What’s on offer for children and families learning at home together?
Catherine Gaunt
Friday, April 3, 2020
Here we round up of a selection of free resources and activities for early years settings and families, designed to help with distance-learning and home-schooling, while schools and early years settings are closed.
BBC Education Service
Announced today (3 April), BBC Bitesize will deliver daily online lessons for all age groups, including through videos, quizzes, and podcasts.
Whether complementing what schools are providing remotely, or as a standalone resource, the BBC’s newly expanded education offer will bring 14 weeks of educational programmes and lessons whatever a child’s age.
From 20 April, the start of the summer term for most children, BBC Bitesize Daily, will deliver a tailored day of learning across BBC iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Bitesize website and app, BBC Four and BBC Sounds, with curriculum relevant offers across the UK. The BBC says that ‘the comprehensive package is aimed at minimising disruption to children’s education and providing rhythm and routine in these challenging times.’
Practical Pre-School Books
Click here for a free to download Planning for Learning through Books, to help children busy with activities’ inspiration. You can already access free sample activities across our books using the 'Peek Inside' feature at www.practicalpreschoolbooks.com.
Siren Films is offering free access to its early years clip library, with more than 340 training clips and six new online courses. Siren Films says there is something for everyone, whether a practitioner, trainer, student, lecturer or local authority. Siren has also reduced the educational package from £249 to £99 so subscribers get one trainer account and 30 free remote access learners’ accounts.
TTS
TTS is continuing to support teachers and pupils by providing home learning materials, including an Early Years Activity Pack. In addition to the home learning packs, TTS’s popular Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot apps, which are free to download, are perfect for further enriching children’s learning opportunities. Download the home learning activities here
Ocean Wise Conservation Association has launched a free online ocean literacy resource called Online Oceans, bringing all that is ocean to families around the world. The new site includes ocean-inspired crafts, activities, DIY videos, live-streamed learning, and ‘endless irresistible animal content’. Activities are broken down by age group, from the age of and there are free livestreamed learning sessions during the week on topics including Ocean Plastics, Sharks! and Arctic Adaptations.
The British Nutrition Foundation has created new resources for early years specialists to use with 3-5 year olds, including activity ideas and resources to support the teaching and learning of food with young children. Its new remote learning hub, Food - a fact of life (FFL) Classroom, comprises a range of free cross-curricular resources and activities for children at home, with tips and best practice advice for parents and carers. https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/3-5-years/
Montessori Centre International has put together tips and advice on home-learning and a free e-copy of the book Learning together: what Montessori can offer your family at https://www.montessoritraining.org.uk/network/
Earlyarts
Sign up to the quarterly Earlyarts e-bulletin to receive creative ideas and download a free pack on den making and a pack on The Techniques for Creative Teaching, which is also for families.
The National Education Union has put together a guide on distance teaching and earning for primary teachers upwards https://neu.org.uk/coronavirus-what-you-need-know-distance-teaching
Oxford University jointly with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF has launched a set of parenting tips, in partnership to help parents cope during the pandemic. The Parenting for Lifelong Health and UKRI GCRF Accelerate Hub teams at Oxford have produced a set of 6 one-page tips for parents which cover planning one-on-one time, staying positive, creating a daily routine, avoiding bad behaviour, managing stress, and talking about COVID-19. The downloadable sheets contain advice condensed from their non-commercial evidence-based parenting programmes.
Twinkl Resources
The online platform for teachers is offering free interactive resources including games, videos, and audio for early years learning to KS4, Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) specific resources, a parents’ hub, and Twinkl Kids TV.
ELF Kids Videos combine learning with entertainment with songs and nursery rhymes on YouTube.
BookTrust and Waterstones Children's Laureate, Cressida Cowell have launched the new online platform , a new digital hub to entertain children and families at home, packed with free books, videos, games, recipes, competitions, quizzes and much more.
The National Literacy Trust has a free comprehensive online zone for parents seeking ideas and guidance for activities that will engage their children at home, whilE also benefiting their reading, writing and language development. Family Zone [literacyfamilyzone.org.uk] is a one-stop shop for families. Includes Small Talk videos to help parents chat, play and read with their young child, aA guide to building a reading den at home, a Reading Miles Global Challenge to encourage children to read around the world, activity sheets based on popular children’s books, including Where’s Wally?, as well as playful learning activities featuring much-loved CBeebies characters, and author videos with live stories and draw-along draw-along sessions.
Hope Education is also offering free resources and activities for home learning https://www.hope-education.co.uk/home-learning, for the early years, primary and well-being.
- See also our interview with Professor Jackie Marsh on home-learning apps in the April issue of Nursery World magazine, out next week and online
