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Embrace new experiences. See opportunities. Surprise yourself.
Embrace new experiences. See opportunities. Surprise yourself.
Towel Folding
Activities for older learners
Our tutor, Lynette has made two videos with some simple activities for seniors in association with Blackburn With Darwen Dementia Action Alliance.
These towel folding activities are great for engaging senior people in something creative. They help us to feel useful and contributing to the household whilst also maintaining cognitive and fine motor skills. Once made these can also cheer up any bedroom in residential care settings.
Cooking with Jan
Cooking with Jan!
Week 3
This week Jan has put together a lovely worksheet on how herbs can be helpful for our well-being, including how they link to the Five Ways to Well-being, more information about Lavender and Rosemary and some simple to make recipes. You can read all about it here
Week 2
Jan has been back in her kitchen and has made a second video showing us how we can make a healthy and delicious cheesy root vegetable mash here
Week 1
Find out how to make Spanish fried potatoes with Jan here.
Lets Paint
Let's Paint (with Barry)
Painting can really help you to focus and relax, and give the satisfaction of creating a unique piece of artwork to have on display.
During the last two weeks, Barry has recorded this video series with loads of ideas you could try, from landscapes and flowers to cats and portraits.
Or, just grab a coffee and watch me paint!
What went well? What didn't? You'll soon find out...
Visit Barry's Let's Paint playlist
Local history
Local History
UPDATED! What better time to research some of BwD's history? Tutor Jan has a new video quiz for you!
Each week Jan takes us on a virtual walk through the streets of Blackburn, with some questions along the way. At the end of the video there is a link to the answers video.
Further resources:
The Cotton Town website contains a wealth of articles and photos:
http://www.cottontown.org/
The history of BwD's music halls & theatres:
http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/BlackburnTheatres.htm
All about Feniscowles Hall:
https://lancashirepast.com/2018/01/07/feniscowles-hall-ruins-blackburn/
CottonTown quiz [PDF]
Use the Cotton Town website to answer the questions in our quiz, then solve the final anagram. Click the document icon to start.
Government Launches Skills Toolkit
The Skills Toolkit is a new online learning platform launched by the Government. It gives you access to free, high quality digital and numeracy courses, to help you build up your skills, progress in work and boost your job prospects (while we’re staying at home).
Digital skills can be anything from using social media and staying safe online to coding, programming or digital marketing.
There’s something for everyone, no matter what level you want to start at. Whether you just need a refresher or you want to learn something entirely new, you can choose from introductory courses, intermediate or advanced.
Skills Toolkit
Free online courses (adult learning)
There are a range of high-quality online courses for adults. Take a look, maybe something will catch your eye.
Open University free courses:
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses/full-catalogue
Future Learn short online courses:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses
GCF Learn Free:
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/
iDEA (Inspiring Digital Enterprise Awards) helps you develop digital and employability skills for free - and earn badges!
https://idea.org.uk/
Supporting your child at home
Some of you might now be faced with suddenly being a primary teacher! The government has put together a list of recommended online resources, and we've put some of our favourites below.
MATHS:
White Rose maths produce full daily lessons (with videos and worksheets), for Early Years through to Year 8:
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/
Times tables are a key part of the national curriculum, and Times Table Rockstars is currently free to use:
https://ttrockstars.com/
Twinkl.com is another widely used site, with lots of resources (not just maths, English and other subjects too).
Corbettmaths.com is always worth a visit, up to GCSE level.
ENGLISH:
David Walliams is releasing a new audio book for free every day:
https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/
https://stories.audible.com/ has a wonderful collection of free audio book stories for kids of all ages - no sign-up required.
Here's the BBC Bitsize page for KS2 Reading and Writing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zprrd2p
Phonics activities and games. Currently free to register.
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
Visit BBC Bitesize for more!
Daily lessons are now up and running.
NEW! Coding with Scratch
Using Scratch you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations - and share them with others around the world. It's free and works on most modern devices and browsers.
Scratch is designed especially for young people ages 8 to 16, but people of all ages can use it. Younger children may want to try ScratchJr.
Many UK schools use Scratch to introduce learners to thinking and reasoning skills.
See scratch.mit.edu/ideas for more tutorials.
Watch tutor Julie create an interactive story in Scratch (comes with PDF guide).
Scratch
Free E-Books
Did you know that you can access Blackburn library's Borrow Box site to get access to over 20,000 e-book and 3500 audio book titles! See the library homepage for more information.
For children aged 3-11 you can get free e-books on Oxford Owl (lots of other useful maths and English resources on there too).
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