5 + 5 Activity Resource (No. 5) – 5 Independent & 5 Cooperative Learning Activities to Try!

 

Welcome to another 5 + 5 Activity Guide. This is week 5! Hope you are all keeping well and staying safe. For many children around the world, this week marks a return to online schooling having had a break for Easter. If this is the case in your household, re-establishing a routine will be helpful. You may wish to download this free weekly timetable to slot in times for learning, play, snacks and meals, chores etc.

 

 

 

If you are new to our 5 + 5 posts, these are weekly guides in which I share a range of ideas for activities to keep primary children busy learning, investigating, and questioning during this period of school closures. I upload 5 activity ideas that can be undertaken independently and 5 cooperative tasks families with more than one child can work on together. The tasks, however, are often interchangeable.

 

In case you missed any of my previous guides, you can access them all here:

• Week 1

• Week 2

• Week 3

• Week 4

 

In this week’s activity guide, I am including a couple of Guided Research Projects that may be stretched out over the term, with your child choosing tasks and elements most of interest to them. These target development across a range of cross-curricular areas. I hope the ideas will capture your child’s imagination and that you will share some of their work with me.

 

Independent Learning Tasks

 

STEM – Maths

Sumdog offers the opportunity for parents to sign children up for a free account and have them practise their maths skills. It is designed such that your 5-14 year old child undertakes initial assessment activities and they will then be set questions and activities at their level.

**Please note: There are further paid subscription options on this site for spelling and grammar practice.

 

 

 

English – Poetry

Nosy Crow Books have lots of free resources on their website to accompany some of their best-loved titles. Those with books from Nosy Crow should check if there are supporting materials on here for particular titles your child may have. Even if you don’t own any Nosy Crow books, there are some general resources available, and I have selected their KS2 Poetry Resource Pack to share with you this week. It is based on the poetry collection ‘I am The Seed That Grew The Tree’ and features 5 poetry lessons.

 

 

 

 

These lessons examine personification, structure (how organisation, shape and presentation creates meaning), imagery (using colour to evoke this), comparing and contrasting poems, and performing poems aloud.

 

Although the pack is written for KS2 pupils, there are certainly lots of ways this can be adapted for younger children. Lesson 3 on using colour and lesson 5 on performing a poem are particularly suitable.

 

All children will be able to select a colour and consider objects, feelings, and settings the colour makes you think about. They are then invited to listen to the poems ‘What is Green?’ by Mary O’ Neill and ‘What is Pink?’ by Christina Rosetti before composing sentences based on their own colour.

 

In terms of performance poetry, 3 options for performance poems are given and they serve as brilliant impetus for exploring the use of voice when reciting a poem. Discuss with your child how to perform:

 

The Music of the Wind by Wes Magee

 

The wind makes LOUD music.

It roars above the rooftops,

it drums beneath the floor,

it howls around the gable-end

and rat-a-tats the door.

 

The wind makes quiet music.

It whistles down the chimney,

it tiptoes through a tree,

it hums against the window-pane,

and whispers tunes to me.

 

 

Or

 

The Storm by Sara Coleridge

 

See lightening is flashing,
The forest is crashing,
The rain will come dashing,
A flood will be rising anon;

The heavens are scowling,
The thunder is growling,
The loud winds are howling,
The storm has come suddenly on!

But now the sky clears,
The bright sun appears,
Now nobody fears,
But soon every cloud will be gone.

 

**Please note there is a typo on the link Nosy Crow resources and the last line of this poem should read as above.

 

Because of the rhyming pattern in ‘The storm’ by Sara Coleridge in particular, it is an easy one for children to learn off by heart. There is great benefit in learning poems by heart and performing them. We connect with the rhythm and cadence of the language, gaining a deeper understanding of the poem and making an emotional connection with it. Learning things off by heart supports memory and develops vocabulary, giving children more tools with which to express themselves.

 

Why not have a poetry recitation evening where each member of your household recites a nursery rhyme or poem they have learned off by heart? Can you recall any poems you learned as a child?

 

 

Verbal Reasoning

We are all aware of the importance of lots of talk for children. If you have young children, they may enjoy the tasks in this verbal reasoning download. Why not have them try the odd one out task and see if they can provide a clear rationale for their thinking? You will find may other language support tasks free from Humber NHS.  

 

Your older children may benefit from trying these online verbal reasoning assessments in which they must work at speed as these are times challenges. There are a variety of other cognitive assessments available on that site. You may even wish to challenge yourself!

 

 

Project-Based Learning

I found this cartoon by Joan Chan from JustComics_Official recently and feel it serves as such wonderful impetus for discussion at this time. Use it as a basis to explore confinement and how your child is feeling, as well as as a stimulus to discuss animal welfare. I have based the final two independent activities on this theme; these are tasks that will take several weeks.

 

 

 

The image reminded me of a Guided Research Project on Palm Oil and Deforestation I created, based on this Rang Tan video, in which pupils are tasked with investigating palm oil production and the impact of deforestation on orangutans. They are charged with considering this issue from several viewpoints.

 

In part one of the presentation, they examine the issue from the point-of-view of Rang Tan. In part 2, they look at the other side of the story (views of growers, uses of palm oil, other causes of deforestation etc.) This is a HUGE project and one that could last several weeks. In it, I suggest lots of writing tasks based on the theme, together with lots of discussion points. It will be useful for your child to select writing genres with which they are already familiar and use these tasks to review and consolidate their skills. The PowerPoint is colour-coded according to the different sections and features many links to other resources and websites. Please read through the PowerPoint and check the links are still working before sharing it with your child.

 

 

 

 

 

Aligned to this research project is one I shared previously, but I think many may have missed the post. As such, I am including it again in this week’s activity guide. This guided research project into Malaysia will take your child step-by-step through investigating this mega-diverse country. I have suggested lots of links to sites where information can be found. Alternatively, your child may wish to select a country of their own choosing and research it using this free Unit of Inquiry into a Country PowerPoint.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, as I’m on an orangutan theme, your children might enjoy this funny short clip!

 

 

Cooperative Learning Tasks

 

STEM – Science

With wind and rain amongst the themes in the poetry work pack linked above, why not continue this over into STEM activities for the week? The Insitute of Engineering and Technology have a series of free activities on their website to support KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4 learners. Why not have your child/ren conduct this experiment to investigate how rain falls from clouds? Few materials are required: – a glass, water, shaving foam, food colouring, and a pipette/dropper. These activities also provide links to relevant online materials, e.g., this water cycle video on YouTube.

 

 

P.E.

I’ve found 2 great options for P.E. this week! P.E. at Home are uploading to Twitter weekly differentiated activity challenges for pupils from EYFS-KS4. So far, there are challenges for basketball and athletics. They also make cross-curricular links with other subjects and provide tips for parents.

 

 

 

Each week PH Sports are also uploading activity ideas for children. Their plans are divided into lessons for EYFS/KS1 and for KS2. They make helpful suggestions for household items you can use for the suggested tasks if you don’t have all the equipment on the list. As these follow the same format and target the same skills (simply with appropriate progression), they are useful for families with children of various ages. I am linking last week’s EYFS/KS1 plan and KS2 plan.

To illustrate the progression, here are screenshots of the co-ordination challenges for both groups.

 

 

 

 

Cookery

Nomster Chef: is a site aimed at promoting meal prepping, family bonding, healthy eating, and features lots of recipes for children. Why not have your children select some recipes from the recipe library and prepare some meals or snacks this week?

 

 

Art and Music

Why not create some art from everyday objects while relaxing as a family and enjoying a free concert this week? I have included some images below to give you ideas and you can get more art inspiration from Noelia Medina Navarro here and Victor Nunes here.

 

 

 

 

CardEd

Once again, I have compiled a weekly CardEd Activity Guide (No.5) for you with a range of activities for each day of the week. These are great for families as there are activities of different levels of difficulty included each day. If you would like more inspiration for using the CardEd cards in the download, check out our CardEd Activity Guide. All our CardEd resources remain free for families at this time and you can learn more about them (including links to each product in our shop) in this CardEd blog post.

 

So there you have it! Another week of activities to promote learning. I hope your child/ren find some of these enjoyable. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have particular questions about teaching and learning. Why not sign up to our blog and/or follow us on Faceook so that you never miss a post?

 

Take care and stay safe all!