Our 4 Freckled Faces are all at different ages and abilities, which is making ‘Crisis Schooling’ a little tricky in these COVID19 Lockdown times. I’m sure this is the case for lots of you too, right?
I have been setting them challenges that they can all do to the best of their own abilities, but doesn’t make extra work for me. Here are a few ideas (if you’re interested!) that have gone well so far.
Art Challenges
Still Life – sit the all down on the floor or at the table. Chose one item from the house, place it in the middle of them and ask them to draw it. I asked my eldest to include some shading too.
Topic Art – I looked at the curriculum section on our kids school website and found what the older 3 would have been doing at school (I think anyway!?). We then spoke about the different pictures and techniques, etc. They did some research on their tablets and then got to work on their masterpieces!
PE Challenges
Stairs Challenge – this requires no set up and burns lots of energy! The challenge is to see how many times you can go up and down the stairs in 45 seconds!
Sit on a Balloon – obviously you need a balloon for this one OR you could also you a ball or 2 cushions stacked on top of eachother. They won’t actually be sitting on them, but squatting and letting their bottoms touch them and standing back up. How many times can they do it in 45 seconds?
Football Toe Taps – you’ll need a ball. They need to place the ball in front of their feet and (with one foot at a time) tap their toes on the top of the ball. Counting up in one’s each time they tap. All the way to 100! For an extra challenge see how fast they can do it!
Music Challenges
Clap out a Rhythm – see if they can copy a rhythm you do. Once you’ve done a few rounds of that, let them take it in turns to make their own rhythm up and have others copy it.
Learn a New Song – have you ever heard of SingUp? I hadn’t until our school choir director sent the link home. They have a website and YouTube channel. We have been learning a song from there. Our older 2 are continuing with practising their instruments and I have set them a couple of challenges in those.
History Challenges
Find out how life has changed since the 1950’s – they can write a list, make a poster or PowerPoint. They can present it however they want to. (This goes along with KS1, Year 2, curriculum.) Our Freckled Faces found it interesting.
Learn some facts about something that happened locally and make a poster with them. – is there a major event that happened in your town, county or near by? I set The Fire of Nantwich as our learning challenge. They could present the information they learnt however they wanted to.
Design Technology
Junk Yard Craft – over the week keep a few of your (cleaner) recycling bits to one side. Cereal boxes, bottles, egg boxes, kitchen roll tubes, etc. Give them tape, string, scissors (supervised!), and see what they can create! We’ve had robots, a house, a TV, etc.
Build a Bridge – the bridge can be as big as they want and they can use whatever they want! It must enable (and hold the weight of) something to cross over it.
Design Playdough Clothes for Dolls – this is mostly a hit with the girls, but you have boy dolls too – action man, Ken, etc it can be enjoyed by all.
Make a Sleeping Bag for Your Teddy – this one may require a little help. Depending on how big the teddies are they could decorate an old sock, or they could (with help for the younger kids) sew a sleeping bag! Here is one of ours.
Maths Challenges
Set Up a Shop – our 4 Freckled Faces have set up a few shops over the last couple of weeks. We’ve had an art shop, tuck shop, hairdressers/beauty salon, and we’ve even had a cafe!
We have a lot of 5p and 2p coins that we were saving to take to the bank, so they’ve been practicing their counting in 2’s and 5’s when playing shops!
Match Shapes – draw different shapes on there separate pieces of paper. Can the kids find things from around the house to match the shapes?
These are just a few ideas. We hope they help and we hope you enjoy them!
4 Freckled Faces 