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Adventures In Learning: fun education packs for parents and primary-age children

Take a look at these free creative learning packs specially developed by teacher and education expert Debra Kidd for parents and children currently learning at home. The packs, exclusive to NEU, are aimed at children of different ages, from Reception to Year 6. They’re designed to support and encourage you and your children to enjoy reading together and to explore the world through stories, talk and activities.

Easy to use and designed for you to dip in and out of, the packs are there to inspire and spark imagination. Simply use them as suits you and your children, depending on time, energy and levels of interest. The age ranges are there as a guide, but some children may want to explore several packs.

We hope you have fun on your learning journeys! We’ll have more fun activity packs here soon for children of different ages so check back soon.

Learning at home: literacy resources for children in Key Stage 2

The following resources contain a wealth of ideas and activities to stimulate 7 to 11-year-olds’ interest in reading and writing during the lockdown. As well as being educational, importantly they are fun! Most are activities which children can do on their own, while parents are working or busy. Your children may be missing their friends or feeling isolated at home: you could encourage them to do activities as a group with their brothers or sisters, or with school friends using social media.

Reading

• Audible Stories has a large collection of audio books for children, including classics such as Jungle Book and Robinson Crusoe.
• Researchify have six well-known classics as audiobooks, with a copy of the text (Alice, Wind in the Willows, Railway Children, Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Black Beauty).
• Oxford University Press has made a wide range of books available free for children who are beginning to read independently, eg Oxford Reading Tree (Biff, Chip and Kipper)
• Some fun activities based on the Harry Potter stories, including quizzes and craft.
• Loads of videos with poetry and story readings and fun activities by Michael Rosen.
• Older children who are hooked on books will love these illustrated British Library collections. Themes include Journeys, Fear, Home and Belonging, and Changing the World.

If your children are running out of books to read

Love Reading is a book recommendation site. A summary and extract is provided for every book. At the bottom of the page, you will find links for many different genres (science fiction, the natural world, history, ghost stories, graphic novels). There are recommendations by age, and a blog for parents.

You will be able to borrow many of these books from public libraries, which generally use BorrowBox and Libby for ebooks and audiobooks. Most public libraries are open online.

Poetry

Poetry by Heart is a fantastic resource dedicated to reading poems aloud. The 7+ Timeline has over 100 poems organised by date.

Writing

• Easy-to-use guides on writing stories from BBC Bitesize. (If your child needs help with punctuation, try these short videos)
• A set of really imaginative activities in response to any book your child is reading.
• An imaginative British Library project with guides on how to write, and illustrations from children’s books. 
• This initiative invites children to write their own diary. The project uses social media channels and there are plans for publication, but with good safeguarding advice. A section for 8-12 year olds has tips from over 30 writers and illustrators.
• Puffin Books has video advice on planning detective stories, creating magical worlds, and Greek legends. There are also ingenious writing prompts.
• Pobble has a picture for every day of the year (though you can use them anytime). Each is chosen to stimulate creative writing, and includes a starter text, some questions, a short language exercise, and a drawing.

Other useful resources for children and young people

A digital book with pictures by Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, explaining the coronavirus outbreak for primary-age children.

Free resources and activities for children and young people of all ages from the UK Literacy Association.

Conservation charity RSPB has a number of delightful short stories for young nature-lovers to enjoy. Click here to download Lucky Duck; two further stories – blackbird and sparrow – are available here. There are more electronic and audio stories for children on the RSPB website.