 I hope my Top Tips for Successful Home Schooling in Lockdown was helpful. For this post, I thought I would list some some fun and educational things that you could do with your children while stuck at home. You could use these ideas if your child's school hasn't sent home any work, if they finish all the work set or if you feel they need more practise or reinforcement of particular concepts. I teach Year Four (8-9 year olds) at the moment, but there are ideas here for all age groups and will be a mixture of online and offline, written and unwritten activities. General Educational Resources: Twinkl As a teacher, I use this website a lot. It's been a Godsend! It has loads of fantastic teaching and learning resources across the age ranges and is offering a free month’s access for parents during the closures  Twinkl have also produced home learning packs for each primary year group Purple Mash I love Purple Mash! It hosts an exciting mash-up of curriculum focused activities, creative tools, programs and games to support and inspire creative learning every day. From poems to newspapers, masks and 3D models, animations and textured paintings, Purple Mash can support your creative curriculum throughout the year. As Purple Mash is online, children can continue their learning anywhere and anytime. Each user receives an individual login to save and retrieve their work. They are offering 60 days free access for parents during the school closures. TES Resources A site filled with free and paid resources including some excellent subject specific content Teachers Pet Teacher’s Pet have produced some home learning packs for use during the course of the closures. Classroom Secrets Teacher’s Pet have produced some home learning packs for use during the course of the closures. BBC Bitesize The reliable BBC - always there in a crisis. They have lots of information about a variety of topics/curriculum areas to help children with research projects/home learning. Also, beginning Monday 20 April, they will publish daily online lessons for all ages. They will also have a new dedicated TV channel full of learning content, podcasts on BBC Sounds and loads of educational video on iPlayer. Maths Resources: Times Table Rock Stars This site allows practice of Times Tables in paper form or online. Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced program of daily times tables practice to boost children’s recall speed. Each week concentrates on a different times table, meaning their knowledge of the Times Tables is constantly progressing. The website offers a free trial, but your child may have a log in from school.  Top Marks This site is jam packed with lots of wonderful, interactive games that can suit a range of Maths topics from tables to money to shape. Check it out! Mangahigh This is a phenomenal website that allows children to complete Maths tasks suitable to their level. It’s interactive and fun so children will be getting a purposeful lesson each time. It does require a subscription, but you can have a 30-day trial before committing. Nrich A fantastic website, with fully prepared, “out of the box” mathematical investigations. These activities really encourage the children to think, work together and boost their problem-solving skills. A big thumbs up from me! White Rose Maths This website offers an approach which fosters higher order thinking in Mathematics. What I like about this approach, is that it takes into account that all children have different starting points in different topics in Maths and allows all children to make progress. They are providing free maths lessons for all year groups (from Early Year to Year 8) for the duration of the school closures. Practical maths activities you could do:
English Resources: Pobble365 I love this website! Everyday you’ll find an interesting picture, writing prompts and philosophical questions to spark a lesson. This could be used at home as a discussion point with your child. Increasing their oral language and get them thinking about the picture in more depth. The pictures can also be used as a writing prompt for your child. Teach Your Monster to Read This award-winning website is great for helping children in Reception/Year 1 to learn to read. Children create a monster and take it on an adventure through a magical world. They travel to exciting places, meet fun characters, play games and win prizes as their monster learns the first steps of reading. Minigames help children to develop speed and accuracy of letter recognition. It covers all letters and sounds, contains lots of blending, segmenting and tricky words and eventually reading full sentences. You can play on a desktop/laptop for free or download the apps from Apple/Google/Amazon (for a small charge).  Phonics Play This website is excellent for revising sounds. It has a wealth of resources, but for home learning the most beneficial are the interactive games. This will keep their sounds fresh in their heads while they play a fun, engaging game. All resources and games are free during lockdown. Vooks This is fantastic site for encouraging children’s love of reading. The stories are animated and actually read to the children so it’s suitable for all ages. Reading Realm this is an app that can be downloaded on an iPad, tablet or smart phone for children to engage with. It’s fantastic and really engages children in a text, while checking in on their comprehension skills too. This app is not free, however inexpensive. There is a sample PDF download though, which is brilliant. This has been made free of charge in light of the school closures too. Find it here. The Night Zookeeper This is a great interactive site for reading and writing but it does come with a monthly fee of £9.00 (after a 7-day free trial). Children draw their own magical characters that go with them through the Night Zoo, developing and growing their creative writing skills. It brings together a compelling story, innovative digital technology, and effective curriculum-aligned educational content, to help your child boost their literacy skills.  Practical English activities you could do
Computing/STEM Resources: Scratch This is a great website for getting children to do basic computer coding in an interesting way. There are child friendly tutorials for them to watch and then attempt to make simple animations themselves. Just click ‘Create’ and children can begin on their Scratch journey. There’s also a Sratch Jr app for younger children available on Apple or Google  BeeBot App (Apple / Google) This free app makes use of Bee-Bot's keypad functionality and enables children to improve their skills in directional language and programming through sequences of forwards, backwards, left and right 90 degree turns. Lightbot: Code Hour (Apple / Google) Get kids programming in the most fun way: by solving puzzles in a videogame! Lightbot is a programming puzzle game meant to introduce kids who have no experience whatsoever programming and is all-ages friendly! That means anyone anywhere from EYFS to Y13 can play, have fun and learn real programming logic! Other STEM activities:
Creative/Arts & Cultural Resources: DabbleDoo Music This is an Irish site, but it’s still great. They provide interactive tools to teach children about Music, with little input from you. They can listen, respond and compose music using this fabulous website. And, most of all, children LOVE it. Manchester Camerata – Mini Music Makers Mini Music Makers is a brand new video series of music and fun-filled adventures for kids and families delivered by the chamber orchestra, Manchester Camerata. The sessions air on weekdays at 10.30am on their YouTube channel  Other creative/cultural ideas:
Physical/PE Resources: Joe Wicks Daily Workout The Body Coach, Joe Wicks, is doing live workouts every morning at 9am, so why not start your day with a burst of energy! Go Noodle Go Noodle is a great site with lots of wacky, fun movement exercises and is also completely free. It also includes some mindfulness exercises. The kids in my class LOVE this site and always ask for it.  Cosmic Kids Yoga
Cosmic Kids Yoga provides yoga, mindfulness and relaxation workouts designed especially for children aged 3+ and is used in schools and homes all over the world. Other physical ideas:
I hope these help you plan your days at home during lockdown and hope your children enjoy some of the activities I suggested. I will continue to update this list as the days go on, with any other exciting things I find. Look out next week for a post of fun Easter activities too!
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Hello!I'm Ruth. I'm a teacher based in Manchester, UK.
I've been teaching for eight years and am currently based in Year Four, but I have also taught in Year One and Reception. This blog contains teaching ideas, printables, curriculum, lessons, and activities for your classroom! Make sure to visit often to see the latest blog! Archives
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