Suggested activities for Sherkin 18^th – 22^nd May

Hello everyone

Here are a few general reminders

• Louth county libraries have great resources on their facebook page, this week they are offering a ‘housebound’ service. They will deliver books to your door on a long loan.
• The RTE learning hub is a great programme on at 11am each week day.
• The Middletown webinars are very interesting this week its

Tara Vernon
Promoting Sleep
Tuesday 19th May 2020 – 19:00

Jed Baker
Managing Meltdowns
Thursday 21st May 2020 – 19:00

These hyperlinks will bring you directly to the registration page and give you more details.

• My contact details are: mharris@stbrigids.net

Literacy:

Can I remind parents of the login details for our reading scheme that is available online from Collins publishers.

Please login to https://connect.collins.co.uk/school/portal.aspx

Click on the ‘teacher sign in’

User name: parents@harpercollins.co.uk

Password: Parents20!

This week can I ask parents to select this book and remind you to please supplement reading with Lamh signs and ask a few simple questions about what you’ve just read.

Our main focus this week is going to be ‘Oral health’ I will use this theme over many PLU’s.

Here is another book for parents to read to / with students.

These photos might remind students of the time we visited the dentist for a quick check up.

Poetry – Check out this wonderfully funny poem by Pam Ayres on the importance of minding our teeth.

Pam Ayres

Key vocabulary for brushing our teeth

Please read each word and expand into full sentences, If possible could

you help your student write sentences to accompany these key stages of brushing their teeth.

Remember to support your student at the writing stage they are at:

1. Mark making: your child can experience making marks with gel crayons or brightly coloured markers.

2. Your child can trace over letters / words with hand over hand support or verbal prompts

3. Your child can write and copy sentences independently or from a model.

Check out Seesaw for further activities during the week.

Don’t forget it’s not too late to sign up to ‘Seesaw’ – just email me at mharris@stbrigids.net and I will forward you a code so your student can join in the Sherkin classroom.

Lamh – This week I’d like to invite you to complete this Lamh activity with your student.

Remember you can access Lámh Signs Online to check any of the signs needed for these activities. Lámh Signs Online is free to access until 31st May 2020.

Activity 1: Opposites – link with Numeracy

Step 1: Think about what opposites you want to sign. Check any signs on Lámh online video library that you are not sure of before you start.

This is a good beginners list:

Big/Small

Open/Closed

Clean/Dirty

Wet/Dry

Hot/Cold

These are great signs to know and use because they are part of everyday! They are also 10 key signs for language development.

Step 2: How can you play?

Get a box together of household objects that can help demonstrate each opposite- e.g. Big/small- Daddy’s shoe/ child’s own shoe, or a doll’s shoe, wooden spoon/ small spoon etc. Try to collect a few examples of each opposite pair.

Use an opposites jigsaw.

Print pictures of opposites – can they help you to think of something that’s “hot”. They can google pictures with you and pick their favourite. Again, try to get a few examples or each opposite pair to help their understanding of the concepts.

Go around the house and take photos of objects that represent each opposite e.g. open /closed door, window, fridge, box, coat etc. Maybe they can take the photos on your phone/ tablet and be active in opening and closing things. Print and make and let your child stick them in to make a book.

The more you can involve your child in preparing and playing the above games, the more opportunities you have to teach /show the Lámh sign and create turns for them to sign in a meaningful way.

Step 3: As you pull out an object or turn over a picture you sign your target words e.g. “I got a dirty bowl”. “I want a clean book. Can you help me to find a clean bowl? “ Once you are confident your child knows the target try to combine 2-3 signs e.g. “ the window is open. Can you get the window is closed?

Step 4: Try to use these signs in as many real-life situations as you can. Children use more signs when they are with people who sign.

Check out this beautiful cover of Ed Sheeran’s ‘perfect’, Silvia Angel uses a combination of Lamh and ISL signs

Numeracy:

Link with Lamh activity and exploring opposites.

Also link with general theme of ‘Oral Health’.

Here are a few sequence activities – try to use the mathematical language ‘first, next, then, last’

I will put more activities on ‘Seesaw’ during the week.

Here is a little counting sheet.

Please practice your ‘recording data’ skills by completing this or a similar record sheet every time you brush your teeth.

Personal care and well being:

Being part of the community:

I am combining these two PLU’s this week as the topic ‘oral health’ covers elements of both so well.

Here is a selection of clips to get you started.

It is important to use the correct technique when brushing our teeth.

Today I posted everyone a few plaque check tablets for you to use at home – this is a really fun activity and we have completed it several times in Sherkin class so students will be familiar with this activity.

Now I don’t have any of the Gel mentioned in this clip but what we do in school is, we use the back of a spoon to crush a tablet in a small bowl, we add a tiny drop of water to make it into a paste, then gently we rub the paste onto the students teeth using a gloved finger.

Students will realise just how difficult it is to clean their teeth really well.

After students have completed this activity they can fill in this review sheet with your help.

1. First we brushed our ___________________ as normal.

• They looked ______________________.

• We chewed ________________  ________________ tablets.

• We looked in the  ___________________.

• All the left over plaque had turned _________________.

• We cleaned our teeth again, making sure to brush really ______________.

The Arts:

Main focus will be on art this week, although you could check out these funny little tooth brushing songs. Also enjoy the Lamh song in the literacy section.

Here is a lovely Art competition called ‘Draw our heroes’

All young people are invited to draw a picture of their real life hero in this difficult time of the Corona Virus. Their hero could be a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, ambulance service, gardai, fire service, army, an post, shop assistant, van driver or their granny cocooning – in fact anyone who is playing their part to keep us all safe.

Complete the entry form and send it with your A4 drawing in a sealed envelope to “Draw Our Heroes”, c/o Uniphar plc, 4045 Kingswood Road, Citywest, Co Dublin.

Check out this lovely activity from The Primary Plant magazine.

We want you to paint a positivity rock (any size stone with an inspiring and positive word or message), place it somewhere outside where passers-by can see, and send us the picture.

It really is that simple … and fun!

We’ll feature a quarry of entries in next month’s issue and send out an awesome TPP goodie pack to the top 3 rock stars!

Email your positivity rock pics to schools@theprimaryplanet.ie.

Closing date for entries is May 28, so get finding, painting, placing and smiling!

The Teacher and Pupil packs for both The Primary Planet and News Flash have been uploaded and are online at 

Visit https://www.newsmagmedia.ie/Default.aspx

Physical Education:

Here is a wonderful advice booklet from the Irish Government developed by Occupational therapists.

It is important to keep active and develop student’s gross motor skills.

Well that’s it for another week Sherkin students

I am really looking forward to seeing all the photos of you completing the plaque check experiment. mharris@stbrigids.net

Check Seesaw during the week for more activities.

As always, stay active and stay safe.

Mrs Harris