Ideas could include:
- Great books to read to your child
- Cool ideas for brick learning, spelling or sound work ideas
- Snack ideas for lunch boxes
- Community activity ideas or upcoming events you've heard about
- Ideas to increase your child's sense of self-responsibility
... or any other ideas you might think of!!!
Email any of the teachers with your ideas and we will pop them on this page for others to view!
Thanks, and enjoy!
jo.postles@ladbrooks.school.nz
ali.duncan@ladbrooks.school.nz
Here’s some ideas of what to ask instead of "what did you learn today?"
- What made you smile today?
- Can you tell me an example of kindness you saw/showed?
- Was there an example of unkindness? How did you respond?
- Does everyone have a friend at break?
- What was the book about that your teacher read?
- What’s the word of the week?
- Did anyone do anything silly to make you laugh?
- Did anyone cry?
- What did you do that was creative?
- What is the most popular game at recess?
- What was the best thing that happened today?
- Did you help anyone today?
- Did you tell anyone “thank you?”
- Who did you sit with at lunch?
- What made you laugh?
- Did you learn something you didn’t understand?
- Who inspired you today?
- What was the peak and the pit?
- What was your least favorite part of the day?
- Was anyone in your class gone today?
- Did you ever feel unsafe?
- What is something you heard that surprised you?
- What is something you saw that made you think?
- Who did you play with today?
- Tell me something you know today that you didn’t know yesterday.
- What is something that challenged you?
- How did someone fill your bucket today? Whose bucket did you fill?
- Did you like your lunch?
- Rate your day on a scale from 1-10.
- Did anyone get in trouble today?
- How were you brave today?
- What questions did you ask at school today?
- Tell us your top two things from the day (before you can be excused from the dinner table!).
- What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
- What are you reading?
- What was the hardest rule to follow today?
- Teach me something I don’t know.
- If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?
- Is there anything on your mind that you’d like to talk about?” (In my opinion, the key is not only the way a question is phrased, but responding in a supportive way.)
- Who did you share your news with?
- What made your teacher smile? What made her frown?
- What kind of person were you today?
- What made you feel happy?
- What made you feel proud?
- What made you feel loved?
- Did you learn any new words today?
- What do you hope to do before school is out for the year?
- If you could switch seats with anyone in class, who would it be? And why?
- What is your least favorite part of the school building? And favorite?
- If you switched places with your teacher tomorrow, what would you teach the class?
USE A WHITEBOARD
A mini whiteboard can be a great tool to use at home to go over those homework items such as spelling and brick practice that need lots of repetition. - Sarah
You can even use an old video case instead as a whiteboard. The whiteboard marker and cloth to wipe off writing can be stored inside. - Keryn
Maths Games for Home - Ali
This is a collection of games and activities for recall and practice of basic facts in mathematics, for children working at stages 5, 6 and early 7 in NZ mathematics. Of course every game can be modified to use addition or subtraction for stages 3 and 4 as well. Everything here uses very simple resources, such as fingers, dice, playing cards, DIY cards, and paper.
Thank you for helping our kids love maths!
Cowboys
A game to support recall of multiplication facts, for two players.
Supplies:
- Hands!
1. Players put their hands behind their backs and fold/hold fingers to create a number. On the count of three, both players show their hands.
2. First person to say the multiplication product of the hands ‘wins’ the draw.
Salute
A game to support recall of addition facts, for three players.
Supplies:
- A set of DIY cards numbered 1 to 20
- Place shuffled cards face-down in middle of table. The first player (the caller) gives a card each to players 2 and 3, facedown. The Caller commands “salute” and the other two players lift their card (without looking) and hold it against their foreheads, facing out.
- The Caller mentally adds and says the total of both cards.
- Players 2 and 3 must use the total and the card that they can see to work out what their own card must be. (e.g. if the total is 17 and my buddy’s card is 9, mine must be 8 because 17 – 9 = 8 and 8 + 9 = 17)
- First to call out their own number ‘wins’ the pair.
Variations:
– change rules to multiplication (i.e. caller mentally multiplies both cards)
– to play solo, time yourself flipping and answering a given number of pairs (e.g. how fast can you flip and add/multiply 5 pairs)
– two players can have a deck each and flip cards at the same time, competing the call the total and win the pair of cards
– use a larger deck, with DIY cards up to 60 (can also be used for Six60) or 100 (for Fastest Hundred) to practice adding larger numbers
4 in a row
A game to support understanding of multiplication facts, for two or more players
Supplies:
- Answer grid (use 5×5 these examples OR fill a 5×5 grid with answers to multiplication problems using factors of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)
- 2 dice
- Game pieces for each player (e.g. counters or coins)
1. Players take turns rolling 2 dice.
2. Players multiply the 2 numbers and announce the product.
3. If the product is on anyone’s answer grid, it gets covered with with a game piece.
4. First player to cover 4 numbers in a row or column, wins.
Variations:
– use numbered playing cards instead of dice, and fill grid with appropriate multiples
Multiply Me
A game to practice recall of multiplication facts, for two players.
Supplies:
- A pack of regular playing cards, either face cards taken out or agree that Jack = 10, Queen = 11, King = 12, Ace = 1
- OR a set of DIY cards, numbered 1 – 12
1. Shuffle cards and split the deck between players. Place face down in front of each player.
- On the count of three, both players flip their top card. Players compete to multiply the numbers and call out the answer.
- Fastest answer wins the pair. Compete to get the full deck!
Variations:
– to play solo, time yourself flipping and answering a given number of pairs (e.g. how fast can you flip and answer 5 pairs)
Fastest Hundred
A game to support recall of pairs that make 100.
Supplies:
- A set of cards, numbered 0 – 100 (“DIY 100 cards”).
- Shuffle cards and place face down in middle of table. Take turns to flip the top card only.
- Players compete to call the “missing partner” that would add to a total of one hundred e.g. if card reads ‘42’ players call “58” (42 + 58 = 100)
- Fastest to call the missing number wins that card. Compete to win the most cards!
- to play solo, spread cards face down and play ‘memory’, finding pairs that make 100.
- to develop 2-digit addition skills, flip two cards and call the sum
- to develop 2-digit addition skills and play solo, time yourself flipping and answering pairs (e.g. how fast can you flip and answer 5 pairs)
Six60
A game to support understanding of time, by reinforcing pairs that make 60. Helps to understand “minutes to the hour”, and to calculate time passing. For two or more players. This is a variation of ‘Fastest Hundred’.
Supplies:
- A set of cards numbered 0 to 60 (remove top cards from DIY 100 cards).
- Shuffle cards and place face down in middle of table. Take turns to flip the top card only.
- Players compete to call the “missing partner” that would add to a total of sixty e.g. if card reads ‘23’ players must call “37” (23 + 37 = 60)
- Fastest to call the missing number wins that card. Compete to win the most cards!
Variations:
- to play solo, spread cards face down and play ‘memory’, finding pairs that make 60.
Top That!
- Remove the Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces from a deck of cards.
- Shuffle the deck and deal five cards to each player.
- Take the next card from the deck and put it face-up on the table in front of the players. This is called the Top Card. (There will only be one Top Card for everyone to see.)
- Every player multiplies each of his/her cards by the Top Card and records the products on the scoring sheet.
Top Card: 5
My cards: 3, 7, 6, 2, 4
Product: 15, 35, 30, 10, 20
Total: 110
- Share your scoring sheet with the other players- make sure everyone agrees on each product as well as the sum of those products!
- For the next hand, collect all of the cards, reshuffle, and repeat the above steps.
- At the end of eight hands, add all of the totals for your Game Total. The player with the highest Game Total is the winner!
A game to practice the addition of whole numbers and decimals, using tenths. For two players.
Supplies:
- A set of playing cards, with 10s and face cards removed
- two coins
- Shuffle cards and split the pack, so each player has a stack. Place cards face-down on table.
- In front of each player place a coin to represent the decimal point mark.
- Each player flips two cards. They place one card on the left of their coin, representing a number in the ‘ones’ column.
- Their second coin is on the right of the coin, representing a number in the ‘tenths’ column.
5. Players race to add the ones and tenths.
5.9 + 3.8 = 8 ones and 17 tenths (1 and 7/10) = 9.7
Variations:
– to play solo, time yourself flipping and answering a given number of pairs (e.g. how fast can you flip and add 5 pairs)
– make it harder by using DIY 100 cards for the whole numbers, and playing cards for the tenths.
– make it even harder by using only DIY 100 cards for whole numbers and hundredths
Other suggestions for home and away
- Display a poster chart of the times tables in an often-seen location. In the kitchen, or back of the toilet door, perhaps? You can download charts from the internet, or buy posters cheaply at $2 stores.
- Create ‘grids’ for children to complete. A grid randomly arranges numbers across the top (x) and side (y) of a table; children find the answer for a given box by multiplying the corresponding x and y. Time children for completion and calculate accuracy. Most importantly: celebrate improvements!
- See and Do … allow children to see the times table poster chart and complete a grid at the same time. The visual reminder will help to learn any unknown facts; when facts are committed to memory, children will realise that using recall is faster than looking.
- Download a playlist, or buy a CD, of times-table songs. (Got a good one? Let me know!)
- In the car…
- notice the last 2 digits of a car licence plate. Family members take turns to use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to create the best problems they can that use or end in that number.
(+) 15 + 3 = 18 (easy), or 13.7 + 1.3 = 15 (harder)
(-) 20 – 5 = 15, or 163 – 148 = 15
(x) 5 x 3 = 15, or 15 x 7 = 105
(/) 15 / 5 = 3, or 75 / 15 = 5
- estimate the number of a particular vehicle or object that will be seen within a certain time or distance. e.g. “I estimate we will pass 12 power poles in the next minute”, “I estimate we will see 8 red cars in the next 3 minutes”, or “I estimate 16 trucks will come towards us in the next ten kilometres”. Compare estimate to results and discuss why may have been a difference (e.g. “we travelled faster than I thought, so we passed more power poles”, or “we got stuck at lights for a whole minute so we didn’t pass as much traffic”). Try again with a new estimate and compare the results – were you closer?
- months and days: every time you get in the car, recite the multiplication and division tables corresponding to that month (e.g. in February, recite 2x multiplication and division tables); create best problems that use or end in the day of the month (e.g. on 23rd March, make problems that end in or use 23); use day and month to add/subtract/multiply/divide (e.g. 23 + 3 = 26, 23 – 3 = 19, 23 x 3 = 69, 23 / 3 = 7r2)
- Visit the Families page on NZmaths.co.nz (the resource used by NZ teachers). There is information to help you understand how we teach maths in New Zealand, and ideas for using maths at home
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