Section 9

1. Collect some dolls (or similar) and everyday objects. For example; Barbie, Teddy, Buzz Lightyear, brush, cup, play food and ball.
2. Give the child an instruction and ask them to act it out. For example:

i. Teddy is brushed by Buzz Lightyear.

ii. Barbie is fed pizza by Teddy.

iii. The ball is kicked by Barbie.

• Have lots of toys and objects for your child to choose from
• Ask your child to give you the instructions.
• During every day activities ask your child to finish your sentences e.g. ‘The ball is caught…’ and the child replies, ‘By Hassan’.

• Model the sentence and the action to your child and get your child to copy you.
• Repeat the sentence several times.
• Give the child the items and then say the sentence. For example, give them the Teddy, Buzz Lightyear and the brush and say ‘Teddy is brushed by Buzz Lightyear’.
• During every day activities model the sentences, for example when you are in the park say, ‘The swing is being played on by the girl’, ‘The ball is kicked by the boy’.

Additional activities:

Use small world toys e.g. farm toys and ask your child to act out sentences such as. ‘The pig is chased by the cow’ and ‘The barn is slept in by the sheep’.

 

Songs & films:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARaEpSAD-ng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YxUKf8pumo

1. When reading your daily bedtime story with your child, look at the pictures and ask questions about how the characters are feeling. For example, in Goldilocks and the Three Bears when Goldilocks breaks the chair ask the child, ‘How is she feeling?’. Repeat for different points in the story, for example when the bears come home.
2. When your child is playing a role play game at home e.g. shops or doctors, pretend to be an annoyed customer of a very poorly patient. Ask the child to guess how you are feeling based on your gestures, expressions and actions.

• Ask your child to act out different feelings.
• Make the emotions more complex, for example, caring, jealous or thoughtful.
• Extend understanding by asking ‘Why did Goldilocks feel like that? How do you know?’
• Use more complicated pictures in story books and ask questions where the answer isn’t immediately obvious. For example, in ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ ask ‘Why is the brother holding the baby like that?’ Draw out understanding of emotions such as the baby is excited to splash in the water but the brother is worried that he will fall in and he cannot swim.

• Use very simple pictures in the story book with just the main character. For example, with this picture you would ask ‘How is the girl feeling?’ You could also act it out with a toy and encourage your child to do the same:

– Use emotions that are easy to guess e.g. happy, sad, cross.

– Make facial expressions, gestures and actions more exaggerated so that they are easier to guess.

Use the story ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas. It can be borrowed from the library, purchased or found on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0iu80u04Y :

1. Read the story together and pause each time an emotion is revealed. Talk about what the emotion is, the colour and the shape.

2. Get your child to design their own monsters. Choose an emotion – what colour will they choose? What shape? Why have they made those choices? These could be drawn or created using playdough.

3. Use paint or food colouring and water and see what new colours your child can make. What feelings link with that colour?

 

Watch the film ‘Inside Out’. Discuss each emotion, their colour and how they behave.

1. 1. Choose one of the cards below and talk about what the child thinks it means. You can use the idiom in a sentence and get your child to help you think up different examples. For example, for ‘pull your socks up’:
   • Ahmed hadn’t finished his story so the teacher said “Pull your socks up Ahmed, you have 10 minutes to finish!”
   • Aisha was taking too long to eat her breakfast, so her mum said, “Pull your socks up Aisha or we will be late for school!”
   2. Use as many idioms as you can in your conversations with your child and talk about what they mean.

• Encourage your child to use idioms when they are speaking. For example, if you were reading a book together, you might ask how one of the characters was feeling. You might describe a clumsy characters as ‘like a bull in a china shop’.

• Focus on one idiom at a time and use it daily until the child can use it independently.

 

Some common idioms:

Idiom	Meaning
Don’t cry over spilt milk	Don’t get upset over something you can’t change
It’s raining cats and dogs	Raining heavily
Pull your socks up	Try harder
Feeling under the weather	Feeling poorly
Pulling your leg	Playing a joke on someone
A piece of cake	Easy
Cool as a cucumber	Very calm
A rip off	Too expensive
As easy as ABC	Very easy
Draw a blank	Can’t remember
Get a kick out of it	Really enjoy something
Get your act together	Behave properly
Have mixed feelings	Unsure of something
In the same boat	In the same situation
Out of the blue	Without warning
Pass with flying colours	To achieve something easily
Read between the lines	Understand the real meaning
Cross your fingers	Wish good luck
Fell on deaf ears	People wouldn’t listen
Get cold feet	Feel nervous
A bull in a china shop	Being clumsy
Hold your horses	Wait a minute

 

Visit this website for more:

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/idioms-for-kids.html

https://www.theidioms.com/kids/

 

Films to help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdKK4gWFO0c&t=176s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_CH4yXXHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63MKHE6MQA&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPdU9HVDtk

 

Stories to help:

Butterflies in my Stomach by Serge Bloch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-PHM_IM67E

More Parts by Tedd Arnold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSwm8hdHnXQ

My Teacher Likes to Say by Denise Wilson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRUqB4wDOmk

 

 

         

 

         

 

                 

1. Read any story together. Join your local library for free and you will be able to borrow up to 10 books at a time.
2. Read the first few pages together. At key places, stop and ask ‘What will happen next?’
3. If your child is unsure ask more supportive questions. For example, if you are reading ‘Red Riding Hood’ you might ask ‘Whose house is Little Red Riding Hood going to? Who might she find when she gets there?’

• When you read on and find the answer to what happens next, talk about what else could have happened. Ask what the child would have done if they were that character.

• Offer choices instead of asking ‘What will happen next?’ For example, ask ‘Is Little Red Riding Hood going to visit Grandma’s house or the Woodcutter’s house?’
• Use toys to act out different scenarios. For example, sit Teddy by a book or some toy food. Ask ‘What will Teddy do next?’

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Use songs on Youtube to help you practise the days of the week together:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GKmCQOy88Y

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXMofxtDPUQ

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLdFvCJNtOk

            2. Create a weekly calendar for yourself, like the one belowFill in the activities you are going to do in the week and regularly discuss what you are planning to do. Use the names of the days of the week in your discussions, as well as talking about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow.
            3. Don’t forget to emphasise week/school days for Monday to Friday and Saturday and Sunday being the weekend.

• In your discussions use more time conjunctions such as yesterday, last weekend, later today, this evening, tomorrow, next week, at the weekend and during the holidays.
• Listen and sing Youtube songs linked to months of the year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe9bnYRzFvk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSl-SbVz2oA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v608v42dKeI

• Purchase a permanent calendar such as:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2072689?clickPR=plp:58:89

This can be used to link in with the seasons, the weather and

key events such as Eid, Christmas and Mother’s Day.

• Add photos to the calendar for each event to support for those who find reading more challenging.
• Have real objects, such as a towel for swimming or a ball for football practice to prompt the discussions.

1. Memory games are brilliant for this! Start your sentence ‘In my bag I packed a book’. Your child then needs to continue by saying ‘In my bag I packed a book and a teddy’. The next person then says ‘In my bag I packed a book, a teddy and a hat’. Keep going until someone forgets!
2. Kim’s Game – Place some household items onto a tray (the more items, the more challenging the game so just start with just 3-4 items and increase from there).

Tell your child to have a close look at the items on the tray. Name them together (the more you discuss the items the more likely your child is to remember them so you could ask them what colour or shape each item is or what it is used for).

Cover the items with a tea towel. Ask your child to close their eyes and as they do so remove one item from under the cloth.

Ask them to open their eyes, remove the cloth and tell you what’s missing!

3. Variation on Kim’s Game – use more items and allow them to look at them for a full minute. Then cover them up and ask them to write a list or draw as many of the items that they can remember.

Check out https://childhood101.com/short-term-memory-games/ for more ideas.

• The items in the list must start with the letters of the alphabet in order.
• All items must begin with the same sound e.g. ball, bat, bell

• Have a group of pictures laid face down. The pictures could be cut from a magazine if you do not have any other suitable ones from another game. Start with turning each one over so they children have a picture to look at to remind them. Move onto to just having a brief look at the card before putting it face down again. The child will know how many items they need to remember but they won’t have the pictures. They can always have another peek if they get stuck!
• Play the game without any other distractions, such as the TV or radio. We all find it easier to concentrate when it is quiet.

1. Collect some items of clothing, food and toys (they need to be similar things, for example animals from a farm set). Choose three items e.g. sock, vest and jumper. Two things must have something in common (sock and vest are both underwear) and the other should be different.
2. Put out the objects and ask, ‘What group do these all belong to?’ Next ask which go together best and why. Finally, ask what is different about the other item (e.g. it is warm clothing and would be worn in winter).
3. Repeat this with different items.

• Ask the child to find more objects round the house that would go with the sock and vest.
• Choose items that have more similarities so it is harder to find a difference e.g. cereal, toast, porridge – all are food eaten at breakfast. You can discuss several answers and ways of organising. For example, cereal and porridge have milk on them, toast is made from bread.

• If your child is finding it difficult to work out which group the items belong to, ask ‘Are these clothes or animals?’
• Choose two items from one group and one from another e.g. sock, vest and cereal. Keep repeating the category names (food & clothing) so that the child learns the vocabulary.

Show the child the following picture:

1. Ask the child: ‘The man and woman are getting wet in the rain because it’s raining cats and dogs.’
2. Ask the child: ‘Is it really raining cats and dogs?’
3. Explain the meaning of idioms to the child: words that sometimes mean another thing.
4. Explain to the child that you said that it is raining cats and dogs because the rain was very heavy.

 

 

 

• Read a book with the child and try to identify the idioms.

• Slow down the rate of delivery to support the child’s processing.

 

 

1. Ask the child to help you write a list before you go shopping.
2. As you travel to the shop talk about what you will buy. Model the sentence ‘I’m going to buy…’ Ask your child to repeat the sentence with a different item. Repeat these sentences as you get to the shop and choose the items.

• On the way home discuss what has been bought. Model with the sentence ‘We went to the shops and we bought…’ Encourage the child to make up their own sentences.
• Use more complex language e.g. ‘I will buy’, ‘I shall buy’.
• Talk about things that will happen next week/month.

• Model the sentences that you expect and get your child to copy you.
• Draw pictures on your list to prompt your child.

• As you put your child to bed at night you can talk about what you will do the next day. For example – ‘Tomorrow we will go to Nanna’s house’.
• When you are going on holiday, talk about what you are planning to do.
• Play this simple game – all you need is an empty bag. The first person has the bag and thinks of something that could be in it, for example a ‘kitten’. The second person asks, ‘Why do you have a kitten in your bag?’ The first person uses the future tense and answers ‘I am going to give it to my friend’.