Wellbeing Wednesday

Today we are going to be completing some activities that take you away from a screen and that will hopefully be fun and interesting to help support our mental health.

Today's timetable

8:55 - 9:55

Maths

Designing where the wild things live

There will be no live Google Classroom sessions today. Please see below for today's activities.

Today we will become architects. An architect is someone who designs buildings by drawing out a plan of what it will look like before it is built. They use very precise measurements to make sure a builder can take the plans to build the building in real life.

Imagine you have taken over as the ruler of where the wild things are. You need to build a settlement as a place for the wild things to live. The wild things have given you some specific instructions on what their homes must look like.

Before you start, practice drawing straight lines using your ruler that are precisely:

• 3cm long
• 7cm long
• 12cm long

Task 1:

Draw some buildings in your yellow maths book that fit the exact measurements and requirements for the wild things.

• Draw a house that is 6cm tall.
• Draw a bridge that is 9cm long.
• Draw a rectangular tower that is 4cm wide and also 10cm tall.

Task 2:

Design a royal palace of your own. Draw it in your settlement. It must have lots of royal details such as a balcony, huge windows and turrets. Measure how far across and how tall your royal palace measures to the nearest cm on your ruler.

Challenge:

If you have Lego, Jenga or another building toy, see if you can use your architect plans to build your settlement to the exact same measurements. Send a picture through to me on ClassDojo.

10:35 - 11:35

English

Red word hunt

There will be no live Google Classroom sessions today. Please see below for today's activities.

During this half term, we have started most English lessons learning how to spot the tricky sounds which don't follow the usual rules in some Red words. Can you remember the tricky sounds in the Red words below? Fred talk the sounds and blend them together to read the word. Check with an adult to see if you get them right.

Task 1:

Use Post-it notes or ask an adult to help you prepare 12 small pieces of paper an copy down the above Red words, one word on each piece of paper.

Ask someone to hide the words around one room in your home. 

Your mission is to gather all 12 of your Red words in the fastest time. You can only earn a point for the word if you can read it accurately.

Task 2:

Here are some other games you can play using your Red words. 

• Red word splat
  • We've played this game before with sounds or green words. Take it in turns to Fred talk the sounds in one of the Red words. Try to be the fastest to splat the word with your hand. The winner is the person with the most words.
• Red word pasta
  • Use cooked spaghetti or pasta tubes to build the letters in a Red word of your choosing. Read each sound as you create it.
• Red word role play
  • Use puppets, teddies or toys as characters having a conversation with each other. Can your characters say a sentence for each of the Red words? Make it more of a challenge by having a speed round. Earn a point for each Red word you include in a sentence but lose a point for every Red word you have reused.

11:35 - 12:00

Extreme Reading

What is the most extreme place you can find to read a book? Take your favourite book and find a strange place to read it. You could even read upside down, under a table or to a pet. Send me a photo of your most extreme reading location and I will print them off for a display in the classroom.

1:20 - 2:20

Music

At home challenges

There will be no live Google Classroom sessions today. Please see below for today's activities.

1 - Create homemade instruments with household items

Creating instruments together can be a fun activity and the instruments can then be used to explore different aspects of music.

Try creating shakers by using pasta and rice in empty bottles.

You could also try using bottles either with filled with varying degrees of water or empty and scraping them with spoons or twigs to make sounds, or just upturned pans and colanders.

2 - Make your own simple guitar

Using tissue boxes, shoe boxes without the lids or fruit punnets you can create a string-type instrument.

Use the box for the base of the instrument and take four to six rubber bands. Wrap the rubber bands around the base, the long way, and make sure there is space between the rubber bands. Experiment with ways of making sounds with the bands.

Also try using small pieces of sandpaper wound round a finger of each hand to rub together and create sounds.

Try using household items to make instruments.

3 - Think about and use the sounds of daily life

Together with your child you could explore the sounds heard on different journeys.

For example:

• What does the journey to the park sound like – what may we hear on the way?
• A journey around a supermarket will involve a range of different sounds.
• A journey to school, whether by foot, by bus or in a car will also involve a range of sounds.

Listen out for sounds on journeys with your child and think about how these sounds could be recreated at home?

You could make a piece of music together that represents different types of journeys that you make.

Are there any surprises on your journey and what may this sound like?

Invite your child to draw a journey and then play this journey by using body percussion, vocals and sound makers in the home.

Think about sounds you hear every day.

4 - Use drawing to think about music

Drawing to sounds and music can be a lovely listening activity, you can invite your child to ‘dance with their hands’ whilst using their crayons, pencils, felt tips, paint brushes, encouraging them to listen to the music and respond to the music through their visual art.

You can explore this with different types of music – watch your child, do the contrasting sections affect how they draw or paint?

Experiment with different types of music, does your child have a preference for pieces of music to draw/paint to?

5 - Build on the anticipation in songs

Anticipation can be a key aspect in music, for example listening to hear what is going to happen next as a piece of music builds.

Examples of building anticipation musically with children are apparent in many traditional songs and games such as peepo songs and Round and Round the Garden - the anticipation is created by slowly speaking the words "one step, two steps" accompanied with the activity ending with the tickling given by the adult.

You can explore anticipation by playing vocally with your child and use movement to accompany this, e.g., start with your hands together and gradually move them apart whilst accompanying this movement with a vocal sound, keep moving the vocals as you move your hands apart and end this game by bringing your hands back together to clap.

Once you have introduced this you can then wait for your child to clap and end the game so that they have the power to build up and release the tension, building excitement and anticipation.

All of this can be done through the use of sound and without the need to speak or use words.

2:20 - 2:55

PE

Athletics activities

Take a look at the activities in the file below and see how many you can complete yourself.