Home learning resources April 2020

Week 3:

 This week we're focusing on supporting your child’s communication and language skills  at home.

Missed week 1 or 2 ? Click on the button below, the activities are all still there

Go around your home and collect about 10 different objects to hide inside your bag -you could even add some natural things, such as leaves, sticks and stones from outdoors. 

When picking the items, have a think - does your child know the names of all of the items you've selected? If so,  try to put a few things in the bag that they may not be so familiar with.

Once you've collected everything, sit with your child and allow them to pick one thing out of the bag at a time. When they have their object, ask them what it is, what colour it is and talk to them about what it is used for, its shape etc. 

 If your child doesn't know the name of the item they've pulled out, say its name and ask them to repeat it after you. 

Continue this with all the items in the bag.

Play a simple game of 'Simon says' with your child (if they have siblings, get them to join in too!). 

This is where you give your child different actions to carry out,  but only when 'Simon says'. For instance, 'Simon says, stretch your arms up high'.

This encourages your child to focus and listen out for each command to know which action to carry out. Every so often, call out an instruction without putting 'Simon says' first, to see if your child is paying attention. 

If they do the action when Simon didn't tell them to, then explain the rules again to try and get them to understand.

 Continue with different commands and occasionally add in one without first saying 'Simon says' to see if they've understood the rules.

Reading stories with your child -  this helps their listening and attention paying skills and  widens their vocabulary.

Talk to your child to explain what is happening and what you are doing throughout the day.

Give your child instructions to carry out eg., ' can you take your shoes off?', adapting it for  older children by making this a two-part instruction eg., 'can you take your shoes off and put them away?'

Singing nursery rhymes with your child encouraging them to join in.

Model building sentences with your child.  For younger children, listen to what they say, repeat it and add extra words to create simple sentences. For older children, do this to create more complex sentences (for the older children).

Story of the week: 'The Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson

Songs of the week: 'Incey Wincey Spider'  and Barefoot Books 'Up, up, up!'