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15 Jul 2021

Supporting your child’s online learning during lockdown home-schooling

We understand the challenges of combining lockdown with schooling and have developed some creative and educational activities to make the experience more fun and enjoyable for everyone.

Here at Centennial Parklands we have developed a range of activities to complement your child’s online school learning that:

  • Combine indoor and outdoor learning
  • Encourage a sense of wonder through play and discovery
  • Foster an appreciation for nature
Below are some suggestions and tips to fit these activities into your child’s school routine to help keep them enthusiastic, focussed and learning.  
 

Morning Class

After breakfast, a stretch and maybe even a walk around the block we are ready to settle down and start our day of learning.

Teachers tell us that this is the peak time of concentration for students and when they focus on the more difficult subjects on the curriculum, such as maths, science and writing.

We have created some interactive activities, suitable for each stage of learning, that will make tackling these difficult tasks more fun.

Years 1 and 2
Little kids can engage with plants and gain key skills in classification, literacy, and the natural world by following these different activities.

Plants are amazing – view our Roots, Shoots, Flowers and Fruits learning hub to explore how plants grow and their role in the web of life on earth.

Years 3 and 4
Older children in years 3 and 4 can learn how awesome birds are with activities in our Birds hub, allowing for creative expression, mathematical measurement, writing, geographical and data collection skills. 

Years 5 and 6
For our stage 3s who crave independent opportunities, we’ve selected a project that really expands their learning and understanding with the Superpowers of Plants hub. Their mission is to survive and thrive and your child will help them do just that.

Over the lunch break or whilst on a walk

Get your child to Make a Map and take a bird’s eye view of the world around them.  

A mapping exercise can start in a bedroom and expand to take in your whole suburb. Try linking up your walks with an ever-expanding map, because kids love filling in gaps in their understanding of the local area. We’re all limited to 10km from home for exercise or recreation, or within your LGA, so as you explore your area using walks, bike rides and trips in the car you can introduce scale and distance, all from a simple start on a child’s bedroom floor. This one is fun for all stages.

Afternoon Class

The last session of the school day is set aside for quiet and creative practice, so something that involves art, building and engineering is a great option. Here are a few things that use the materials you find outside to create with.

If you don’t have a garden, carry a bag with you on your walks and encourage the children to gather natural objects they see such as leaves that they can turn into a charcoal drawing or sticks they can build a tower with. This journey of discovery becomes as much a part of the creative process as the art work itself.

Take a Break

Children need those breaks where they can run around and explore as much as we adults do, so after a session of learning take a break to move. Make sure you have a snack and a big drink of water too, because that focussed learning really burns through the calories.

Here’s a fun twist on a hide and seek activity you can play with any ages and which can even be adapted to a small backyard or the indoors.

Or your child can set a physical challenge and create their own obstacle course. There is as much fun in setting it up as completing it and maybe you could take the challenge too.

Mindfulness Moments – not only for your kids!

Before starting a new session of learning, experienced teachers always give the kids a chance to calm down and focus. Try this meditative practice before you start again. If you have a little patch of nature, that’s a perfect place to sit, but a balcony or window can offer a glimpse of the natural world as well. What can you see, hear and feel? What have you learned today that makes you more appreciative of nature, of what you have found in your home and your neighborhood?


Discover more about our Nature Play philosophy in Centennial Park, and if you need help or guidance, please email our Education team.

Don’t forget to check back in each week for other inspirational at-home learning ideas for your child to help see you through lockdown.
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