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Fine and Gross Motor Skills - Tips for parents

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Fine and Gross Motor Skills - Tips for parents

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Gross and Fine Motor (movement) skills for home

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Gross and Fine Motor (movement) skills for home

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NCSE helpful ideas for parents to try with children at home

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Fine Motor Skills - explained and ideas / activities

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Fine Motor Skills - explained and ideas / activities

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What are Fine Motor skills?

Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes.

Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance. Efficient fine motor skills require a number of independent skills to work together to appropriately manipulate the object or perform the task.
Book an assessment for your child

Academics skills including

Pencil skills (scribbling, colouring, drawing, writing)

Scissors skills (cutting)

Play

Construction skills using lego, duplo, puzzles, train tracks

Doll dressing and manipulation

IT use (e.g. mouse and stylus manipulation)

Self care including

dressing - tying shoelaces, doling up sandals, zips, buttons, belts

eating - using cutlery, opening lunch boxes and food bags

hygiene - cleaning teeth, brushing hair, toileting.

Note: Visual perception (accurately using vision, 'seeing' and interpreting) is not strictly a fine motor skill but directly supports fine motor skill performance.

Why are fine motor skills important?

Fine motor skills are essential for performing everyday skills as outlined above as well academic skills. Without the ability to complete these every day tasks, a child's self esteem can suffer, their academic performance is compromised and their play options are very limited. They are also unable to develop appropriate independence in 'life' skills (such as getting dressed and feeding themselves) which in turn has social implications not only within the family but also within peer relationships.

How can you tell if a child has fine motor skill difficulties at a glance?

Avoidance and/or disinterest of fiddly finger skills (and has tasks listed above)

Preferring physical activity (again to avoid sit down tasks)

Interest in 'passive' activities such as IT (e.g. watching TV an IPAD that don't require Fine Motor skills)

No interest in pencil or scissors skills

Being 'bossy' in play and and asking others to "draw a cat for me"

Not persisting in the face of a challenge (e.g. asking parents to fix a problem without physically trying to fix it themselves)

Waiting for parents to dress them or clean their teeth rather than trying themselves

Refusal to use stylus with the IPAD

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Fine Motor Skills | Fine Motor Skills Activities | Kid Sense Child Development

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What are Fine Motor skills? Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes. Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance.

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Does your child know how to hold scissors correctly? The correct scissor grip is important - read on to find out why it matters, and how to help your child. Remember, if you are at all concerned about your child's scissor cutting skills, please do speak to an occupational therapist.

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Junior Infants 2021 / 2022 Ready, Steady, Write - letter formation 

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Junior Infants 2021 / 2022 Ready, Steady, Write - letter formation 

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'Rebel letters' - e, s, f, j, v, w, x, z

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'Rebel letters' - e, s, f, j, v, w, x, z

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Ready, Steady, Write Letter Formation - Junior Infants

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Ready, Steady, Write Letter Formation - Junior Infants

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OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY RESOURCES for Therapists, Teachers, and Parents LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OT TOOLBOX tools for therapists tools for teachers tools for parents EXPLORE THE TOOLBOX to discover ideas, crafts, activities, and more! Executive Function Fine Motor Skills Functioning Skills Handwriting Sensory Vision Latest on the Blog New in the Shop Visit the Shop Popular ...

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42 sounds shown slowly for careful, correct pronounciation.

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Jolly Learning - The Home of Jolly Phonics

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Jolly Phonics Letter Sounds (British English)

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Free coding site

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CS is more important than ever. Let's build the future we want. #CSforGood

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Autism friendly resource, to help with the transition back to the school environment after a long break in routine. Suitable for all children.

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We follow the 'Over the Moon' series and all the books and online resources are available to parents at this time also.
No log on / registration required

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Welcome to the GillExplore Products Catalogue, where you can see and access samples of our full range of titles and digital resources. If you have any queries in relation to our Gill Education products, please contact your local sales representative, who will be happy to help.

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Welcome to the GillExplore Products Catalogue, where you can see and access samples of our full range of titles and digital resources. If you have any queries in relation to our Gill Education products, please contact your local sales representative, who will be happy to help.

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Parents can access all the publishers resources free at this time. Helpful for many subject areas.

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Parents can register as a teacher using our school roll number: 20511N to access the Gaeilge 'Abair Liom' programme we use in school. Access all the teaching and learning resources and games at home.

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For parents to have free access to the EdCo publisher books we use in school for Maths and S.E.S.E.

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A lovely list of 27 Sesame Street videos exploring themes to develop self esteem and empathy.

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Emotional Development | Sesame Street | PBS LearningMedia

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Do you know how to get to Sesame Street? This collection is designed to engage preschoolers in everyday learning by teaching core skills in Math, Literacy, STEM, and Social and Emotional Development. Here you’ll find hundreds of videos, games, and printable materials to help you to excite even the y…

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Here is a link to a clearly explained Lambeth Educational Psychology Service video.

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Motivating Home Learners - Lambeth Educational Psychology Service Webinar

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An Information Booklet for Parents (NCSE)

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Covid-19 and Helping Children with Dyslexia

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Dyslexia Ireland

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An Information Booklet for Parents (NCSE)

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Foghraíocht, Litriú, Ceol fiú! (Phonics, Spelling, even Music! (Tin-Whistle)

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Foghraíocht, Litriú, Ceol fiú! (Phonics, Spelling, even Music! (Tin-Whistle)

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Tá raon áiseanna agus gníomhaíochtaí digiteacha ar fáil ar an suíomh seo atá bunaithe ar a bhfuil ar fáil cheana sa chlár clóite agus ar forbairt iad ar ghnéithe ar leith den chlár sin.

Cruthaíodh an t-ábhar spreagúil seo chun cur ar chumas páistí forbairt a dhéanamh ar na scileanna teanga atá foghlamtha acu. Tá sé bunaithe ar an gcur chuige cumarsáideach agus déantar comhtháthú ann ar na trí shnáithe: teanga ó bhéal, léitheoireacht agus scríbhneoireacht.

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Tá raon áiseanna agus gníomhaíochtaí digiteacha ar fáil ar an suíomh seo atá bunaithe ar a bhfuil ar fáil cheana sa chlár clóite agus ar forbairt iad ar ghnéithe ar leith den chlár sin. Cruthaíodh an t-ábhar spreagúil seo chun cur ar chumas páistí forbairt a dhéanamh ar na scileanna teanga atá foghlamtha acu.

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A great bank of fine motor tasks from the Imagination Tree!

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Keep those kiddies moving! A few ideas to burn some energy during the school closures.

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Let us help you live a life you love. Find tools to help you have fun and make the most out of each and every day.

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Free resources from mindstretchers to support natural outdoor play

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Free resources from mindstretchers to support natural outdoor play

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Ideas for activities in the garden or local park

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Ideas for activities in the garden or local park

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Get out, get active and improve mental health and well being

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Your garden can be an amazing place to discover wildlife and experience nature. There's so much for you to do on your doorstep: look for shooting stars, make a wild crown, get to know colourful birds or watch furry caterpillars. You can even help the animals who come to visit by building them a new home. Here are our top '50 things to do before you're 11¾' ideas for embracing nature in your own back garden.

No. 3 Camp outdoors

Your back garden can become a place for a wild adventure when you pitch a tent and stay overnight. Camping in your back garden means that you can sleep under the stars and try and spot a constellation, or listen out for hooting owls. Sleep under the stars

No. 16 Wear a wild crown

Your imagination's the limit when you make a wild crown. Twigs, daisy chains, leaves, flowers, blossom, grass and other wild materials found in your garden can be used to create a masterpiece. You could even create one that an imaginary character would wear. Create a wild crown

No. 25 Join nature's band

A couple of stones and a tree stump can double up as drum. A blade of grass makes an amazing noise when you know what to do with it. Birds singing make a beautiful dawn chorus, and even footsteps can make great percussion noises when you dance around. Make music with nature

'50 things to do before you're 11¾'

Have fun exploring nature and the great outdoors with our list of '50 things to do before you're 11¾'.

Article

We've compiled a selection of items from the '50 things to do before you're 11¾' list that are perfect for rainy days, so grab your waterproofs and get involved.

Article

Try out the '50 things to do before you're 11¾' activities children can enjoy by the sea, from paddling or swimming, to catching crabs and skimming stones.

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'50 things' activities to do in the garden

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Your garden can be an amazing place to discover wildlife and experience nature. There's so much for you to do on your doorstep: look for shooting stars, make a wild crown, get to know colourful birds or watch furry caterpillars. You can even help the animals who come to visit by building them a new home.

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Identify the word that doesn't begin with the same sound as the others!

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Animations of some of the best-known traditional nursery rhymes, many sung by BBC Children's TV presenters, with music that your children will love! They're an ideal resource to support a range of Early Years objectives, whether used in a nursery, reception class, or at home.

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Animations of some of the best-known traditional nursery rhymes, many sung by Cbeebies TV presenters, with music that your children will love! They're an ideal resource to support a range of Early Years objectives, whether used in a nursery, reception class, or at home.

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QR CODE

Scan this on mobiles and tablets to quickly open this web page.

Shape Patterns is a sequencing game where you need to complete the pattern of different coloured 2D shapes. It is a multiple choice game with three levels of difficulty. It is excellent for shape recognition and for problem solving.

In the easier levels you need to continue the pattern, but in the more challenging level 3, you are presented with a sequence with the missing element in different positions. This level in particular, is an excellent problem solving activity.

As with all of our games, Shape Patterns works well on an interactive whiteboard.

AGE

3-8 Years

SUBJECTS

Maths Shapes Sequencing

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Shapes patterns is a free, shapes sequencing game where children need to complete a sequence of different coloured 2D shapes. For children from 3 to 8 years.

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Perfect lesons for Primary.

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Pupils

Visit our online classroom and access our free lessons. Search for lessons by subject and year group, or follow our suggested weekly schedule.

Teachers

Browse our full curriculum or search for specific lessons. Download, edit and share slides and worksheets. Share videos and lessons with your pupils and colleagues.

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Visit our online classroom and access our free lessons. Search for lessons by subject and year group, or follow our suggested weekly schedule. Browse our full curriculum or search for specific lessons. Download, edit and share slides and worksheets. Share videos and lessons with your pupils and colleagues.

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Perfect lesons for Primary.

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Pupils

Visit our online classroom and access our free lessons. Search for lessons by subject and year group, or follow our suggested weekly schedule.

Teachers

Browse our full curriculum or search for specific lessons. Download, edit and share slides and worksheets. Share videos and lessons with your pupils and colleagues.

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Visit our online classroom and access our free lessons. Search for lessons by subject and year group, or follow our suggested weekly schedule. Browse our full curriculum or search for specific lessons. Download, edit and share slides and worksheets. Share videos and lessons with your pupils and colleagues.

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Senior Infants 2021/22 Read Write Inc. - letter formation

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Senior Infants 2021/22 Read Write Inc. - letter formation

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Build your own words

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Use our free interactive online magnet whiteboard with alphabet and number magnets for a range of fun lessons and learning activities.

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Vocabulary game for Senior Infants

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Free registration. Phonics games and early decodable readers / comics.

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A site packed with interactive phonics games, phonics planning, assessment ideas and many teaching ideas and resources to help children to learn to hear phonemes, recognise graphemes and develop the blending and segmenting skills that are vital for learning to read and spell.

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Phonics games & Decodable books for early reading.
Free parent and teacher registration.

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A site packed with interactive phonics games, phonics planning, assessment ideas and many teaching ideas and resources to help children to learn to hear phonemes, recognise graphemes and develop the blending and segmenting skills that are vital for learning to read and spell.

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Teach Your Monster: Free Phonics, Reading and Mathematics Games

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Help children learn with our free, award-winning reading, mathematics and phonics games.

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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Story Time From Space | T2 Science & Math Education Consultants

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Starfall's Selected Nursery Rhymes features 47 animated classics. Can you find your favorite nursery rhyme?

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Decodable books

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Decodable Books - Starfall | Parent-Teacher Center

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Launch your children's reading experiences with these primer books designed for explicit phonics instruction. Interactive versions of these books are available on Starfall's website.

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A site packed with interactive phonics games, phonics planning, assessment ideas and many teaching ideas and resources to help children to learn to hear phonemes, recognise graphemes and develop the blending and segmenting skills that are vital for learning to read and spell.

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Phonics Bloom create interactive online phonics games to help teach children the relationship between letters and sounds and develop the skills needed to read and write. All our resources are designed by an experienced team of teachers and parents.

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Phonics Games for the Classroom and Home - Phonics Bloom

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Play a range of online phonics games, helping teach children the relationship between letters and sounds and develop the skills needed to read and write.

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Audio books

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subject:("Children: Kindergarten" OR "Children: Grades 1-2") first_publish_year:[2000 TO *], eBook - search | Open Library

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Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published. Read, borrow, and discover more than 3M books for free.

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QR CODE

Scan this on mobiles and tablets to quickly open this web page.

Let's Compare is an interactive comparison game which focuses on the comparative vocabulary of biggest, smallest, shortest, longest and tallest.

There are two themes: At the Beach and Animals. The game is linked to the measure strand of mathematics where sizes are compared by estimating length, height and width. The activity can be used as a whole class activity on an interactive whiteboard or on individual devices.

AGE

2-5 Years

SUBJECTS

Maths Measures

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Let's Compare - Early Years Size Comparison Game

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An interactive comparison game designed where early years children learn the comparative vocabulary of biggest, smallest, shortest, longest and tallest by comparing the sizes of objects and animals.

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QR CODE

Scan this on mobiles and tablets to quickly open this web page.

Shape Patterns is a sequencing game where you need to complete the pattern of different coloured 2D shapes. It is a multiple choice game with three levels of difficulty. It is excellent for shape recognition and for problem solving.

In the easier levels you need to continue the pattern, but in the more challenging level 3, you are presented with a sequence with the missing element in different positions. This level in particular, is an excellent problem solving activity.

As with all of our games, Shape Patterns works well on an interactive whiteboard.

AGE

3-8 Years

SUBJECTS

Maths Shapes Sequencing

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Shapes patterns is a free, shapes sequencing game where children need to complete a sequence of different coloured 2D shapes. For children from 3 to 8 years.

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New Game from Topmarks

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A great ‘beginning addition’ game. Children solve simple addition equations with the use of pictorial representations of the numbers to be added.

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Pre-reading skills

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Revision Final sounds Double consonants Hard and soft c and g

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Another new game from Topmarks

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1

QR CODE

Scan this on mobiles and tablets to quickly open this web page.

Robot Addition is a multiple choice addition game for 5 to 7 year olds. It has three game modes: Addition to 10, Addition to 15 and Addition to 20. Each of the modes can be played with or without the support of a corresponding number line.

Children drag and drop the robots with questions onto robot placeholders featuring the correct answers. The game can be replayed many times as the questions are presented randomly. The game lends itself well to being played on an interactive whiteboard.

AGE

5-7 Years

SUBJECTS

Maths Addition

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Match each addition equation on the robot to its answer. This game has three levels: Addition to 10, Addition to 15 and Addition to 20. Great for sharpening mental maths skills.

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Creating and interpreting a bar graph has never been so much fun! In this educational game kids will create a bar graph by sorting the Fuzz Bugs.

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TheLearningStation - Kids Songs and Nursery Rhymes

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The 7 Days of the Week Song ♫ 7 Days of the Week ♫ Kids Songs by The Learning Station

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and read along

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Now you can enjoy Lynley Dodd's classic story with our online, interactive book.

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy became an instant favourite when it was published in 1983, and children today still love following Hairy's adventures.

From his friends Bottomley Potts and Schnitzel von Krumm to his big enemy Scarface Claw, there are plenty of characters to meet and enjoy.

With fun rhymes and brilliant illustrations, this is one for the whole family to savour, so get reading below! You can also watch a video with signing.

Our storybooks and games are free to use, however some older devices aren't able to support them. You can also watch our Storytime playlist on YouTube read by the likes of Ore Oduba, Adam Buxton, Fearne Cotton and many more.

BookTrust HomeTime

Looking for something fun as a family? Enjoy storytime with our free online books and videos, play games, win prizes, test your knowledge in our book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters.
Go to the HomeTime hub

Back to top

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Read a fun, online interactive version of the children's book classic Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd. Enjoy Hairy's adventures with his friends - and his enemy Scarface Claw. You can also watch a video with signing.

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Math and Games for Kids, Teachers and Parents. Math lessons and fun games for kindergarten to sixth grade, plus quizzes, brain teasers and more.

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QR CODE

Scan this on mobiles and tablets to quickly open this web page.

Caterpillar Ordering is an interactive ordering and sequencing numbers game, which would complement a minibeasts topic in the classroom.

This maths game has different levels which can be matched to mathematical ability level.

The drag and drop activities help children to order numbers, beginning at a basic level and progressing to more challenging exercises ordering decimal and negative numbers. The sequencing activities help children to recognise number sequences and reinforce their knowledge of multiples.

AGE

5-11 Years

SUBJECTS

Maths Ordering Sequencing Odd and Even

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Caterpillar Ordering - An Ordering and Sequencing Game

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A super game for ordering numbers and for number sequences. You can order numbers up to 100 and complete sequences counting on and back in multiples up to 10.

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Maths

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BrainPOP Jr. - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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Various Subjects

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Videos, quizzes, articles and practice activities from BBC Bitesize and partners on a range of Primary and Secondary topics. Use in the classroom or at home.

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Strengthen dexterity and control using Lego

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When it comes to developing and strengthening fine motor skills, LEGO takes the cake! What an amazing way to promote the development of young hands and minds! We have spent many afternoons creating towers, cars, castles, school buildings and so many more LEGO activities. Your students will love this winter themed fine motor activity.

The Winter Fine Motor Mats with LEGO Bricks includes so many important skills! The set includes nine winter themed LEGO challenges. Each mat includes a picture to build, the picture word, a large letter to highlight the initial sound of the word, and spaces to count and record how many bricks built by color. Whew! That is a ton of preschool winter fine motor activities and skill practice.

Winter Fine Motor LEGO Activity

Regardless of what activity you use LEGO for, students will definitely work on their fine motor skills. For preschoolers, it's best to try to incorporate fine motor into as many winter activities as possible, including ABCs, numbers, and sight words!

Fine motor winter activities for preschool strengthen the muscles and dexterity of the hand, fingers and thumbs. These muscles are necessary for tasks such as eating, zipping, buttoning, and of course, writing. As children gain strength and dexterity, handwriting and scissor skills improve.

The LEGO winter printable activity also incorporates letters, beginning sounds, counting, and sorting. While all of these skills are being strengthened, children thing they are simply playing a game because they are using LEGO!

Materials Needed for Fine Motor Winter Activity for Preschool with LEGO

Paper | Laminating Sheets or Dry Erase Pockets | LEGO bricks | Dry Erase Marker or Crayons

How to Prep the Winter Fine Motor Activity for Preschoolers

Print and laminate the fine motor cards. Cut apart the individual fine motor mats.
Grab your LEGO bricks, dry erase writing utensils and let's go!

If you prefer not to laminate activities, our other favorite option is to use dry erase pockets. This allows the activities to be used over and over without using lamination process. You can still use these to write with dry erase markers or crayons. You can also set LEGO bricks or other counters on top as well.

I prefer laminating for activities that I know we will use over and over, like this one. I KNOW this is going to be a hit. Otherwise, I slide them into a dry erase pocket until we are ready to move on.

We used the LEGO Classic set. The newer sets have light bricks like pink and purple as well as the traditional colors. The colors that we use in this activity are: Brown, Dark and Light Blue, Pink, White, Red, Purple, Orange, Black, Yellow, and Grey.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a good chance that you will not have enough of some colors. (Especially the purple, brown and orange bricks.) This is a GREAT opportunity to help your kids use flexible thinking and find out ways to create the pictures with different colors, using multiple small bricks to make a larger brick.

We have a fairly large collection of bricks, including many LEGO Winter Village sets and we did not have enough purple.

You can always purchase individual colors from Amazon toy shop to fill in the ones that are missing from your LEGO sensory bin. I will be sharing several of these fine motor mats for LEGO bricks throughout the year, so it could be a good investment for future activities.

How To Play:

We have included nine winter themed fine motor mats total in both English and Spanish (woohoo!!). Each fine motor mat includes a winter themed picture (listed below), a big bubble letter, as well as lines to count the colors that appear.

Pictures included:

Snowflake- copo de nieve

Skate- patines de hielo

Snowman- muñeco de nieve

Mitten- mitón

School- escuela

Cocoa- cacao

Penguin- pingüino

Hat- gorro

Tree- árbol

Each page highlights the uppercase initial letter as well as the entire word. This is fantastic for letter recognition and beginning sounds. Students can use a dry erase marker or dry erase crayon to trace the letter.

Each page also has a space to record each brick color with a dry erase marker.

Finally, the main event. Each page has a winter themed picture with grids that are the size of the LEGO blocks. This provides a map for kids to use to create each picture with LEGO.

While I worked hard to try to make the picture grid the correct size, I know that every printer is a little bit different. It may work better to have the kids create the picture on a LEGO baseplate using the picture as a guide.

Please note: The base plate set linked below DOES include a clear baseplate. It is hard to see in the picture, but it is the baseplate under the white baseplate in the picture. This is the exact set that we used.

Just a fair warning.... there will be LEGO on the floor...next to the glitter and beaded snowflakes leftover from holiday season...

Additional Ideas:

To strengthen fine motor skills even more, put LEGO blocks in a big tray or bowl and use fine motor tweezers to pull specific colors, sizes or shapes.

Sort blocks by color, then count them and add up all of the numbers to find the total number of blocks.

Form the large letter with play dough and place it on top of the mat.

Increase the challenge by creating the picture with LEGO on the side of the fine motor mat instead of on top of it.

Create a Christmas tree with additional bricks as "ornaments."

Pair the Winter Fine Motor Mats for LEGO bricks with fun winter books for an easy math and literacy project!

Looking for more LEGO fun? Check out these amazing LEGO project books from my friend, Sara Dees, creator of Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls! We have all three books and my kids love them!
More Activities You'll Love!

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Winter Fine Motor Activity Using LEGO Bricks

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When it comes to developing and strengthening fine motor skills, LEGO takes the cake! What an amazing way to promote the development of young hands and minds! We have spent many afternoons creating towers, cars, castles, school buildings and so many more LEGO activities. Your students will love this winter themed fine motor activity.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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This document is quite long but there are pages in it that list materials you might use in different types of play and pages that list vocabulary you can talk about with children as they play.

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These activities can be done at home using household objects or children could make resources as a craft project.

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These hands-on activities are ideally suited to Key Stage 1 children.

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Educational Games and Manipulatives for All Levels

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Educational Games and Manipulatives for All Levels

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Toy Theater is your source for free educational games specially designed for elementary-aged students. It's available on all desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices, ensuring learning is never out of reach. If you are a fan of our site, we encourage you to share Toy Theater on your social media or website.

Explore Toy Theater

Here's a sneak peek into what Toy Theater has in store:

Math Games: Ranging from counting and numeral recognition to division and telling time, there's a vast assortment of interactive math games.

Language Arts: Students can work on spelling, letter recognition, and even practice reading with online books.

Art and Music : From teaching students to play simple songs on a keyboard to exploring symmetry via art games, the platform fosters creativity alongside learning.

Puzzles and Games: Ideal for early finishers or indoor recess, their online educational puzzles and games promise fun-filled learning.

Teacher Tools: Need a fun timer or a spinner? Or perhaps a simple way to evaluate basic math skills? Their virtual teacher tools have got you covered.

Whether you project Toy Theater games and interactive tools on your smartboard for the whole class to see or use them during small group work, you're sure to love them!

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Toy Theater | Fun Online Educational Games for Kids

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Make learning a blast! Toy Theater is chock full of interactive online art, reading & math games for kids. Designed with the needs of kindergarten through third grade classrooms in mind, these free games are trusted by teachers around the world to provide real educational value.

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SplashLearn: Fun Math & ELA Program for PreK-Grade 5

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SplashLearn is an award-winning learning program loved by over 40 million kids for engaging Math and ELA practice. Aligned with Common Core and various state standards.

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Counters, Abacus, Fraction Bars etc. manipulatives for use by all levels.

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National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

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A digital library containing Java applets and activities for K-12 mathematics

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Links to lots of ideas for STEM activities.

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28 Days of Hands-On STEM Activities for Kids

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28 days of hands-on STEM activities for kids - coding, STEM challenges, STEM on a budget, and more! It’s science, tech, engineering & math made fun.

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Listen to music from anywhere

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Listen to Retro FM 89.5 from Reykjavík live on Radio Garden

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Listen to Retro FM 89.5 from Reykjavík live on Radio Garden

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For rainy days when you want to hear some nice music.

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With the school closures and children continuing to remain at home for the coming weeks, it can be tricky to find simple ways to keep the occupied. So why not encourage them to watch a free online concert!

Watching an online concert is a lovely alternative way to engage them in music and is something that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

To help with this we've prepared a list of 9 child-friendly concerts which you can watch for free online. Some of them have interactive elements so that your child can join in at home and some are pure 'get-up-and-dance-round-your-sitting-room' gigs!

After you watch a concert, try and have a discussion with your child about what they liked about it. You can ask them things like 'what instruments they saw' and 'what their favourite song was and why'. By getting them to articulate their response to the music, it all contributes to their overall musical development.

(To find more ideas for bring music to life in your home, check our 'Complete Guide to Music Making for Kids' for links to additional resources.)

1. Stevie Wonder + free concerts on Stingray.com

Stingray.com have made their entire collection of online concerts and music films available for free while the shutdown is on and people are stuck at home. To avail of this, follow these steps:

There's loads of great content on the website but this Stevie Wonder concert from London back in 2008 is my pick of the bunch. We also have a Stevie Wonder artist profile where children can learn about him through our parents' course (link at the bottom).

2. 'Music in the Classroom' with the RTE Symphony Orchestra

RTE's 'Music in the Classroom' series invited groups of children into the National Concert Hall to hear a full professional orchestra perform a broad range of different pieces. This concert features the National Symphony Orchestra playing the likes of the Harry Potter and Jurassic Park themes. There's also a chance for audience participation at home.

3. Sesame Street + the Tiny Desk Concert Series

National Public Radio in the US produce a fantastic music program called the Tiny Desk Concert Series. All of the concerts are typically 15 to 20 minutes in length and are all shot with a backdrop of stacked shelves full of interesting trinkets. Here's a great concert featuring the cast of Sesame Street:

There are loads of concerts to choose from including many featured Irish musicians such as:

4. Nick Cope's Afternoon Get Together

Nick Cope is a musician from the UK who writes and performs original songs aimed at children. All of the songs are great fun to sing-along to and they're accompanied by some lovely guitar playing. Here's a short 20 minute concert he produced as a live performance online in the past few weeks.

5. Lincoln Centre Concerts - Music from the Sole

The Lincoln Centre in the US have produced a 'Concerts for Kids' series with a number of 20 to 25 minute concerts available. These have been put together during the shutdown and show the ability of musicians to play together while being based remotely.

This concert, 'Music from the Sole', shows the interaction between a dancer and the musicians. It also gives children the opportunity to learn a new dance involving clapping rhythms as well as how to make an accompanying percussion instrument.

6. Radio 1 Ibiza Proms

This a great one for the full family to watch on a Friday or Saturday night to give you maximum weekend vibes. Radio 1 DJ, Pete Tong, collaborated with the Heritage Orchestra in the UK to produce the very first recreation of Ibiza euphoria in the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Typically this hall is host to the world's finest symphony orchestras playing the likes of Beethoven and Mozart and while there's still a very fine orchestra on show, the music is very very different.

7. Gorillaz at Glastonbury

When I first saw Gorillaz on TV I was about 10 or 11 and to my mind they were the coolest group I'd ever seen. The combination of their distinctive animated characters and they're interesting musical arrangements, still make them one of my favourite bands.

This is their full performance at Glastonbury Music Festival back in 2010. While I'd consider this being more suitable for slightly older children, it's a really fun watch for the whole family.

8. Peter and the Wolf - The Royal Ballet

Peter and the Wolf has endured as one of the finest pieces written for children to introduce them to the different instruments and sounds of the orchestra. Despite being written in the 1930's, the story still holds up and is a very engaging narrative for kids.

This version features The Royal Ballet in London and does a great job of bringing the story to life. You can also search online for different versions including one with David Bowie as the narrator.

9. Jimmy Fallon and The Roots

This isn't so much one complete concert but more of a series of short videos where US talkshow host Jimmy Fallon and his house band The Roost team up with a famous artist or band to recreate one of their most well known songs using only classroom instruments. Here's a rocking version of Aerosmith's 'Rock This Way':

I hope you've enjoyed this list! Feel free to post any other concerts you find in the comments below.

If you'd like more resources for helping with music at home, why not sign-up for our parents' course at the link below:

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​9 Family Friendly Concerts to Watch Online

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With the school closures and children continuing to remain at home for the coming weeks, it can be tricky to find simple ways to keep the occupied. So why not encourage them to watch a free online concert!

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Cúla 4 ar Scoil | Luan go Aoine 10:00 | Cúla 4

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Remember your skip counting and fill in the blanks. It gets quicker and trickier for each level.

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Number patterns are an essential part of learning mathematics by helping kids learn how to make predictions with numbers and see relationships between abstract concepts. Our Number Pattern game makes learning and practicing number patterns fun with racing superheroes. Fill in the sidewalk space with the next number in the pattern so that your superhero can keep running. Get to the end before the flying hero gets to the other side!

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Identify arithmetic patterns (including patterns in the addition table or multiplication table), and explain them using properties of operations. For example, observe that 4 times a number is always even, and explain why 4 times a number can be decomposed into two equal addends.

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Number Patterns Game | 3rd Grade Math Game | Toy Theater

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Make learning number patterns and number sequences fun with racing superheroes. Can your running superhero beat the flying hero to the other side? Teachers trust Toy Theater to provide safe & effective educational games for elementary school classrooms. Free to play, priceless for learning.