Ideas for everyone: Week 3
Below are this week's new activities to access. As previously, there is no prescriptive set of activities for any individual child but a selection to choose from based on your child's needs and interests. You may already still have lots to do - that's fine - these new activities are here for if you want or need them.
Miss Campling, Mr Quilter and Mrs Haley continue to monitor the closure@greattotham.essex.sch.uk email address should you need support with your child's learning. Any concerns about your child's social and emotional health should be directed to Mrs Lawrence or Miss Cleghorn.
We understand the children will want to keep in touch with their friends during this time and recognise how important it is. Could we ask that you recap e safety rules with the children and also remind them that any messages sent via social media should be kind. It can be easy for the children to forget when they are not face to face with people. You can support this through regularly monitoring the groups and apps your child is using.
All children, no matter what their age and ability, should be reading and being read to, at least once a day. Why not make a 'Book of the day' and complete activities around it?
There are many audiobooks available free online - we understand that 'Audible' has opened it's subcription as free.
Internet based resources
A wide variety of educational resource providers have kindly opened their websites with extended free trials to support families with school closures. Please select activities as appropriate for your child based on advice of target areas at the recent parents evening.
Please note: we are led to believe these resources are free but we have not assessed each one individually - there is NO expectation from the school that any of these sites need to be accessed. The choice lies with you as a family, including knowing when free trials may end. These click-to-follow links are signposts to sites we are aware of but not explored; the appropriateness of each site needs to be assessed by an adult within the family.
Printable resources for a wide variety of subject areas.
Printable and online resources for maths and English.
Online games and activities for a variety of subject areas.
Games and resources for spelling.
Online platform for computer programming practice.
The Reading Realm - App for Apple devices. Activities and games linked to texts.
Free ebooks, reading activities and reading, English and maths activities and support.
Free support with learning languages.
Wide variety of information, games and activities on a wide variety of topics.
Online maths games.
Online times tables games.
Read something new - find something out! Activities, games, quizzes and resources.
Online maths games.
10 minute game ideas to keep active.
Online maths and English games.
Some lovely activities for our young constructors.
Concerned with nature and the outdoors, this organisation offers outdoor, mindfulness and reflective activities.
BBC touch typing resource.
Wide variety of information, games and activities on a wide variety of topics.
Activities to support children's health and well-being at home.
Lots of online reading books - lots of different categories. Select a level on the top right hand corner.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
Websites and activities to have a look at
Phonics play is now free during the closure period using
username: march20 password: home
Have an explore!
Mr Thorne does phonics - search him on YouTube, there are videos for lots of sounds.
Share the story of Saving Easter (click picture for the ebook)
Write a letter from the Easter Bunny to thank the animals for helping to save Easter. Pretend to be one of the chickens in the story and write a postcard to the Easter Bunny. You could write about where you have been, what the weather was like and when you will be home.
Share the story of Brenda’s Boring Egg.
Design your own amazing egg. Write a description of Brenda.
Write your own Easter Bunny adventure. Where would you go? What do you see? Who do you meet?
Share the Easter story
Ask your child to retell the story in their own words.
Easter word search
Reception rhyming words - This could be played as a game of pairs.
English booklet Year 1
English booklet Year 2
Make a picture of a rabbit or a chick using 2D shapes.
You can create your own or use the following resources.
Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s.
These are some songs that may help.
Maths booklets
Reception Year 1 Year 2
Art activities
Make a hand print chicken Make egg window decorations.
Science activities
Try one of these exciting science experiments.
Postcard template
Letter template
Saving Easter PowerPoint
Brenda's boring egg PowerPoint
Amazing Egg activity
Two coloured daisy prompt card and activity card
Grass head prompt card and activity card
Shaving foam rain clouds prompt card and activity card
Reception additional printable resources - click to download and print
Year 2 additional printable resources - click to download and print
Year 1 additional printable resources - click to download and print
Year 3 and Year 4
English Activities
Watch the following videos of the Easter Story celebrated during Holy Week by Christians.
- full 25min version
Some smaller bitesize cartoon versions are also below:
Palm Sunday Maundy Thursday Good Friday – Easter Sunday
Easter Story writing opportunities:
-
Diary Entry.
Write a diary entry of one of the events in the Easter Story. Perhaps think about writing from the perspective of another important person from the series of events. Don’t forget to use all the skills we have been practising in school and remember diaries are all about telling your thoughts and feelings about what happened to you rather than just a list of things that you did.
-
Re-write the Easter Story.
Why not take the story and re-write it? Make it interesting with your choice of openers, conjunctions, vocabulary and sue of speech. Remember to describe things using your senses. Year 4 don’t forget to use actions of characters and body language/facial expression to create feelings in your writing.
Information Poster
Puzzling plants and animals. Select a plant or unusual animal that is found in Africa. Do some research online and make some notes about your chosen plant or animal. Think about dividing your notes into sections, such as appearance, habitat. Create an information poster about your plant or animal to be displayed in a zoo where it is kept.
Think about:
• What sections you need to have
• How you are going to set it out
• How you are going to make your information interesting to read
Spelling activities
Select 3/4 at the top and then any of the bird boxes to practise.
Same as above but with a ‘spooky theme’
This one helps practise a spelling rule that all children find hard.
When do you double the consonant when adding a suffix or ‘ing’ or ‘ed’
Try the countdown conundrum – look for suffixes and prefixes to help. Can you find the nine letter word? Just select the conundrum tab. Why not try the letters game, how many words can you find – spell them correctly though! Just select the letters tab.
Reading Activities
Year 3
Answer the questions on this Easter themed reading comprehension. Choose your difficulty as 1 star is the less challenging and 3 star is the most challenging.
Year 4
Answer the questions on this Easter themed reading comprehension. Choose your difficulty as 1 star is the less challenging and 3 star is the most challenging.
Maths activities
A number of activities have also been set on my MyMaths please take a look. If unsure, complete the lesson option before looking at the homework section.
Try these Easter themed multiplication mosaics. Try this Easter themed maths activity
A good game to get the grey matter ticking. Remember you can stop the timer and remove the pressure of only having 30 secs. Who can get the closest? Just select the numbers tab.
A favourite for learning your division facts Can you do it daily and beat your last score?
with lots of ways to play. Select which
tables you want to check (or select them all)
and then decide if you want time pressure or not.
Try this activity to see what happens
when you add odd and even numbers Try this activity to get you thinking.
together. Start at the clue then go
into the problem section.
Try this activity, you may need to begin with a trial and error approach.
History
Think about a period of history you have been studying in school – Egyptians, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings? Complete further research about life in these times (on a computer or tablet if you have access to one) or make notes about what you have already learnt in school. There are two options for this piece of learning.
You could either:
a) Complete a PowerPoint presentation – Consider everyday life, homes, food, jobs, warfare.
b) Create an informative quiz about life in those times. Use your facts and knowledge to write questions (and answers!). Test it out on a family member!
Life-skills
The Easter egg is a symbol to represent new beginning/new life and is a special symbol for Christians. Decorate an outline of an egg with the things that make you special. Think about what you think you are good at as well as how other people see you. Ask your grown-ups or text friends to find out what they think is special about you. this can be words or images that best represent you…use you imagination.
Music
Pick a piece of music you enjoy listening to. Can you work out all the musical instruments being played? Remind yourself of the interrelated dimensions of music and see if you can spot when they change.
PULSE, TEXTURE, TIMBRE, PITCH, DYNAMIC, TEMPO.
Science
Year 3
Try this healthy living toolkit on tasting vegetables, investigating sugar and how to make your diet as healthy as possible.
Year 4
Try some of these States of Matter investigations
Year 3 Success Criteria you should be considering:
I have used full stops and Capital letters correctly.
I have used a range of conjunctions.
I have used vocabulary to create effect in my readers mind.
I have punctuated my speech.
I have edited my work.
I have checked my work makes sense fully.
Year 4 Success Criteria you should be considering:
I have used full stops and Capital letters correctly.
I have used a range of conjunctions.
I have used good openers
HOW/WHERE/WHEN/CONJ
I have used vocabulary to create effect in my readers mind.
I have used actions/facial expressions and body language to describe action.
Paragraphs
My speech punctuation is correct.
I have edited my work.
I have checked my work makes sense fully.
Lesson plan
Sugar detectives
Spying on sugar
Fruit and veg favourites
Smoothie algorithm
5 a day diary
Drink rethink
Year 3 printable resources - click to download and print
Year 4 printable resources - click to download and print
Year 5 and 6 Easter themed activities
This week in school, the children are completing some Easter themed activities. Why not try some of the following:
Write an Easter egg poem – use the template found here
Make an Easter card
Make a daffodil other sites have instructions too.
Draw a picture of your garden.
Science
Make a chicken sound from a cup
Make a simple duck call (sorry adults!)
Add colour to flowers using science.
Year 5
Maths
Complete the maths quizzes. These are topics we have covered in school so this should be revision! If you are unsure, use My Maths to find related content and complete the lesson activities and then come back to the quizzes.
Quiz 1 (click for link) – add and subtract numbers mentally plus adding and subtracting investigation and number pyramid Number pyramids
Quiz 2 (click for link) – rounding
Quiz 3 (click for link) – multi-step problems
Quiz 4 (click for link) – complete, read and interpret information in timetables
Quiz 5 (click for link) – perimeter of rectangular shapes plus additional sheet Perimeter
English: Alice in Wonderland continued
Read/listen up to and including Chapter 7 the Mad-Hatter’s tea party
Activity idea 1: Read the extract below and use it to respond to the following questions:
1) First Alice arrives at the table and is not welcomed.
‘No room! No room!’ they cry.
Explain why this is rude and what they might have said if they were being polite and welcoming.
2) Next the March Hare offers Alice something that is not on the table. What is it and what might he have said that would have been more polite?
3) Choose another rude remark or action, quote it using speech marks and explain why it is rude and what the character might have said instead.
Activity idea 2: Choose three of your favourite story characters. Imagine that you meet up for a tea party. Write a short conversation between the characters – using polite ways of asking and answering questions. Make sure you punctuate your speech accurately.
Activity idea 3: Find the meaning of the following words. List their definitions and try to use each word in your own sentence. Think about varying your sentence openers. Then, use Look Cover Write Check to learn the spellings. You could also play spelling games (hangman, battleships etc) or use different spelling strategies to help you remember how to spell them (e.g. coloured vowels, pyramid letters).
indignantly
encouraging
civil
curiosity
severity
extract
Activity idea 4: Write a diary entry in role as Alice. How did you feel when you approached the tea-party? What surprised you? What did you think of the other ‘people’? Remember, when you write a diary, it is important to share your thoughts and feelings. It is very personal and informal. Try to show this through your writing. Remember to use your year 5 writing skills (different openers, interesting words, commas used accurately etc)
Activity idea 5: Character description.
Choose one of the characters from the tea party and write a detailed description of them. Describe what they look like and how they behave. Remember to use interesting vocabulary. You could illustrate your work with a drawing of them too.
Resource 1: Mad-Hatter’s tea party extract
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. ‘Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,’ thought Alice; ‘only, as it’s asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind.’
The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. ‘No room! No room!’ they cried out when they saw Alice coming. ‘There’s plenty of room!’ said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.
‘Have some wine,’ the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. ‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.
‘There isn’t any,’ said the March Hare.
‘Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,’ said Alice angrily.
‘It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,’ said the March Hare.
‘I didn’t know it was your table,’ said Alice; ‘it’s laid for a great many more than three.’
‘Your hair wants cutting,’ said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.
‘You should learn not to make personal remarks,’ Alice said with some severity; ‘it’s very rude.’
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, ‘Why is a raven like a writing- desk?’
‘Come, we shall have some fun now!’ thought Alice.
‘I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles. – I believe I can guess that,’ she added aloud.
‘Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?’ said the March Hare.
‘Exactly so,’ said Alice.
‘Then you should say what you mean,’ the March Hare went on.
Lifeskills:
In the Mad-hatter’s tea party there is lots of evidence of ‘people’ displaying poor manners. We have been learning about manners in school. Design a poster to encourage people to demonstrate good manners. Explain why this is important.
Science: Space link
In the Autumn term, you studied Earth, moon and space. Try some of these activities to refresh and further your learning.
Activity idea 1
Activity idea 2: Space timeline: Can you match the events to the dates? You may need to do some research on the computer to check.
Activity idea 3: Is there anybody out there?
1. Questions to consider
Use the questions below to inspire a philosophical discussion with your child:
Are we alone in the universe?
Who owns space?
Who do the Sun, the Moon and the planets belong to?
Is it okay for us to fill space with debris from old satellites and rockets?
Rather than polluting Earth with our waste, would it be alright to blast it into space, where it cannot harm us?
If we did discover alien life, what responsibilities would we have to it?
2. Is there anybody out there?
The mystery of whether alien life exists, and how we might respond to it, makes a fascinating topic for discussion.
Discuss ‘alien’ films and TV programmes that your children have seen or heard of. For instance: ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Aliens, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Independence Day, Men in Black, Mars Attacks, Star Wars, War of the Worlds, Star Trek and Doctor Who.
Ask your children to consider what these films and TV programmes ‘say’ about our attitude to aliens.
How do they think we would feel and react if aliens really did land on Earth?
3. The right decision?
Ask your children to think about scenarios around the ‘Journey into space’ theme. Challenge them to think and talk about what might be moral, ethical or ‘right’ in different circumstances, using this example:
Mankind discovers an alien species, far less developed than our own. This species inhabits a planet with rich natural resources. These resources could be mined by human beings and used to improve life back on Earth. Is it right to take them?
Year 6
Maths
Complete the maths quizzes. These are topics we have covered in school so this should be revision! If you are unsure, use My Maths to find related content and complete the lesson activities and then come back to the quizzes.
Quiz 1 – addition and subtraction in context
Quiz 2 – factors, multiples and primes plus game
Quiz 3 – add and subtract fractions
Quiz 4 – units of measure plus problems
Quiz 5 – area and perimeter plus additional sheet
English
Watch the video clip (click the Literacy Shed picture) and discuss what has happened in the story.
Activity idea 1: After watching the video clip, make a list of the feelings you had. Use a thesaurus to find synonyms (words that have a similar meaning) and antonyms (words that have the opposite meaning) for these words. Draw a thermometer scale and place the words on the scale to show the level of intensity.
Activity idea 2: retell the story. Make sure you describe the setting effectively and build tension by not revealing too much about the dream giver at the start. Can you change how the reader feels about the dream giver (for example, you might make the reader think he is frightening at the start but then show that he actually delivers good dreams – until the accident)? Make sure you ‘show’ how characters feel through their actions and responses. Remember to use all of your Y6 writing skills (different sentence openers, advanced punctuation, ‘wow’ vocabulary etc).
Activity idea 3: I had a dream … /If I could dream about anything I would dream about …
What do you dream about? Write a paragraph to describe your dreams or what you would like to dream about.
Activity idea 4: Write a poem about dreams. It could be about dreams you have when you are sleeping or it could be about your future dreams. Try to use some examples of figurative language and vivid descriptions.
Activity idea 5: Choose ten of the new words you have found and use Look Cover Write Check to help you remember how to spell them. You could use some of the spelling strategies/ideas you have used in school e.g. colour the vowels, pyramid etc. You could try playing spelling battleships or hangman.
Art/Craft
Activity idea 1: Make a dream catcher. If you don’t have paper plates, you could cut out a circle from card or paper.
Activity idea 2: Make a dream jar.
Activity idea 3: Draw a picture of a dream land. What would you have in it? Is it a pleasant or a frightening place? Think about the colours you would use to convey this.
History: Ancient Greece
Read the information about mythical monsters. Then try to create your own. Draw a picture and write a description – remember your Y6 writing skills!
