Covid 19 School Closure

Class: Primary 1 Date: 18/05/20 Fortnightly Theme: Baking/The Little Red Hen

Dear Parent,

Please see below for some ideas for you to support your child during the coming weeks. Activities are in

order of difficulty going from the more accessible to the more challenging. Please don’t hesitate to

contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Fine Motor Skills

● Continue to use simple fine motor activities on a daily basis. Choose activities that your child

responds well to

o Interact with magnets

o Tearing cotton wool/paper/tissue/cardboard/foil

o Popping bubble wrap

o Linking paper clips

o Interact with marshmallow/playdoh/clay/pastry. For example, pushing

playdoh/clay/pastry through a garlic crusher. Flattening using a rolling pin. Mark-making

using a pencil or similar object

o Using a sponge or cloth to squeeze or twist in warm soapy water to make suds

o Writing with fingers in sand, cornflour (mixed with water), or shaving foam

o Writing on a chalkboard. Or using chalk to write on the ground/walls outside (where

appropriate)

● Put-in and Sorting activities attached. This connects with numeracy

● Encourage your child to participate in daily household activities to help develop life skills

o Help with hanging out the washing (squeezing pegs)

o Tidying away cutlery (sorting and putting-in)

● Painting with cotton buds

● Colouring Sheets - The Little Red Hen. Use crayons, pencils, paint or collage with glue and torn

pieces of paper

● Help with baking/cooking (suggested Visual Recipes in Sensory section)

o Stirring

o Pouring

o Counting/sorting/tidying

o Spreading

Gross Motor Skills

● Continue to follow as many gross motors activities as possible on a daily basis (see attached for

more ideas)

o Stretching/reaching activities; eg. reaching /jumping to pop bubbles

o Balance activities eg using tape make a line on the floor for the child to follow. Create

zigzags for more of a challenge

o Sitting/rolling on a yoga ball or large bean bag

o Jumping on a trampoline

o Wrapping tightly in a blanket/duvet

o Throwing and kicking a small bean bag or ball

o Catching small bean bag or ball

Sensory Activities

● Continue to include sensory play throughout the day

o Spinning an object, for example spinning top or fidget spinner

o Water Play- outdoors particularly if the weather is nice

o Fill a large lunch box or similar container with rice and hide little items/toys in the rice

for the child to search for

o Cause/Effect activities. For example, toys such as Pop-Up Pirate, pushing a car down a

ramp; rolling a ball etc.

● Cooking/Baking

○ Introduce your child to simple visual recipes. Identify the individual items associated

with each visual first. There are two easy recipes I would recommend to try as an

introduction. Both are attached.

■ Making Toast

■ Peanut butter and Jam Sandwich

Communication Activities

● Continue to follow previous recommendations for communication activities. Repetition is very

important.

o Play/interact with a musical instrument or noisy toy

o Describe for the child daily activities as you are doing them, keeping language simple

and progressing gradually. For example, when opening a drawer/door/window say

‘Open’ or ‘Open-window’. Then move on to ‘Mum-opens-window’

o You can also label activities the child is doing. ‘Eating-toast’, ‘Washing-hands’. Use

plenty of gestures/facial expression and animation in your voice

o Mimic or respond to vocalisations that the child makes to encourage all communications

● Develop understanding of ‘where’ questions using real objects and activities. Repeat these

activities using as many different objects and books from your home/locality

o Play hide and seek with toys and objects or people. ‘Where is x?’

● Communication Temptations (attached)

○ Incorporate these throughout the day when you are playing/interacting with your child

● Vocab Builders (attached)

Literacy

● This fortnight we are reading The Little Red Hen. Watch the videos or use the Powerpoint

attached to read the story. Aim to read the story once a day for practice.

o The Little Red Hen Fairy Tales and Bedtime Stories for Kids in English

o The Little Red Hen #ReadAlong StoryBook Video For Kids Ages 2-7

● Sight word matching

o Using the items shown in the image below (A4 or A3 card, markers, scissors, self-

adhesive labels), create an interactive sight word matching activity. Sight words are

everyday words that we see/read regularly and are very important for children

beginning to learn to read. Keep it simple to begin with, use short (2-3 letter) sight

words and only include 5-6 words on the sheet. Increasing gtadually if your child finds

this task easy

o Kindergarten Sight Words

o You can also write words that are ‘high-interest’ for your child such as their favourite

cartoon

o The child matches the word on the label with the word on the sheet. The adult models

saying the word out loud. This activity can be repeated daily. Encourage the child to say

the word with you

● Little Red Hen read and trace (attached)

Numeracy Activities

● Continue to practise numeracy activities from the previous fortnight

○ Using a Bead Maze/Roller Coaster, count as the beads are being moved through one at a

time. Progress to naming the colours with your child

○ Increasing the number of Lego pieces being played with. Encourage the child to play for

longer periods of time

○ Continue to play with different Inset puzzles or jigsaw puzzles, increasing the number of

pieces if possible

● The following tasks are all attached

○ Put-in tasks

○ Sorting tasks

○ Scavenger Hunts

○ Number recognition

○ Number formation

○ Little Red Hen Counting

○ Little Red Hen Addition