Second Class

26th March

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing okay and not missing school too much yet! 
I know this is an extremely difficult time for you all and please know that I am here and happy to do anything that I can to help you all out, just send me an email and we can work together to come to a solution! 
As you all know I have sent work home to cover the boys up until Friday 3rd of April. After this I will have new work ready for the boys! If anybody has any requests or suggestions of the type of work you think your boys would benefit from just let me know and I'll be sure to include it! 
I have found over the last few days that having a routine to follow everyday is providing each day with some structure and therefore helping to pass the time and I would strongly recommend having a routine for the boys to follow as well just to give them a little structure while out of school. 
To help you with this I have explored a couple of great websites and videos which you could do with the boys each day to give them things to help keep their brains ticking and to fill the days! 

Firstly, in school we do quite a lot of yoga and meditation to help with their levels of concentration and to encourage positive mental health! In order to do this all you need is youtube! If you type cosmic kids into youtube this will bring you to a channel which has loads of videos of yoga for the boys to do! They love it in school and have a few favourites which I'm sure they'll point out to you! Similarly, if you type 'kids meditation' into youtube it will bring up a load of videos that the boys do, you'll find that these are really good for calming the boys if they're a bit hyper!!!! 
Another great channel on youtube is 'kidzbop'. This is a channel where there are plenty of dances and action songs which the boys also use in school most days! These are great for movement breaks which will really help their concentration! If you find them getting distracted during their work, take a minute and stick on one of the kidzbop songs and they should focus far better after a little bit of movement.
As a result of the school closures many websites and specialists have set up daily episodes of what they specialise in for the kids. A few of the ones which have stood out to me are:
1: PE with Joe Wicks on Youtube
2:Wildlife with Steve Backshall on facebook- this is everyday at 9.30.
3: Science with Maddie Moate on Youtube- weekdays at 11am
4: Maths with Carol Voderman- free access to her website at www.themathsfactor.com
5: Music with Myleene Klass on Youtube
6: Storytime with David Walliams- a new free story everyday on his website at www.worldofdavidwalliams.com
This final one will really interest the boys as David Walliams is our favourite author in school, he wrote Billionaire Boy which we went to see and has so many great books!
If you are looking for any extra work for the boys or science experiments etc or even colouring sheets I would highly recommend 'Twinkl'. It is a website which provides teaching resources which I use with the boys everyday and incredibly, they have made their website free for parents for the duration of the school closures. They really do have great resources and ideas which would definitely keep the boys occupied!
If you can I would love if the boys kept up some reading everyday as they have all really become great readers and I'd hate for the break to set us back, any children books at all will do, they really are brilliant at independent reading and should be great at reading any children's books themselves. Similarly, their handwriting has come on so much since September so when they are writing their diary entries or using their handwriting books really encourage them to use their neatest writing. 
If the boys are struggling with the break and missing their friends and school please do not hesitate to allow them to send me emails if they want! I would love to hear from them and give them updates about how we are all spending our time off! 
Typing and constructing emails would be a really great skill that they could develop during their time off and I'd only be more than happy to hear from them and send them replies!! 

Again, please do not hesitate to email me at [email protected]. It's been great to hear from some of you already and to hear how the boys are getting on and hopefully the communication will continue over the next few weeks! Hopefully I'll see you all soon, stay safe and keep well!
Laura

20th March

Hi all, I hope you’re keeping well and that the boys are all behaving!! As you know, I sent home a timetable for work to be done each day with the boys if at all possible. They have to continue on and do their daily spellbound, mental maths and tables. Following this, they are to do one page of their maths and English booklets each day and then to finish, their page of handwriting and an insert for their diary. 
Tell the boys that I said a big hello and that I’m missing them lots and to stay safe and obey the grown ups at home!