At school we have been thinking about how we learn and which skills we use to help us. You have probably heard about our Building Learning Power buddies from the children. These characters help the children to understand what skills they are using in their learning and they help us to develop further skills, which in turn, help us to become more successful learners. Below are our Building Learning Power buddies. You can find a PPT on the Arunside website called ‘Metacognition Characters For Assembly’ which Mrs Jagger used to introduce the characters to the children. This will explain what skill each character is promoting.
Although we have provided you with home learning plans and ideas, we are aware that, at times, your child/children may not want to be doing ‘school work.’ Children are constantly learning, whatever they do, and by introducing the Building Learning Power buddies to you, we are hoping that you will see more clearly exactly how activities which are not on our home learning timetables, are still valuable learning experiences. For example, a jigsaw might encourage your child to work independently (like Izzy Independent,) or with a family member (Tommy Teamwork.) They may need to be resilient (like Rosie Resilient,) if it is difficult for them. They may use prior knowledge and experience to help them or work in a systematic way – doing the edges first, sorting pieces by colour for example.
Below is a list of simple activities which would promote the skills of our Building Learning Power buddies. It is by no means an exhaustive list – nearly all activities will provide practice at one or more of the identified skills. Have a go at some of the activities and encourage your child to identify which buddy they have used in their learning. We have made a chart for you to print and record your activities on – just jot down what your child did next to the appropriate character. If you can’t print a copy then just note it down on the back cover of your child’s purple work book. Have fun!
- Jigsaws
- Card games eg Snap, Happy Families, Uno
- Board games eg Snakes and Ladders
- Paint/colour by numbers
- Wordsearches
- Crosswords
- Sudoku
- Noughts and crosses
- Hangman
- Build a model
- Scrap booking
- Lego/Duplo/KNex/Meccano
- Origami eg paper aeroplanes
- Sewing
- Embroidery
- Knitting or crochet
- Complete a model making kit
- Scavenger hunt
- Write and illustrate a story/comic/cartoon/poem
- Learn a new song
- Follow a recipe
