Dear Parents,

I hope you and your families are well despite these difficult times.

I know it’s probably difficult to keep your children focused on schoolwork but the routine is good for them. Firstly, encourage the pupils to do some of their schoolwork assigned by the teachers each day.

Then encourage them to read a book, whether a real book or online.  If they’re very young, read to them.

Also, encourage them to do some physical activity – “Go Noodle” is a good resource if they can’t get out in the fresh air or use the “Super Troopers” Booklet given to all pupils earlier in the year by our Active Schools Committee, or they could do “P.E. with Joe” Monday – Friday 9.00a.m. Live on You Tube.

We have attached some educational websites and apps for children and a short summary of what the websites and apps are about.   These are just recommendations and are not requirements.

We will be in contact late next week with schoolwork for the pupils for the week of the 30^th of March.

Finally,  if you need to contact me, use the school email address; office@rusheenns.ie.  It is checked daily.

Take Care,

G.Coakley

PRINCIPAL

Useful Educational Websites for Children

http://www.scoilnet.ie/ 

This useful portal features educational information and links to other educational sites for every school topic imaginable, from Irish to history, spelling to geography. There are lots of interactive quizzes, printable worksheets and slides which aim to make learning fun and informative.

http://www.primaryscience.ie/

This site features lots of pintables, activities and games designed to show kids the importance of science.

http://www.bdi.ie/mambo

Kids can learn about how the human body works on this site.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/

This is a great website for both primary and secondary schools which has lots of interactive and fun activities on subjects such as Irish, history, geography and science.

http://www.ri-ra.ie/

This is a really useful website that aims to help your child increase their Irish vocabulary and learn correct grammar.

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

A variety of Maths and English games.

https://storybird.com/

A website where children can publish and illustrate their own stories.

http://www.helpmykidlearn.ie/

Launched Sept 2012. Includes audio and video content to support parents with literacy difficulties and links to others websites providing more detailed information on specific topics. The site is designed for parents, grandparents and carers of children aged 0 – 12 years and is searchable according to the child’s age.

http://www.focal.ie/Home.aspx

A database of Irish terms containing over 270,000 terms, searchable under both Irish and English versions.

http://www.ncte.ie/viking/

A site devoted to the history of the Vikings in Ireland

http://www.webwise.ie/

Webwise.ie educates on safer usage of the Internet. Aimed at students, teachers and parents it also promotes the positive aspects of using the Internet and informs on how to deal with the risks.

Well Known Websites

Wikipedia
An online free encyclopaedia written collaboratively by volunteers all around the world

Google Earth
Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips

National Geographic Kids
Features different people, animals, and places each month with facts, games, activities, and related links.

BBC Education
Tons of information & fun on the schools and education sections of the BBC site

Mathletics.eu
Mathletics is a leading digital maths resource, helping children aged 5-18 to improve their numeracy skills and build confidence in maths whilst having fun. Parents can set tasks and closely monitor progress. Aligned to the Irish curriculum. Visit www.Mathletics.eu

NASA – Kid’s Home
Games, art, stories, and activities for children presented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

www.rainforestmaths.com – interactive maths activities

www.literacycentre.net – providing online numeracy & literacy lessons for kids in a variety of languages

S.T.E.A.M. – Designer Minds Daily Explorer Challenge

Designer Minds is Ireland’s largest provider of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Design and Maths).  In our Daily Explorer challenges, we realised that we needed to keep it simple, so our challenges can be done with equipment that we hope most houses should have.

You can find a new challenge posted each day to our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/designerminds.ie/ People who don’t have a Facebook account can sign up to our email newsletter to receive the challenge into their inbox by completing the form at https://designerminds.ie/contact

We’ve had 4 challenges so far, with links below.

Back Issues
Issue 1: Newspaper Tower
Issue 2: Colour Diffusion
Issue 3: Coding
Issue 4: St Patrick’s Day Art

I hope you and your parents find these free challenges and experiments useful and fun!

Helpful Free Apps

Little Writer – The Tracing App for Kids
Free app for tracing letters and learning all the sounds and letter formation of the alphabet

Eggs on Legs
App where kids have to solve the maths problems to crack open the quirky eggs on legs.

Star Walk – 5 Stars Astronomy Guide
An App where you can point your iPad or iPhone at the sky and see what stars, constellations, and satellites you are looking at in real-time.

PopMath Basic Math
PopMath is a fun game for kids of all ages to practice basic math.

Yahooligans!
Yahooligans is a browsable, searchable directory of Internet sites for kids. Each site has been carefully checked by an experienced educator to ensure the content and links are appropriate for young people. The site is primarily aimed at primary age readers

Kids Website Directories – the following directories list out suitable sites for kids on the world wide web:

www.kidsites.com
Links to the best of the children’s web sites and all of the sites have been checked and approved for kids.

www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/ 
The Internet Public Library Youth Division has seemingly endless sites of a more educational nature.

Literacy, Numeracy & Creative Apps for Children 

Junior and Senior Infants

Literacy Apps 

Starfall ABCs

Starfall Learn to Read

ABC Alphabet

Pocket Phonics

Chatterkid

Numeracy Apps

Maths Age 3-5 for schools

Counting Numbers 1 – 10

Friendly Shapes

First Class and Upwards

Literacy Apps

Starfall Fun to Read

Starfall I’m Reading

A+ Spelling Test

Toontastic

DKFindOut

Sight Words 2

Numeracy Apps

Match Stretch

Bubble Maths

Pattern Shapes

Pieces Basic

Math Fight

Scratch Junior

Number Frames

Playgrounds

Lexico Cognition

Jungle Time

Jungle Coins

Tell the Time

Creative Apps

Book Creator

Spark Video

Garage Band

Suitable websites for all class levels

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/hehh1/index.html?launch=true (handwashing challenge)

http://dltk-kids.com (art ideas)

http://www.starfall.com/h/ (lovely reading, rhymes and phonics)

http://www.mystroybook.com (click on the menu/new storybook. Children can then create book)

http://www.dkfindout.com/uk/uk (lots of fun facts)

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids (lots of fun facts)

http://www.gonoodle.com (activities and movement for all children)

https://www.twinkl.ie/offer Enter the code IRLTWINKLHELPS to get a month’s free access