Sunday, March 15, 2020

Dear Pupils - Corona Homework

Dear Pupils and Parents,
Although I have all your phone numbers, I don't have everyone's email address and this letter is too long to send by whatsapp.

I will whatsapp you my email and by the end of the week we'll have an email group for all the English speakers. I will use it to send you all a weekly newsletter with feedback and to share ideas. All work sent to me will get a personal reply.

For reasons given in this blog post, I am not giving specific assignments but rather, I would like everyone to choose up to three tasks per week to do from the list of suggestions below. Or you can use your initiative and make up your own English tasks. All great ideas will be shared with the group.

Please send me an email at the end of the week with your work in a Word document, or a description of what you did, with a photo if possible. I will keep a record of all the work sent to me. Remember that even if we're not at school I will probably have to write reports at the end of the semester!

Suggestions for English Homework:
1. Read a book in English and write a review. (Or a new ending, an epilogue, design a book cover, interview one of the characters, write a journal entry for one of the characters, what would you do if you were in this story?, etc... ) Be creative.

2. Keep a reading, movie, tv programme record by writing a few sentences about what you read or watched.

3. Keep a journal. Make it interesting with drawings. (You don't have to write in it every day.)

4. Continue with your school workbooks. (Parents please check the work and I will look over all the completed work when we meet again.)

5. Watch a documentary and write about it.

6. Write a story, or a poem, or about something you did this week, or about anything that interests you or is on your mind.

7. Make up a board game or a card game in English.

8. Write a recipe for something you enjoy eating.

9. Go to www.scholastic.com/learnathome and choose anything from this fabulous website full of interesting activities. (Thank you Ayelet for showing it to me.)

10. Make up a quiz or word puzzle.

11. Choose five unusual words (or words new to you) and learn what they mean. Choose a theme or a letter of the alphabet, or words in alphabetical order. Extra points for learning to spell your words. Use your words three times each during the day. Ask someone to test you. Write a sentence with each word. Here are five words to get you started: ambitious, cunning, dedicated, energetic, and generous.

12. Find a long word or a short phrase and see how many shorter words you can make from the letters in your word/phrase.

13. Do a science experiment and explain it to me in writing.

14. Write a letter to a friend or your grandparents, telling them what's going on and how you are using your time.

Remember, up to three tasks per week and send me an email at the end of the week. Do the best you can. I'll review how this is working after a couple of weeks and make any necessary changes.

Keep safe and healthy. Keep washing your hands. Don't fight with your siblings or your parents.
I look forward to seeing you as soon as we get the all clear.
Rachel

Wow! I’m so impressed with the ideas you have given your students and the wide ranging choice. You should get some interesting work returned. The virus is beginning to bite here. Apparently, we oldies are going to be told, in the next day or so, to go into isolation . I think I shall manage as I make patchwork quilts and will happily sit and sew. I have enough fabric to last me a decade or two 😄 There seems to a rumble of panic about and meanwhile I’m in denial, which is silly but my way of coping. I hope that you and DD are ok and finding your routine is working well. Keep well.

About

At the age of 46 and four years after I started the IVF process, I brought home my beautiful DD. This a blog about a woman for whom not being a mother was unacceptable. Add to the mix that I'm also an Expat, Jewish, British, Israeli (sort of), Single, a Teacher, a Writer, a Homemaker, an almost Vegetarian (it's a process), a recent Minimalist, and you have Midlife Singlemum.

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