The Primary 2 activity bag is packed full of fun activities for you and your child to spend time playing, learning and having fun together.
What’s inside the bag?
- Two books:
- Steve, Terror of the Seas by Megan Brewis
- The King Cat by Marta Altés.
- Story Cubes.
- A notebook and writing pencil.
- A Rockets and Meteors game with two dice and four counters
- A wipeable dot pattern board on the reverse and a dry-wipe pen.
- A parent/carer guide full of fun games to play together
Rockets and Meteors games to play
Game #1: Reach 99!
Aim of the game:
- The first player to reach 99 is the winner!
How to play:
- Sit side by side to play the game and take turns to throw the dice.
- Each player moves their counter the number of squares on the dice. Encourage your child to count the ‘jumps’ as they move.
- The numbers on the board can help your child. If you land on a rocket, you move up to the square at the top of it or if you land on a meteor, you move down to the square at the end of it.
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Game #2: Special numbers
Encourage your child to find numbers on the board that are special to them e.g. their birthday or house number. They could cover them up with counters and see how many they can find!
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Game #3: Number patterns
Look at the numbers on the board with your child and ask them if they can see any patterns – they could use the wipeable marker to outline them. Talk together about odd and even numbers (the odd and even squares are shown as two different colours on the board) and the patterns in the columns up and down (0, 10, 20 or 11, 21, 31).
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Story Cube games to play
Game #1: Describing words
Roll one of the story cubes and identify the picture e.g. alien. Ask your child to think of as many different words as they can to describe the image. They could draw the image in the centre of a page in their notebook and write the words around it.
Can they tell a story including one of their spelling words?
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Game #2: Story challenge
Take turns to tell a story in 30 seconds including all three images on the story cubes.
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Game #3: Create a story
Ask your child to roll the story cubes and make up a story including one or more of the images. They could tell it to you, write it down, act it out or even film it!
Want more? We have loads more fun games you can play to make storytime fun.
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Game #1: Dots and boxes
Take it in turns to connect a pair of dots using a vertical or horizontal line. When your line makes a completed square, write the first initial of your name in the square to mark it as one of yours. When the whole board is full of squares, count how many squares you have each to find out who is the winner.
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Game #2: What shape?
See how many different shapes you can draw on the dot board. Does your child know the names of all of your shapes?
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Game #3: Xs and Os
Ask your child to draw a grid on their board that you could use to play Noughts and Crosses and then play some games together. Try starting in different squares and see what difference it makes.
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Try playing these games with Steve Terror of the Seas
Game #1: Keep your eyes open
Look back through the book. How many times can your child spot George on the page before you meet him?
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Game #2: Teeth time
Get your child to time themselves cleaning their teeth. How long do they think it would take Steve to clean George’s teeth?
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Game #3: Favourite facts
Get your child to choose their favourite sea creature from the book. Can they make a fact file about it in their notebook?
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Game #4: Truth or fiction
Ask your child if they can find two facts about fish or sea creatures in the book and make one up. Then get them to see if someone in your family can guess which one isn’t true.
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Try playing these games with the "King Cat"
Game #1: Shadow play
Throughout the book, see how many times your child can spot the cat’s shadow. Can they use their hands to make a shadow on the wall to make an animal shape?
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Game #2: Changing words
The cat uses the words annoying, strange, disgusting and stupid at the start of the book to describe the dog. What words does your child think the cat might use at the end of the book?
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Game #3: Spot the difference
What differences can your child spot between the two living room pages? Ask them if they can count the number of differences.
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Game #4: Cats rule
Ask your child if they can imagine that cats rule the whole world – what rules would they make? Get them to write a few of them down in their notebook.
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Parent/carer guide
Here is a PDF version of your parent/carer guide.
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