So who doesn’t like a freebie?
Here’s some free bookmarks for you to print out and use!
Just click here and download!
For best results, print on cardstock, or on paper and laminate.
Never turn down a page corner again!
Freebie Friday!
Category: Uncategorized
Aargghh! SATs Stress!
SATs week is nearly upon us – Key Stage 2 SATs (that’s Year 6) will begin on Monday 13th May with the SPaG tests (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar), with the reading test on Tuesday 14th May, Maths Papers 1 and 2 (Arithmetic and Reasoning 1) on Wednesday 15th May and the final Maths Reasoning paper on Thursday 16th May. Key Stage 1 SATs (that’s Year 2) will also take place in May, but the exact week will be set by individual schools. The phonics check test for Key Stage 1 will be on or after Monday 10th June.
This can be a highly emotionally charged time for our kids. Even if you have a very calm child (The Teen wasn’t worried about the tests themselves as he liked working on his own in silence!) the anxiety other children may feel can also influence them (I once had to go in to school to calm down The Teen who was hyperventilating and shaking because so many of his friends and peers were upset and worried).
So how can we help them? Here’s a few ways!
Affirmations
Teaching our kids positive affirmations can help their self-esteem. Keeping the affirmations short and snappy and getting them to repeat them after you say them, or write them down on a post it note or diary/journal may encourage resilience. I’m sharing some affirmations every day over on Instagram this May!
Listen
We can listen without judgment, or without trying to solve the problem for them – being able to vocalise their worries can be incredibly valuable to a child. It is really important to try to JUST listen – I know we all want to jump in with our views on what needs to be done to help because we just want to make it better but knowing that we will listen without interrupting can really help our kids to open up!
Praise
Give as much praise and encouragement as you can – about anything you can!
“Thanks for emptying your lunchbox, that’s a big help!”
“I’m incredibly proud of you for …”
“I love being your mum/dad/family member…”
“I missed you while you were at school/while I was at work today…”
Sleep
Sleep is SOOOO important! Having a lack of sleep not only contributes towards low mood and anxiety, it’s not going to help them concentrate during these last days of revision or during the exams! Make sure that your child is getting enough sleep, and that they are getting some time away from the ever-present tablets and phones they are so often glued to. Getting to bed a bit earlier but having time to read is a fantastic way to help them relax.
Keeping it calm
Yes, they’ve left their dirty clothes in a pile on the floor again. Give them a bit of slack – choose your battles wisely over the next couple of weeks and try not to react if they are more irritable than normal.
Roll with the differences
They might be more clingy than normal, or they might isolate themselves more than normal. Check in with them regularly – a quick “Do you need anything?” will reassure them you’re there for them.
Have something to look forward to
You might want to do a countdown to a summer holiday, or get them involved in planning a day trip or meal out for after the exams.
Journaling
Some children may find that writing a diary or a journal can help with anxiety. Being able to write down their worries or fears can be a way to vent their emotions safely.
Outside interests and friends
If your child wants to keep up with their outside interests or their friends outside of school, this is a great way to take their minds off their current worries.
Eat healthily
Yes, I know that getting vitamins into some children is like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle (how The Tween has managed to survive considering his idea of five a day is the number of chicken nuggets he wants to eat is beyond me) but eating well really helps with feeling good and using their brain! Although they might not feel like eating before their exams, encourage them to eat breakfast!
Try some relaxation techniques
Laughter, stretching, deep breathing, exercising, listening to music and meditating are all activities that increase the ‘feel-good’ chemicals in our brains. You might like to try some of these together (The Teen has just read this over my shoulder and said, “Fat chance, mother!” but perhaps your child is less contrary than mine is!)I
Here’s hoping we all get through this SATs season as unscathed as possible!
Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash
Mental Health in May!
May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States – and it’s seventy years since it was first started in all the way back in 1949. Here in the UK, we are coming up to Mental Health Awareness Week, which starts on Monday 13th May – ironically, this is also SATs week for our Key Stage Two kids, when they are likely to be more stressed than usual!
As parents, we feel confident in picking up our children when they fall – putting plasters on grazed knees, soothing away nightmares, giving Calpol for a fever, but dealing with their mental health can be frightening and make us feel helpless.
Throughout May I’ll be sharing hints, tips and resources to help YOU help your child if they are becoming anxious or worrying about school, friendships, bullying, loneliness, body image, exams, the new school year and new classes/schools.
And remember – mild anxiety and worries are normal parts of life for all of us, adults and children alike. But if you think your child is at risk of harming themselves, or are constantly struggling with anxiety, low mood or depression, please reach out for help:
- Teacher, School welfare officer/support officer/SENCO
- Your GP
- Your local CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)
- Young Minds – click here or call 020 7336 8445
- Mind – click here for the main website or here to find your Local Mind services
- Childline – 0800 1111
- Time To Change
- Mental Health UK
- Mental Health Foundation
Unpack the RUCSAC to help with Maths!
It’s all very well learning how to do all the maths operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division – and being able to put them to work with fractions, decimals, percentages and angles, but our Key Stage Two kids need to know how to use them to solve word problems!
In the Key Stage Two SATs, two out of three of the maths papers are reasoning papers – they are worded questions where a student needs to work out what operations to use to solve a problem or puzzle. This can be really intimidating for many children!
We can help them by getting them to use RUCSAC to approach the question!
Here’s an example from a past SATs paper:
R – READ!
First things first – read the question carefully! What is it asking? It’s asking:
It’s asking for the number of chocolates Ken has bought.
U – UNDERSTAND!
OK, so we need to know how many chocolates Ken bought. How are we going to work this out? Let’s look at the information we’ve got:
He bought THREE large boxes containing 48 chocolates, and TWO small boxes containing 24 chocolates. Three lots of 48, and two lots of 24.
C – CHOOSE!
So let’s choose what mathematical operations we are going to use. In this case, we are going to have to use both multiplication and addition:
3 x 48 = and 2 x 24 = and then add the two answers together!
S – SOLVE!
Using whatever method we feel comfortable with (column method, grid method, repeated addition) we can now work out the calculation! In the SATs exam, when we see this box and the wording ‘Show your method’, it is important that you write your calculations down in the box provided.
To get the full two marks, you’ve got to get the right answer AND show how you got there! If you don’t get the right answer, but show the correct method, you will still get a mark for doing the right mathematical operation.
A – ANSWER!
And the final answer is 192! It is really important in the SATs exams that the answer is written in the box provided (see the above image) – IF THE ANSWER ISN’T IN THE BOX, YOU LOSE A MARK, EVEN IF YOU GOT IT RIGHT!
C – CHECK!
Check your answer – have you answered the question? We needed to know how many chocolates Ken bought altogether, and we worked out that he bought 192 chocolates. So now let’s quickly check the calculations are right to get to that figure – check to make sure we’ve made the right multiplication calculations and then the right addition.
One last point – in the SATs exams ALL children can ask for a question to be read out to them. It’s really important to encourage them to do this, especially if they are unclear about what the question is asking. Although a teacher cannot explain what is needed to answer the question, often just having the question read to you helps to clarify what the question is asking. This is the guidance the government gives to teachers and teaching assistants:
And that’s our RUCSAC unpacked!
Sample SATs maths questions found here
Top photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar – SPaG!
One of the test papers in the Year 6 SATs exams is all about spelling, punctuation and grammar. So if your child comes home and is worried about fronted adverbials, passive voice, present perfect tense, superlative adjectives and you’re scratching your head – you’re definitely not alone!
You and your child use ALL of the above every day and they aren’t as scary as you think!
The Key Stage 2 assessment for English Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar is in two parts – a grammar, punctuation and vocabulary test and a separate spelling test.
The first test is looking at seven different areas:
1) Grammatical terms and word classes – that’s where those scary terms like abstract nouns and subordinating conjunctions come in! Find out about nouns and pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, determiners and the subject and object!
2) Functions of sentences – these are the different types of sentences, such as questions and commands.
3) Combining words, phrases and clauses – finding different phrases in a sentence and what their purpose is.
4) Verb forms, tenses and keeping them consistent within a sentence or piece of writing – recognising different tenses and being able to form the verb to match the tense.
5) Punctuation – from capital letters to colons, you need to know where they can go!
6) Vocabulary – knowing the meaning of words
7) Standard English – recognising formal language and using it instead of informal, chatty language.
We’re taking a look at each section over on Instagram this week, but don’t worry – there will be a catch up here too!
(And honestly, it’s much easier than you think!)
So, are you ready to be the SPaG superstar your child can turn to? Then hold tight for SPaG week!
Student photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash
Moody sky background by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
Are Times Tables Terrorising You and Yours? Here’s Six Ideas to Help!
Times tables! Absolutely the most useful thing our kids can learn to help with their maths but oh, the utter tedium of learning them – yuck! Helping them is often just as tedious and frustrating for us as parents too. The UK government is currently trialling a times tables check system in several schools, with the test being given to Year 4 children – that’s eight and nine year olds who will be expected to know their multiplication facts up to their 12x table.
If you can feel that sinking feeling right now, you’re not alone! Here’s some ways to help your child learn their times tables without them feeling overwhelmed:
Use the apps your child has access to through school
Whether it’s Mathletics, Times Tables Rock Stars or another app that your child’s school has paid for, get them to use it! Set a timer – five or ten minutes a day is much better than an hour once a week. Sometimes your child’s teacher might set them specific tasks to do on the app before they can have ‘free time’ on it.
Other apps
Search out free times tables apps on your computer, tablet or phone that your child might enjoy. Check out a list here with links to some paid options too!
Electronic-free ideas
Chanting – yep, the old fashioned way may be boring, but it does work! Altogether now, “One times two is two, two times two is four…”
Skip-count – saying just the multiples, for example “Three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen…”
Skip-count games – throw and catch a ball to each other, saying the next number in the sequence. Try doing it going down the table instead: “Thirty-six, thirty-three, thirty, twenty-seven…”
Learn four facts – the first four facts of a table such as 1×8, 2×8, 2×8, 4×8 and practice them by writing or speaking them. Add the next one or two facts the following day, practicing them and the previous ones. Repeat until you reach the twelfth fact!
Draw the answers outside on a patio or driveway using chalk – call out a times table fact, can your child find the answer and jump on it?
If you’ve got any other ideas that have helped your children I’d love to know! Please leave a comment, or jump on over to Insta or FB and let me know!
Top photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash
Second photo Patricia Prudente on Unsplash
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