Category: Learning

Getting children involved in the kitchen is a great way to encourage learning at home. Children love being part of the cooking process so they won’t even realise that they are practising their Maths and English skills in the process. And don’t worry not all kitchen activities have to be messy.

Many different learning areas can be explored in the kitchen. Giving children simple tasks to complete and help you when preparing meals can be a great way of getting them involved. Simple steps like fetching ingredients, writing shopping lists, measuring ingredients or mixing are great ways to get started.

We previously discussed our favourite ways of incorporating Maths into the kitchen here. Today we will look at some ways to explore language in the kitchen.

Reading

Cook books and recipes are a fun way to encourage your child to practise their reading in the kitchen. You can find child friendly recipes in children’s cookbooks or online. Getting used to reading and following recipes will help your child to learn to follow sequenced instructions and understand the structure of instructional texts.

• Encourage your child to take a look through a cookbook and choose a recipe they would like to follow.
• Discuss the layout of a recipe with your child and point out the different sections like the ingredients, the method etc.
• Ask your child to read the ingredients list and gather some of the easy to reach ingredients.
• Many cookbooks have a table of contents and an index. Discuss these text features with your child and help them to use them to find recipes in the cookbook. You can find out more about these text features in Learn Primary’s reading lessons.

Writing

Writing can also be incorporated into kitchen activities in a fun and practical way. Children will enjoy helping you out with the writing of lists and recipes.

• Ask your child to help you write a shopping list for your next grocery shop.
• Take some photographs of your child cooking. They can add captions when they have finished. They could even send the pictures to family or friends and write a short description of what they made.
• Ask older children to write down their favourite recipes. They could even put together a book and share the recipes with others. Encourage them to follow the layout of a recipe. If they need some tips, you can find some lessons on writing a recipe in the English section of Learn Primary.

Speaking and Listening

Kitchen activities are a great way to practise giving and following instructions and develop children’s active listening and presenting skills.

• Play ‘Master Chef’ with your child. Have them pretend that they are on a cooking show and present their favourite recipes. You could even film it on your phone or camera.
• Practise giving clear, step-by-step instructions when completing kitchen tasks together. This will help your child later when it comes to writing procedural texts like recipes.
• Watch some recipe videos and try to follow along. This is a great way to practise following spoken instructions.
• Play some language games based around the topic of food or cooking like ‘I Spy’ or ‘Memory Game’.

As always, we would love to hear from you and your kids and see pictures of you cooking up a storm…so please email us 😀

Happy Cooking!

Despite some schools starting to return to face-to-face lessons this term, many parents are continuing to juggle learning from home alongside work commitments and the million other jobs around the house! Even the most organised of us are finding this challenging.

Having some independent learning activities up your sleeve can be a great way to encourage children to become independent learners while freeing up some time for you. Here are a few ideas to get you started…

Mindfulness Journal 

Try starting a mindfulness journal with your child to support them through this unusual and uncertain time.

Choose a notebook or diary to keep track of some positive thoughts. At the start of the day encourage your child to write down a positive thought. At the end of the day, they can write down 3 positive things that happened that day. Younger children could draw some of the things that made them happy that day. Start with some simple positives like having a nice dinner, spending some time outdoors or having a great chat with a friend online.

Project Work

Older children might enjoy a research project about a topic that interests them like their favourite animal, a country they would like to visit, a period in history or the history of their local town or area. Your child can research their chosen topic in books or through a safe web search. Encourage them to get creative with how they present their project. They could present it as a PowerPoint presentation, in a scrapbook, as a poster or even make a video presentation about it so that they can share it with friends and family online.

Maths Trail

A Maths Trail is like a Maths scavenger hunt. Children are challenged to explore Maths topics or solve problems while moving around a designated area. You could organise a Maths Trail in your home or garden. Topics like measurement & shape work great for this kind of activity.

Ask your child open ended questions like “Find as many objects longer than 1 meter in the living room.” or “Find some 3D shapes around the house.” Depending on your child’s age they could record their findings by drawing, writing or taking photographs. You can find lots of Maths Trails online. Older children might enjoy creating Maths Trails for their siblings. You can try our Length Scavenger Hunt to help get you started.

Set up an Obstacle Course

Last week we talked about the importance of exercise and staying active at home. Give your child some simple props and ask them to create their own obstacle course or activity circuit. Use whatever objects you have in your home or garden. If you have sports equipment like a ball or racket they could incorporate activities like bouncing a ball while running between two objects. Encourage them to get creative with how they move. They could run, hop, skip or roll. Children can complete the obstacle course themselves or challenge their siblings or even their parents to complete it. You could even time each other and see who is the fastest!

Play

Younger children learn through play so try to incorporate some play at home too. Pick a theme and try to focus some play time around this theme. Your child could set up their own shop, restaurant or even office. Have some simple props or toys to hand and maybe some old clothes or hats so that children can get ‘dressed up’. Children will use their imagination. They may incorporate some simple literacy or numeracy activities into their play like taking imaginary orders in a restaurant or writing an email at the office.

What independent learning activities are your children completing at home? We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email to let us know.

With many children learning from home at the moment, establishing a ‘Learning from Home Routine’ can be very helpful in ensuring that your days run a little more smoothly. Each school is managing the school day and learning from home tasks slightly differently. Here are some general tips to make learning from home smoother for everyone involved.

Have a Designated Workspace

Having a designated work space will help children to get into ‘school mode’ and help them focus on their school work. Even if your child is working at your kitchen table try to get into the habit of having them clear away any meals or distractions before they start ‘school’. Children are used to working with others around them in the classroom so having siblings (or parents) working at the same table is ok if you are stuck for space. 

The most important thing is having all the tools children will need to hand and getting rid of unnecessary distractions. They do not need too much. Keep whatever books, stationary and technology they need to complete their school work nearby. It is a good habit to have a school bag or box nearby in which they can store the things they do not need immediately. For example, if they are working on Maths they only need their maths resources to hand. They can tidy away resources for other subjects to make the work space more organised.

Define Expectations

At school your child will be aware of what is expected of them. Teachers often spend time discussing what is expected of students and what appropriate classroom behaviour looks like. We often assume that if we tell children to work they will know what to do, but this is a new situation for them. Sit down together and discuss what learning from home looks like and what is expected of them. For example, when they sit down to work they should try their best to complete the tasks at hand. They should try to concentrate on their tasks for a set amount of time (this will depend on their age). Discuss what will make this easier for them and for you. 

Structure the Day

Children work well with structure. If you have not found a routine, try sitting down with your child and coming up with a timetable for the school day. On your time table include work time, lunch breaks, exercise breaks, screen time, even chores. You may also need to mark online lessons depending on how your school is managing this. Try to factor in some things your child likes to do in this timetable and they will be more likely to stick with it and keep them motivated. But remember to be fluid and flexible with the timetable and to use it as a guide rather than being restricted by it.

You can download a blank timetable to get you started.

Stay Active

Frequent movement and exercise is very important and will help with children’s concentration. At school, teachers often incorporate short 1-5 minutes activities (sometimes called brain breaks)  at the end of a lesson or when they notice their students’ concentration is lapsing. Try to incorporate simple movement breaks like doing some jumping jacks, running on the spot, playing rock, paper, scissors, having a quick dance party to one of your child’s favourite songs or singing a movement song like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. 

Before and After ‘School’ Routine

Try to mark the beginning and end of the school day. In the morning try to incorporate some non-school activities before launching into the school day. Give yourself enough time to get dressed, have breakfast and try to do something your child enjoys. If you have time, getting some exercise is a great way to start the day. Getting outdoors for a short walk or run around your garden would be great, if possible. 

After school try not to let school activities drag into non-school time. Once the school day is over let your children play and enjoy some of their favourite activities. If your child has spent a large chunk of the school day on a screen, encourage them to take a break from the screen for a while. Sticking to a good sleep schedule is also very important and will help with concentration.

If you want to find out more, many states and territories have shared great tips and resources for learning at home on their Department of Education websites.

Happy learning!

With the increase in the amount of time we are spending at home, many of us have been cooking more and  experimenting in the kitchen to keep us entertained…and fed!

Getting your children involved in the kitchen is a great way to develop a multitude of skills and understandings. Apart from ‘life skills’ like managing a diet and planning for daily routines, activities like cooking have many links to curriculum areas such as Maths, English and Science. 

Don’t worry, not all kitchen activities have to be messy. Children do not need to be involved in every step of the cooking process but giving them simple tasks to complete and help you when preparing meals can be a great way of getting them involved. Simple steps like fetching ingredients, writing shopping lists, measuring ingredients or mixing are great ways to get started…but it won’t take long before they want to be the Head Chef!!

Remember that cooking together should be fun. Children love helping out in the kitchen so they won’t even realise that they are learning the process. Here are some simple ways to incorporate Maths into your cooking.

Measurements

See what measuring equipment you have in your kitchen such as kitchen scales, measuring jugs, spoons and cups. Allow your children to explore using the equipment and guide them in how to best use them. When they are confident you can even ask them to measure out the ingredients for you when you are cooking. You can also look at the different units of measurement we use when cooking such as grams, kilograms, millilitres and litres.

Time

Cooking is often time dependent. Encourage your child to help you keep track of time when you are cooking. Practise working out what time something will be ready. Time problems like this can be difficult out of context but knowing that the delicious cookies you are baking will be ready in 30 minutes can be great motivation to solve a Maths problem such as “What time will our cookies be ready?”

With younger children you can tell them what time something will be ready and ask them to keep an eye on the clock for you. If you have different types of clocks and timers in your kitchen you can also practise using them to tell the time. 

Money

You can incorporate money into the kitchen by working out costs when you are shopping for ingredients. A great challenge for older children can be working out the cost per serving of a dish you are making. This challenge will incorporate many different Maths skills. You can also give older children a budget and see if they can plan a meal and buy the ingredients while sticking to that budget. You never know, they might be better at it than you 🙂

Fractions

Measuring cups and spoons are a great way to explore fractions with children, which usually come labelled with various fraction amounts. Let your child play with the different fractions. Ask them to investigate how many quarter cups it takes to fill a whole cup or how many quarter cups it takes to make a half cup. Using water or rice are great ways to let children practise measuring out different amounts. You can challenge older children to make a fraction of a recipe. For example, if a recipe makes enough for 6 people you could challenge them to adjust the recipe for 3 people or 12 (depending on the size of your family or how hungry you are!!).

Do you have any other tips for incorporating Maths into kitchen and cooking tasks?

We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments or send us some photos of you in action.

Happy Cooking!

Wow! What a long term it has been…well it sure felt long 🙂

Well done for getting through the first term of ‘at home schooling’ and adapting to all the changes and challenges that has presented. Despite it officially being ‘school holidays’ and the Easter long weekend, we still need to stay at home! Our team has put together a few ideas to make things a little easier.

We would also love to hear your ideas so feel free to share in the comments or send us an email.

Take a Break

Remember to take a break and unwind. Children have had a busy term one at school and many parents have been juggling working and learning from home…we all deserve a break from work!

Think of some of your favourite activities that you can do at home and make an occasion out of them. You could organise a movie night. Get the family together to watch a movie with popcorn or your favourite snacks and turn the lights down to make your home feel more like a cinema.

Cooking

Many of us will be celebrating holidays over the coming days. If you are preparing a special meal or baking for these celebrations, get your children involved. They could help you find recipes, gather and measure out ingredients, make table decorations or design a menu for the occasion.

Try some recipes from Woolworths or Taste.

Organise an Egg Hunt or Treasure Hunt

Hide some eggs or objects around your home or garden and challenge your family to find them. Depending on your children’s age you could make it more challenging using clues, puzzles or riddles for them to solve before they can complete the hunt. Your children might want to be the ones hiding things for you to find…they could even draw a map to help you.

Send Cards to Family and Friends

With the reduced amount of face-to-face contact at the moment, everyone would love to receive a handmade card and personalised message. Get the kids (and you) to design homemade cards and write seasonal messages for family and friends.

Get Crafty

Get your children to make some holiday decorations or drawings. Use whatever materials you have at home. You could recycle some old magazines, newspapers, egg cartons and other items, to make original and interesting creations.

As always, we would love to hear from you and your kids and see pictures of things you have created or worked on…so please post below or email us.

Have a great long weekend!

Recently, we have been getting lots of questions from parents about how they can help to support their children’s learning at home. Our teachers have put together some simple tips and ideas to help encourage learning at home.

Revision is Key

A great way to support your child’s learning is to help them revise some topics they have already covered at school. Why not assign some Learn Primary lessons based on the topics they learned about in Term 1?

Reading

Reading is a great way to support children’s learning. Reading to and with younger children and encouraging older children to read a variety of books is very important. Read our blog post for more tips on how to choose a good book.

Maths

Try to incorporate maths topics into your everyday activities. For example if you are cooking you could practise weighing or telling time, if you are shopping ask your child to calculate the cost of certain items or the change required from simple transactions etc.

Writing

Writing emails to friends and family is a great way to practise writing. This does not have to feel like a writing lesson but you can encourage children to follow writing conventions such as forming complete sentences, writing in paragraphs, using the correct grammar and punctuation rules depending on their age group. Children might also enjoy writing stories, poems, persuasive pieces or even instructional texts and sharing them with friends and family too. You can find tips about how to write different text types in Learn Primary’s English section.

Learn Primary Parent Zones

Each Learn Primary lesson is accompanied by a Parent Zone containing specific hints and tips about how to practise each lesson topic at home. These tips are written by teachers to give you an insight into what children should be learning at specific stages and how parents can support them. Many of our Parent Zones also contain a printable learning resources, such as a game or worksheet, to accompany the lesson and support learning at home.

Ask Us…

If you have any questions about supporting your child at home, post a comment below or send us an email and we will do our best to help out.

The holiday season is upon us! With so many celebrations coming up in the next couple of weeks, many of us are busy decorating and preparing for the holidays. There are lots of fun ways to get your child involved and incorporate some learning into holiday preparation.

Get Writing:

This time of year is a great opportunity to practise your writing skills, especially card and letter writing. If you need some help getting started, Learn Primary has lessons on how to write different types of texts in our English lessons. You child could…

• Write letters to Santa Clause.
• Write a thank you card or letter for your teacher as an end of year gift. Your teacher will really appreciate a thoughtful, handmade gift like this. 
• If you are planning to send holiday cards, have your child help you to write some cards to friends and family. 
• If you go away on holiday, write some postcards to your friends and family telling them about what you got up to.
• Write some poems as gifts for your friends, family or your teacher. You could decorate and frame them to make them even more special. 
• Keep a diary during the holidays and write about what you do.

Holiday Maths:

• Lots of us will be cooking up holiday feasts and festive treats in the next few weeks. Get the whole family involved in the food preparation by asking children to help out with simple kitchen tasks. This is a great way for them to practise a variety of Maths skills, like measurement and time.
• If you are planning on travelling over the holidays, take a look at some maps of the areas together. Discuss the route you might take to get there or plan out routes from your accommodation to some landmarks you will visit. Challenge your child to give directions to some of these locations.
• Try one of Learn Primary’s Christmas themed printables to get you started. Download one of our great Maths printables here.

Holiday Crafts:

• Make some homemade holiday decorations, cards or gift tags. You could even try using some recycled materials in your crafts.
• Make some homemade gifts. You could bake some holiday treats or gift some of your homemade decorations. Another great option is to print out some photos and make frames or photo albums for your friends and family. They will really appreciate the special effort you put into making your own gifts. 

Happy Holidays from the Learn Primary Team!

Our first ever Poetry Competition closed last week with many children across Australia entering their Summer-Themed poems to go in the running to win a year’s subscription to Learn Primary for their school.

We were so happy to read the wonderful poems submitted by users of Learn Primary after viewing our Poetry lessons and writing some wonderful, original poems.

So…we are excited to announce that Bellerive Primary School (Tasmania) and St Mary’s Primary School (Victoria) have each won a year’s subscription to Learn Primary!!

You can read the winning entries below…and keep your eyes out for future competitions!

This week is National Recycling Week.

National recycling week was founded by Planet Ark in 1996 to bring a national focus on the environmental benefits of recycling. National Recycling Week 2019 runs from 11 – 17 November. 

National Recycling Week is now in its 24th year. Each year the campaign aims to educate and stimulate change, by promoting recycling and highlighting ways for people to minimise waste. We can all make small changes to our daily routine that will help the environment. Easy swaps like bringing your own bags to the supermarket, using a reusable water bottle or keep cup and trying to buy products with minimal packaging are a great place to start.

Planet Ark’s website https://recyclingnearyou.com.au is a great source of information about recycling with tips about what you can and can’t recycle, the location of recycling facilities near you and lots of ideas about how to reduce your waste. They also have a list of events happening around the country. 

There are many ways you can get involved in National Recycling Week at home. Here are some ideas:

• Do some research about what can and cannot be recycled in your kerbside recycling bin. Your child could even make a poster or some labels to help them remember.

• Arts and crafts is a great way to reuse paper, cardboard and plastic packaging. Get creative and see what your child can make using recycled materials.

• National Recycling Week can be a great writing prompt, especially for persuasive writing. Your child could write a persuasive letter or email to their local supermarket to convince them to reduce the amount of plastic packaging used on their produce or give a persuasive speech encouraging people to recycle. They could also write a procedure explaining how to prepare items for the recycling bin or how to make something using recycled materials. You can find out more about these writing genres on Learn Primary. 

• Looking at recycled materials can also be a great way to explore 3D shapes at home. Take a look at the packaging used for various items in your home and ask your child to name the shapes. See if they can find examples of 3D shapes you name for them. 

Have you made any changes to your routine to reduce your waste? Let us know in the comments.

It’s Gruff’s favourite week of year! This week is Book Week. Gruff loves reading so he’s excited to celebrate all of his favourite books.

Each year all across Australia, the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) brings children and books together by celebrating Book Week. This year book week falls on the 17th-23rd August 2019. The theme for CBCA Book Week this year is “Reading is My Secret Power”. There will be fun events happening all over the country to celebrate Book Week.

CBCA Book Week is a chance for us to celebrate our favourite books and have fun reading some new books. Many schools hold Book Week events and students might even have a chance to dress up as their favourite characters.

Book Week is a great opportunity to encourage your child to have fun with reading. Sitting down to read a book with your child, visiting your local library and allowing your child to choose some books or talking about your favourite books are great ways to celebrate Book Week at home. Learn Primary has some fun reading lessons in our English Reading section if you want some more ideas.

To celebrate Book Week each year CBCA choose a ‘Book of the Year’ in 6 different categories. If you’re not sure what book to choose for your child the CBCA Book of the Year winners are a great place to start. You can find a list of the 2019 winners here https://www.cbca.org.au/winners-2019. The CBCA also release a shortlist of books they are considering for each category, so if you have already read the winner you can find more suggested books on the shortlist https://www.cbca.org.au/shortlist-2019 or take a look at some past winners on their website for more inspiration. 

Last year Gruff shared some of his favourite books. You can find his list of recommendations here https://dev.learnprimary.com.au/learning/pick-up-a-book-today/ 

We would love to hear what your favourite books are. Let us know in the comments. Gruff will be sure to read any new suggestions.