Ribbleton Avenue Methodist Junior School

Online Safety

Online gaming can offer many positive experiences. It can give children and young people the chance to escape into a virtual world, to learn, and to connect with others.

However, there is a risk of children and young people viewing inappropriate content in games and being contacted by adults seeking to exploit them.

This week, there are activity packs for parents and carers to deliver to your children; these explore how your children can stay safe while gaming

They can be found here:

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Hello my lovelies,

I hope you are all keeping cool and staying safe in this super hot weather!
Lot's of water, shade, sun cream and hats please!  

I have seen this wonderful opportunity for you all so please do sign up and take part-it's a summer reading challenge 😊 we love reading!

All the info is below:

This year Lancashire's Libraries will be inviting children to get silly for the Summer Reading Challenge. The Summer Reading Challenge will give you the chance to sign up and take part online, with the special www.sillysquad.org.uk website! The Challenge website will be free to access and a place for you to rate and review books and work towards your reading goal. It will also feature video content, games, quizzes, and digital and downloadable activities to complete at home. The Library service will also be providing loads of fun free things to do including book quizzes, a reading group, and an online Lego club!

The theme of the Challenge for this year is Silly Squad, and we want to celebrate funny and silly stories all summer long! From David Walliams to Roald Dahl, and Jacqueline Wilson to Jeff Kinney, there are thousands of hilarious books for you to read, and we can't wait to hear about them!

The Summer Reading Challenge Silly Squad website is now live for you to sign up on, and we in Lancashire will be launching the challenge on Saturday 27th June, so keep an eye on our social media and website for more information!

Twitter: @lancspublib
Facebook: @lancslibraries
Website: www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/libraries/your-library-at-home

Have a super weekend 😁😁😁😁

Mrs N x

Learning at home: literacy resources for children in Key Stage 2

The following resources contain a wealth of ideas and activities to stimulate 7 to 11-year-olds’ interest in reading and writing during the lockdown. As well as being educational, importantly they are fun! Most are activities which children can do on their own, while parents are working or busy. Your children may be missing their friends or feeling isolated at home: you could encourage them to do activities as a group with their brothers or sisters, or with school friends using social media.

Reading

• Audible Stories has a large collection of audio books for children, including classics such as Jungle Book and Robinson Crusoe.
• Researchify have six well-known classics as audiobooks, with a copy of the text (Alice, Wind in the Willows, Railway Children, Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Black Beauty).
• Oxford University Press has made a wide range of books available free for children who are beginning to read independently, eg Oxford Reading Tree (Biff, Chip and Kipper)
• Some fun activities based on the Harry Potter stories, including quizzes and craft.
• Loads of videos with poetry and story readings and fun activities by Michael Rosen.
• Older children who are hooked on books will love these illustrated British Library collections. Themes include Journeys, Fear, Home and Belonging, and Changing the World.

If your children are running out of books to read

Love Reading is a book recommendation site. A summary and extract is provided for every book. At the bottom of the page, you will find links for many different genres (science fiction, the natural world, history, ghost stories, graphic novels). There are recommendations by age, and a blog for parents.

You will be able to borrow many of these books from public libraries, which generally use BorrowBox and Libby for ebooks and audiobooks. Most public libraries are open online.

Poetry

Poetry by Heart is a fantastic resource dedicated to reading poems aloud. The 7+ Timeline has over 100 poems organised by date.

Writing

• Easy-to-use guides on writing stories from BBC Bitesize. (If your child needs help with punctuation, try these short videos)
• A set of really imaginative activities in response to any book your child is reading.
• An imaginative British Library project with guides on how to write, and illustrations from children’s books. 
• This initiative invites children to write their own diary. The project uses social media channels and there are plans for publication, but with good safeguarding advice. A section for 8-12 year olds has tips from over 30 writers and illustrators.
• Puffin Books has video advice on planning detective stories, creating magical worlds, and Greek legends. There are also ingenious writing prompts.
• Pobble has a picture for every day of the year (though you can use them anytime). Each is chosen to stimulate creative writing, and includes a starter text, some questions, a short language exercise, and a drawing.