Dear Larkrise children and parents,

We’ve made a pack of activities for you in case our school needs to close. This includes:

1) A suggested daily schedule (or feel free to create your own)2) Learning tasks that you can complete using your home learning book3) Ideas for breaktimes and free time in the day

Please note – these ideas and activities are supposed to be engaging and fun to help children spend their days productively. Most suggested activities will be suitable for all ages – though obviously the outcomes for children will be very different. Please encourage children to continue to do their best so that they can show their teachers when we are all back in school.

Suggested daily timetable

9am – Wake up your body and brain! Begin with some movement. You aren’t walking to school so find a fitness routine on Youtube or create a plan with your adults and try to stick to it every morning.

9.20am – Maths warm upYounger children: Use number cards labelled 0,1,2,3,4,5,5,6,7,8,9,10 (cut up a cereal box to make cardboard squares that you can use and write the numbers on to these) See how quickly you can make the pairs which add up to ten. Older children: Pick a times table and see how quickly you can write it out in full up to 12x the number. Use the same times table for a few days in a row and see if you can improve your time each day.

9.30am Maths activitiesIf you have access to Purple Mash (all classes) or Mathletics (year 6 only) then use these to develop your maths skills.If your internet is down or too slow then refer to the suggested lesson activities for maths

10.15-10.30 Break time

10.30-11.30 English activitiesSpelling: Use the suggested lesson activities for spelling. Writing: Either use Purple Mash to access English activities at home or refer to the suggested lesson activities for writing.

11.30-11.45 Break time

11.45-12.15 Reading aloud: Using any reading material – either your school book, an online book from purple mash, a book you have at home, a website or something published online (Project Gutenberg has many free to access books available online www.gutenberg.org) read aloud to an adult or perhaps a brother or sister. Then use the suggested lesson activities for reading to find a question that you can respond to, either verbally or by writing in your book.12.15-1.30 Lunchtime: Help your adults to get lunch ready and enjoy some free time in the middle of the day. You could play a board game, do a jigsaw or chill out with a book and read for pleasure. Try to avoid computer games – save these until ‘after school’ times as you would usually.

1.30-2.30 Creative Subjects Focus on something creative – choose an idea from suggested lesson activities for creative subjects

2.30-3 Break time

3-4 Project Work Choose an idea from suggested lesson activities for project work

Suggested lesson activities for each subject. These suggestions are to give ideas or starting points to help structure days of learning which children will also enjoy.

Maths – There are some vital mathematical skills that you can develop at home1) Telling the time. By year 2, children need to be able to tell the time on an analogue

clock to the nearest five minutes. Many children find this difficult, so adult support is important.

2) Understanding of mass – Look at the weight marked on food packets. Find other items in the home which weigh about the same by picking these up and comparing. The vocabulary around weight – e.g. heavier/lighter is important for younger children.

3) Order items in your cupboards – you could do this by size or weight and older children might focus on the nutritional information on the pack of packets (e.g. by amount of sugar per 100g) This could be recorded in a table in your book.

4) Crack those times tables! There has never been a better time to focus on getting these really useful number facts secured. It’s expected that children know up to 12x12 by the end of year 4. Create a chart and tick off each table as you learn it. You could make a snap game by writing the calculation and answer on different pieces of paper and then matching these up as quickly as possible.

5) Use coins to add together. How many ways can you make a given total?6) Check your child’s year group ‘Maths Objective Checklist’ and select key skills to

work on.

English – Younger children will need an adult’s help with these. Older children can be more independent in their work.Spelling

1) Use the spelling list for your year group which is in your reading diary. Select 5 words. Read these aloud to an adult, discuss what they mean and then come up with an imaginative way of remembering how to spell these, for example by breaking the word up (such as with the word Wed-nes-day) or using a mnemonic (for because, I use ‘big elephants can always understand small elephants)

2) Select a root word and challenge yourself to come up with as many different words as you can which link to it. E.g. Hope, hopeful, hopeless, hopefully etc

3) Use bubble writing or ‘look, cover, write, check’ to practise spelling some words from your spelling list which you find tricky

4) Use as many words from your spelling list to create a silly sentence

Writing – These activities can be used multiple times with different books1) Write a new page or new chapter for your reading book using the characters in your

story2) Find similarities and differences between two books that you have read3) Write a diary entry as though you are a character in your book4) Write a newspaper report about an event in your book5) Turn a chapter into a playscript and then perform it when you have written it6) Describe a main character in your story and draw a picture to go with it7) Imagine one of the characters came to school with you one day! What would

happen? Tell the story of their day.

8) Perhaps a character in your book is facing a decision or dilemma. Write a list of the pros and cons for the decision they could take.

Reading – These questions will work with different books and can be discussed or recorded in your home learning book. You can adapt and change these questions to suit what is being read.

1) Clarifying questions: What does that word mean? Where is this part of the story taking place?

2) Inferring questions: How does this character feel at the moment and how do you know? What is this character like and how do you know?

3) Imagining questions: What is the character thinking? What would you do if you were the character?

4) Linking questions: What does this make you think of? What else do you know about..? Can you compare this story to another?

5) Predicting questions: What will happen next? How will it change?6) Summarising questions: What are the 5 main points? What does this page/chapter

tell you?7) Purpose and viewpoint questions: What does the author think about..? What makes

this writing successful?8) Text organisation questions: Why is it in that order? Why has the author told you

that first?9) Writer’s use of language questions: Why did the author choose this word? What do

you notice about the sentences here? What effect has the author created?

Creative subjects – Taking time to focus on being creative helps children to reflect and is helpful for promoting positive mental health

1) Create a collage using torn pieces of newspaper2) Make up a new song that people can wash their hands to – choose a simple tune like

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to sing it to3) Draw the view from your window. 4) Design a new school logo for Larkrise5) Design a new school uniform for Larkrise6) Create your dream weekly timetable for school – don’t forget timings!7) Collect as many items as you can which are the same colour8) Make up a dance for your favourite song9) Follow a recipe and do some cooking with an adult10) Imagine you are opening a new restaurant – design the menu and plan the layout of

the restaurant along with any decoration it may have. Will your restaurant have a theme?

The possibilities are endless – how many creative ideas can you come up with?

Project work - Here are some idea for project work. Tick as you do these or create your own!

Focus on an animalFind Out More Put yourself in the animal’s

shoes!Feel inspired

Find out 5 interesting facts linked to the animal

Research the animal and create a fact file. Include as much detail as you can so that you become a real expert. This task could last several days – as you research its appearance, diet, habitat etc

Imagine you are the animal and describe what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste on a day in your life

Imagine a conversation between two of these animals. Record this as a playscript to show what they would say to each other.

Look carefully at a picture and sketch this animal

Imagine that you have discovered an animal no one has ever seen before and draw it

Create a picture inspired by your thoughts when you look at this animal

Write a poem, short story or song inspired by this animal

Using scrap materials / junk modelling, make a 3d sculpture of this animal

Focus on a famous paintingFind Out More Put yourself in the picture Feel inspired

Find another picture by the same artist

Research the artist and find out about their life

Find out 5 facts linked to the painting or an object in it

Find out about significant events happening in the world at around the same time as this painting was painted

Imagine you are in the painting and describe what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste

Imagine a conversation between people (or objects!) in the painting (or between a person/object in the painting and the viewer). Record this as a playscript to show what they would say to each other.

Look carefully and sketch one detail of this famous painting

Create your own version of this famous painting

Create a picture in a similar style to this painting

Create a picture inspired by your thoughts when you look at this painting

Write a poem, short story or song inspired by an aspect of this painting

Focus on an interesting person in your familyFind Out More Feel inspired

Create a fact file about a person in your family and why they are interesting to you. Write a list of questions to find out as much as you can and interview this person over the phone.-Younger children could focus on favourite colours/foods etc-Older children could ask about how this person came to have their career or developed an interesting hobby

Research your family tree and how this person is related to you. How big can you make your family tree?

Use the year your interesting person was born and research what was going on in the world at the time

Imagine yourself in the future. Create a fact file about the person you could become – the more detail, the more realistic this will sound!-Younger children can talk about what they would like to be when they grow up-Older children could write an autobiography (a story about their own life) as though they are in their 80s and reflecting on their life

If the person you have interviewed has an interesting hobby or job, then learn more about it.

Can your person speak another language? Have a go at learning some words yourself.

Find out about a town that your person grew up in or lived in.

You could focus on other categories: sports, famous buildings, a celebrity, a musician and adapt the questions to give you ideas for what you could work on.Ideas for break times/free choice time

1) Have a snack, grab a drink, move around, stroke a pet!2) Get up, move around. Perhaps set a challenge for yourself! E.g. How many star

jumps can you do in one minute? Record your score and repeat every day to see if you are getting fitter and stronger!

3) Lego have produced this 30 day plan of excellent ideas! Why not work your way through the challenges? No Lego? No problem – these ideas would work equally well as drawing activities, computer based activities or to inspire some junk modelling.

4) You may not have sand available, but dried foods can be fun for construction. Try making structures with spaghetti and playdough.