Mrs Barr Hegarty
Dear Parent,
I have put together some resources which I hope will be helpful for your child in the event of a school closure. The resources consist primarily of Literacy, Maths and RE. Some of the resources are work that your child may already have started in class. Some can be completed on the sheet but for others, it would be helpful if you could give your child an exercise book to write into. In class, the children are in the routine of writing the date (and, where needed, the title, at the top of their work. I would recommend that you encourage your child to continue with this method of presenting his / her work.
Every child has a spelling folder containing all the sounds / words they have covered since the beginning of the P.4 year. Please help your child to revise these spellings using the LSCWC method.
Every child also has their Learning Facts Book and this would be a great opportunity for them to revise the facts contained in that book.
Please, please, please, strongly encourage your child to keep reading any material that is available to them. We have spent a lot of time developing the children’s enjoyment of reading and their reading skills. It is essential that we continue to build upon the progress they have made and keep fostering their enjoyment of literature.
I am sending home your child’s Shalom book for First Confession and Celebrate Book for First Holy Communion. In the Shalom book, I have indicated pages that your child has not completed due to absence etc. We were to begin the Celebrate books this week but that may not now be possible. I have impressed upon the children from the outset the importance of putting their best effort into completion of these books as they will be a lovely keepsake from these two very important Sacraments. It is important that you help your child to complete the booklets, discussing the content with them and, where needed, writing down their thoughts for them to copy. The booklet belonging to the boy and girl who put in most effort will be carried up as part of the offertory at the Communion Mass. Those children will also receive a prize. Each family received a small blue book at the beginning of the school year giving guidance on the Sacraments. This will be useful when discussing the Sacraments with your child. I am also sending home the responses for the Holy Communion Mass. We have started to learn these in school. It is extremely important that you help your child to commit these to memory and to revise the prayers that we have learned this year. The prayers that your child needs to know can be found at the back of the Celebrate Workbook (p. 44-48). Please focus primarily on the following:
Hail Mary
Our father
Glory to be the Father
Act of Sorrow
Prayer for Forgiveness
Prayer After Forgiveness
Prayer before Communion
Prayer After Communion (the short version).
The Confiteor (p.40 of Celebrate)
The Sanctus (p.42 of Celebrate)
Although it would be good for your child to be familiar with the Nicene Creed and the Gloria, s/he does not need to know those particular prayers by heart.
Could you please ensure that the Shalom and Celebrate workbooks (along with any reading books or other school resources) are kept safe and returned to school as soon as we reopen.
Other Opportunities for Learning
Topic Work
In keeping with the sacraments of First Confession and First Holy Communion, our next topic is Walk in the Light. This covers RE work on the Sacraments and in terms of WAU and STEM, we would be exploring, for example, Light, Shadows, Day and Night, Reflectors of light, Invention of the light bulb, invention of electricity, completing a circuit to make a bulb light up etc. You may want to research some of these areas with your child and encourage him / her to create their own project on this topic. The project could be presented digitally, in a scrapbook or on a large sheet of card. For research purposes, children should use the search engine, Kiddle.
ICT
It would be great if you could provide your child with help and opportunities to become familiar with using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Teach them how to save their work, insert pictures, format pictures, change fonts, insert text boxes, undo and redo work and use word art. Encourage your child to create posters and to create a PowerPoint about themselves, their Light topic or another topic that interests them.
Practical work
Create opportunities for your child to:
Weigh items in g and kg
Measure liquids in litres and ml
Measure in metres, in cm and in half centimetres
Count money
Tell the time
Carry out STEM activities
Play board games
Your child is familiar with using the TopMarks website in class. This provides games to help consolidate learning in every aspect of the curriculum. Please encourage your child to use this, along with Mathletics, to develop his / her understanding of time, money and tables. This website has an interactive clock which is excellent for teaching time. In each child’s folder, I will put quizzes covering the tables that your child is currently working on with me.
Usernames and Passwords
I will be sticking your child’s Mathletics and Accelerated Reading usernames and passwords on the inside cover of his / her learning pack. You will find another letter regarding usernames and passwords for gaining access to the C2K My School site inside the pack.
Here are some other websites which you may find useful
www.Primaryresources.com (covers all aspects of the curriculum)
www.twinkl.co.uk (an excellent resource for every aspect of the curriculum. Twinkl are providing free access in the event of school closures)
www.toytheater.com (educational online games)
www.khanacademy.org (Good for maths)
www.tts-group.co.uk ( free downloadable resources)
www.stem.org.uk/resources/community/collection/58218/problem-solving – STEM
www.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids (Youtube videos on many subjects)
www.naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/
www.timestables.me.uk (this is the site I use to generate tables quizzes for the children. You can choose the number of questions, which tables to test and whether or not to include x and ÷
8 STEM Websites To Excite Kids About Tech
- CyberChase (PBS Kids).
- NASA Kids Club.
- Code.org.
- TechRocket.
- Engineering, Go For It (eGFI).
- Zoom (PBS Kids).
- CS Education Week’s “unplugged” programs.
- Kinetic City.
I hope that these notes and websites are of some help. Other useful websites will be listed by Mrs Devine on the school website.
This is a very worrying time for everyone. I will be thinking about you all and especially my wee monkeys who I will miss so much. Take care everyone. I’ll be keeping you all in my prayers.
Best wishes,
AnnMarie Barr Hegarty
St Mary’s Primary School Cloughcor 