Looking for something different to do with your children this week. Amazon have some free resources to help both parents and pupils who are learning at home during the lockdown.
And remember that you can use something other than a PC, laptop, phone or tablet. If you have a PS4 or Xbox One console, then you can use that to access home learning materials. Read more here.
Here is what they have on offer:
Maths
· Amazon Maths4All now offers hundreds of free maths games, apps and challenges on Alexa, worksheets for Kindle and Fire Tablets, and caters for a range of ages across primary and secondary school, learning styles and abilities.
· Students can tune into a maths lesson from Rachel Riley, Countdown presenter and the nation’s favourite mathematician, who joined our Very Important Breakfast Clubs to play the numbers game and show that maths is ‘easy as Pi’.
· You can even involve Alexa in learning from home. Get started by saying, “Alexa, ask the Maths Coach to start a test”, or “Alexa, ask the Maths Coach for a hard addition test”.
· Amazon has injected some fun into times tables lessons with free games available to download on Amazon Fire Tablets. Older students can try out Timestables Rockstars while younger learners can play ‘Meet the Numberblocks!’.
Science
- The Hour of Code Dance Party is the perfect feel-good Friday finish after a long week of remote learning. This interactive dance-themed online coding tutorial gives students the opportunity to build their computer science skills while have some fun coding characters to dance to songs from leading artists.
- Dr Ranj Singh, the NHS doctor and BAFTA award-winning TV presenter, is providing a short brain-busting lesson in biology. Children in years 1 -7 can learn about the growing brain and how to keep your brain healthy.
- Amazon Future Engineer is our comprehensive childhood-to-career programme designed to inspire, educate and enable children and young adults from lower-income backgrounds to try computer science. Earlier this year, Amazon Future Engineer launched free virtual coding programmes to help young people build computer science skills while learning at home.
- Those aged 11-16 can enter the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize, which challenges students to develop technological innovations to help solve some of the world’s biggest issues (entries close 12th February 2021)
English
· Young people and parents can listen to stories at Stories.Audible.com, with specially curated categories such as ‘Littlest Listeners’ and ‘Elementary’ offering free audio books. Get whisked away to Alice In Wonderland (read by Scarlett Johansson), Jane Eyre (read by Thandie Newton), Anne of Green Gables (Read by Rachel McAdams) and Frankenstein (read by Dan Stevens).
Physical Education
· As breaktime moves from the playground to indoors, students can practise their football freestyle flair with Lia Lewis, British freestyle footballer and TikTok superstar, who will teach neck stalls, knee blocks and how to do a cross catch in her lesson.
Wellbeing
Mental health and wellbeing have never been so important to parents and school children. The extra effort required from everyone to make remote learning work means that taking time to look after yourself is vital.
One way to clear your mind is to tune into Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Meditations which are available for free on Alexa. Just ask, “Alexa, start Happy Place Meditations”, and Fearne will lead you through one of her guided meditations, which last around 3 minutes each.
Choose from 8 calming sounds by activating Alexa’s BBC Kids skill feature. Just ask, “Alexa, open CBeebies and play the calming sound of waves”.
For those of you with an Amazon Prime Video membership, you can access wholesome entertainment and educational TV. Just scroll to the categories ‘Educational TV’ and ‘Kids Entertainment’ to browse shows like ‘Operation Ouch’ and ‘Lego City Adventures’.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
