Key Skills
We work on different targets every day in Key Skills, below are some of the areas we have focused on and activities to complete.
Sorting activities – sort big and small objects (ensure that it is very clear what size the items are) such as bricks, cutlery, balls, toys. Sorting coins such as 2p, 50p and £1.
Patterns – Use coloured blocks or pegs to copy a 2 or 3 colour pattern or generate your own pattern.
Odd one out – Use blocks or toys to identify the odd one out (ask “where is the odd one out?” or “which one is different?”)
Here are some images to show ways you can use items around the home to work on your key skills. Focus on sorting your toys by colour or shape. Help with the laundry by pairing up socks.
Reading
Can you tell an adult what is happening on each page of your favourite book? What objects can you see? Are the characters happy or sad? These are all questions we use when reading picture books in P4. Can you find objects if an adult asks you where they are? Do you know the difference between pictures and text? These are all valuable reading skills to continue building on.
The Letters and Sounds website below has some super phonics games for phases 1 and 2.
Sensory
If you mix cornflour with water, you can make your own goo that can be poured but becomes almost solid when you touch it. It also washes away with water! Using shaving foam or sand to practice letter and number formation is fun and beneficial. We have really enjoyed melting ice and chocolate from solid to liquid as a sensory and educational activity. Here are some photos of some exciting sensory activities using simple resources.
Gross Motor Skills
Make sure to get outside and practice gross motor skills such as throwing and catching, riding a bike or walking/running. Cosmic Kids on YouTube have some amazing yoga videos that P4 really enjoy accessing to improve their balance and gross motor. Go Noodle has a category for gross motor too.
Speaking and Listening
Communication is one of our main focuses in P4, here are some of the targets we have been working on recently:
Instructing others – Using PEC’s files or speech, we have been instructing our peers to jump, sleep, skip or dance. Listening to others instructions is just as important as communicating our wants to each other.
Prepositions – in, on and under. This is something we work on frequently in class. Use a favourite toy to demonstrate in, on and under. There is also a choose it maker we use in class to test our knowledge. If you can download the app, use the code XTKXHB to play the activity.
P4 Reading Time
P4 really enjoy listening to stories in class, some of our favourites are below.
We also use a Choose it Maker to help identify characters from our reading books, the code for this is FJAPHM
Barefoot Books on YouTube have some wonderful songs that we enjoy choosing at the end of our school day as part of the home time routine.
Here are some sensory story ideas for We’re Going on a Bear Hunt using items you can find around your home or garden!
Dressing Skills
We like to focus on our independence and life skills throughout our day in P4, dressing skills are a really important aspect of this. Whilst at home, you can focus on fastening large and small buttons on different items, work on closing a zip fastener and pulling it up with some support. Putting on socks and shoes independently is something you may be able to spend a little more time on than usual. These skills all take time and will require support to begin with, if you can dedicate a small amount of time a day to doing these tasks, you will be able to reduce the amount of support needed as the weeks go by.
Life is currently very confusing and our emotions are going to be overwhelming at times. A lot of us have been working on identifying basic emotions and continuing with this will allow us to become more emotionally literate and talk to each other about how we’re all feeling. You can use your own photos and create a sorting tool like the white one in the image or I have attached the link for a resource very similar to the one we use in class to sort the pictures.
If you have access to it, Inside Out is also a great film to enjoy whilst thinking about feelings and well-being.
