Here are some lovely art activities linked today’s book ‘ How the Elephant Got its Trunk’

Watch this video to learn how to draw an elephant.

Elephant hand print

Painted Elephants

Don’t forget to send in photos of any work that you have done at home to: year2team@stgeorgesschool.org.uk

Today’s learning is all about fractions!

Enjoy putting together this Fraction Robot by dividing each part of his body into the following fractions:

• Head- 1/2
• Bolts- 1/2
• Hands- 1/4
• Body- 1/4
• Shoes- 1/2

Once you’ve done that, colour in the pieces and put him together! 🤖

What’s big and grey and is ready to go away on holiday?                                     

An elephant because he always has his trunk ready to go! 

Today’s activity is linked to the story “How the Elephant got its Trunk”. Listen to the story here.

So now you know how the mighty elephant got its trunk but what about these animals…

• How did the giraffe get its long neck? 🦒
• How did the leopard get its spots? 🐆
• How did the camel it get its hump? 🐫

Have a go at writing your own story to explain one of these questions!

Fairy Tale Castle Art Project  👸🐲

Continuing our theme of fairy tales, have a go at creating your own castle using these very easy techniques!

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Draw a basic castle using white oil pastel on black paper.

Step 2: Then, dip a piece of a damp sponge into paint to create the stones or bricks.

Step 3: Once dry cut out the castle and use paper scraps to create windows, doorways, flags and banners.

You could even stick your castle on to a piece of paper and create a whole scene like the one below!

Today’s activities will be focused around place value. This is an important element of maths because it helps children understand the meaning of numbers and is crucial for children before they can move on to adding and subtracting numbers.

Here are a few activities that you can do at home to practise place value.

Stomp it!

Use painter’s tape to make your place value system and write the place values onto the tape.  For children of this age, I recommend going no further than 3 digit numbers (hundreds, tens and ones).

Next, trace around the child’s foot and then write numbers 0-9 on the paper feet.

Ways to play:

1. Write a number such as 567 and ask the child to stomp on each digit as they read it out loud.
2. Read a number to the child, such as 852 and get them to write it, then stomp it as they repeat the number.
3. When a zero was in one of the places (except for the very last ones place), it makes it even trickier. Practice putting zeroes in one or more places: 602 or 057.
4. Write a number such as 212 and ask the child to “turn it” to the next number, followed by stomping out the whole number.

Place Value War

This game requires a deck of playing cards or UNO cards.  If using a deck of playing cards, leave the Joker cards but remove the jacks, queens, kings, and aces.  If using UNO cards, leave the WILD cards, but remove the reverse, draw two, draw four, and skip cards.

How to Play:

1. Children turn over two cards from the deck if they are working with tens and ones, and three cards if doing hundreds, tens and ones.
2. They lay the cards side by side in the order they draw them to make a two or three-digit number.  If they turn over a Joker or WILD card, it can stand for any number.  The person with the largest number gets a point. The first student to reach a certain number of points is the winner.

Story writing can just be playing with stories that already exist.

You can take simple stories like Cinderella or The Three Little Pigs and change the key elements like the characters, setting or the plot to create a new story.

Here is an example:

• Story: Cinderella
• Character: Cinderella, a young girl.
• Setting: A ballroom

Plot: Cinderella wants to go to the ball but her evil stepmother says she can’t. Her fairy godmother arrives and uses magic so that she can go. At the ball, she falls in love with a prince but has to go home before midnight, leaving her shoe. The prince searches for the girl whose foot fits the shoe. He finds Cinderella, they get married and live happily ever after.

New story idea:

• Story: A Martian
• Character: The school gym
• Setting: The Martian wants to go to a disco but his parents say he can’t.

What could happen next with this new setting or character? Will the Martian fall in love at the dance or maybe meet some new friends? What important thing could he leave behind?

Now it’s your turn. Pick a fairy tale or classic story and reinvent it! 

Use the following heading to help you plan your story…

• The original story
• The original character
• The original setting
• The original plot

1. NEW character
2. NEW setting
3. NEW plot

Hand washing remains the No. 1 tip for preventing the spread of Coronavirus so it is important that children know how to do it properly.

Read this interactive book with your children which teaches them the key times to wash their hands and includes a song to help them remember the 5 steps to hand washing.

Now that you are an expert at hand washing, why not create a poster showing other people how to wash their hands properly? Here are few examples to help you started.

If you are running out of books for your child to read, register for free with Oxford Owl to access a range of eBooks specific to your child’s age, reading level and year group.

On rainy days or days off school it can be hard to persuade your children to practise their maths, but these activities should have your child enjoying maths at home in no time at all!

Telling the Time

How to play:

1: Try drawing a clock on the ground with chalk.

2: Then, get your child to use their body to make the hands of the clock. They could show just the hour or minute hands by lying straight, or they could use their body to make the hour and the minute hands, with their legs (the longer part) being the minute hand and their torso (the shorter part) the hour hand.

Addition 

1.Two players take it in turns to roll a dice. They keep a running total of their rolls.

2. Each player can use their turn to stop and ‘bank’ their total whenever they want. They can do this instead of rolling for that turn. It might be helpful to write the banked points down on a piece of paper.

3. If a player rolls a 1, they lose all their unbanked points.

4. Who can get to 100 first?