RE

Recap what we were learning in school last week: how many weeks are there in Advent? When do we light each candle? Recap on the meanings of the candles and the Advent wreath (see last weeks online lesson).

Explore some reasons why we might consider preparing for Christmas and discuss.  Explain that one way we can prepare for Advent is by praying. Prayer is a special time with God. Discuss some of the reasons we pray (thank you, sorry, ask for help, praise etc.)  We can also make promises through our prayers with the themes of kindness, joy and peace to others.

Discuss other ways we can prepare: create a Nativity scene, display an Advent Wreath, create an advent tree to add daily prayers to, read stories from the Old Testament and have an Advent calendar.

Through the following weeks of Advent, remind your child of the promises they made to God to do during Advent.

Task:

List ways you will prepare for Christmas.

Topic 1

Read the story The Princess and the Pea. Explain that they have been given the job to find the best material to make a comfortable bed for the princess. Allow your child to handle a range of materials including cotton wool, felt, hessian, bubble wrap, wadding and foam. Encourage them to describe how each of the materials feel. Then give each child a small dried pea (or similar) to put underneath the materials, showing them how to press down to test. Ask 'What can you feel?' Sort the materials into 'Can feel the pea' and 'Cannot feel the pea'. Ask your child to choose which materials they would use to make the mattress and explain why.

Topic 2

A game for the whole family or can be adapted to incorporate a hide and seek element by quietly finding and stealing jewels that are hidden without waking the dragon!

PE - dance

Using The Hokey Cokey Song Display Poster, teach children the words to the nursery rhyme. Practise this so the children become confident when singing it.

Ask the children to perform the traditional actions to the song e.g. put their right hand in and out and all run into the middle. Children should practise this so they are confident performing the actions.

Remind the children that we can perform dances in different ways. Talk about how the children danced last week – in an angry, confident, happy, sad, shy or excited way. Tell the children that this week, they will continue practising dancing like this but they are also going to look at the emotions: silly and tired. Talk about how these actions might alter the speed and styles of the dance – how would someone know if you were tired?

Ask them to walk round the room in a ‘tired’ way, then a ‘silly’ way (you may want to recap on some of the other emotions). Talk about how they walked differently – did they change the speed of their walking when changing the emotion e.g. was silly fast and tired slow? Did they change their posture? Did they change the movements e.g. walk slowly then into a jumpy walk?

Next ask the children to perform the rhyme ‘Heads Shoulder Knees and Toes’ in a ‘silly’ then ‘tired’ way – did the speed of the dance change?

Briefly talk about the different dance styles. Can the children remember any from the previous lessons?

Explain to the children that this week they are not only going to change the way they perform e.g. in a ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ way but they will also change some of the movements to suit this.

Dance Style

Using the dance style cards, children can choose a style to dance.