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Oral Language- Would You Rather...
Ask your child a question eg Would you rather be the size of an ant or the size of an elephant?
Ask them to choose one and explain their choice to you.
Depending on the age of your child your questions could be more or less complex eg would you rather be a cat or a dog? OR would you rather live without your sense of sight or your sense of hearing?

 

 

Early Readers- Cup Tower
What you will need:
1. Paper cups
2. Pen/Pencil

Using paper cups from the supermarket, write some commonly used words that your child has been practising at school. Your child must then read the word before they can add the cup to their tower. The aim of the game is to build the tallest tower!


 

 

 

Rhyming Words
What you will need:
* paper
* pencil

Provide your child with a word eg cat, house, car etc and ask them share any rhyming words they know for that word. You may like to get them to write the words down or draw pictures.

 

 

 


Early Writers Activity

Allowing children, especially younger children, to experiment and use a range of different ways to write is a wonderful way to get them interested in practising writing.

 

You could mix some shaving cream and a bit of food colouring in a sandwich bag and then tape it to a table. Then your child would use a cotton tip to practise writing letters or words as below. (Be careful not to put too much shaving cream in the bag and ensure it is securely closed).

 

 

You could also use things like sand, flour, powder or salt on a tray or plate to allow your child to experiment with the formation of letters and writing words they know. They use their finger to write letters or words and then gently shake the tray or use their hand to smooth over the mixture to reset and have another turn.

 

 

 

 

Rocket Writing

You will need:

- a piece of paper

- a pencil

- a timer, watch etc

  1. Choose a topic to write about or decide on one together eg trains, cats, summer, the jungle, shoes etc. (You could also show your child a picture and ask them to write about the picture).
  2. Talk with your child about their chosen topic or picture to help think of ideas of what they could write about.
  3. Set a timer for 3 minutes. You can allow more time (5 or 10 minutes) if you feel your child needs more time to write however it is meant to be fast like a rocket!
  4. Once the timer is set your child can write about their topic or picture in whatever style of writing they choose eg story writing, persuasive, letter etc
  5. Once the time is up, ask your child to read their writing to you.
  6. Draw a picture to match their writing.

When you try this activity again try a different topic or picture to write about!

 

 

 

 

Shapes, Shapes, Shapes!

Shapes treasure hunt
Ask your child to look around the house and identify items that are specific shapes eg circle, square, rectangle, triangle, rhombus, pentagon, hexagon etc. Ask your child questions like- how do you know this is a circle? What can you tell me about this shape?

Students could write the name of the object, draw it or collect it and place them in groups of like shapes.

** You can also try this activity with 3D objects including a cube, cylinder, cone, sphere, pyramid etc.


Shapes Sort
What you will need:
* paper
* scissors

Create giant shapes out of paper and place on the table. Show these shapes to your child as a guide. Shapes could include- triangle, square, rectangle, circle, rhombus, pentagon, hexagon etc.

Allow your child to use old catalogues, magazines, newspapers or paper to cut out shapes similar to the ones you have provided. Ask them to talk to you about the shapes as they cut them out.

** Alternatively you may already have shapes of different sizes already cut out and ask your child to sort them to the correct group.


Shapes Pictures
What you will need:
* paper
*pencils

Provide your child with some paper and ask them to draw a picture using 2D shapes. Once finished ask your child to share and talk about their picture with you.
You may like to ask them to colour all the squares one colour, all the circles another colour etc.

 

 

 

Maths- Card Game

Make 10

You will need:

* 1 pack of playing cards


 

 

Maths- Card Game


KNOCKOUT  

For 2 players

Ages 6-11

 

AIM: To place all your counters on the gameboard before your opponent. 

 

TIPS: To ‘KNOCKOUT’ your opponent’s counters off the gameboard and replace with your own.

 

YOU WILL NEED:

1 gameboard (as pictured below)

12 counters: 6 of one colour, 6 of another

1 deck of cards, (picture cards removed (King, Queen, Jack), Ace = 1

KNOCKOUT

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HOW TO PLAY:

  1. Both players collect 6 counters of one colour each.
  2. Player 1 turns over 2 cards from the deck. They can then either ADD or SUBTRACT the numbers, e.g. 5 and 9 could be 9 + 5 = 14 or 9 - 5 = 4. They then place one of their counters on the number.
  3. Player 2 has a turn. When they turn over their cards, they can add or subtract their cards and put a counter on the total. They can try to make the same total as their opponent’s total and ‘knockout’ their opponent’s counter from the gameboard and replace it with their own. e.g. If they turned over 6 and 8 it would make 6 + 8 = 14. They can ‘knockout’ their opponent’s counter, return it to their opponent and put their counter in its place.
  4. They continue taking turns to add or subtract their cards and place a counter on the total of the 2 cards. Each time attempting to ‘knockout’ their opponent. 
  • The winner is the first to have their 6 counters on the board!!

ADAPTING FOR ALL STUDENTS

 

FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS: When adding or subtracting, use the pictures (hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs) count to add and subtract.

TO EXTEND FOR OLDER STUDENTS: In their efforts to knockout their opponent’s counters, students can begin to be creative with the operations they use on each card turned over. The more confident they become with +, -,  and ÷, doubling, tripling, halving, etc, the more calculations they will be able to use.

 

For example: Students can: 

  • Multiply or divide the numbers. Eg. 3 x 4= 12  or 9 ÷ 3 = 3
  • Before adding or subtracting they can DOUBLE, TRIPLE, HALVE, QUARTER, etc. one of the cards

e.g. they turn over 3 and 4, they can double 3 = 6, then add 4 = 10 and record: (2 x 3) + 4 = 10.

e.g. they turn over 3 and 4 they can triple 3 and record: (3 x 3) + 4 = 13

 

 

 

Place Value Scavenger Hunt

 

You will need:

  • Pencil
  • Paper
  • Magazines/newspapers
  • Scissors

 

Ask your child to find numbers that have a specific amount of hundreds, tens or ones by finding the numbers in a magazine or newspaper and cutting them out. For example, 5 in the tens place means a number between 50-59. A number that has 3 in the hundreds place could be any number between 300-399 etc. 

 

You may prefer just to ask your child to point out the number if they see it rather than cut it out OR ask them to tell you a number they know that matches the specific place value. 

 

Alternatively, you may like to play the game differently by asking them to tell you about any numbers they see around them. For example, I see the number 56 on our letterbox and that is made up of 5 tens and 6 ones.


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