Good morning to our An Choill Bheag families,
First of all, I would like to say a massive well done to everyone on your engagement with home learning last week and a big thank you also to our An Choill Bheag parents for your fantastic feedback throughout the week... it is very much appreciated!
I know that home learning can bring its challenges and hopefully we will be back to the An Choill Bheag classroom very soon, but in the meantime please know that you are all doing so well and that I am always only an email away if you have any questions or concerns, no matter how small they may seem.
Síona, Edyta and Amy were so delighted to hear about the great work that you have been doing at home! They would like to say ‘hi’ to everyone and they hope that you are all keeping safe, happy and well. 😊
Parents, don’t forget to re-visit this social story throughout the week, if you feel that your child could benefit from reading or hearing it again.
Below you will find a number of suggestions from me for the week ahead. As I said last Monday, these are suggested activities and I do not expect that everyone will manage to get to all of them. Do whatever you can, and whatever suits your home situation.
Also, don’t forget to check the work allocated by your child’s mainstream class teacher, as there may be some suitable activities that you could blend with the activities that I have suggested below.
Here are a few helpful tips & tricks for moving from one activity to the next…
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Morning Routine:
Let’s start every morning again with the Good Morning Animal Workout!
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Morning Yoga:
Below you will find a link to a lovely animated morning yoga routine for kids from the Moovlee YouTube channel. I think that it is a fantastic way to start the day!
Moovlee morning yoga routine for kids
However, if you find that your child prefers Tina’s video that I posted last week, then there is absolutely no problem with sticking to that either…
"Tiger-Tiger, Is It True?", Yoga Video For Younger Kids.
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Action Song of the Week:
After your morning yoga, warm up those muscles with this week’s action song. This is one that we often use in school so your child will be very familiar with it.
If you’re Happy and You Know It
Last week’s song- Every Little Cell in my Body is Happy.
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Listening to Stories:
The pupils of An Choill Bheag love listening to stories!
Here are some animal-themed stories that Ms. Franey listed in her choice board activities for this week.
There is a different story/video for each school day…
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Sensory Break:
It is a nice idea to schedule in a sensory break or two during the day. You will know best what your own child’s sensory needs are, but here is a lovely idea that a parent sent on to me last week. You might like to try it out too!
It is called ‘Crazy Soap’ and is on the shelves in Aldi at the moment.
I tried it out myself (for research purposes) and I have to say… it really is good fun! 😊
All you need is the soap and a basin/large plastic container!
And what a great fun way of keeping those little hands clean!
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Count on Me:
Some of our pupils might like to try out this little easy-to-make winter-themed counting activity.
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Get Creative:
I love this Shadow Art idea, if anyone feels like getting creative this week…
Don't forget to send me a photo of your creations!
Also, there are some lovely lion-themed art activities on Ms. Franey’s choice board this week that are very much worth checking out!
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Fine Motor Muscle Building:
Please continue to work on scissors skills development this week - Scissors Skills
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Gross Motor Skills:
Try out the 7 minute workout below and/or continue with the Stretch n Grow Home Movement Challenge from last week... whichever suits best.
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Fresh Air
This suggestion will not change from week to week. We all know the importance of fresh air, so please try to get outside every day again this week, for at least half an hour or so. 😊
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Lámh Song of the Week
This week it would be great if you could click on the link below every day to practise your Lámh signs. It is another popular song amongst our An Choill pupils, called ‘This is the way’
Lámh Song: ‘This is the way’
(P.S. Feel free to continue practising last week’s song also, if you want to – Lámh Song: ‘Knock Knock’)
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Aquarium Lessons on YouTube
Every Friday for the next month or more the UK National Maritime Aquarium will be delivering FREE live lessons from the aquarium via YouTube.
Here are the details…
Each week there will be two sessions -
The first 'Deep Science' (1:00pm to 1:20pm) will see our schools team using aquarium exhibits and our AquaLab to explore the science behind the animated ocean exploration tv series ‘The Deep’
CBBC @12pm on weekdays during lockdown
Expect fascinating facts and real time experiments, as well as ideas to follow up with at home!
The second will be ‘Mermaid Tales’, which will air from 1:30 – 1:45pm and will involve a short story narrated by our resident mermaid, Marina - perfect timing before an afternoon nap, or as a gentle, relaxing start to the afternoon.
For more information head here: http://bit.ly/AquariumLessons
I think that these lessons might be of interest to some of our pupils.
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Cooking/Baking Ideas
How did you get on last week with the 50+ Kids Recipes? I’d love to see some photos, if you get the chance to take some! Here is the link again, as I’m sure that you didn’t manage to get through all of the recipes in one week –
50+ Kids Recipes
Or here is a lovely simple recipe for making Play Dough! This is also a really lovely sensory experience for children… Enjoy!
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Evening Routine:
Calm down the body and mind at the end of the day with some more yoga from Moovlee -
Moovlee Night Time Yoga Routine
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We received such gorgeous feedback about the story time videos last week – I believe that they were a definite highlight for most of our An Choill Bheag pupils!
So, just like last week, I will be forwarding on a story time video from Síona on Wednesday and another one on Friday from Geraldine.
I, for one, cannot wait to see what lovely stories they will be reading to us!
Parents, if you have any questions or need clarification on anything please send a quick email to ballymittybcasey@gmail.com, and I will get back to you as promptly as I possibly can.
To Jake, Larry, Harley, Ben, Conn and Tommy – I hope that you have another really fantastic week!
Kindest regards,
Ms. Casey
