Dear parents, due to the circumstances, schools have to momentarily change the way how we teach pupils. We are sending some work packs and, additionally, we are publishing here some useful websites to support home-learning for Primary pupils.
If your child is struggling to sleep well, see some learning resources and activities to help improve this.
If you think that your child is struggling with understanding what is coronavirus, or if you are unsure how to explain it in a child-friendly way, please see these wonderful book story and worksheets.
Reading at home!
Please see below for lots of links to different channels, where your child can access lots of fantastic resources. We understand it can be difficult to get your child to engage with reading at home and I hope that these links take some of the pressure off. Lots involve videos where the children are read to J You can have a chat about the books once you have watched together.
The Little Angel Theatre Company, based in Islington, are adding stories regularly to their Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLittleATheatre/videos
The fantastic author, Oliver Jeffers, is reading one of his brilliant books each day and uploading to his website and Youtube. You can also access the books he has already read. Lots of our children will be familiar with these books!
https://www.oliverjeffers.com/abookaday
David Walliams is reading chapter from his hilarious texts each day. Previous chapters stay up for one week.
The Literacy Trust have put together a beautiful book, in collaboration with lots of brilliant poets and authors, called The Book of Hopes. This is currently free on the link below:
https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/9-12/book-hopes/
Author James Mayhew, who writes books for children in Key Stage 2, has been uploading videos of himself reading chapters from his books:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqq_Iz_q3pFTkkju-PpVOFA
The Book Wanderers on Youtube have videos of different authors reading their books:
World Book Day’s website still has lots of brilliant videos of various books, suitable for all ages and across a range of genres:
https://www.worldbookday.com/world-of-stories/
The Book Trust have a great website filled with videos of stories, including follow up quizzes and activities linked to the videos:
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/hometime#!?q=&sortOption=AtoZ&pageNo=1
The Reading Realm are hosting free lessons each day, linked to texts. It’s on Facebook but you don’t need an account to watch, the link takes you straight to the videos.
Oxford Owl has lots of lovely activities and tasks you can complete at home, with minimal equipment needed.
Every day, the Body Coach, Joe Wicks will be doing a PE lesson on YouTube at 9am. Find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=K6r99N3kXME&app=desktop Daily news for children! https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround
General academic games websites: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/ (free during school closures only) https://www.arcademics.com/ https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games https://www.learninggamesforkids.com/
Reading, including stories being read online: https://www.storylineonline.net/ https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/ https://www.freechildrenstories.com/ https://www.getepic.com/ https://www.researchify.co.uk/audiobooks.html https://www.elementari.io/ (free during school closures only)
Phonics: https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.html https://www.phonicsbloom.com/ http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/(games and printable activities) https://monsterphonics.com/games/ https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/(100% free if using on a computer/laptop) https://onlinephonicsgames.com/
Maths: https://myminimaths.co.uk/mini-maths-tasks/ (free printable worksheets) https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/category/22/most-popular https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/?s=maths+online+activity&fwp_post_types=activities https://mathszone.co.uk/ https://www.transum.org/Software/Game/ https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/index.html https://www.primarygames.com/math.php https://www.mathsisfun.com/games/ http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/(includes videos explaining different concepts, as well as worksheets and games!)
Youtube channels to watch about academic topics:
-Crash Course Kids
Science Channel
SciShow Kids
National Geographic Kids
Free School
Geography Focus
TheBrainScoop
SciShow
Kids Learning Tube
Greek Gurl Diaries
Mike Likes Science
Science Max
SoulPancake
Interactive Maths games sites link http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/maths/index.html
Interactive Science games sites link http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/science/index.html
Interactive English games sites link http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/index.htm
KS1 ideas – Internet based
Encounter Edu designs and delivers sponsored STEM programmes transforming education in the classroom. Their immersive experiences give students the necessary understanding and skills to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues.
https://www.ignitefutures.org.uk/resources
Tiny tots what’s in the box and if you have a garden, scavenger hunt could be adapted in several ways.
https://sites.google.com/view/carolekenrick/science-at-home
At the moment, Carole has upload just EYFS and primary but she’s working
her way up to AL I believe. So keep checking her stuff.
#skulloftheday
Chris Packham showing a skull from his collection everyday with the answers at about 6pm in the evening.
The Royal Institution – videos for possible at home science experiments e.g. making butter.
https://www.rigb.org/families/experimental
NASA STEM engagement
https://www.nasa.gov/stem lots of ideas
European Space Agency for KS2-4
http://www.esa.int/Education/Online_material
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z6svr82
BBC Teach and BBC bitesize with live lessons, topics with quizzes etc
Plus advice from the BBC about parents teaching from home
Free videos, crafts and activities to keep you entertained at home
Little Angel Theatre staff has contacted us to let us know that they have been “creating a whole host of free activities to help primary aged children keep creative whilst they’re at home.”
“The activities include video stories (read by our performers), arts and crafts activities including puppet making (presented by our Creative Learning team), and a series of ‘Make a Puppet Show at Home’ videos (presented by our Artistic Director and her two primary aged children). The art and craft resources also suggest ideas for follow up activities to support other curriculum areas such as English. Next week will be themed around Easter, ready for the school holidays.In this week’s highlight, you can watch Three Little Pigs written, illustrated and read by Alex Bloomer, and then join in as our Head of Creative Learning Sarah takes you through how to make your own pig and wolf puppets to re-enact the story at home.”
You can find more activity ideas here.
Non-internet ideas – Plants and animals: these can be done over a few weeks. Some can be done inside, some outside during exercise time. If you don’t have packets of seeds, look at the seeds inside tomatoes, peppers, apples etc.
- We are changing from winter into spring, look out of the window, is there a tree? How is it changing? Take photos of trees and plants each week and compare the changes. If you go outside once a day to exercise, take photos of trees and other plants too. Ask them questions before they go such as – how many plants will we see? Are they all the same type? Which plants grow in the cracks in the pavement, which grow in someone’s garden, which grow in the park etc?
- Ask your child to draw you a picture of a) a plant b) a flower c) a leaf (remember that a tree is also a plant and that plants do not always have flowers. Can you find some pictures of flowering and non-flowering plants? Can you see some during your daily exercise? You may see some blossom on trees – blossom is the trees flower)
When you go outside to exercise, collect 5 different leaves from plants and trees.
- Try to sort the leaves into 2 different groups, what have you based your sorting on? Can you find another way to sort them? Try to develop the language around colour – what type of green? What shape etc.
This can be done several times over the spring/summer as different leaves emerge. If you can, get some deciduous and evergreen leaves and maybe a variegated (2 colours e.g. some ivy are variegated)
- Pick one leaf and let your child pick one leaf. Draw the leaves as well as you can. Can you name any parts of the leaf?
- Split a piece of A4 paper into 3 sections. In the first section one person looks at their leaf and describes/writes down what they can see in great detail. On the last section, the other person writes down their description. You then look at both and write the similarities between your leaves in the middle section of the paper. If you want to, you can look up the names for some simple parts of the leaves.
- Plant some seeds on your windowsill and watch them grow over time. Once they appear, carefully measure how tall they get each day and plot on a simple graph…..this could be done by cutting out a strip of paper each day for the height of the plant and sticking on paper to make a bar graph.
- Choose 3 leaves. Which one might be the odd one out and why?
- Go back to the picture of the plant. Can you label stem or trunk, stork, roots, leaves, flowers or berries? You will need to come back to these names several times during spring/summer. When you are out during exercise time, find a plant, can they point to the stem, leaves, and where the roots might be?
- Pick one leaf from your collection. When they go out for exercise, can they find the plant that it came from?
- Can they begin to name trees and simple plants e.g. Plane tree, Oak tree, Chestnut tree, dandelion, daisy, rose, bluebell, daffodil – depending on what you can see in your area. Take photos of things you cannot name and look them up later. www.Ispotnature.org is a good place to identify things you can’t find the name of elsewhere. Register (free) and upload your photo – someone from the helpful community will identify it.
Can you tell which plants grow from bulbs (daffodil, bluebell) and which grow from seeds? Look out for seeds as we move into summer.
- Go outside and find a tree. Bend over and look through your legs. Move backwards and forwards until you can see the top of the tree. The distance you are from the tree at this point is roughly how tall the tree is! Tree to measure that distance in strides.
- If you have some packets of seeds and bulbs, get out a selection of the seeds. Look at them. How are seeds and bulbs different? How are they the same? Can you put them in order of size?
- Do small seeds grow into small plants? Do larger seeds grow into taller plants? Plant some seeds and find out over time.
- Think of a menu for a soup, stir fry, salad etc. What are the ingredients? Which ingredients can we grow? Which can’t we grow (milk, salt, eggs in the mayonnaise, etc). Which things can be grown but then have to be changed in some way (oil – has to be pressed by a machine to release the oil. Think of olive oil or oil seed rape). Of the things we need to grow for our chosen recipe, when would we need to plant them? Which months of the year and when would they be ready to harvest? www.Rhs.org.uk and similar websites can help you plan planting times and conditions.
- During exercise times close your eyes, what sounds can you hear? Can you hear any birds? Can you see any birds? Take photos of birds and try to find out what type they are. Again, use www.ispotnature.org for any you can’t find elsewhere. Can they name crows, pigeons, sparrows, seagulls, blackbirds etc? Which plants do you see the birds near or on? What are they doing? What are they eating? Can you tell the difference between the birds song and their alarm call?
- Write a story with pictures about a bird you have seen, what made it sing out an alarm call? How did it feel? Who was it singing out danger to? How did it feel when the danger went away?
- Can you find any animals/minibeasts living in the houses or outside? Can you draw them? Can you name them (spider, bee, wasp, ant, fly, worm, woodlouse, butterfly/moth, etc) Can you label the head, body, legs and any wings? Any other parts? Can you find out where they live and what do they eat? How do they hide?
- Can you collect fallen leaves, twigs etc and use any pencils or crayons or materials to make pictures of the animals you find?
- If you are lucky enough to live near a pond on your daily walks/exercise, look out for frogspawn and watch each week to see if tadpoles emerge, when do they change into froglets and finally frogs. Can you draw the life cycle? Can you find out about other life cycles such as butterflies and bees? Can you draw them?
Science ideas KS2
You may not be able to deliver all of your planned curriculum. Do what you can, but maybe some slightly outside curriculum will be sufficient in the short term.
NASA STEM engagement https://www.nasa.gov/stem lots of ideas
European Space Agency for KS2-4 http://www.esa.int/Education/Online_material
Little booklets that can be printed and folder on A4 paper. Students could be asked to make a poster of the information or answer some questions or asked to find out the shapes of galaxies, draw and name them for instance.
KS2/3
Reach out reporter – you need to sign up and log into this Primary website, the articles in the reporter section are also suitable for KS3 though. https://www.reachoutreporter.com/news-update/hurricane-irma-a-record-breaking-astronaut-and-unusual-animal-behaviour/
Just check the websites that the research directs you too. Sometimes there are links to other research websites on the same page and not all may be suitable, depending on age.
https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/cutting-edge-science-primary-schools
Although a KS1/2 website, The “I Bet You Didn’t Know” section continues cutting edge research projects suitable also for KS3. Can be printed and questions asked.
KS2
The Royal Institution – videos for possible at home science experiments. https://www.rigb.org/families/experimental
