Archbishop Courtenay Primary School

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Activities to Support at Home

Getting Ready For School

Activity ideas to keep your young brains busy and your growing bodies developing

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, PSHE is referred to as personal, social and emotional development. This area of your child's learning is concerned with wellbeing – knowing who you are, where you fit in and feeling good about yourself. It is also about developing respect for others, social competence and a positive disposition to learn.

Share stories – retell and act them out
Make cakes together
Chop the vegetables for dinner together
Give your children responsibility to help with household chores – spray the window cleaner and clean the windows is a favourite!
Look at Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube and join in together
Sharing a family meal and talk about your day.
Sharing with others
Naming their emotions
Managing their own basic hygiene and dressing independently.

Physical Development

Threading pasta on to wool or string
Water play in the bath – scooping, pouring and measuring
Design a treasure hunt around the house
Junk modelling
Make playdough together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv73CEzY1jg This is how!
Musical movement games – like musical statues
Lego and block play. Plan to build something and see if you can follow your plan
Make sensory tray with shaving foam, soap, jelly etc
Painting with water in the garden
Rough and tumble play
Building dens and tunnels with blankets and under the kitchen table

Communication and Language

Storytelling with homemade puppets – use old socks, lolly stick and straws
Singing nursery rhymes and action songs, such as Simon Says
Make music with saucepans and pots
Play guessing games – such as think of an animal and model giving clues to help your child guess the animal
Play memory or language board games
https://wetalkmakaton.org/ - Learn to sign the Makaton Sign of the Week
Listening to stories and talking about them
Talking about activities they have done or are going to do using past, present and future tenses.

Maths

Pairing socks
Playing board games with dice and counters
Bigger and Smaller games – describing the 3 Billy Goats Gruff or using Goldilocks
Add numbers to pegs and get your child to help order them
Measuring ingredients to cook/ help make dinner
Sing number songs
Sorting toys by colour or shape
Sorting coins playing money games like shops
Build train tracks in different shapes
Build towers from blocks – how many blocks did you use? Can you use the same blocks to build a different tower?
Make a bowling game with toilet rolls
Identifying numbers when out and about: on buses, door numbers etc.

Literacy

Share story books and talk about what is happening on each page
Play lotto games – matching pictures
Sing Phonics songs
Hide an object in a ‘mystery bag’ and give clues to what might be inside
Tap out syllables to break up your name on musical instruments
Writing their name
Listening to and answering questions about stories identifying characters.

Understanding the World

Blowing bubbles
Make bread or pizzas for the family to share
Read information books on frogs and chicks etc.
Hunt for bugs in the garden
Use Nature Detectives for lots of exciting activities to do at home: https://naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/
Planting seeds such as cress – and watching them grow
Look at science experiments for Early Years https://www.firstdiscoverers.co.uk/early-years-science-activities-eyfs/
Observe the weather each day and make a weather chart
Make a family tree – who is in your family
Freeze small toys in ice – and work out how to get them out of the ice
Feed the birds in the garden and keep a tally of which birds visit your garden
Make seed bombs by mixing seeds with clay to make a small ball. Dry them out and wrap to give as presents. Make a label to attach.