learning with no technology at home

You might like to read this webpage on the writing process vs game design for inspiration or try some or all of these ideas:

• Write, sketch or cut out images from catalogues, magazine or newspapers to create a kind image collection of what your character(s) might look like make up a poste or a board to collect your ideas together.
• What world or environment would they live in? what would it look like? write it up or sketch it out.
• Write down a list of features you liked from games you have played before. Decide which if any of these might be in your game.
• Design the user interface from your game. What would it look like in colours, buttons and other interactive elements.
• Write a narrative that describes the world, characters and motivation for playing the game for a user.
• Sketch out the flow of your game in a flowchart or algorithm that shows what might happen.
• Survey people around you or ring a friend and interview them about what features makes they like to play a game.
• Imagine you've been asked to write a review for a game or games you have liked for a gaming magazine. Wjat would you say about the game?

What kind of challenges could you engage students in? Some examples could be:

• 30 days of lego challenge
• Creative writing challenge. Choose your favourite and have students do one a day from the list. Have them illustrate their work in pencil, paint or collage to extend the tasks and creativity.
• Gratitude journal. write about something you are grateful for everyday for 2 weeks.
• Secret code challenge. Make up your own secret code by creating a master sheet with what it all means then write messages to another family member. Give them the master sheet and see if they can de-code your messages.
• The Great Indoors page by the Scouts has some other great ideas and challenges.
• Moonhack is an international event bringing together kids from across the world for a week of coding! Get together with your friends, download the step-by-step instructions, and code your own planet-saving solution.

Read or listen to the story Possum Magic by Mem Fox being read. Look at a map of Australia. Find where you live in Australia. Locate the cities that Hush and Grandma Poss visit. Which states of Australia are they in? Mark them on your map of Australia. You might have a handout from your teacher or find one in a book or perhaps you or someone in your house could draw one.

What was the algorithm that Hush and Grandma Poss had to follow to turn Hush visible? Can you write it down or draw the steps they had to follow in the right order? Find some interesting word in the story that you could use in a narrative of your own.

Can you write your own story about an adventure you might have that is a little bit like Hush and Grandma Poss' adventure? What foods might turn you invisible and then visible again? What would be the algorithm that you'd use? Can you make a possum with some craft materials at home? Perhaps you could use home made playdough or salt dough (which can be baked hard in the oven to make a sculpture in 2D or 3D). How could you decorate you possum?

What ingredients do you have at home? Could you make one of the foods that hush needs to make herself visible? If you don't have ingredients perhaps you could pretend to make the food.

During the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a lot of interest on social media and in the news about learning centred around the picture book We're going on a bear hunt by Michael Rosen. Students could go on a bear hunt in their neighbourhood when they go out with a family member. Lots of people are putting bears in their windows for just this reason. If this isn't happening in your neighborhood perhaps you could phone a few friends and organise it. If you live on a farm or a place where you can't go hunting for bears why not go hunting for other animals that you know live nearby? (cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, kangaroos or lizards - get creative). Teachers could visit this website https://www.jointhebearhunt.com/play/ to print some activities for students to try at home in a take home pack.

Can you retell the story in song with rhythms included (clicking, clapping, tapping etc or actions)? Can you draw a map of the places that the family visited in the story? what was the order or sequence they visited each location? This is called an algorithm.

Imagine the family in the story were going on a bear hunt near where you live? What kind of weather and obstacles would they need to go over, under or through? Re write the story so it describes places to visit around you. How would something have to be so you couldn't go over it? do some measuring with a ruler, tape measure or dress makers tape to decide how tall something would have to be before you would go around it.

Teachers did you know that this book is a popular favourite to teach computational thinking and algorithms in Digital Technologies? Have a look at this activity to get some inspiration. You can download the grid here. You could draw or print pictures of the places the family visit on the story and then put them in the correct sequence. This is a kind of visual algorithm. You can see visual algorithms in lots of places like in posters explaining how to wash you hands. Do you have a visual algorithm for first aid somewhere in your house? These are often visual algorithms too.

If you go on a bear (or other type of animal) hunt you could even collect data on what you find.

During Easter you might like to participate in a variation of the bear hut by going on an Easter Egg hunt inspired by the The Big NZ Easter Egg Hunt instigated by NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. You could collect data about the types of houses you find them at for example, with or without fences, one storey or two storey, barking dogs or no dogs present etc.

There are lots of great literacy and numeracy activities that can be done at home offline. Students will have fun squirting water from the hose or a water pistol at sight words, or answers to Maths questions written in chalk on the fence or concrete. See the idea demonstrated in this fire hose activity. You could make a step up reading activity (or along the ground if you don't have stairs). Word family slam is another great indoors or outdoors activity that will keep children moving and learning at the same time. You might also like to have a look at these Australian made literacy and numeracy games from 'Go Teach This' which can be downloaded and printed by parents or for take home packs.

Use toy cars or other objects to match numbers or create maths activities. There are also lots of interesting maths ideas to do with Lego or other building bricks.

You might also like to explore a Digital Technologies concept, data representation, by doing an art-based activity with Koala glyphs.

Being at home is a great opportunity for students to record what they are doing, how they are feeling and what they are learning. This COVID-19 time capsule journal (printable pages) by Graphic designer and mother, Natalie Long, is an idea that might give you inspiration for a journalling activity. If printed pages aren't an option for students, perhaps they could make their own journal and include drawings and things collected from nature like leaves and pressed flowers or data about what they are doing at home.

There are lots of simple ways you can design tasks to teach Digital Technologies without an internet connection. You might set spelling words or a writing task that has a focus on Digital Technology Vocabulary F-2 or similar tasks. ACA has developed some literacy tasks for Years F-2 & 3-4 such as their Find all the technology words on the sheet and in your house, an activity to improve younger students’ awareness of Digital Systems and develop their vocabulary and spelling. The full set of unplugged/ at home Digital Technologies from ACA can be found here. There are also a host of very useful ideas on the CS Unplugged at home website.

Understanding what an algorithm is and how and why we use them is an important concept in Digital Technologies. This resource gives some fun ideas of how to do this with making smiley face biscuits and other simple activities which would really suit learning at home. Making origami is another easy way to explore algorithms. Origami instructions are often in visual and written algorithms. If you don't have origami paper at home, you could use scrap paper or newspaper. Can you make a perfect square out of scrap paper?

Hello Ruby is a picture book that helps children understand how a computer works and discusses a lot of Digital Technologies concepts. Visit the Hello Ruby website for ideas on teaching Digital Technologies concepts.

You might like to set a task with board games or book with either a focus on a narrative about Digital Technologies or on the structure and sequence of a text as an explicit teaching strategy to demonstrate computational thinking or algorithms. Better yet, students could design a game with a home made board of with cards or other objects they have at home. Working on the sequence and rules can be linked to designing an algorithm with branching (depending upon the task).

How about trying to build a digital system out of cardboard boxes, paper or other recyclable objects at home? Perhaps you have some old or broken devices that you are allowed to take apart to see inside? Draw a labelled diagram of what you find? write down your questions about the things you wonder? Perhaps you could explore peripheral devices, input and output with these digital systems cards?

Data can be captured about what you are doing at home and what is going on in the world through bullet journalling.

Did you know that some online coding sites have downloadable versions that can be used on a computer without an internet connection? Such as Scratch Jnr for desktops and laptops, Scratch (visual programming) and Mu (text-based programming for Python)? and you might like to look at 5 coding activities you can do without a computer from Code Club.

What kind of litter is nearby where you live or where you go to school? How much is recyclable and how much is landfill? Data, which is an important concept in Mathematics and Digital Technologies, can help us make decisions on how to protect the environment and how to design solutions to bring positive change. This DTIF classroom idea might give you some inspiration.

What do you recycle at home? food scraps, plastic, containers? paper and cardboard? animal waste? other things? Can you write about what you household does and what your community does. Do you have any ideas on how recycling could be improved.

What can you invent/ design and make at home form recycled or re-purposed items? can you sketch up your designs and keep a record of what you made and how you think will benefit the environment?

• Girls in STEM Toolkit (GiST) has a whole list f stay at home STEM activities. There are plenty of fun DIY activities that can be done from home to encourage girls (and boys) to become more interested in STEM including the Barbie bungee activity (pictured left).
• Northern Territory Government STEM technology games to get involved in at home resource

If children have access to a phone at home that can download podcasts these suggestions make for some great educational listening.

• Short and curly, ABC Educations Children's ethics podcast makes for great listening and even has built in question prompts for kids to think about in each episode.
• Phenomenom, a website with all kinds of learning linked to food by teacher and former Masterchef contestant Alice Zaslavsky, is designed to slip more serves of vegetables into every classroom. This free digital toolkit for teachers includes an online library of audio podcasts (called Nomcasts) that act as springboards for curriculum-aligned PDF lesson plans. There are lesson plans and a Teacher Guidebook and if you are in planning mode? Search by Australian Curriculum Code for content linked to learning areas.
• Audible Is Offering Free Audiobooks for Kids During School Closures

During times when we are all forced to stay at home and many children find it hard to understand whay they can't see their family and friends you might find it useful to build into the day activities to support relaxtion and mindfulness. This article by the converation has some great ideas to try at home" ‘Stupid coronavirus!’ In uncertain times, we can help children through mindfulness and play

Children could also try some relaxation exercise apps such as smiling mind and some other suggestion mentioned here. Relaxation procedures are also a great opportunity to talk about algorithms and branching (for example "if your mind wanders do this....")

• Time and tide bell project learning at home activities are designed to get children learning outdoors and sometimes indoors but always about the natural world. Examples of some of this learning can be seen in their rogues gallery. This is a UK based project aimed at helping people engage and think more deeply about our impact on the environment. You can read more about this project or watch a video about it here.
• Article from The Conversation (June 2019): Outdoor learning has huge benefits for children and teachers — so why isn’t it used in more schools?
• Outdoor Classroom Day (international) website has some excellent lesson ideas and resources. These are individual lesson and topic ideas sourced from a broad range of experts and organisations. You’ll see that we’ve concentrated on inspiration, leaving the planning of how the activity will be delivered up to the person that knows their class and environment the best — you. Outdoor classroom day also has an Australian website with Australia specific lesson plans and curriculum specific resources.