Teaching And Home Schooling Ideas

Create a patterned picture. We have drawn pictures of our village canal and the local landscape.  Go over the pencil lines in black felt tip.  We drew our local canal but you can draw anything.  Using coloured felt tip pens create patterns in different sections of the picture. We tried to use different colours and patterns next to each other. I think these pictures are very effective. 

If your child enjoys art and drawing. Why not enter the York Walls in Spring competition by Little Vikings. Here is the picture I did whilst my son and some of his friends on zoom had a go at drawing, colouring and painting their pictures. Send a photo of your child's art work to hello@little-vikings.co.uk. Include their name and age.  The competition will close on Sunday 21st March 2021. Visit the Little Viking's website for more information. 

Mandala art uses dots in circular patterns which have a spiritual and religious connection as the circular patterns can  represent the cyclical nature of life. You will need...  Black paper Paint or acrylic pens Cotton buds Cocktail sticks/ pencils Starting in the centre of the pages, make patterns using dots and colours working outwards.  Cotton buds make larger dots and cocktail sticks or pencil point make smaller dots. You can also create smaller pictures which can be turned into cards with mandala dots. We look forward to seeing your mandala art. 

One of the lovely teachers at my son's school had done a video lesson on mental health and well being for the mental health week which was at the start of February. The activity that went with it was the scribble game. Draw a scribble and then see what objects you can see in the lines and shapes. We loved this and both had a go. I had to turn my sheet around a few times before I saw a duck and a penguin! My son found a dog, ufo, hamster, a beaver's tail and an egg timer. Why not have a go and post your picture's here, we'd love to see them.

Everyday we do a zoom call with a group of friends in the village and we do an activity together.  As it was Friday before half term and the children have all worked so hard these last six weeks and I think they are all stars. We drew a 5 star hand.  Draw around your hand. Go over the outline in felt tip. Draw a star on each finger. Write your name on the hand. On each finger write one thing you are good at.  I wrote reading, art, looking after pets, cooking and my son wrote kind on my hand, which was lovely.  This is a lovely well being activity, giving the children the chance to think about things they are good at. 

Design a poster to save water. Have a chat about how we use water in the home and outside. Eg we drink water, wash clothes, wash pots, bath, shower, clean teeth, use water for cooking, wash car, water plants inside and out etc. Discuss ways to save water. Eg Don't have tap running when cleaning teeth, have a shower instead of a bath, fill up water bottles and keep in the fridge so not running tap lots of times, collect rain water in a container for gardening, share bath water. Design a poster to help save water. Make your images and wording stand out.

We have made a simple robin thumb print Christmas card this weekend. You need: A4 white paper.  Black felt tip pen.  Glue.  A4 Coloured card.  Red paint.  Envelopes.  Gold, silver or white glitter pen.  What to do...  Cut up white A4 paper into six squares.  Draw different robin outlines. The children can then trace the different outlines onto the paper squares or draw their own. Dab thumb into red paint and make a red thumb print for the robin's red breast.  When the paint is dry, glue the square onto folded coloured card.  Write Happy Christmas on the front.  Write message inside.  We stuck some sequin snowflakes on the front.  We love these simple Christmas cards. 

We read Stickman by Julia Donaldson and have already made Stickman and his Sticklady love out of sticks. Scholastic have a free downloadable comic strip sheet which I printed off but you could just draw some boxes onto a4 paper with room for the writing underneath the picture. We thought about where the comic strip story should begin and what would happen to stickman. Then Thomas drew and wrote the comic strip all on his own. We coloured in the comic strip together the next day. We are going to act out the story with our homemade stickman. We are also going to make the comic strip out of some coloured clay I have and we might try to do an animated film so watch this space.

Read Tabby McTat and look at the illustrations of Tabby in the book and how the cat is described. Pick out descriptions in the story. Draw picture of Tabby McTat in the box and colour in. Write a paragraph explaining that Tabby McTat is missing and a description of the cat. What does the cat look like? Any distinguishing features? Who is the cats owner and how do you contact if there is a sighting? Try to vary the starts of sentences as it's easy to start with he, his or Tabby. Use descriptive language and adjectives eg sparkling white eyes. Can you use any quotes from the story. Eg a miaow that is loud and strong. Hook the reader in with your first sentences. Use a question directed at the reader eg Have you seen this cat? Tell reader how to contact owner. Eg Find Fred at the lion statue. I got this sheet from the scholastic website but you can use A4 paper to create the poster with a box for the picture and lines for the description. You could even desig...

Thomas wanted to draw a dragon's eye so we found a tutorial on youtube that we kept pausing so we could follow the steps. (You can find tutorials for drawing lots of different animals or objects that your child is interested in.) We drew in pencil, then went over in felt tip. I double mounted onto complementary coloured card. We will use the artwork as stimulus for a piece of descriptive writing about the dragon eye.

Write a journal/diary about this time at this time. Pick out your favourite part of the day. Could write in a sentence, paragraph, draw pictures or stick in photos.