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With school closures extended until April 19th, keeping your kids learning and entertained at home is part of everyone’s new reality. Here are another five great websites that offer free access to pupils and parents and are highly recommended by educators.
(1) www.Storylineonline.net – Suitable for all ages.
The above site is the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website. Simply log-on to storylineonline’s website, YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/StorylineOnline) or download their app to enable your child to listen to their favourite actors read aloud some of the world’s best picture books. There’s even an activity guide linked to each book, so plenty of follow up ideas too.
(2) https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/ – Suitable for Junior Infants to 2nd Class.
For younger children, ‘Teach Your Monster to Read’ is another award winning website that supports children’s literacy learning and phonics. Their website is free to use and for a limited time their app (which usually costs €5.49) is available for free.
(3) www.readtheory.org – Suitable from 2nd class – Secondary.
It’s hard to believe that this website is free to join, but it is and has almost 14 million users worldwide. This site enables your child to improve their comprehension by reading passages online and answering a series of multiple choice questions. When your child first joins, they do a quick pre-test in order to identify reading ability before assigning reading passages suited to your child’s reading stage.
(4) www.khanacademy.org – Suitable for all ages.
Khanacademy offers free access to lessons and courses primarily in mathematics and science. Pupils can work at their own pace and personalise their learning journey. A great substitute for an actual maths teacher.
(5) Fundamental Movement Skills – Suitable for all ages.
Fundamental movement skills are the skills which support children’s co-ordination and movement. If children are experienced with these fundamental movement skills, they can play any number of sports with greater confidence. The fundamental movement skills include walking, running, hopping, skipping, jumping, dodging, side stepping, landing, balancing, catching, throwing, and striking.
Now more than ever it is important to balance screen time with exercise, so why not enable your child to strengthen their fundamental movement skills by concentrating on a different one each day.
Do visit https://www.scoilnet.ie/pdst/physlit/videos/ for videos and guidance based on the Irish curriculum’s programme; ‘Move Well, Move Often’.
With Schools out, are you and your children climbing the walls with boredom because of isolation? Check hereunder for a possible solution.
Computer coding is the process of using a programming language to get a computer to create your own interactive stories, games, and animations.
As part of the New Mathematics Curriculum for Irish primary schools; primary pupils, from Junior Infants to 6th Class, will be expected to learn the foundations of computer coding: https://www.curriculumonline.ie/Junior-cycle/Short-Courses/Coding/
‘Scratch’ (Visit https://scratch.mit.edu/ ) is a programming language developed by MIT and designed for children ages 8 to 16 years. As already stated ‘Scratch’ enables children to use a programming language to code and create stories, games and animations. As children create with Scratch, they very quickly learn to think creatively, work collaboratively and reason systematically.
With schools closed until March 29th and possibly much longer, www.codingireland.ie are generously offering their coding course free to pupils from 1st to 6th class. Simply visit https://codingireland.ie/SchoolsOut
Coding has many benefits for children. It enables them to problem-solve, design, create, collaborate, think, review and sequence. Most of all, it enables them to understand how the technology that surrounds them actually works.
For children under 6 years, the ScratchJr App has been designed and is available for free to download on android and iOS devices. To get started using ScratchJr take a look at this ScratchJr introductory video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEWFDJSmWcw
All Leaving Certificate students studying languages will receive marks of 100% in lieu of oral assessments that were due to be held in Irish and modern European languages in the weeks ahead.
This decision has now been formerly announced by Mr Joe McHugh, (Irish Minister for Education.)
Oral exams had been due to begin on Monday next, March 23rd, but have now been cancelled.
The oral assessment in Irish is currently worth some 40% of overall marks in Irish, and some 25% of overall marks in modern European languages.
Practical and Coursework
The deadline for submission of other practical coursework for the 2020 Leaving Cert have been further extended until May 15th 2020.
To date, no final decisions have been made in relation to those taking Junior Certificate exams.
Five Great Websites to Keep Your Kids Entertained and Learning at Home.
Until March 29th next, schools are closed due to the coronavirus [Covid 19] pandemic and with playgrounds and play dates now clearly out of bounds, many parents are searching for ways to keep their kids entertained and learning at home.
Here are five great websites that offer free access to pupils and their parents during these unprecedented times.
(1) Starfall – Literacy and Numeracy for Little Ones.
www.starfall.com is an excellent website for children ages 2 – 7 years. It provides free access to a host of games, songs and interactives that support learning to read, write, spell and understand numbers.
For more information on the website and its associated apps for iPhone and Android visit https://store.starfall.com/app-catalog
(2) Brainpop – The Next Best Thing to an Actual Teacher.
If you are not familiar with the suite of websites and apps offered by Brainpop, you are in for a treat (and even Mum and Dad might learn a thing or two).
BrainPop Junior and BrainPop provide educational videos that explain and explore topics spanning all curriculum subjects. BrainPop is normally a subscription website, but they are offering free access to schools and pupils affected by coronavirus. For more information visit https://jr.brainpop.com/ and www.brainpop.com.
(3) GoNoodle – Keeping Kids Moving and Mindful at Home.
With sport teams, swimming and playgrounds out of action for the next few weeks, keeping kids active indoors is more important than ever. GoNoodle is one option! It aims at getting kids active, moving and mindful with a wide range of dances, games, rhymes, raps and general silliness that will appeal to kids of all ages, interests, skills, and abilities. So check out link https://www.gonoodle.com/
(4) Twinkl – Thousands of worksheets for Kids
If you are sick of screen time and looking for paper-based activities for your kids, then log on to www.twinkl.ie. Twinkl provides thousands of worksheets and activities for every age group and based on every aspect of the curriculum. They have even created ‘School Closure Packs’ to help children during this period of school closure and they are offering all parents a one month FREE Ultimate Membership to Twinkl.ie. Setting this up is really easy to do – go to www.twinkl.ie/offer and enter into the Offer Code Box IRLTWINKLHELPS.
(5) Epic! – A Library on your Laptop and iPad
With libraries closed, www.getepic.com provides access to an unlimited library of thousands of children’s books for all ages, both fiction and non-fiction. If you visit Epic! or download their app Epic! you can get a 30 day free trial.
A vaccine for the pandemic caused by the coronavirus [Covid 19] is on the verge of being developed, a team of scientists have confirmed.
A team of researchers, led by Mucosal Infection and Immunity Chief Dr. Robin Shattock, believes they have successfully trialled a vaccine tested on mice and are now hopeful it could be ready for human trials as early as June of this year.
Senior researcher Dr. Paul McKay, of Imperial College London, has stated that he has obtained results from a month after he injected mice and is claiming that the vaccine “works really, really well”.
The team is working with scientists in Paris to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness on monkeys and have applied for further funding from the Medical Research Council to conduct human clinical trials.
Meanwhile, see linked here a very fine down to earth published article from former Tipperary & Sarsfield Senior Hurler Mr Ger Redser O’Grady, which possibly offers clearer advice than what is coming currently from Ireland’s health officials.
“Do not go for pints. Do not have a house party. Do not go to a house party. Do not go for coffee. Do not go for a meal. Do not go for a chat. Do not visit your auntie. Do not visit your parents. Do not bring the kids over to their friends. Do not let friends come over to you. If you absolutely have to get out of the house, go for a walk.”
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