Reception Home Learning Activities
We understand that the learning partnership between home and school is vital to ensure children consolidate knowledge learnt in the classroom and help them become independent learners. With this in mind we have put together some exciting learning games which take minimum effort to set up, but hold so many learn opportunities as well as allow you to spend precious time with your child. Please feel free to download these and have fun playing them, any evidence of your child playing these can be put on Tapestry as I would love to see them.
Games to Develop Basic Skills
Rhyming games
- Listen to and join in with rhyming stories, e.g. The Gruffalo
- Make silly rhyming jokes, e.g. What do you call a smelly elephant? A smellyphant! What do you call an elephant watching TV? A tellyphant!
Memory games
- Play ‘Kim’s game’. Put a few items on a tray (e.g. a crayon, an apple, a building brick, a toy car). Then look, cover, remember and check!
- Talk about, photograph or write out some ‘events’ from something you have done together – can your child remember the correct order?
- Go shopping – try to remember the list together!
Listening games
- Play games such as ‘Simon says’ – party games are often good ways to practice speaking, listening and memory skills, without them even noticing!
- Listen to music and talk about the instruments being played – find pictures on the internet together.
Action games
- Make a puppet theatre with cardboard boxes or a towel over a chair and encourage your child to make up or retell a story to you or any willing family members!
- Have lots of fun dressing up with clothes and props at home (charity shops are a great source!) so that your child can dress up as a character and act out favourite stories.
- Play games such as ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’, but instead of saying the time write the times down for them to read.
Tactile games
- Use modelling clay to make your child’s name or simple words like mum.
- Enjoy jigsaws together and chat about finding the right pieces!
Car journey games
- Play ‘The cook’s cat is an amazing cat/beautiful cat/clever cat/daft cat... etc. and then make up your own versions (The doctor’s dog...).
- Play this noisy version of the car game, ‘Who can spot...?’. It's great fun – but check out with the driver first before you start this one! Decide on a noise, or a word to call, when you spot the things you’re looking out for - e.g. ‘Bang!’ for a yellow car; ‘Buzzz!’ for a bus; ‘Wow!’ for a bird.
- Listen to an audiobook.
Out and about activities
- Ask your child to find the things you need to buy when out shopping by reading the labels on products together.
- Check out your local library or community centre to find out what special activities or clubs are running in term time or holidays.
- Try to do a few visits or find some information together to link with the topic or project work at school.
These ideas are based on some seen on Oxford Reading Owl, so please visit this site for more.
Phonics Games
Maths Games
Dough Fun for Fine Motor Skills
These are some fun activities which combine the use of play dough with a series of hand and finger exercises designed to improve fine muscle control and help children use small tools and pencils when writing and drawing. The movements develop children's fine and gross motor dexterity, hand-eye coordination and self-esteem.
All you need is some playdough and you can move along to the videos below!