St Matthew's Home Learning
"You're never to old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read with a child"
-Dr. Seuss
Why should children engage in Home Learning?
For years, there has been a heated debated on the impact of home learning on pupils in primary education and this has left professionals divided. Harris Cooper from Duke University in America, found evidence of a positive correlation between home learning and pupil’s achievements. Alfie Kohn, an American author and lecturer in education, recommends that when purposeful tasks are assigned then home learning has a greater impact on pupils’ learning.
Cooper and his colleagues (2006) found pupils who are assigned home learning purposeful to their learning score 23 percent higher than an average pupil who is not assigned purposeful home learning. In their 2006 research, Cooper, Robinson and Patall’s meta-analysis found positive effects for home learning: there was a direct role in fostering and improving achievement where home learning tasks reinforced learning that took place in the class. The research revealed that regular repetition of key skills helped deepen the learning and knowledge and its retention in the long-term working memory.
At St Matthew's, we believe that homework is important in consolidating prior learning at school, developing skills and preparing pupils for secondary school. Below are some of the key ideas behind our rationale for homework:
- It should be an enrichment and extension of what is going on in school and provide opportunities for children to develop their creativity and imagination.
- It is a vehicle for the involvement of parents in children’s learning.
- It provides opportunities for individual work, enabling children to become independent learners, whilst encouraging them to complete tasks.
- It develops good habits and self- discipline.
- It provides opportunities for parental co-operation, support and insight into the work of the School.
- It creates channels for home-school dialogue.
- It fulfils the expectations of parents, pupils, teachers and community.
- It encourages ownership and responsibility for learning.
- It develops skills in using library, Internet and other learning resources.
- It can allow practice and consolidation of work done in class.
- It prepares children for secondary school.
Joyce Epstein and colleagues (1982, 20002 and 2003) conducted a series of studies to identify the condition under which parental involvement enhances home learning. Interactive homework should allow parents to ask questions that help their child with clarity and summarise what they have learned; parents are not required to be the experts regarding the knowledge and teaching of the content. For this reason, all tasks are planned so pupils can complete the work independently.
Games
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Kids will sort trash into four different litter categories: recyclables, compost, electronic waste |
Collect the numbers up to 15 in order and make the caterpillar grow into a butterfly |
Miss Turner's magical pet swap shop Create your own cute and silly animals |
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Lots of fun with your favourite BBC characters |
Fun memory-based strategy game for the whole family! |
Kid-friendly rally racing game from Blue Peter. Start your engines! |
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Put your dribbling and shooting skills to the test |
Fast-paced running game that will keep you on your toes! |
Excellent interactive educational activities and colouring sheets with Spot, the dog |
Puzzles
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Put your pizza-making skills to the test |
Test your knowledge on contractions and hone your slingshot skills. |
Donuts are dropping out of nowhere and Molly and her friends need your help. |
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Answer road safety questions to move up ladders and save yourself from the snakes |
Slice & dice your way to the top! |
Animated storybook that tells the tale of two young tadpoles |
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Test your reflexes and your knowledge of Halloween trivia |
Learn how to design effective posters, newspapers and comics |
Race against each other while practicing your multiplication facts! |
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Math Quiz is a great way to check math skills |
A simple and fun game for kids of all ages! |
Give your brain a workout! |
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A great way for kids to engage in digital storytelling |
Sort the pictures, shapes and letters into symmetrical and not symmetrical sets
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Help the fuzz bug avoid obstacles by jumping to different platforms
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Practice learning nouns and verbs in a yummy way by helping the monkey collect ice cream |
Simply click with the mouse to keep the Santa flying |
Multi-player kids educational racing game for finding equal proportions
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English
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Match the words with the meanings |
By clicking and dragging kids assemble a cool kid-mobile! |
Take the Gnomie for a stroll through a beautiful garden, and help him to measure the treasures |
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Let Spelly Spellican help you practice the Dolch Sight Words! |
Play by stopping the asteroids from crashing into the planet using word types |
Create your own story |
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Race one another by correctly spelling the given computer-voiced words |
Quirky game that allows children to practice their knowledge of sight words |
How many words can you make in 3 minutes? Use the 16 letters in the grid
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Maths
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Solve math problems and avoid the ghosts! Fun for children of all ages! |
In this epic adventure practice measuring and reading angles |
Practice addition, subtraction, and multiplication in this math version of Pacman |
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Match the decimal to the percentage to win |
Slice the correct answers with your finger/mouse! |
Find the combinations of numbers that add up to the requested total |
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Players get to make music with the famous Bird Band by arranging Fractions |
Act quickly and use your finger or mouse to slice numbers |
Tap the falling blocks to answer the equation listed at the top of the screen |
Science
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Click and drag different parts from the parts bin to the construction area to create a robot. |
Fun facts, cool science experiments, FREE science printables, awesome science fair projects and super STEM challenges! |
Your mission... if you choose to accept it... is to escape the facility with only a jetpack. |
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Terrific Scientific brings science to the heart of your teaching with fantastic investigations and exciting resources linked to the curriculum |
Connect all the electrons in a single line! |
Hydro Logic is a splashy puzzle game that teaches the Water Cycle |
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Robot Islands is a fun game to help teach basic programming skills |
Learn about the different parts of a bacterial cell |
The site provides links to the best primary science learning materials on the web, helping children to enjoy science |
