Body and MindHIIT HomeworkStick on your favourite upbeat playlist and try out these exercises one after the other. To give yourself a bigger challenge, do each circuit twice or three times or more! Spotify is free to download and has lots of songs.Session 1 – 5 x 25Session 2 – legs movingSession 3 – up and down
ORHave a family disco – stick on your favourite tunes and bop around the room for 20 minutes!Get OutsideTry out as many of these exercises outside (keeping social distance!) that you can and tell your teacher which ones you’ve done.
Skype with a RelativeThis can be a nice idea if you have a family member who may have to self-isolate orwho you may not be able to visit. It’s a way for children to use oral language and it might be a nice kind of game to play to keep boredom away.Ideas include:
Irish TimesEven if you can’t speak Irish, there are some great ways to pick up some vocabulary. One really easy activity is to pick a topic, for example: food, household objects, colours, and so on, then write down 20 words associated with that topic in a list. Next go to https://www.focloir.ie/en/ and translate the words. The great thing is that almost every word on the website has an audio recording of it so you can listen to how to pronounce the words! As a family, you could try and learn a few words every day!For more advanced speakers, how about doing any of the tasks in the grid through Irish? The news is probably the easiest one to do as Gaeilge.The Daily NewsThis task can be done with any age from Junior Infants to 6th class. It can be done in a number of ways but here is a suggestion for 2 different age groups:Infants to 1st Class2nd Class Upwards
Child writes/types their news as well as news happening outside the world. You can create your own little newsroom on the kitchen table or you can use Green Screen apps on an iPad and record your child reading their news. You can send it to loved ones to keep in touch.Read a Book with a ParentRelax on the couch and spend ten minutes reading for no other reason than the joy of reading a book. Of course, there are loads of benefits to reading every day but what a nice time to drop everything for a short time.Family TreeMake your family tree with your child. You can do this digitally or by hand and you can go back as far as you want!BIGGER PROJECTSThese instructions are for these projects:
A Sketch A DayIf you have a copybook or sketchpad, this would be useful but you don’t really need anything except paper and a pencil. Your job is to create one sketch a day for the duration of the project. The only catch is you have to pick a theme. Choose from:
Learn a musical instrumentDo you have a musical instrument at home? If not, it’s not too expensive to get yourself a tin whistle, recorder or even a ukulele. It’s never been easier to learn with loads of apps and websites to bring you along the way.Tin Whistle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdUH1QZvEm8Piano / Keyboard: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJOfTzSYW-9q2WSmGH1CNjmP3–2qaXN5Ukulele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bTE5fbxDscPuppet ShowMaking a puppet show can be a fun way to spend some time and there’s lots of different ways to do it now.
The main thing is to write the scripts and record them! If you have a puppet show stage, great; if not, use a table to hide underneath!MathematicsSet up a Mathletics account and play for 5-10 minutes. https://www.mathletics.euCool PatternsPatterns are everywhere – some of them simple like the sequence of a traffic light and some of them are really difficult like the swirls on a snail’s shell. Your job is to make a pattern using any medium you want. You could knit a scarf in 2 different colours or you could build a tower using Lego with different patterned levels. You could even write a long sequence of numbers that follow a pattern.