Home-School Lockdown, Disney Style!

It seems crazy to think that only a few weeks ago life was relatively normal, and yet here we are now, unable to leave the house unless it’s absolutely essential with all schools closed. 
As a parent of a little lady who suffers badly with anxiety I was determined to make the transition from school to home-learning one that wouldn’t be too much of a change. So, the first thing we did when we found out it would be happening was collectively decide on how we wanted the school day/ week to look. The girls were adamant that they wanted a timetable which included regular school day activities such as break time, story time, times tables/ spelling work, reading etc so we drew one up together. We decided on maths, English and PE in a morning. We are currently using a mixture of Oti Mabuse’s dance which you can find here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC58aowNEXHHnflR_5YTtP4g

Joe Wicks PE lessons which can be found on his Bodycoach Youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

and outdoor activities for PE, which I’m joining in with!

We decided that the afternoons would be for topic work which could be amended easily depending on the mood the girls were in. And most importantly, we decided to base all our English and topic work for the first few weeks at least around the theme of Disney!

As I was a teacher up until having Winnie I had to make sure I didn’t try to include too much and over complicate things as I know that small group teaching is so much more intensive than class teaching, and that the girls would get tired a lot faster. I also know that they are feeling very emotional at the minute so wanted to make sure they had plenty of down time to allow them to relax. I also decided that afternoon schooling would be optional, and if they needed a break/ fancied doing something different that was absolutely fine. After all, at this crazy time their well-being is my number one priority. As it turned out, they did full school days every day except Wednesday, which was a glorious sunny day and so we decided to continue playing outdoors from around 2pm until tea time, and Friday where they asked to create Lego from instructions. We had a really wonderful week, and despite the circumstances, I am so grateful to have this extra time with my girls.
So, down to the activities. My girls are 7 and 8.5 (year 2 and year 4) but I purposely tried to create activities that they could either carry out individually (obviously producing different levelled outcomes) or could work on together. As I said earlier, most are Disney based with the exception of maths which I won’t describe in detail but will mention a couple of games I played as they are easily adaptable. 

Simple Maths Games:

Bingo:

We use this for times table practise. We write down the answers to the times table(s) we are focussing on and the girls then choose 8 numbers at random to write into a grid. I then asked relevant times table questions in a random order and they circle any answers they have. First to get all 8 circled shouts bingo.

Blockbusters:

I’ll have a P please Bob! Never not funny!!

I created a grid of hexagons on word with each hexagon containing a number. I either play it with the girls against each other (I vary the level of the question depending on whose go it is) or with them as a team against me (they ask my questions!) If they get the question right I fill the hexagon in their colour. One team goes across, the other down. The first to get a full line wins. 

We also do a times table practise each day. I made cards for each question which are placed upside down, and the girls work together to see how many they can turn over and answer in a minute. We started with 2 and 5 and are moving on, but every 3 weeks we will combine all the tables they’ve learnt so far so they don’t forget them. After times tables we are doing division facts. Polly knows hers already but it’s still good to make sure she retains them and she loves the game. 
They also love doing timed practise sheets. I use this website to generate them:
http://www.timestables.me.uk/printable-pdf-quiz-generator.htm

Winnie has 40 questions whereas Polly has 60, with 3 minutes to complete as many as possible. 

Ok. That’s enough maths. Let’s get onto the fun stuff!!! DISNEY!! I created a list of activities rather than a timetable as I had no idea how fast/ slow the girls would work. Here’s what we did (I’ve kept it in note form as I think it would be easier to follow if you wanted to try anything out).

Literacy:

Discuss what we already know about Walt Disney.

Create a list of questions we want to find the answers to.

Discuss where to look for answers.

Research to find the answers, using the following resources:

Read the Walt Disney Ordinary People Change the World by Brad Meltzer to see if any questions answered.

Watch the Walt Disney BBC documentary and use the internet to research to find further answers.

Look at a selection of information leaflets/ posters and discuss which you like and why.

Present the information you learnt in a chosen way.

Creative Writing:

Watch Youtube videos of walking into The Magic Kingdom.

Discuss your memories of walking along Main Street focussing on sights, sounds, smells and the way you felt.

Work together to create some descriptive sentences about different aspects of the experience.

Create a piece of descriptive writing about entering The Magic Kingdom.

Topic:

Music:

Using different character pictures, clap the rhythm pattern of their name (we used Donald Duck, Pluto, Belle, Cinderella, Tinkerbell)

Look at beat cards and try and match the correct note lengths to each character, assuming the full name lasts for a whole 4-beat bar.

Create your own 8-bar composition using a selection of characters.

Perform your composition on an instrument of your choice.

Drama:

Hot seat (interview) each other as if one of you is a reporter and the other is a known Disney character. Repeat swapping roles/ characters.

Create a piece of drama with 2 characters from 2 entirely different stories.

Art:

Use the animation classes to drawn some of your favourite Disney characters. We chose a selection of characters. Some were harder than others but the girls enjoyed it all.

If you search for ‘Simba animation’ on the Disney Park blog site, a list should come up (it wouldn’t let me post the link on here!)

We really did have a lovely week. We had plenty of breaks in our school day as the girls would have normally at school, and if they were having fun playing we didn’t rush back to lessons. We still had lots of time for fun and play which we loved.

We even got a FaceTime from Princess Anna! If your little one would like one, just visit this page where the very lovely Amber-Mae is arranging them.

https://www.facebook.com/awholenewworldee

And we had to have a Gold award ceremony!

For us, structure and a clear definition between the week and the weekend works best. For others I know that may not be the case, but hopefully the activities I’ve listed above may be of use to some of you.

Stay safe you lovely people, and hopefully we will be back at our happy place in the not-too-distant future.