Thursday
To complete today's activities, you will need:
piece of large paper
something to draw with
scissors
large envelope
Overview of today's activities:
Activity 1: Send a hug (30 minutes)
Activity 2: Poetry (15 minutes)
Activity 3: Sorting animals (10 minutes)
Break
Activity 4: Friends at school (15 minutes)
Activity 5: Kookoo Kookaburra (15 minutes)
Please note, these times are an approximation only.
Send a hug
Learning goal: Children feel connected to others.
Follow the instructions in the videos to send a hug to someone.
Making a hug
Duration: 05:35
Posting the hug
Duration: 00:36
Too hard?
Ask someone to take a photo of you and to send it to someone you would like to give a hug to.
Too easy?
Write a letter to go with your hug:
include the person's name
write 'This is a hug from me.'
sign your name.
Poetry - The worm that wouldn't wiggle
Learning goal: Children identify rhyming words in a poem.
1. A poem is a piece of writing that shares ideas, emotions or a story. They often use rhyming words. Words that rhyme end with the same sound.
2. Listen to this poem about a worm.
Steve Attewell (17 June 2014) 'Funny children's poetry: "The worm that wouldn't wiggle" - homeschool poems for kids' [video], YouTube, accessed 12 October 2021.
3. Replay the poem, this time listen out for the pairs of rhyming words.
4. Say the rhyming words you heard in the poem (for example, wiggle/giggle, yard/hard, stop/flop).
5. Think of a word that rhymes with each of these:
dog
hat
sit.
Too hard?
Listen to the poem with someone. Repeat the rhyming words together.
Too easy?
Listen to the poem There’s a crocodile in my lunchbox.
Listen out for and say the rhyming words you heard.
Sorting animals
Learning goal: Children compare animals and categorise them by habitat.
1. Look at these animals. If you have access to a printer, print the animal pictures (PDF 1.8MB) and cut them out.
2. Animals live in all kinds of homes. The area they live in is called their habitat.
3. Point to and count the animals that live on a farm. How many?
4. Point to and count the animals that live in the ocean. How many?
5. Choose a different way to sort the animals into groups (for example, by colour, size or the way they move).
Too hard?
Say the name of each of the animals.
If you have small animal toys, sort these into groups based on where they live.
Too easy?
Investigate what animals live in other habitats such as, forest, desert and polar regions.
Take a break
Here are some things you might like to do:
have a drink of water and a healthy snack
play or have a rest
go to the toilet and wash your hands.
"Boy with glass of water, 2000" by Seattle Municipal Archives is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio. pexels.com
"Washing hands" by magnusfranklin is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Friends at school
Learning goal: Children develop their understanding of how to be a good friend.
When you go to school you will meet lots of new children. The ones you enjoy playing with will become your friends. Good friends have fun together and are kind to one another.
1. Watch the video.
The NED Shows (11 September 2013) 'Video lesson - Friendship soup recipe: A NED short' [video], YouTube, accessed 27 October 2021.
2. What are some of the ingredients needed to make a friendship soup?
3. Ask someone to explain any of the words in the video you didn't understand.
4. When you think of your friends from home or preschool, what ingredients do you think of? Are they kind? Do you have fun with them? Do you trust them?
5. What makes you a good friend?
6. At school, remember the ingredients in friendship soup to make new friends, and be a good friend to those you already know.
Kookoo Kookaburra
Learning goal: Children use their hearing to investigate bird behaviour.
1. The kookaburra's laugh is how it communicates with other birds. Listen to these laughing kookaburras.
LaughingKookaburra.oggKuco 'Laughing Kookburra.ogg', Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Kookaburra Australia." by Bernard Spragg is marked with CC0 1.0
2. Are they really laughing? What do you think they are trying to say?
3. Close your eyes. Can you hear any birds? What do you think the birds you hear look like? Now open your eyes. Can you see the birds making the sounds? What are the birds doing and what could they be talking about?
4. Listen to this poem for some ideas.
Bird song, a poem
Duration: 02:01
Bird song, a poem.movToo hard?
Which animal noises do you know? Make each noise for someone to guess the animal.
Too easy?
Ask an adult to borrow their phone to record different bird sounds.
Listen to your recordings. What do you notice? Are they long or short sounds? Are they high or low pitched?
Extra learning activities
Learn to count through song and story with the Five little ducks.