Homeschool activities for Grades 1 and 2

Geography

• Animal atlas: Put animals on the world map and learn the continents.
• Hot or cold?: Why some places are hot and others are cold.
• Landform builder: Build mountains and rivers, then see water shape the land.
• Me on the map: Where I live, from my room out to the planet.
• My map: The words for where things are, then a first map.
• Rivers of the world: Where the great rivers run, from the hills to the sea.
• Time-zone call: Why it is bedtime somewhere when it is breakfast here.
• Treasure walk: Read a map on a real walk and find the treasure.
• Where in the world is Pip?: Read the clues on a postcard and find where the Pet went.
• Who can get there?: See a familiar walk through someone else's eyes.
• Wonders of the world: Famous places of the world, one true thing each.

Every geography activity

History

• Ask a grown-up: A real interview with someone who was small long ago.
• Before the headline: Coming first is not the same as causing, checked card by card.
• Every year: The year as a wheel, with your family's days on it.
• Family tree of names: The people before your child, in order, by name.
• Older or newer?: Tell older from newer by the clues, not a guess.
• One event, two front pages: Tell a point of view from something made up.
• The one-shelf museum: A museum on one real shelf, and a visitor who learns from it.
• Then and now: Some things change, some stay, and there is a reason.
• Time capsule: A box for next year, and proof of what changed.
• When I was little: Your child's own life, in a line from baby to now.

Every history activity

Science

• A bean in a jar: A bean your child grew, and their drawing of its root.
• A bird feeder: A bird feeder your child made, hanging level, and a week of birds counted.
• A cardboard dinosaur: A cardboard stegosaurus that stands on its own.
• A cardboard house: A box house for a real toy, built to pass a test.
• A cup telephone: A cup telephone your child made and tested, and the counts that show which string carries a whisper best.
• Boats that hold the most: A foil boat your child improved by testing, and the numbers to show it.
• Fruit faces: A smiling face your child made from fruit, and then ate.
• Keep the ice: A test your child ran on real ice, and a record of which wrap kept it longest.
• Leaf rubbings and pressed flowers: Crayon rubbings of three leaves and two pressed flowers, made by your child.
• What a magnet can pull: Your child finds out for themselves what a magnet pulls, how far its pull reaches, and how it makes a needle point roughly north and south.
• A marble run: A marble run your child built and fixed until the marble lands in the cup.
• A parachute that lands softly: A parachute your child made that lands a peg softly, and the drops that show why.
• Shadow puppets: A shadow puppet your child made, and a shadow they can make twice as big on purpose.
• Big and small (dinosaurs): Was a dinosaur bigger than your car? Your child finds out.
• Circuit rescue: Your child finds the break and lights the bulb again.
• The nest (dinosaurs): From a dinosaur's nest to the birds outside your window.
• Grow it: A real bean on the sill, and a daily look at what changed.
• Kitchen changes: Real changes on your worktop, and whether they go back.
• Light around corners: Aim a torch beam round a corner with a mirror.
• Magnet hunt: A real magnet, a hunt round the house, and a rule.
• Meat, or plants?: What an animal eats is written on its mouth.
• Moon diary: Two minutes at bedtime, and the moon's pattern appears.
• Our solar system: The sun and its planets, in order, at their true sizes.
• Paper carries a load: One sheet of paper, folded right, holds a pile of coins.
• Pet, or wild?: Who feeds it? One question sorts the animals.
• Plant-eater or meat-eater? (dinosaurs): Your child reads a dinosaur's teeth to find its dinner.
• Ramp race: A fair test with a toy car and a pile of books.
• Same spot, four seasons: One favourite place, visited each season, and what changed.
• Seed to plate: What a seed needs, and how a bean becomes new beans.
• Shadow tracker: Your child finds a pattern in the sky for themselves.
• Sink or float?: Guess, try it in real water, and see what happens.
• Sound safari: Your child finds out that every sound is something moving.
• The night sky: Look up, find a shape, and learn its name.
• Two windows: A call to someone far away becomes a look at the world.
• Weather window: A daily look at the sky becomes a pattern.
• What do you notice?: Your child learns to look closely and ask a question.
• What lives in the pond?: Find the pond's living things, and one true fact about each.
• Where the ice goes: Follow one real ice cube and find where the water goes.
• Who is faster?: Your child races the animals, with their own real speed.
• Who lives here?: A loop of string on the ground becomes a small world.

Every science activity

Reading

• Our family recipe card: A family recipe written down by your child, that someone else made from the card.
• Kindness cards for the street: Three cards your child made for real people nearby, and gave with you.
• A sock puppet and a two-minute show: A sock puppet your child made, and a show they put on for you.
• The clue board: A quiz board of pictures from your child's storybooks, cleared together, with no points and no clock.
• Find it at home: Your child finds the things from their storybooks in your own home.
• Memory pairs: Your child finds the pairs among pictures from their own storybooks, and, from Grade 1, matches each picture to its word.
• Name it: Your child names the things from their storybooks in your family's language, with someone who speaks it.
• Sound it: Your child hears which words start with the same sound, using the pictures from their storybooks.
• Spell it: Your child spells the names of things from their own storybooks, one letter at a time.
• Story order: Your child puts a story they have read back in order and tells it in their own words.

Math

• Origami: a boat, a frog, a crane: A paper model your child folded that works: a boat that stands, a frog that jumps, a crane that flaps.
• Paper weaving: A woven paper mat with a pattern your child chose and kept going.
• Potato and leaf prints: A row of potato and leaf prints that repeats, made by your child.
• Build my room: Your child measures their own room, and the Pet's room changes to match.
• Bundle builders: Ten loose sticks and one bundle of ten are the same ten.
• Cover without gaps: Same tiles, new shape: your child sees what area means.
• Half for you, half for me: Fair shares at the table, and what to do with one left over.
• How many do you think?: A feel for how big a number is, and that a guess can be off and still be useful.
• Keep the boat level: Load the boat so it floats level, and find that far out tips it more.
• Lemonade stand: Your child runs the stand and gives change like a shopkeeper.
• Make the amount: The same amount, made two ways with real coins.
• Measure me: Hands, then string, then a tape: how tall is everyone?
• Number hunt: Real numbers from your street, put in order.
• Pattern parade: Your child hears a rule, keeps it going, then makes one.
• Secret rule machine: Your child finds a machine's secret rule, then tests it on a number it has not seen.
• How many?: Seeing seven at a glance, without counting one by one.
• The Pet's shop: Money maths that buys something real for the Pet's room.
• What time is it?: Reading a clock with hands, and the minutes until dinner.
• Which one doesn't belong?: Your child looks closely and says why, in their own words.
• Which one doesn't belong? Together: Maths talk on a call with someone who loves your child.

Every math activity

Music & arts

• A shaker and a rubber-band guitar: Two instruments your child made, and a high note and a low one they found by ear.
• My piece: Practice that belongs to your child, with no timer and no streak.