasing tickets and travelling to other places in the Dramatic Play Lab. After listening to the story Mailing May, your child will see how transport and communication are interrelated. He or she may even act out a trip in the class train. Your child will listen to a variety of stories that reinforce the focus of each day. You may want to have your child communicate by email with a friend or relative who lives far away. After listening to the story Did You Hear About Jake? your child will play a game of ‘Chinese Whispers’ to demonstrate how a message can be changed when several people repeat it. You can play this game at home too, with your family. Your child will remind you how to play if you’ve forgotten this game from your childhood.

Words & Roads Take Us Places

Home Link Activities

Day 1: Ask your child to show you how to play a game called Chinese Whispers.

Work on the How Heavy? Maths Home Link.

Day 2: Watch the people in your home to see how they communicate.

Read the story Dogs in Hats, Dogs in Bows together.

Day 3: Ask your child to teach you how to play Which Word Doesn’t Belong?

Work on the Which is the Heaviest? Maths Home Link.

Day 4: Write a letter to a friend.

Day 5: Ask your child what forms of communication they have learned about.

Read We Can Communicate together.

Day 6: Ask your child what sorts of transport they saw on their way home

from school.

Day 7: Ask your child about the story Mailing May.

Work on the Making 15 Maths Home Link.

Ask your child about a book called Nan’s Pet that you could read together?

Day 8: Ask your child to teach you the song “Down by the Station.” Look in the box

below for the words if your child does not remember them.

Day 9: Ask your child to tell you about different vehicles and how they travel.

Work on the Number Match Maths Home Link.

Day 10: Ask your child to tell you the story about Mrs. Tardy and her field trip.

Play the Before and After number game.

Read How Will We Get There? together.

As always we ask you to read with your child every day. Encourage him or her to

read to you and other family members the stories Dogs in Hats, Dogs in Bows,

Nan’s Pet, We Can Communicate and How Will We Get There?