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Home Learning May 11th

Family Project Ideas for Home Learning 11 May 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,

School work for this week is based around learning in the home. Our teachers have put together many ideas that you can choose from.

We would recommend that you choose something from English, Gaeilge and Maths everyday and then one other topic that you would like to do everyday. There are many ideas to choose from. A good idea might be to work with siblings or perhaps contact your friends or cousins on Zoom or Skype and work together.

English

  • Keeping a journal
  • Letter Writing to friends/family members/ classmates (where possible)
  • Writing recipes
  • Create a board game and write instructions for it (Maths/Art integration)
  • Writing book reports/film reviews and compare with a friend
  • Collaborative Writing. Recommend ‘Fighting Words’ website to families. Write/discuss how they’ve found this time period, the changes they’ve noticed in society etc… Different prompts and exercises – what goes into a story? Plot, heroes, imagination etc… Discuss different characters – what role do they play in the story? What’s stopping them doing that? (Problem) and how do they solve it. Share on zoom with the other family members, work on it individually and then come back to one another and piece the story together.
  • Time Capsule. Write a letter to your older self explaining what is happening in our country at this time. Add some items into the box and bury the letter and items somewhere in your back garden. Dig it up when this is all over.

Gaeilge
-Write a letter/postcard to a friend as Gaeilge
-Create a comic strip of your day, sentence(s) under each picture

Maths:
• Local maths trail
• Use the argos catalogue to redecorate a room in your house using a specific budget
• Create homemade playdough using specific measurements (google salt dough)
• Baking a recipe with your family, measuring out the required ingredients
• Collect data on the different colours of cars on your road and show this on a graph
• Write down the capacity(ml/l) of liquids you find around the home
• Talk about time. For eg, work out what time you need to leave the house to get to classes/training/school on time etc How long until your favourite tv programme? What time is the Late Late Show on Friday night? What time will it end? How long is the show on for? etc
PE
• Create an obstacle course in the garden/park.
• Sports Day : Potato and Spoon race, sack race (hop if no sack), long throw, long kick.
• Family challenges. Who gets the most steps on the fitbit, who can do the most jumping jacks in a minute etc…

Religion
May is the month of Mary.
• You could make a May altar. Add some flowers that are blooming at the moment. You could add a candle. You could add some rosary beads. Or colour/draw a picture of Mary
• You could say the “Hail Mary” this month and pray for all the frontline workers in our community and the people who are sick with the coronavirus.
• You could also try saying the prayer in Irish Sé do Bheatha a Mhuire | Archdiocese of Dubli
• n

Art

  • Develop an art project with siblings. All the family trace their hands onto coloured paper. The hands are then stuck on top of each other with simple ‘X Family, Quarantine 2020’.
  • They could draw (in chalk) on a crack on their path and send photos to us.
  • Creating a drawing using a flower in your garden, park, dandelions, daisies, grass etc as part of your drawing. Differentiation possible for older and younger children.
  • Photography – create a slideshow/collage of photographs

Science

  • Create a mini garden in a box, using cuttings from their garden or leaves and sticks collected on a walk
  • Planting seeds / mini vegetable garden
    -make slime
    Test different items around the house to see which ones sink or float

School news 2020

8 May 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,
As you have heard from the news, all schools will remain closed until the Autumn. We are very disappointed as a team with this news but we will continue to give support from home online to the school community until the end of term.


We are especially disappointed for our 6th Classes, but we are hopeful to gather together with the 6th Class children and their families when government approval of gatherings is permitted and when it is safe to do so.


We won’t be able to welcome our new 2nd Class children in person and give them a tour of the school before they begin the next school year but we will be in touch with all these parents about alternative plans for a welcome meeting.


It is also very disappointing that First Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies have been cancelled for the months of May and June. When the Archbishop and the parish are in a position to give an update about these ceremonies we will be in touch with all families involved.


A reminder again to try and engage with a little school work every day from the plans provided by each individual teacher. This will give some structure to the children’s day and will ensure they don’t forget things that they have learned.


We understand that some families are finding it much more challenging to engage with the school work consistently for various reasons. Every family situation is different and everyone is doing the best that they can for their children at present. We recommend emphasising lots of play, time outside in the fresh air, their physical and mental wellbeing – these are the priorities at present. After that, try to keep up reading – Gaeilge and English – and some Maths too to keep literacy and numeracy skills going and anything extra after this is a bonus.


Next week we will have a slightly different plan of work for each class. This will be uploaded on the school website and a link will be texted out to parents.
We never wish to put more stress or pressure on any family. Teachers are available to give support and guidance – contact them by email.


We have an important note about books. Some of the books that went home on 12 March were from the school’s book rental scheme. These books include Treasury, Am don Leamh, etc. Library books also went home. To keep the cost down for our book rental scheme we will need to arrange to get these books back before 30 June. We need to order books for the new school year but this won’t be possible without having all of our current books returned. Please ensure you are taking care of all school books and we will be in touch about a drop off day in June.


We will be in contact with you all on an ongoing basis with any updates once we receive them ourselves.
Many thanks as always for your continued support and cooperation.


Siobhán Loughman

Message from Ms Loughman

With the news yesterday that schools will remain closed for next week we would like to send a few reminders:


It is great for the children to continue to learn and revise skills and information while the school is closed but the most important thing for everyone right now is to stay well physically and mentally.


This is an exceptional time and teachers understand that it is impossible to recreate at home what we do in a classroom full of children.


We are not expecting students to make huge progress during this time in terms of their academic learning  – if they don’t slide backwards and still remember what they have covered already once they come back to school that would be great. 


It is particularly challenging for children with special educational needs, learning or behavioral difficulties to learn at a time like this.


Children are worried and scared at the moment – like we are as adults – it is difficult to avoid this – the best thing we can do to support them right now is to make them feel loved and secure – they are more likely to remember how they felt at this time than what they learned.


At some point in the future this will be over, the school will re-open and we will begin to, slowly, put things back together somewhat like before, we need to be brave and help each other so that we have the capacity to put things back together when this time comes. 


We understand that the tv and technology are sometimes necessary to keep the peace at home – but we would remind parents to be vigilant around monitoring use of social media particularly with older children at times like this (there is a lot of disturbing and inappropriate content online).


Try to do things with your children that normally none of us have time to do – take a day off school in your pyjamas if you all need it (your teacher won’t know!).
Keep a diary – this is a historic time and it’s also good handwriting practice – or try putting together your own family’s time capsule to report this historic time for your family (working as a historian).


Call your granny, grandad, auntie, uncle, cousin – or even better write them a letter.
Be kind and look after each otherKeep staying at home as much as possible and keep washing your hands.

The hse website is updated daily (and sometimes more frequently) – call your doctor if you are feeling unwell.
We understand that there is extra pressure at home when siblings and parents are competing over use of technology.


Keep up the physical activity and get out in the fresh air (at a safe distance from others).
Try baking (mathematical measurement skills) and gardening (science skills).


We will continue to try to support the learning at home and to provide resources and strategies we think may be helpful but we also understand that not everyone is in a position to do this – do as much as you can or what works for your family and circumstances.


We miss all the children and normal school life….but we will be together again.


Stay safe and healthy. 
Siobhán Loughman

Suggestions for activities and educational websites you can use to support your child are on the previous post. Click on the next link at the bottom of this page.

Covid-19

Suggestions to help your children when learning from home:

From Monday the 30th of March RTE will be showing a classroom based program for 1st to 6th class students . It will air from 11-12 daily.


This is a list of websites and activities that may be useful when your child finishes work set by their class teacher. Some of the websites need you to register but they are all free. Under each web link or suggestion there is a short description.

https://ncse.ie/online-resources?fbclid=IwAR2YTbZZKmYPO0QvvoWKYFEtUxpi3rdWNzFxe0IhecZ7ESLj3qYjgXM9PvM

Links to support children with special needs. OT, Speech and Language and academic support are all included.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/books/free-ebooks/

Over 100 mini ebooks for different ages.

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/

Phonics games for younger classes and pupils who need extra support.

https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/

A free 10 minute audio clip from his latest book per day.

https://readtheory.org/auth/login

A website with graded comprehensions. Anyone who attends Ms Ryan’s English groups is already set up and has a login name and password on the front of their copy. You do a 20 minute assessment and then the website gives you stories and questions at your own level. Great for independent work.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2f9j6/articles/z3c6tfr

Typing practice through games.

Gaeilge:

https://www.cula4.com/ga/
YouTube: TG Lurgan
Videos, songs and games through Gaeilge.

Maths:
https://ie.ixl.com/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

Maths activities organised by class level
YouTube: Laugh Along and Learn (times tables)

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/simple-stem-activities-for-kids/

Problem solving maths and science activities.


PE/Art
https://youtu.be/tbCjkPlsaes
https://rtejr.rte.ie/10at10/
https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/pe-with-joe-1254.html
YouTube: Art with Cassie Stephens
Artforkidshub
Extras:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

A huge selection of videos and activities to cover Geography and Science. It would also be very useful for project work.

https://padlet.com/parteensolosinging/zfdq5n59llog

A wide selection of activities based on school subjects and organised by class level

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