Branching into Home Learning Part 2

This blog follows on from our previous which suggests some effective ways to approach the home teaching of English, namely using a quality book – whether fiction, non-fiction or poetry - as the springboard into learning. 

So, you are sitting around the repurposed kitchen table with your child/children and you have found a book that you are all excited about reading (check our Home Learning Branches for inspiration) but where to go from there? 

Make it Real

Think of a creative hook that brings the world of the book out of the pages and into the home. While this only requires a little effort, it does need imaginations turned up to maximum. 

This could be a letter that mysteriously arrives from one of the characters or the author asking for the children’s help and giving them a challenge. For the more technologically savvy, this could be an email or text message. It might be that a strange handprint or set of footprints have appeared in a part of the home. Perhaps a suitcase has been left with clues about the character inside or clues need to be brushed out of a tray of sand. Whose footprints could they be? What kind of animal could have left them? Whose suitcase might this be and what do the contents tell us about this person? All this can lead to some predictions about the book. 

Creating a sense of mystery is vital, as it will heighten your children’s curiosity and sense of engagement. 

Explore New Vocabulary 

Post-its can be used to write out key vocabulary that will be encountered in this part of the text. If there are no post-its, try cutting up some cardboard into cards (the back of a cereal packet even!). 

Once the vocabulary has been written on cards, games can be played to investigate meaning. Games such as matching nouns or adjectives to real objects  (actually stick the word to the object if in the room or garden); matching opposites; pairing past and present tense, ordering synonyms (which are the most intense?); miming out adjectives and verbs; guess what mum or dad is drawing and match to the word; matching adjectives to nouns to create noun phrases to name a few. Children could even sort words into hoops, with categories such as: Words I Know/New Words/Words I Can Guess. 

The main point here is that children get a chance to experiment and define words in context, that they will be using in their writing. They could even notice any spelling patterns. We would strongly advise storing the words from the session in a special pouch/tin/bag so that they can be pulled out at a later date. Which words have we bagged this week? 

Build Sentences like Lego

Long strips of paper or card can be used to help children explore sentence construction. Children need to see the vocabulary they’re going to use in a sentence. Once a sentence pattern has been decided on (e.g. ‘She saw a large tree’.), depending on confidence levels, keep the sentence structure the same and vary the vocabulary content (e.g. She heard a beautiful bird.’) using the post-its from the vocabulary activity. Can you spot the adjective? Can we change this adjective for another? Who would we be describing if we used this word? After a few variations of content, try cutting up the sentence and jumbling up the words, can the children unjumble the words? Which word(s) should have capital letters and where should the punctuation go? 

Have a Go First 

Another valuable piece of the puzzle is for children to see you use these sentences in a piece of writing. You can write out the start solo, or children can contribute, and you can construct a piece together. If possible, stick this modelled piece of writing somewhere visible. 

Give Children an Audience 

Once they have finished writing, make sure children get a chance to read out and show off their work perhaps to relatives over a video call. Children could post a letter back to the character or author. This could also lead to some creative bookmaking (cutting up old postcards and magazine to make a collage front cover). 

We hope this has given you some more practical ideas for your home learning tool kit. We also think it important repeating something we said in our last blog – “You’re doing a great job!” 

If you want to find out more about our Home Learning Branches to support you and your family on your venture into book-based learning, visit our website at https://literarycurriculum.co.uk/home-learning/.

Posted in: Home Learning | Home Learning