A Play-based approach to learning
tailored, hands-on learning for primary school children
Picture the scene: you’re seven years old.
Your parents have decided that you might benefit from tutoring.
But the last thing you want to do is sit still, after hours upon hours of sitting still at school.
So what’s the solution?
Play.
Although
has been my main work almost a decade, I’ve also been tutoring primary school children for the past 12 years on an ad-hoc basis.Whilst I’ve always made my lessons playful, it was when my own children grew older that I started to think: what if play didn’t have to stop?
What if I could combine the play-based approach that I’m passionate about with the curriculum children are required to learn?
And that’s ultimately why I decided to officially launch
.The Cottage Classroom is for everyone. Whether you have elected to home educate or are looking for a little extra support with your children’s studies at school, here you can get help from a fully qualified primary school teacher.
One of the things that I love the most about being a private tutor is tailoring my lessons exactly to the needs of my students. I rarely reuse lessons and most of the handmade resources that I make for sessions go home with that student at the end of the lesson or unit.
But perhaps best of all is the chance to really get to know my students. As a fully qualified teacher, I know the challenges of getting to know each child in a class of 30. But as a tutor, I can quickly build up a rapport with my pupils. I know the sports they play on the weekend, the songs they listen to on repeat (usually Taylor Swift!) and even what their favourite colour is. And all of this means that I can weave in their interests to the lessons I teach.
I’ve created a handmade fine motor toolkit for a young girl obsessed with Mr Toad from Wind in the Willows; designed board games that sneakily build spelling skills for the boy who loves to compete and built an ice-cream shop for the girl who enjoys designing recipes at home, so that she could learn how to add and subtract decimals.
We also get outside as much as possible, because movement and fresh air is so beneficial for learning.
So how does a play-based approach work online?
Whether online or in person, my tutoring sessions are tailored to suit the needs of your child in a fun and engaging manner.
Parents opt for online lessons for a range of reasons including health complications, time constraints or simply living in a different town or country!
My role continues to focus on building up a rapport with my students and making their learning engaging.
This has included using puppets with very young children, creating a movement based unit for a child learning about prepositions using, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and designing an interactive café to work on numeracy skills.
If you would like to find out more about The Cottage Classroom, email me at sian@thecottageclassroom.com or book a session below:
