Teaching And Home Schooling Ideas

Make birds from foil and kitchen roll. We have made a kingfisher and a robin.  You will need...  Foil Kitchen roll Felt tips or water colours Coloured card for beak and feet Glue Scissors Roll up some foil into a sausage shape and then shape into a bird shape.  Make one end the head and beak shape and one end the tail shape. On a piece of kitchen roll either felt tip or water colour paint the kitchen roll the colours of your chosen birds feathers.  If using watercolours wait for kitchen roll paper to dry and then tear up paper into small pieces.  Glue on the coloured pieces starting at the tail and working up the bird covering the foil.  The pieces can overlap and don't have to be completely glued down as this gives the impression of feathers. Cut out a diamond shape from coloured card for the beak and fold the diamond in half and glue in place. Cut out two black circles for the eyes and glue in place. Cut out leg and feet from coloured card and glue in pla...

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. 

 Rainbow Spellings Write a set of words for spelling practise in different colours then write each word in an arch shape in a rainbow colour to create a rainbow. Looks pretty and they get to practise writing out their spellings in felt tip or gel pen colours. 

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.

We love watching the birds from our kitchen window feeding from the bird feeders.  We made a feeder from a plastic milk carton in first lockdown.  We spotted lots of birds in the garden this morning - robins, sparrows, blackbirds, pigeons, great tits.  This inspired us to make another bird feeder.  Today we have made a recycled milk carton bird feeder. You need...  Milk carton Paper String Felt tips Glue Scissors Wooden lolly stick Bird seed How to make....  Cover the carton with paper.  Decorate the outside.  Cut hole in front.  Add a lolly stick for the perch. We put a hole in the front and back and pushed the lolly stick through both to keep it in place.  Put a hole through the top and thread the string through.  Fill with bird seed.  Hang outside and wait for the birds to find it.  Let us know which birds you see in your garden. 

Looking for Animal Tracks. We are lucky to live in the countryside and as we live on a farm we have fields to explore. Recently we managed to spot a number of animal tracks.  Next time you go for a walk in the countryside see if you can spot some animal tracks.  In the meantime, why not see if you can identify the animals we spotted from these photographs.  We'd love to know what you think.