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How to Write a Fundraising Letter

Whether you’re approaching donations for an individual cause or for your organization, the process of writing a fundraising letter is not a small task. This is your opportunity to reach the people who can help you meet your goals, so don’t waste it with a lackluster letter that falls short.

Overview of Fundraising Letters

The purpose of a fundraising letter is to convince potential donors of the validity and importance of your cause. Fundraising letters have three parts that work together to get the job done. The introduction is where you reach out and grab your readers. Try a direct question or tell an engaging story that highlights past achievements. Next, you’ll segue into a succinct description of your cause and why you or your organization has a need. Be direct and suggest a few donation amounts and what each level will achieve. You can also mention what will happen if donors fail to act. Close with a word of thanks, assuming that your recipients will donate.

Chasing Non-Profit Foundation Grants

Non-profits are forced to appeal to donors for revenue to keep ventures afloat. As you write a fundraising letter to fund your non-profit needs, you’ll need to craft engaging letters.

Strive to make a connection with your potential donors, whenever possible, by mentioning issues or challenges you have in common.

Introduce your cause and needs with specific details. This shows your diligence and that you’ve taken the time to research the entire project.

Provide easy methods for contacting you to discuss a donation.

Hints for Club Fundraising

When your fundraising is to support a club or group, tweak it a little to achieve your goals.

Personalize the letter for each individual or corporation you approach.

Outline the program or goal you’re presenting, and provide details about what your club wants to do and why it’s important. Include specific information about an event, if applicable, such as monetary goals, dates and activities.

Invite a follow-up meeting to further discuss the project.

High-Profit Fundraising

When the stakes are high, you’ve got to up your ante a bit with a compelling letter that will spur people to act.

Write a direct and personal letter from you (as an individual or representing your organization) to your recipient.

Skip the boring figures and charts and tell an engaging story instead. Choose one successful case that you can highlight. Include riveting details that really drive home your cause or project.

Tips for Writing Your Best Fundraising Letter

Your overall goal with a fundraising letter is to give your recipients a reason to donate after they read your message. Creating a sense of urgency helps you move people to action, so don’t be afraid to mention a deadline or a budget period.

Create a readable letter with short paragraphs, bullet points, subheads and lots of white space. Make the letter scannable with a few underlined phrases and keywords. Use simple English, short sentences and minimal adjectives and adverbs.

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Creative Writing Tasks for KS1 Students

Subject: Creative writing

Age range: 5-7

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

7 March 2016

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Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

Activity: Story Mountain

Complete the story mountain to plan your sotry with a beginning, middle, and end.

Activity: Character profile

Come up with lots of interesting details about the lead character in your story.

Video: How to develop storytelling skills

Suzy Ditchburn offers practical tips for improving storytelling confidence.

What your child will learn at school

In Year 2 (age 6–7), your child will learn to:

• Write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional)
• Write about real events, recording these simply and clearly
• Demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops , and use question marks correctly when required
• Use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently
• Use coordinating conjunctions (for example, and , or , and but ) and some subordinating conjunctions (for example, when, if , that , and because ) to join clauses
• Segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others
• Spell many common exception words
• Form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
• Use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.

Handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all important aspects of writing too. You can find out more about them on our dedicated pages:

Handwriting in Year 2 (age 6-7)

Find out more about handwriting in Year 2 at Primary School.

Find out more

Spelling in Year 2 (age 6-7)

Find out more about spelling in Year 2 at Primary School.

Grammar and punctuation in Year 2 (age 6-7)

Find out more about grammar and punctuation in Year 2 at Primary School.

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Creative writing prompts – Best activities and resources for KS1 and KS2 English

Fed up of reading 'and then…', 'and then…' in your children's writing? Try these story starters, structures, worksheets and other fun writing prompt resources for primary pupils…

Jump to section:

• Writing with choice and freedom

Creative writing resources for the classroom

Creative writing prompts.

• Improving creative writing
• Overcoming the fear of creative writing

What is creative writing?

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘creative’ is ‘producing or using original and unusual ideas’, yet I would argue that in writing there’s no such thing as an original idea – all stories are reincarnations of ones that have gone before.

As writers we learn to be expert magpies – selecting the shiny words, phrases and ideas from other stories and taking them for our own.  

Interestingly, the primary national curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all and is focused on the skill of writing.

Therefore, if writing creatively and for pleasure is important in your school, it must be woven into your vision for English.

“Interestingly, the Primary National Curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all”

Creative writing in primary schools can be broken into two parts:

• writing with choice and freedom
• developing story writing

Writing with choice and freedom allows children to write about what interests and inspires them.  

Developing story writing provides children with the skills they need to write creatively. In primary schools this is often taught in a very structured way and, particularly in the formative years, can lack opportunities for children to be creative.

Children are often told to retell a story in their own words or tweak a detail such as the setting or the main character.  

Below you’ll find plenty of creative writing prompts, suggestions and resources to help develop both writing for choice and freedom and developing story writing in your classroom. 

How to develop opportunities for writing with choice and freedom 

Here’s an interesting question to consider: if the curriculum disappeared but children still had the skills to write, would they?

I believe so – they’d still have ideas they wanted to convey and stories they wanted to share.

One of my children enjoys writing and the other is more reluctant to mark make when asked to, but both choose to write. They write notes for friends, song lyrics, stories and even business plans.

So how can we develop opportunities to write with choice and freedom in our classrooms?

Early Years classrooms are full of opportunities for children to write about what interests them, but it’s a rarer sight in KS1 and 2.  

Ask children what they want to write about

Reading for pleasure has quite rightly been prioritised in schools and the impact is clear. Many of the wonderful ideas from The Open University’s Reading For Pleasure site can be used and adapted for writing too.

For example, ask children to create a ‘writing river’ where they record the writing they choose to do across a week.

If pupils like writing about a specific thing, consider creating a short burst writing activity linked to this. The below Harry Potter creative writing activity , where children create a new character and write a paragraph about them, is an example of this approach.

If you have a spare 20 minutes, listen to the below conversation with Lucy and Jonathan from HeadteacherChat and Alex from LinkyThinks . They discuss the importance of knowing about children’s interests but also about being a writer yourself.

'The confidence Crisis in Creative Writing.' Lucy and Jonathan chat with Alex from @LinkyThinks https://t.co/VClYxiQhcf — HeadteacherChat (@Headteacherchat) August 9, 2022

Plan in time to pursue personal writing projects 

There are lots of fantastic ideas for developing writing for pleasure in your classrooms on The Writing For Pleasure Centre’s website .

One suggestion is assigning time to pursue personal writing projects. The Meadows Primary School in Madeley Heath, Staffordshire, does this termly and provides scaffolds for children who may find the choice daunting.

Give children a choice about writing implements and paper 

Sometimes the fun is in the novelty. Are there opportunities within your week to give pupils some choices about the materials they use? Ideas could include:

• little notebooks
• a roll of paper
• felt tip pens
• gel pens  

Write for real audiences 

This is a great way to develop children’s motivation to write and is easy to do.

It could be a blog, a class newsletter or pen pals. Look around in your community for opportunities to write – the local supermarket, a nearby nursing home or the library are often all good starting points.

Have a go yourself

The most successful teachers of story writing write fiction themselves.

Many adults do not write creatively and trying to teach something you have not done yourself in a long time can be difficult. By having a go you can identify the areas of difficulty alongside the thought processes required.  

Treat every child as an author

Time is always a premium in the classroom but equally, we’re all fully aware of the impact of verbal feedback.

One-to-one writing conferences have gained in popularity in primary classrooms and it’s well-worth giving these a go if you haven’t already.

Set aside time to speak to each child about the writing they’re currently constructing. Discuss what’s going well and what they could develop.

If possible, timetable these one-to-one discussions with the whole class throughout the year (ideally more often, if possible).  

Free KS2 virtual visit and resources

Bring best-selling children’s authors directly into your classroom with Author In Your Classroom. It’s a brilliant free podcast series made especially for schools, and there’s loads of free resources to download too.

More than 20 authors have recorded episodes so far, including:

• Sir Michael Morpurgo
• Dame Jacqueline Wilson
• Michael Rosen
• Joseph Coelho
• Lauren Child
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce
• Benjamin Zephaniah
• Cressida Cowell
• Robin Stevens

Creative writing exercises

Use these inspiring writing templates from Rachel Clarke to inspire pupils who find it difficult to get their thoughts down on the page. The structured creative writing prompts and activities, which range from writing a ‘through the portal story’ to a character creation activity that involves making your own Top Trumps style cards, will help inexperienced writers to get started.

Storyboard templates and story structures

Whether it’s short stories, comic strips or filmmaking, every tale needs the right structure to be told well. This storyboard template resource will help your children develop the skills required to add that foundation to their creative writing.

Ten-minute activities 

The idea of fitting another thing into the school day can feel overwhelming, so start with small creative writing activities once a fortnight. Below are a few ideas that have endless possibilities.

Character capers

You need a 1-6 dice for this activity. Roll it three to find out who your character is, what their personality is and what job they do, then think about the following:

• Can you draw them?
• What questions would you ask them if you met them?
• What might their answers be?
• If they were the main character in a story, what might happen?

Download our character capers worksheet .

Setting soup

In this activity pupils Look at the four photos and fill in a mind map for one of the settings, focusing on what they’d see, hear, feel, smell and feel in that location. They then write an ingredients list for their setting, such as:

• A dollop of calmness 
• A drizzle of a beautiful sunset 
• A generous helping of a still ocean 
• Copious amounts of smooth sand 
• A spattering of lush, green palm trees 

Download our setting soup worksheet .

Use consequences to generate story ideas

Start with a game of drawing consequences – this is a great way of building a new character.

Next, play a similar game but write a story. Here’s an example . Download our free writing consequences template to get started.

Roll and write a story

For this quick activity, children roll a dice three times to choose a setting and two characters – for example, a theme park, an explorer and a mythical creature. They then use the results to create an outline for a story.

Got more than ten minutes? Use the outline to write a complete story. Alternatively, use the results to create a book cover and blurb or, with a younger group of children, do the activity as a class then draw or write about the outcome.

Download our roll and write a story worksheet .

Scavenger hunt

Give children something to hide and tell them they have to write five clues in pairs, taking another pair from one clue to the next until the 5th clue leads them to the hidden item.

For a challenge, the clues could be riddles.  

Set up pen pals. This might be with children in another country or school, or it could simply be with another class.

What do pupils want to say or share? It might be a letter, but it could be a comic strip, poem or pop-up book.  

You need a log-in to access Authorfy’s content but it’s free. The website is crammed with every children’s author imaginable, talking about their books and inspirations and setting writing challenges. It’s a great tool to inspire and enthuse.  

There are lots of great resources and videos on Oxford Owl which are free to access and will provide children with quick bursts of creativity.  

Creative writing ideas for KS2

This free Pie Corbett Ultimate KS2 fiction collection is packed with original short stories from the man himself, and a selection of teaching resources he’s created to accompany each one.

Each creative writing activity will help every young writer get their creative juices flowing and overcome writer’s block.

WAGOLL text types

​Support pupils when writing across a whole range of text types and genres with these engaging writing packs from Plazoom , differentiated for KS1, LKS2 and UKS2.

They feature:

• model texts (demonstrating WAGOLL for learners)
• planning guides
• writing templates
• themed paper

Each one focuses on a particular kind of text, encouraging children to make appropriate vocabulary, register and layout choices, and produce the very best writing of which they are capable, which can be used for evidence of progress.

If you teach KS2, start off by exploring fairy tales with a twist , or choose from 50+ other options .

Scaffolds and plot types

A great way to support children with planning stories with structures, this creative writing scaffolds and plot types resource pack contains five story summaries, each covering a different plot type, which they can use as a story idea.

It has often been suggested that there are only seven basic plots a story can use, and here you’ll find text summaries for five of these:

• Overcoming the monster
• Rags to riches
• Voyage and return

After familiarising themselves with these texts, children can adapt and change these stories to create tales of their own.

Use story starters

If some children still need a bit of a push in the right direction, check out our 6 superb story starters to develop creative writing skills . This list features a range of free story starter resources, including animations (like the one above) and even the odd iguana…

Use word mats to inspire

Help pupils to write independently by providing them with helpful vocabulary sheets that they can pick and choose from when doing their own creative writing.

Download our free creative writing word mats here , including:

• Create a spooky atmosphere
• Write an adventure story
• Describe a character’s appearance
• Describe a character’s personality
• Describe how a character moves
• Describe how a character speaks
• Describe a mythical beast

Creative writing pictures

Using images as writing prompts is nothing new, but it’s fun and effective.

Pobble 365 has an inspiring photo for every day of the year. These are great inspiration for ten-minute free writing activities. You need to log in to Pobble but access to Pobble 365 (the pictures) is free.  

Choose two pictures as prompts (you can access every picture for the year in the calendar) or provide children with a range of starter prompts.

For example, with the photo above you might ask children to complete one of the following activities: 

• Continue the story using the story starters on Pobble. 
• Write down what your dream day would include. 
• Create a superhero called Dolphin Dude.  
• If you didn’t need to breath when swimming underwater, what would you do? Write about your dream day. It might include rivers, lakes, swimming pools, the seas or oceans.  
• If you had a super power, what would it be and why?  

The Literacy Shed

Website The Literacy Shed has a page dedicated to interesting pictures for creative writing . There are winter scenes, abandoned places, landscapes, woodlands, pathways, statues and even flying houses.

The Literacy Shed also hosts video clips for inspiring writing and is choc-full of ways to use them. The Night Zookeeper Shed is well worth a visit. There are short videos, activities and resources to inspire creative writing.

Once Upon a Picture

Once Upon a Picture is another site packed with creative writing picture prompts , but its focus is more on illustrations than photography, so its offering is great for letting little imaginations soar.

Each one comes with questions for kids to consider, or activities to carry out.

How to improve creative writing

Developing story writing .

If you decided to climb a mountain, in order to be successful you’d need to be well-equipped and you’d need to have practised with smaller climbs first.

The same is true of creative writing: to be successful you need to be well-equipped with the skills of writing and have had plenty of opportunities to practise.  

As a teachers you need to plan with this in mind – develop a writing journey which allows children to learn the art of story writing by studying stories of a similar style, focusing on how effects are created and scaffolding children’s writing activities so they achieve success.  

• Choose a focus When planning, consider what skill you want to embed for children and have that as your focus throughout the sequence of learning. For example, if you teach Y4 you might decide to focus on integrating speech into stories. When your class looks at a similar story, draw their attention to how the author uses speech and discuss how it advances the action and shows you more about the characters. During the sequence, your class can practise the technical side of writing speech (new line/new speaker, end punctuation, etc). When they come to write their own story, your success criteria will be focused on using speech effectively. By doing this, the skill of using speech is embedded. If you chose to focus on ALL the elements of story writing that a Y4 child should be using (fronted adverbials, conjunctions, expanded noun phrases, etc), this might lead to cognitive overload.
• Plan in chances to be creative Often teachers plan three writing opportunities: one where children retell the story, one with a slight difference (eg a different main character) and a final one where children invent their own story. However, in my experience, the third piece of writing often never happens because children have lost interest or time has run out. If we equip children with the skills, we must allow them time to use them.
• Utilise paired writing Children love to collaborate and by working in pairs it actually helps develop independence. Give it a go!  
• Find opportunities for real audiences Nothing is more motivating than knowing you will get to share your story with another class, a parent or the local nursing home.
• Use high-quality stimuli If your focus is speech, find a great novel for kids that uses speech effectively. There are so many excellent children’s stories available that there’s no need to write your own.
• Use magpie books This is somewhere where children can note down any great words or phrases they find from their reading. It will get them reading as a writer. 

Below is a rough outline of a planning format that leads to successful writing opportunities.

This sequence of learning takes around three weeks but may be longer or shorter, depending on the writing type.  

Before planning out the learning, decide on up to three key focuses for the sequence. Think about the potential learning opportunities that the stimuli supports (eg don’t focus on direct speech if you’re writing non-chronological reports).  

Ways to overcome fear of creative writing

Many children are inhibited in their writing for a variety of reasons. These include the all-too-familiar ‘fear of the blank page’ (“I can’t think of anything to write about!” is a common lament), trying to get all the technical aspects right as they compose their work (a sense of being ‘overwhelmed’), and the fact that much of children’s success in school is underpinned by an ethos of competitiveness and comparison, which can lead to a fear of failure and a lack of desire to try.

Any steps we can take to diminish these anxieties means that children will feel increasingly motivated to write, and so enjoy their writing more. This in turn will lead to the development of skills in all areas of writing, with the broader benefits this brings more generally in children’s education.

Here are some easily applied and simple ideas from author and school workshop provider Steve Bowkett for boosting self-confidence in writing.

• Keep it creative Make creative writing a regular activity. High priority is given to spelling, punctuation and grammar, but these need a context to be properly understood. Teaching the technicalities of language without giving children meaningful opportunities to apply them is like telling people the names of a car engine’s parts without helping them learn to drive.
• Model the behaviour In other words, when you want your class to write a story or poem, have a go yourself and be upfront about the difficulties you encounter in trying to translate your thoughts into words.
• Go easy on the grammar Encourage children to write without them necessarily trying to remember and apply a raft of grammatical rules. An old saying has it that we should ‘learn the rules well and then forget them’. Learning how to use punctuation, for instance, is necessary and valuable, but when children try and apply the rules consciously and laboriously as they go along, the creative flow can be stifled. Consideration of rules should, however, be an important element of the editing process.
• Keep assessment focused Where you do require children to focus on rules during composition, pick just one or two they can bear in mind as they write. Explain that you will mark for these without necessarily correcting other areas of GaPS. Not only will this save you time, but also children will be spared the demotivating sight of their writing covered in corrections (which many are unlikely to read).
• Value effort If a child tries hard but produces work that is technically poor, celebrate his achievement in making an effort and apply the old ‘three stars and a wish’ technique to the work by finding three points you can praise followed by noting one area where improvements can be made.
• Leave room for improvement Make clear that it’s fine for children to change their minds, and that there is no expectation for them to ‘get it all right’ first time. Show the class before and after drafts from the work of well-known poets and extracts from stories. Where these have been hand written, they are often untidy and peppered with crossings out and other annotations as the writers tried to clarify their thoughts. If you have the facilities, invite children to word process their stories using the ‘track changes’ facility. Encourage children to show their workings out, as you would do in maths.
• Don’t strive for perfection Slay the ‘practice makes perfect’ dragon. It’s a glib phrase and also an inaccurate one. Telling children that practice makes better is a sound piece of advice. But how could we ever say that a story or poem is perfect? Even highly experienced authors strive to improve.
• Come back later Leave some time – a couple of days will do – between children writing a piece and editing or redrafting it. This is often known as the ‘cooling off’ period. Many children will find that they come back to their work with fresh eyes that enable them to pick out more errors, and with new ideas for improving the piece structurally.
• Try diamond 9 Use the diamond ranking tool to help children assess their own work. Give each child some scraps of paper or card and have them write on each an aspect of their writing, such as creating strong characters, controlling pace and tension, describing places and things, using ‘punchy’ verbs etc. Supply these elements as necessary, but allow children some leeway to think of examples of their own. Now ask each child to physically arrange these scraps according to how effectively they were used in the latest piece of work. So two writing elements that a child thinks are equally strong will be placed side by side, while an aspect of the work a child is pleased with will be placed above one that he / she is not so happy with.
• Keep it varied Vary the writing tasks. By this I mean it’s not necessary to ask children always to write a complete story. Get them to create just an opening scene for example, or a vivid character description, or an exciting story climax. If more-reluctant writers think they haven’t got to write much they might be more motivated to have a go. Varying the tasks also helps to keep the process of writing fresh, while the results can form resource banks (of characters, scenes, etc) for future use.
• Help each other Highlight the idea that everyone in the class, including yourself, forms a community of writers. Here, difficulties can be aired, advice can be shared and successes can be celebrated as we all strive to ‘dare to do it and do our best’.

Browse more ideas for National Writing Day .

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Writing Activities for Your Second Grader

Writing allows children to express their thoughts, creativity, and uniqueness. It is a fundamental way in which children learn to think critically, organize and communicate ideas, and make thinking visible and permanent. And learning to write well helps children to be better readers!

Writing with purpose, style, and structure

Second graders are learning how to write a variety of types of compositions, including stories, reports, and letters. They write about a range of topics with the audience in mind.

Second graders are polishing a wide range of basic writing skills, including writing legibly, using capitalization and punctuation correctly (most of the time!), and moving from invented spelling to more accurate spelling.

For most, handwriting becomes automatic, so they can concentrate more on the content of their writing rather than on the mechanics.

Second graders can organize their writing to include a beginning, middle, and end. They can write a simple essay with a title and introductory sentence, provide examples and details that support their main concept, and write a concluding sentence.

They are learning how to revise own writing and offer meaningful feedback to peers about their writing.

Be a writing role model

Make sure your child sees you writing. She will learn about writing by watching you write. Talk with her about your writing so that she begins to understand why writing is important and the many ways it can be used.

Does spelling count?

With second graders, you’ll see less invented spelling and more correct spelling (especially words from a word wall or vocabulary list). A good teacher will be able to tell the difference between the misspellings that indicate normal literacy development and those that suggest a possible learning disability. If you have questions, talk to your child’s teacher or reading specialist.

Struggling with handwriting?

Handwriting involves more than just making letters on a page — it requires strong fine motor and visual-motor skills. Here are  six multisensory techniques  to try if your child is struggling with writing.

3 writing tips for kids who don’t like to write

Watch as an expert shares more tips for encouraging your child’s writing, including using dictation (speech-to-text) technology . (This video was produced by Understood (opens in a new window) .)

What does second grade writing look like?

Looking at Writing

See more samples of real writing from second graders in our interactive resource, Looking at Writing.

Try these writing ideas at home

Write for a reason.

Help your child see that we write for a specific purpose and audience. Here are some writing prompts to try:

• Have your child write instructions for taking care of the family pet. These will be useful as you plan your summer vacations!
• Make a shopping list before going to the grocery store.
• Write an online review of a book or an item you recently purchased or a recipe you tried.
• Talk about the presidential election and write a description of the kind of president you want.
• Find a picture in the newspaper and write an article to accompany it.
• Have your child start keeping a personal diary, a household guestbook, or a baby book for a younger sibling.

Make a journal jar

A journal doesn’t have to be a diary. It can also be a book where your child writes about ideas or answers questions, like “If you could do  anything  next summer, what would you choose?” A journal jar is a place to keep all those ideas and questions. Wash and decorate a wide-mouthed jar, like one that used to contain peanut butter. Then, write or print out journal prompts on slips of paper. Ask your child to pull out one prompt each day and write about it in her journal.

Play “tell me how”

In this activity your child pretends she’s writing to a space alien who doesn’t know anything about our culture. This alien does everything exactly as it’s said or written. Your child’s job is to choose an everyday task, like brushing her teeth or making a sandwich. Then, she needs to write step-by-step directions about how to do the task for the alien. When she’s done, you get to be the alien and try to follow the steps exactly as she wrote them. She may be surprised at what she left out!

Play a writing game

This turn-taking writing game is based on a classic kids’ book by Remy Charlip called Fortunately . In it, something lucky happens and then something unlucky happens. Each event is introduced by either the word “fortunately” or the word “unfortunately.” To play, take a piece of paper and write a sentence beginning with “Fortunately,” such as “Fortunately it was a sunny day. I wanted to play outside.” Pass the paper to the next player, who will add an “unfortunately” sentence, such as “Unfortunately, I had to clean my room.” Keep going until the story is too silly to continue.

Family letters

Help your child write letters to relatives and friends. These may include thank you notes or just a special note to say hello. Be sure to send your child a letter or card once in awhile too so that she is reminded of how special it is to get a letter in the mail. And consider finding a pen pal for your child.

Family stories

Ask your child to interview a family member about his or her life. Encourage your child to write a short biography, and include a photo or drawing, and a meaningful quote from the relative. Your child may want to share it with family members.

Reader’s theater

Encourage your child to read her stories out loud. Listen carefully with patience, and give positive feedback about her ideas and her writing!

Turn your child’s writing into books. Paste her drawings and writings on pieces of construction paper. For each book, make a cover out of heavier paper or cardboard, and add special art, a title, and her name as author. Punch holes in the pages and cover, and bind the book together with yarn or ribbon.

Field notes

Encourage your child to take notes on trips or outings, and to describe what she saw, using all of her senses. This could include a description of a walk outside, a ride in a car or a bus, or other events that lend themselves to note taking.

Young reporter

Encourage your child to take notes on trips or outings, and to describe what she saw. This could include a description of nature walks, a boat ride, a car trip, or other events that lend themselves to note-taking.

Writing to remember

If your child likes a particular song, suggest that she learn the words by writing them down. Also encourage copying favorite poems or quotations from books and plays.

Play a game with pictures

Photos and images are great story sparkers. Do a web search and find a few interesting images. Or cut out pictures from magazines. The pictures can be realistic, such as a photo of students on a playground. Or they can be fantastical images, such as a superhero flying in space. Glue a couple images into a notebook. Then ask your child to write about one of them. You can prompt her, asking her to include what she sees, what the people are thinking, what will happen next—or just let her imagination run free.

Make an “I can” book

As your child learns to write, she’ll also be learning other new skills. Making an “I Can” book will let her practice writing skills and keep track of her other accomplishments. Staple together a bunch of blank sheets of paper to make a book. As your child reaches a new milestone, such as learning to tie her shoes or hit a baseball, she can draw a picture on a new page of the book. Younger kids can then write, “I can tie my shoes.” Older kids can write a few sentences about what they’ve accomplished.

Create a family scrapbook

A family scrapbook is a great way to save memories and jump-start your child’s writing. Use an inexpensive photo album to keep souvenirs of things you do together. This can include photos, ticket stubs, and found objects, like pretty leaves. Your child can begin by writing the date and a line about where you were and what you did. Then, you can work together to write a more detailed summary. Don’t forget to include funny or even annoying moments!

Fostering a love of writing at home

This video is from Home Reading Helper, a resource for parents to elevate children’s reading at home provided by Read Charlotte (opens in a new window) . Find more video, parent activities, printables, and other resources at  Home Reading Helper (opens in a new window) .

Write, revise, and edit

Writing poems

Teacher Lynn Reichle and her second-grade students go on a writing adventure called the Writers’ Workshop. (From Writing and Spelling , part of our PBS Launching Young Readers series.)

More writing resources

• Mary Amato’s Tips for Parents: How to Encourage Creative Writing
• Mary Amato’s Tips for Keeping a Writer’s Notebook
• Mary Amato’s Tips for Keeping a Diary
• An Introduction to Letter Writing
• Recording Observations: Journals and Field Notes  (In English and Spanish)
• Developing Writing and Spelling at Home (In English and Spanish)
• 7 Great Ways to Encourage Your Child’s Writing (In English and Spanish)
• 5 Graphic Organizers to Help Kids with Writing  (in English and Spanish)
• How Writing Develops
• When Writing Is Hard  (In English and Spanish)
• Handwriting: What’s Normal, What’s Not (In English and Spanish)
• Dysgraphia: What You Need to Know (opens in a new window)  (Understood)
• 6 Multisensory Techniques for Teaching Handwriting  (In English and Spanish)
• How Parents Can Support the Common Core Writing Standards  (In English and Spanish)
• Can your second grader research and discuss a topic? (opens in a new window)  (VIDEO: GreatSchools)

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• Writing tasks
• Home Learning
• Florence Nightingale Magic Grandad This is a you tube video - please watch with an adult as we can not control the adverts

After watching the Magic Grandad video (with an adult) write a character description of Florence Nightingale. Include a description of her appearance (what she looks like), her personality (what she is like), her family and her work. Try to use commas in a list and more than one adjective at a time. 

E.g. Florence was a kind, caring and hard-working person. 

• Florence Nightingale Description Template.pdf
• Florence Nightingale Diary Writing Template.pdf
• Florence Nightingale Fact File Template.pdf
• Florence Nightingale Report Writing Template.pdf
• Florence Nightingale Missing Words.pdf
• creative-writing-prompt-question-writing-frames.pdf
• Literacy Shed
• t-l-51744-swimming-pool-scene-writing-stimulus-picture-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-l-51745-birthday-party-scene-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-l-51746-school-scene-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-t-252156-beach-scene-writing-stimulus-picture-activity-sheet.pdf
• t-t-252754-pirates-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-t-252236-at-home-scene-writing-stimulus-picture-activity-sheet.pdf
• t-t-252811-jungle-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-t-252812-dinosaurs-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-t-252353-park-scene-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf
• t-t-252813-healthy-eating-writing-stimulus-picture.pdf

Images for creative writing

• handwriting-posters.pub

Write a letter to a local nursing home or an older relative.

Can you tell them something interesting about yourself?

Can you ask some questions to find out all about them? 

Write a set of instructions. 

These could explain how to:

• look after a dragon
• play a game
•  find your way through an imaginary land
•  make a sandwich
•  tell the time

Don't forget to include a title, subheadings, bullet points, time words (first, next, then) and bossy verbs. 

Can you write a treasure hunt for someone in your house to follow? 

Write 10 clues for them to find. 

For example; my first clue is hidden where you have a wash, my second clue is hidden where you lay your head to sleep. 

Perhaps you could draw a winners trophy to hide with the last clue. Have fun!

• Mr Thorne's Top 10 Story Writing Tips Video **Please watch out for the adverts - we cannot control these**
• all-12270538.zip

Unfortunately not the ones with chocolate chips.

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EXTERNAL LINK F Link-2

• Writing Tasks
• Class Pages
• Class Page Archives: 2020-2021

There are lots of writing ideas and resources on this page which I will keep adding to. The green words on this piece of text will also take you to some useful videos and websites for creative writing tips:

Lauren Childs , Oxford Owl , Usborne publishing , Suspense writing , Tips for parents , Relative Clauses , Similes and Metaphors , Using speech , Parenthesis song , Expanded noun phrase song , Persuasive writing videos , Parenthesis , Creative writing tips , Expanded noun phrases , Personification , Describing characters , Describing settings , Planning a story  

Writing support

• Non-negotiables
• Picture stimulus
• Planning formats and resources
• Story starters
• 500 word support

Creative Writing

Write at least 2 pages using the following title.

In your writing you could:

• Explain the situation;
• Describe the thoughts and feelings of the person or people involved;
• Try to make your reader share the experience through your choice of words and sentences.

PLAN YOUR ANSWER!

In your writing you should:

• Make your writing interesting for your reader – use verbs, adverbs and adjectives to achieve effects;
• Present your ideas clearly, organising your writing into paragraphs;
• Write using accurate grammar, spelling and punctuation;
• Include an interesting beginning and ending for your writing.

In your writing, try to use the following:

• Alliteration
• Onomatopoeia

Task: To complete a piece of creative writing.

What you need to do: Choose from one of the following story starters/writing prompts. You can write in any type of genre: A letter, a poem, a story, a short story, a play, a blog, a diary, a newspaper report, persuasive writing Remember that you need to include some powerful vocabulary but just start writing and have fun!  

Writing prompts/starters:

You’re digging in your garden and find a fist-sized nugget of gold.

The asteroid was hurtling straight for Earth…

There’s a guy sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper…

He turned the key in the lock and opened the door. To his horror, he saw…

Silvery flakes drifted down, glittering in the bright light of the harvest moon. The blackbird swooped down…

The detective saw his opportunity. He grabbed the waitress’s arm and said…

There are three children sitting on a log near a stream. One of them looks up at the sky and says…

You find a door at the end of the garden. What do you do?

And you thought dragons didn’t exist…

Write about nature.

You walk into your house and it’s completely different — furniture, decor, all changed. And nobody’s home.

Write about one (or both) of your parents. Start with “I was born…”

The most beautiful smile I ever saw…

Here is a poem using metaphors about James Bond

He is a bar of dark chocolate,

A smooth black cat’s coat,

An exotic fruit cocktail,

A silver Porsche disappearing into the distance.

He is a plate of caviar,

A blade on a knife,

A frothy cappuccino,

A piece of black silk.

He is a midnight alarm,

A tiger disguised as a pussycat,

A jet plane,

A perfect day.

Your task is to write a poem in the same style about either a fictional character or a celebrity. It could be about a character from a book or film. It could be a celebrity from sport, the music industry, the film industry or even the Royal family.

Think about these questions and write some interesting metaphors: What do they look like? What do they do? What are they famous for? What is their character like?

How to Play a Favourite Game

our school has been asked to make a book of instructions for children’s favourite games. These might be games you play at home or school. It could be a game you enjoy playing with your friends. It must not be a game you play on the computer. 

Your task is to write a set of exact instructions to explain how to play your favourite game. Remember, the person who will be reading your instructions will never have played this game before.

Planning ideas - Title of the game, equipment needed, aim of the game, step-by-step details

The Electric Skateboard

You have been asked to promote a new type of skateboard. It is powered by an electric motor and has rechargeable batteries. It is operated from a wireless hand controller.

Your task is to write a persuasive article for a parent’s magazine explaining the functions and advantages of the electric skateboard. You need to make it sound like the best Christmas present any child could ever want! 

Planning Questions

What are its uses? How is it unique? Why is it fun? Cost and maintenence? Features? 

Collect words and phrases to help you persuade parents to buy this skateboard.

The Argument

A group of friends, who are slightly older than you, have asked if you can come to town on Saturday. Your parents are not keen for you to go. Continue the play script below

(Emma and Mum are in the kitchen.)

Emma: Mum! Anna and Henna are going to town on Saturday. They asked if I could go too. Is that O.K.?

(Mum has a concerned look on her face.)

Mum: I don’t think so dear, you’re much too young.

(Emma pleads.)

Emma: But Mum, I’ll be fine. 

(Dad enters the room.)

Dad: What are you two talking about?

Planning ideas - Think about the characters in the play. What are they like? What are the arguments for and against Emma going to town?

Time Travel

One evening you go to your computer and accidentally press one of the keys you have never pressed before. Suddenly you are transported into a different time! Your task is to write about where you travel to, what the place is like, who you meet and how you manage to get home again.

Where did you travel to and what form did your transport/journey take? (Remember: You can travel back or forwards in time.) What is the place you visit like? Who do you meet? What are they like? How do you manage to get back home?

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Kidgate Primary Academy

‘Shaping Lives, Building Futures’

• H-L Archive
• Further Resources

Year 2 Gallery

Block 3  Week 3 (1.6.20-5.6.20)

Short Reading Comprehension – Arctic Yoga

• Reading Arctic Yoga.pdf

Lewis the Ladybird has got a problem. There is a planning sheet to help you to write a story about Lewis. It could take a week to write it. When you write it don’t forget to practise your neat joined handwriting, use capital letters and full stops ( question marks or exclamation marks if you need them). Try to add in a list with commas, use adjectives , use adverbs and use conjunctions (and, so, but, because, that, if, or, when) to add extra details.

• writing Lewis the Ladybird.pdf

Geometry Position and Direction White Rose Learning sequence – Lessons 1-4

• Maths Geometry Position and Direction learning sequence.pdf

Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation

Tenses 3 – there are slides for this here

• Grammar Punctuation and Spelling Tenses 3.pdf

Find out about habitats around the world. Here are some slides of information, activities and sheets that can be used for your investigations (the sheets give you an idea of what you can write in your home learning book).

• Science World Habitats.pdf

Block 3 Week 3 Challenge

2020 Great Bug Hunt . This is a national competition usually completed through school but this year it can be completed at home. Below is the website link. 

This can be completed in your house, in your garden or on a daily exercise walk. Your entry to the competition could be a story, a poster, a fact file (may be like the one you have already done), a poem or a video perhaps. There are examples on the website. There are also details of how to submit your entry. Good luck.

• 2020 Bug Hunt

Block 3 From 11th May

Dear Year 2 Parents and Carers

It has been great over the past few weeks to see the learning and fun the Year 2 children have been having at home. Thank you for all of the emails, please keep them coming.

Once again for this Block please try to complete the suggestions for the Every Day section and a new 5 a day arithmetic questions sheet has been added to this section below.

The Every Week section is further below too so if you are able to complete a book review, some handwriting practise, telling the time, using money or spelling then that is great. Thank you.

We have now added Block 3 Week 1 (11.5.20-15.5.20)  and Block 3 Week 2 (18.5.20-22.5.20) immediately below as this is a 2 week block. There are ideas for Reading, Writing, Maths, Grammar, Science and our weekly Challenge.

After this there are ideas for activities at home for other subjects too. Please refer back to Block 2 and Block 1 for other ideas and websites (some websites have been updating ideas each week too).

Please email with any questions.

Year 2 Team - Mrs Stevens and Mrs Davison

Block 3 Week 1 (11.5.20-15.5.20)

Short Reading Comprehension - Polar Bears

• Reading Polar Bear.pdf

Think about a mini beast that you know a lot about or can find out information about. Look at the sheet to get an idea how you can set out your information in your home learning book. Write in sentences, with capital letters and full stops . Use the right technical vocabulary . Use conjunctions (and, so, that, because, but, if, or when) so you can give further information in your sentences. If you are writing a list then don’t forget commas . Check your spelling . There is a word mat to help with words to describe different mini-beast.

• Writing Describing a mini beast word mat.pdf
• writing mini beast report.pdf

Statistics White Rose Learning Sequence – Lesson 1 Tally charts, Lesson 2 Draw 1-1 Pictograms, Lesson 3 Interpret 1-1 Pictograms

• Maths stastics sequence of learning.pdf

Grammar and Punctuation

Tenses 1 – there are slides for this here

• Grammar Punctuation and Spelling Tenses 1.pdf

Find out about things that are alive, have been alive and were never alive. Here are some slides of information, activities and sheets that can be used to help your investigations (the sheets give you an idea of what you can write in your home learning book).

• Science Alive Been Alive Never Alive.pdf

Block 3 Week 1 Challenge

Using things you have outside or in the house, create an obstacle course in your garden, outside area, hall way or even your bedroom. You could use a plant pot as a hurdle, plastic cups to run around, a sheet on the floor to crawl under, the possibilities are endless!

With this challenge it is really, really important you check with a grown up before using anything! Maybe after you have made it, your grown up could have a go and you could time them going round your course?

Block 3 Week 2 (18.5.20-22.5.20)

Short Reading Comprehension – Antarctic

• Reading Antarctic.pdf

Read/listen to the book The Greedy Bee (the link for it is below). Plan out the story in the box it up sheet (you can draw boxes like the sheet in your home learning book). I have added in time words and I have filled in the top row to help you to remember how to use the grid (you can draw pictures if you don’t want to write notes for what happened). Next job is to write the story in your own words, write it as a recount (telling the audience what has happened to the very greedy bee), write it in the past tense , use time words , capital letters and full stops for sentences, use technical words from the story (like hive and nectar), use adverbs and conjunctions (and, so, but, because, that, if, or, when).

• The Very Greedy Bee
• Writing The Very Greedy Bee planning sheet.pdf

Statistics White Rose Learning Sequence – Lesson 4 Draw 2, 5 & 10 Pictograms, Lesson 5 – interpret 2, 5, & 10 Pictograms, Lesson 6 Block graphs.

Tenses 2 – there are slides for this here

• Grammar Punctuation and Spelling Tenses 2.pdf

Find out about micro habitats. Here are some slides of information, activities and sheets that can be used for your investigations (the sheets give you an idea of what you can write in your home learning book).

• Science Mircohabitats.pdf

Block 3 Week 2 Challenge

Make a bug hotel – Here are some instructions for a larger Bug hotel but you may not have all of these resources so here are some photographs of smaller bug hotels too. Happy building!

• Challenge Week 2 Make a minibeast hotel.pdf

Block 3 Other Subject Ideas

Slides of information, questions to discuss, videos to watch, pictures to look at and activities to do for VE Day (in case you missed it).

• VE Day PowerPoint.ppt

Label parts of the different creatures.

• Science Lifecycle of a frog.pdf
• Science Lifecyle of a butterfly.pdf
• Science Parts of a bee.pdf
• Science parts of a beetle.pdf
• Science Parts of a buttlerfly.pdf
• Science Parts of a spider.pdf

Map/plan out your bedroom or your garden. Here are some ideas to help get you started.

Play beetle – here are the instructions.

Make you own jigsaw using cereal box fronts.

• Game Beetle drive.pdf

Extra activities – Describe a monster, A day in the life of a cat, The Zoo Vet.

• Writing A day in the life of a cat.pdf
• writing describe the monster.pdf
• Writing the Zoo vet.pdf

Think out what place you would like to see through your home door keyhole. It might be your garden, it might be a holiday to go on in the future, it could be going into space like Neil Armstrong or it could be a magic doorway and you could go back to the past. Draw the keyhole and draw what you can see.

If you have any cardboard packaging you could use it to make pictures. Here is one of a face you could try.

STEM Challenges

These are challenges for girls and boys to get them thinking more deeply about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

• Stem Challenges
• Read aloud and in your head every day. This could be for 20 minutes each day. Inference question starts – Please ask your grown up to ask you questions about the books you are reading. Your grown-ups could ask a couple of questions each day or have a longer question session once a week.
• If you have been doing phonics each day at school then please practise the RWI sounds to help with reading and spelling. This could be reading the sounds each day. There is parent help with this on this website
• RWI School Closure support
• Times tables – Keep practising counting sequences for 2s, 5s and 10s. 10 questions a day should help to keep the times tables in your head. This website can help with times tables practise.
• Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division & Fractions – Please continue practising these. Your grown up could write out questions using ideas like those on the workshop sheets. 5 different questions each day will help to keep how to do it in your head – addition like 36 + 29 =, subtraction like 52 – 34 =, multiplication like 6 x 5 =, division like 22 ÷ 2 = and fraction like ¼ of 20 =. There is a sheet of questions to help with this.
• Maths 5 questions a day.pdf
• Maths 5 a day arithmetic questions.pdf
• Telling the time – Please continue this work with a grown up at home to tell the time for o’clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past, and 5 minute intervals (like 10 minutes past 3 and 20 minutes to 4). There is a print and cut out clock face in the pack to help. Try telling your grown up what the time is 3 times each day.
• Maths clock face.pdf
• White Rose Maths also do a problem of the day. For each problem there is a Key Stage 1 problem (in red/brown) and a Key Stage 2 problem (in blue). There is one problem each day.
• White Rose Problem of the Day
• Book review & Connections – Please continue with book reviews and how books are connected. Try to do one book review and one book connections each week.
• Please look at these websites for free ebooks if you don’t have extra books at home. (Please note Audible is a 30 day free trial)
• Practise reading the Year 2 Common Exception Words. This could be a couple of times each week.
• Extra ideas if you need them - phonics games here
• Phonics Play
• Handwriting - Practise the joined up handwriting style that is in your homework book. One session of handwriting practise each week should help to keep your writing neat and joined.
• Extra ideas if you need them - Design your own planet, Writing an advert and Writing a diary. These are in this block.
• Writing a diary.pdf
• Writing about your planet.pdf
• Writing an advert.pdf

Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation

• Practise previous spellings – Look through your spelling book and practise the spellings that have been sent home during the year. You could have a mixed up test of 10 words once a week. If you can’t find your spelling book then there is a sheet with rules and patterns for Year 2 Spellings.
• Spelling Patterns and Rules.pdf
• Year 2 Common Exception Words – Practise reading and writing these using the sheet. You could practise spelling 10 of these each week.
• Extra ideas if you need them
• Spelling Frame
• Money – Please continue this work with a grown up at home so you know what the different coins are that we use in the UK. Try counting money, using money to pay for things at home or sorting money once a week. There is a sheet with coins on it to help.
• Maths Coins.pdf
• Extra ideas if you need them : In school we use White Rose Maths for some of our questions so the children will be familiar with the layout of the questions.
• White Rose Home Learning

Block 2 Week 1

• Comprehension exercise – Neil Armstrong
• Year 2 Reading Neil Armstrong.pdf
• Build something, make something or do something (like build a lego house, make a sandwich, build a den, paint a picture or do the washing up). Now write instructions about it. Do this over a week, planning it out and then writing it. So think about: What you need ; draw step by step pictures; number your instructions; use a time word (First, Then, Next, After that, Later, Finally); use a bossy verb (like cut, fold, wash); write out the sentences and don’t forget a capital letter and a full stop for each sentence . There is a sheet to show what your instructions could look like.
• Writing Instructions example.pdf
• Measuring height and length. There is a learning sequence with questions in this block. 
• Maths measuring height and length sequence.pdf
• Compound Words – There are slides for this in the block.
• Grammar Punctuation and Spelling Compound Words.pdf

Week 1 Challenge

Using a range of recycled materials from your home, design and make a boat which will float on water whilst carrying a passenger (at least the weight of a 2p coin).

Think about our science learning, which materials are going to work best to make your boat water proof and float? Did you need to change anything from your design to make it float better? How many 1p/2p coins can it carry before it sinks?

You could use this to help you write your instructions or maybe write a story about the adventure your boat goes on!

Don’t forget to take a picture of your boat!

Block 2 Week 2

• Comprehension exercise – Coastal Holidays
• Year 2 Reading Coastal Holidays.pdf
• Just after Christmas you wrote about a toy of yours having an adventure at school (like Traction Man). Now write a story about your toy having an adventure at home. Pick the toy, draw it and draw where the adventure is going to be. Now use the mountain planning sheet.  For the first part think about what your toy would normally be doing on a normal day, what the toy looks like and where it is. In the next box something starts to happen, it could be a good thing, an exciting thing or a worrying thing. In the top box is where the big thing that is happening is at its greatest. Going down the mountain on the other side needs the problem to be sorted out or the exciting thing to be calming down. Finally in the last box think, is it going to end well for your toy? Plan out the story during this week. Here is a song to help with how to use a story mountain planning sheet.

Story Mountain Planning

• Writing Story mountain.pdf
• Measuring mass (weight). There is a learning sequence with questions in this block for comparing mass and measuring mass.
• Maths measuring capacity weight and temperature sequence.pdf
• Suffixes 1 – There are slides for this in the block.
• Grammar Punctuation and Spelling Suffixes 1.pdf

Week 2 Challenge

Thinking about our Happy Holidays project, create your own country based on all the geographical features you most liked about other countries. Consider the physical features your country will have; hotels, shops, theme parks etc and the human features it will have; beaches, weather, mountains etc. 

You can draw all of the features of your country on a map and use a key to show what they are.

Don’t forget to give your country a name and you could even draw your own flag!

Block 2 Week 3

• Comprehension exercise – Seasons of the World
• Year 2 Reading Seasons of the World.pdf
• Your toy has been on an adventure and you have planned it. Now is the week to write it. When you write it don’t forget to practise your neat joined handwriting, use capital letters and full stops ( question marks or exclamation marks if you need them). Try to add in: a list with commas, adjectives , adverbs and conjunctions (and, so, but, because, that, if, or, when) to add extra details.
• Measuring capacity (volume) and temperature. There is a learning sequence with questions in this block for comparing volume and measuring litres, millilitres and temperature.
• Suffixes 2 – There are slides for this in the block.
• Grammar Punctuation and Spelling Suffixes 2.pdf

Week 3 Challenge

Using what you know about living a healthy lifestyle (eating fruit and vegetables, drinking water etc) from our Science and PSHE learning, can you create a special menu with three healthy and delicious meals; breakfast, lunch and tea?

What things will you include? How can you make your meals balanced including, meat, dairy, vegetables, fruit, fats and pasta/potatoes?

Once you have planned your meals, give your restaurant a name, write down your meals including the ingredients you would need to make them and draw a picture of what the finished dish would look like.

An adult at home might be able to help you make one of your healthy, balanced meals, adapting it to fit the things you have at home.

Block 2 Other Subjects - Ideas

Now has never been a more important time to take care of our mental and physical well-being. The children know lots about living a healthy, balanced lifestyle including what we eat and drink, exercise and getting the right amount of sleep. We hope the links below help to support this. 

• Calming channel
• Cosmic yoga
• Mindfulness music
• Outdoor Learning - Learning through Landscapes
• Woodland Trust
• Nature Diary

These websites have fun science investigations to do at home.

• Science Fun
• Science Kids
• Science Sparks
• DK Books Science Information
• Edinburgh Zoo Web Cams

This website is an old BBC one but it is still very useful for history. Having a good knowledge of world and British history will definitely help throughout primary school and beyond.

• BBC History for Kids

It can be tricky to complete lots of different art over the next few weeks as you may not have different papers, glue, felt tips or crayons. So here are some ideas for just pen and paper.

• How to draw

There are Music lessons on Youtube with Myleen Klass.

Learn your favourite song and perform it to your grown ups.

The one where we learn basic rhythms and then play your name

Oti Mabuti (Strictly Come Dancing) has been streaming dance challenges on Youtube. 

Joe Wicks (The Body Coach) has been providing a daily PE lesson on Youtube each day at 9.00am. 

Oti Mabuse and Marius Lepure Shrek kids dance class

P.E with Joe | Monday 23rd March 2020

Day One of my 9am daily workouts

To help to remember the Continents of the world here is a song 

To help to remember the Oceans of the world here is a song 

Here is a game to help with the countries of the UK and Ireland, and their capitals. 

Seven Continents Song

Five Oceans Song

• Geography Games

Try programming with Scratch junior or with Minecraft.

• Scratch Junior
• Minecraft Education

Design & Technology

If you have the ingredients help to bake cakes, biscuits, pastry or bread.

Prepare a sandwich, fruit salad or help to prepare a meal.

Build with lego with the 30 day challenge.

Make your own play dough and construct with it.

Junk modelling – make a rocket.

• 30 Day Lego Challenge

How to Make Play Dough

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Creative Writing Ideas

Here are some ideas that you can use as part of creative writing activities with your children:

1) Writing Traditional Stories from a Different Point of View

Read “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” (by Jon Scieszka) with the children. This tells the “Three Little Pigs” story from the wolf’s point of view.

Ask the children to think of a story that they know well and to write another version from another point of view.

e.g. Write “Cinderella” from the point of view of one of the ugly sisters,

OR Write “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” from the point of view of the troll,

OR Write “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” from the point of view of Goldilocks.

2) Design a New Room for the Chocolate Factory

Based on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl.

Remind the children of the story and read chapter 15 – a description of the Chocolate Room.

Ask the children who have read the story if they can think of any of the other rooms in the factory. Make a list of these on the board for the children to refer to later.

Now ask the children to make up a new room for the chocolate factory, making sure that they are as descriptive as possible.

Jessica Miller has also suggested the following idea:

What might have happened if any of the other children had gotten the factory?

3) Missing Person

The following activity is great fun and usually produces great results, but it must be used with caution. Only try it with a class you are comfortable with and who you think will cope with the situation. Also, try to add a little humour where possible, ensuring that the children are aware that it’s not real – you’re just pretending!

Choose a name for a missing person (e.g. “Paul”), making sure that this is not the name of someone in the class. Before the lesson, put a chair in an empty space in the classroom. For the purposes of the lesson, pretend that this space is where “Paul” normally sits.

Ask the children where “Paul” is. They will probably look at you as though you are mad, but continually ask them where “Paul” is today. Tell them that he normally sits in his space (point to the empty chair) and that he was there yesterday, but he isn’t there today. Insist that they tell you where he is. Hopefully, someone will make up a reason why “Paul” isn’t in today. Argue with them, saying that you have heard differently. Ask if anyone knows anything else. Ask who was the last person to see him. Continue like this for a while, with the children explaining where he is.

Finally, say that as Paul is missing, we will have to make some missing person posters, explaining who Paul is (with a picture so others can identify him!), where he was last seen and who to contact if he is found. When these are made, you could post them around the school.

A missing person poster template can be found below.

4) Supermoo’s New Adventures

Based on the book “Supermoo” by Babette Cole.

Read the story through with the children. Discuss the main characters (Supermoo, Calf Crypton, the BOTS, Miss Pimple’s class), and ask the children to produce a new adventure for a series of new Supermoo books. This could be in the form of a story, or a storyboard with accompanying pictures.

When finished, the children could actually make the books for younger children in the school to read.

5) Recipes for Dreams

Based on “The BFG” by Roald Dahl.

Remind the children of the story and read the “Dreams” chapter to give the children some ideas. Ask them to make a recipe for a dream. They could set it out like a cooking recipe with ingredients and mixing instructions and there should also be a short description of the dream (which could be a “Golden Phizzwizard” or a “Trogglehumper”).

When all of the recipes are finished, they could be made into a “Dream Recipe Cook Book”.

6) Dr. Xargle’s Book of …..

This activity is based on the Dr. Xargle series of books written by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Tony Ross.

Read through some of the books in the series.

The children should write their own Dr. Xargle story in which he teaches his class about a different aspect of Earth life (e.g. school, work). This will encourage them to look at everyday life from a different point of view. If there is enough time, they could also make illustrations to accompany their text.

7) Class Mascot Activity

Find a small soft toy or puppet which will become the class mascot. With the class, choose a name for the mascot, and discuss its background (where it comes from, its friends and family, its likes and dislikes etc.).

Let each child take the mascot (and a book in which to write) home for a few days at a time. While they are looking after the mascot, they should write a short story in the book outlining what the mascot has done during its stay with them. This can be true or the children can make up events (e.g. a trip to the moon). Encourage them to be as creative as possible.

When the mascot returns to school, spend some time discussing what it has done and where it has been. The class could make a book describing the mascot’s travels.

8) When I am famous…

“In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” – Andy Warhol

Discuss the above quote with the children, and talk about what it means to be famous. Would they like to be famous? What would they like to be famous for?

The children could then write:

• An account of what they would like to be famous for and why.
• A diary, written as if the child was famous in the future. How are they feeling? What things do they have to do?
• A newspaper interview, written as if in the future, with the child who is now famous.

9) How did the elephant get its trunk?

Can the children think of a story which describes how the elephant got its trunk? Or how about explaining how a giraffe got its long neck? How did the leopard get its spots? Why has a rabbit got long ears? Why is a zebra stripy?

10) Description of a New Animal

A good way of asking children to use their descriptive writing skills is to ask them to invent a new animal. Ask them to describe what it looks like, where it lives, what it does, what it eats etc. It might be useful to discuss existing animals and their characteristics beforehand.

11) Writing a story based on adverts

In the back of many books, there are often adverts for other stories. Why not get the children to choose one of these adverts, and write a story based on the description of the story in the advert. They don’t need to have read the book which is being advertised, and you can get them to compare their own story to the real version when they have finished.

12) Using Objects

Take 4 or 5 unrelated but interesting objects and challenge children to create either a skit or a character description of the owner. Great for oral discussion but also useful for character analysis. Suggested by Jane Knight.

13) Name Characters

This is using art and creative writing, and was suggested by Jeanette Carpenter:

• Fold a piece of paper in half and on the fold line, write your name.
• Cut around the outside shape of your name.
• Open your name and you will have a shape based on your letters.
• Colour and design your shape into a character.
• Glue your finished character to a piece of construction paper.
• Write a descriptive paragraph about your character as if it is an alien arriving here on earth for the first time. Give it a name, place of origin, the reason for being here, etc.

Writing Detailed Instructions

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