Theatre Alibi – Poetry and illustrations

alibi

We know that a lot of our children have enjoyed the tasks that Theatre Alibi have set over the past few weeks. This is another fantastically fun activity.

Click on this link to hear Shaban, one of the actors from Theatre Alibi, reading aloud the poem that has been written by one of the Theatre Alibi writers, and beautifully illustrated by their designer.

And the best thing is that you can read the poem and then add to it! This funny and imaginative poem is about not being able to go out, and instead travelling around by mouth. What food adventures would YOU go on?

Can you write another verse, or two, and perhaps draw a picture to go with your verses?

Send your verses and drawings to info@theatrealibi.co.uk, and they will add them to their book, and Shaban can read a few of them out. You may prefer to write your own poem from scratch or perhaps draw some pictures inspired by Daniel’s poem.

Make sure you send them to your teacher as well as to Theatre Alibi – we would love to see them!

Mental Health Awareness Week 18th – 22nd May

Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week. You will have received this letter as a parent, with resources from Karen Moore:

This year’s theme from the Mental Health Foundation is ‘Kindness’. The Mental Health Foundation would like us to celebrate the many acts of kindness that are important to our mental health and wellbeing. The challenge is to try to show kindness to another person throughout the week, and attached is the St Johns Ambulance Kindness Calendar that can be used to help with this.

Some ideas for random acts of kindness to others could be:-

  • Call a friend that you haven’t spoken to for a while
  • Tell a family member how much you love and appreciate them
  • Make a cup of tea for someone you live with
  • Arrange to have a cup of tea and virtual catch up with someone you know
  • Help with a household chore at home
  • Arrange to watch a film at the same time as a friend and video call
  • Tell someone you know that you are proud of them
  • Tell someone you know why you are thankful for them
  • Send a motivational text to a friend who is struggling
  • Send someone you know a joke to cheer them up
  • Send someone you know a picture of a cute animal
  • Send an inspirational quote to a friend
  • Send an interesting article to a friend
  • Contact someone you haven’t seen in a while and arrange a phone catch up
  • Spend time playing with your pet
  • Reach out to call a friend, family member or neighbour who is experiencing loneliness or self-isolation
  • Donate to a charity
  • Lend your ear – call a colleague and ask how they’re finding the change in routine
  • Give praise to your colleague for something they’ve done well
  • Arrange to have a video lunch with a colleague
  • Send an inspirational story of kindness people around the world are doing for others to someone you know
  • Donate to foodbanks
  • Offer to skill share with a friend via video call – you could teach guitar, dance etc.
  • Offer support to vulnerable neighbours.

Not only is the challenge about being kind to others but also, in these difficult times, it is about being kind to yourself. The suggestion is that we take some time out of each day for ourselves, by being active for 30 minutes whatever your physical ability. This could include baking, walking, cycling, yoga, gardening or even dancing around the kitchen!

Below is a list of ideas and tips that can help to look after adults and children’s mental health, while having to stay at home :-

  • Stay in touch with others using different methods than usual, such as phone, email, WhatsApp and Facetime. These are ways of being close to the people that we care about.
  • Create a new daily routine, keeping meal and bedtimes consistent.
  • Limit exposure to the news and avoid social media speculation, which can fuel any anxiety or worries. Equip yourself with information from trusted sources.
  • Eat well. Cooking can help detract from negative thoughts about the current situation and can help you to eat well. Children can be included and share the task.
  • Sleep well. This can be difficult when there is a change in our daily routine or we are feeling overwhelmed by uncertainty. Sleep helps our bodies to heal and recover and a lack of it can make us feel physically unwell and stressed. Regular exercise can help (but 3 hours before bed) as well as creating a restful environment, avoiding caffeine close to bedtime and having a relaxing bedtime routine that lets you unwind, which may include reading or listening to music. Sleep and wake times should aim to be the same each day. Worries can often pop into our head when it’s time to sleep and keep us awake, so writing them down as a list to do the next day can help to clear your mind.
  • Both children and adults can become worried about Coronavirus, so chatting through your fears with someone you trust may support you with this. For children facts should be explained in age appropriate language. If they are constantly asking questions or are worried, set aside some time each day to discuss what is on their mind.
  • Distract yourself by doing things that you enjoy and encourage children to do the same.
  • Take time to reflect on what went well during the day and what you are grateful for, no matter how small. Children can be involved in this process too.
  • Try to manage difficult feelings by focusing on things you can control, including where to get information from and anything you can do to help yourself feel better prepared.
  • Set a goal for the day. Achieving it will help give a sense of control and purpose. It could be reading, playing a game or watching a film.
  • Keep your mind active by drawing, painting or completing puzzles etc.

Here are some resources that you may find useful for children to complete:

This Is Me – To complete with your child about what you have been doing recently.

Things to Do – A plan to show 5 things you would like to do each day.

Feelings Tracker – A record of how your child feels each day, which could then be talked through with them.

Twinkle kindness activities – Acts of kindness that your child might like to do.

Kindness Calendar

 

Take care and stay safe.

 

Karen Moore

Pastoral Leader

 

 

Theatre Alibi – Story House

story house

Alibi’s Assistant Designer and maker, Ruth Webb, has created an art activity for you.

This Alibi Exchange is all about windows. So much of life is being viewed through our windows at the moment and Ruth decided to make a Story House, full of windows. To complete the theme, the Story House itself really comes to life when it’s displayed against a window.

You can find all you need to make one yourselves here:

https://www.theatrealibi.co.uk/alibi-exchange-story-house/.

The Heathcoat Cookery Challenge!

pasta

Do you know any quick, cheap, easy (and healthy) main meal recipes? If you do, please share them with us so that other people can get inspiration and make them too. If you follow your own recipe or someone else’s main meal recipe, please post a picture of the finished dish. We can’t wait to see what you make. Have fun recipe-sharing and cooking!

To share your recipes and pictures: use Facebook Messenger to contact the Heathcoat Primary Facebook page.

Here is a lovely main meal that we think you might like to make at home.

Delicious roasted vegetable pasta

Preparation: 20 minutes (if using fresh vegetables)
Serves 4-5 people.
Cook: 25 mins

The great thing about this recipe is you can choose any vegetables you like – and if you aren’t a big veg fan you can blitz it all up at the end with a hand blender or food processor so that you get a smooth tomato sauce and you can’t see the veg. It’s really delicious either way. If you are a vegetable fan you can leave the veg in bigger chunks – yum!

Ingredients

  • 300g/10½oz pasta of your choice
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • Carton/bottle of passata (optional)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 tbsp freshly grated cheddar cheese or parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), to serve
  • 2 cloves of garlic – crushed/minced
  • 1 onion
  • Sweetcorn – half a tin
  • Frozen peas – 2 handfuls
  • 250g/9oz frozen roasted Mediterranean vegetables OR a selection of fresh veg of your choice. 4 or 5 mushrooms sliced, 1 courgette chopped into chunks, half a red pepper, half a yellow pepper, half a green pepper – all peppers can be torn or cut into smaller pieces, ¼ of a butternut squash – peeled and cut into small cubes, a few broccoli trees, a few cauliflower trees.  You can use up any veg that you have.

Instructions

Please ask an adult to help you with the oven, boiling water for the pasta and using a knife to chop vegetables.

  • If you are roasting your own vegetables, heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Deseed the peppers, halve them and then either cut or break them up into large chunks. Wash the courgettes and trim the ends off, then cut into slices about ½cm thick. Put all the other vegetables except for onions, sweetcorn and peas onto a lightly greased baking tray (using some of the oil). Season well with the salt and pepper, drizzle with a little oil. Roast in the oven for 25 mins until lightly browned.
  • Ask a grown up to help you finely chop up the onions. In a large saucepan, gently fry the onions in some oil and add the crushed garlic. Fry for about 3 or 4 minutes, making sure they don’t go brown.
  • Add the tin of tomatoes and some passata (if using) to the saucepan. You may not want to add all the passata – see what consistency you want. If you want more sauce, add in more passata. Stir well. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and wait for your roasted vegetables to finish cooking.
  • When your roasted veg is cooked, add them to the tomato sauce. Or this is the time to add your frozen roasted Mediterranean vegetables if you are using them. Cook the tomato sauce gently for about 5 minutes.
  • Cook your pasta – check the packet for how long to cook it for.
  • Now to choose – do you want a chunky veg sauce? In which case you are almost ready to serve. Go to step 7. If you want a smooth sauce, use a stick blender (or pour sauce carefully into a food processor – take care it will be hot) and blend the sauce until smooth.
  • Add your sweetcorn and frozen peas and simmer the sauce for 4-5 minutes to cook the peas. The pasta should then be ready.
  • Take care when draining the pasta – it will be boiling. You will need an adult to help you with this. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir.
  • Serve topped with the cheese of your choice. Really quick and easy, very healthy and extremely delicious!

Top tips

You can add some mixed herbs or paprika to the vegetables when you are roasting them. Sprinkle the herbs on before putting the veg in the oven. Or why not try adding a chopped chilli to the tomato sauce when you add the roasted veg?

You could make it look pretty by adding a sprig of basil or parsley to the top of your finished dish.  Why not serve with some hot garlic bread.

Theatre Alibi – making a dance

table mates

This week, Theatre Alibi have set a challenge for the KS1 children.

Please note that you can still watch TABLE MATES, the Theatre Alibi production that we saw in our school last year. It is being streamed for FREE for a limited time! https://www.theatrealibi.co.uk/online-productions-and-education-packs/

We hope that you take the time to watch it, and enjoy it, again.

You can find out all about “making your own dance” on their website: https://www.theatrealibi.co.uk/alibi-exchange-make-up-your-own-dance/

Grab your mixing bowls – it’s Heathcoat Bake-off!

We are enjoying seeing the photos of all the activities that you are completing at home. As many of you are cooking, we thought we would organise a virtual bake off for anyone who would like to take part!

There is a basic cupcake recipe below or you can use your own. They then need to be decorated with a VE Day theme as we are celebrating VE day on Friday.

Please email a photo of your cakes to beckybudden@heathcoat.devon.sch.uk by 3pm on Wednesday 13th May. We will then share them all on our Facebook page. If you don’t want the photo on Facebook please clearly state this in the email.

 

FOR THE CUPCAKES

175 g butter (at room temperature), cut into large pieces 175g butter, room temperature

175 g self-raising flour ½ tsp. vanilla extract

175 g caster sugar 3 tbsp. milk

1/2 tsp. baking powder 350g icing sugar, sifted

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 large eggs

 

FOR THE ICING

175g butter, room temperature

½ tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. milk

350g icing sugar, sifted

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cupcake or muffin cases.
Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk or a wooden spoon until smooth and evenly mixed. Divide the mixture evenly between the paper cases.

Meanwhile, make the icing. Put the butter, vanilla extract, two tablespoons of the milk, and half the icing sugar in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Beat in the remaining icing sugar, and pour in the rest of the milk if needed to make the icing the right consistency.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and firm on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

 

We look forward to seeing the results but will let you enjoy eating them!

Take care and stay safe

Miss Higginson

Head of School

Key Stage 2 NHS Competition

step into the nhs

Attached is information about a competition for the KS2 children to enter by 18 June 2020. The competition is to learn more about themselves, learn more about the jobs within the NHS and create either a piece of creative ARTWORK (could be painting/drawing/chalkwork or video/ performance/slideshow) or WRITING e.g. story or thank you card – something that says THANK YOU to the NHS.

There is no obligation to enter, but the winner gets a £50 Amazon voucher! All entries must come via class teachers and be in by the morning of 18th June to ensure that teachers have the time to submit them to the national competition by 19th June. This leaflet explains more: Leaflet_for_parents

RESOURCES:

1. Read the Word document which explains the competition.

2. Go to this link for the resources that you will need. https://www.stepintothenhs.nhs.uk/primary-schools/KS2-resources

Good luck!

Resources and support from Tiverton Library

tiverton library

Tiverton Library has plenty of resources and support available during the current lockdown situation. This is their explanation of what’s available:

Online resources

A range of free resources that all library members can access online:

  • Download and stream free eBooks, eAudioBooks and eMagazines, with more than 3,500 titles on Overdrive (eBooks and eAudiobooks), including a range of ‘beginner reads’ for children in the early stages of learning to read, and 1,000 unlimited use eAudiobooks through RB Digital Devon or RB Digital Torbay
  • A selection of eMagazines are available on RB Digital Devon or RB Digital Torbay
  • A range of eAudiobooks via BorrowBox
  • Online reference resources at Devon and Torbay Libraries including AncestryUK
  • Fun online content and live streaming events via social media. Check out individual library Facebook pages for more information

 

Ensuring all children and families can access our online services

All children and families that already have library membership at one of our public libraries will automatically be able to access these services. If you want to try and ensure that ALL children in your school can access them we have arranged for a new way for schools to register children. Children can be individually registered by teachers on our Devon Libraries website or Torbay Libraries website . You can do this on the children’s behalf.  For under 16s it will come up with a guarantor screen, but it is absolutely fine for teachers to act as guarantors and the school address can be input as the guarantor’s address. As soon as you have registered each child you will be issued with a number which will start UNREG – the child can then use this number straight away for our online services and get access immediately. You can register as many children as you like in this way, or you can pass these details on to families for them to register themselves. If anyone has any difficulty with this please do email us and we will do our best to help.

Summer Reading Challenge

At this time of year we would normally be arranging to come into schools to tell children all about this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. The Reading Agency are currently working on plans for how the Challenge will run this year bearing in mind that we do not yet know if libraries will be open in time for the summer. What we do know is that the Challenge will definitely be going ahead but probably mainly online, and that the theme will be ‘Silly Squad’ – an opportunity to get children reading lots of fantastic funny books! We will let you know more details when we have them.

Local events from Devon Libraries

We would like to invite all teachers, parents and carers to visit and ‘like’ our facebook page at https://en-gb.facebook.com/TivertonLibrary. Here you can find online versions of many of our regular events such as Bounce and Rhyme and Storytimes that are being hosted by librarians from all across the county.

BookTrack

Children that are signed up to our BookTrack scheme to read 100 books can continue BookTrack during lockdown by emailing us the details of books they have read and what they thought of them (emails to tiverton.library@librariesunlimited.org.uk). We have digital images of all the badges ready to go for anyone who hits a milestone.