A Treasure Chest of Activities to do over the Summer!

Best Homework support sites
Maths Games
Maths Tool Chest
Top 10 Interactive Websites
Dice and card games
999 things to write about

Animated film production
Toontastic
Scratch programming
Code.org
microbits
mindcraft for education

Creative arts Treasure Chest
Keep moving! 
Words, writing & stories
Borrow Box is a free app that allows you to download up to 5 ebooks and 5 audio books at a time. All you need is a library card and you can now join online or over the phone. Other online libraries include:
Epic!
Oxford Owl (free E-books).
Practise reading, spelling and phonics at www.nessy.com; Reading Bear
Reading Eggs (can sign up for free trial);
Teach Your Monster to Read (Covers letter sounds to reading full sentences).
Book Creator app to create stories.
Artists of all kinds are making stuff available: readings, draw-alongs,
#operationstorytime.
#CreativeBursts.
For a brilliant blog about kids’ books and what you can do with them, check out http://www.playingbythebook.net/   Children’s Books Ireland have great resource packs for exploring books shortlisted for their annual award. You might find some books that your kids have read/are reading or some on similar themes. The packs (with questions and activities) can totally be adapted to suit your needs. Downloadable for free here: 2020 shortlist pack; 2019 shortlist; Bold Girls initiative pack.  
We Love Books is a new podcast from RTÉJr all about kids’ books and writing, featuring interviews with readers, authors and illustrators, reviews by kids, writing by kids and writing tips by Dave Rudden. 
As is Fighting Words (this one is open to children aged 7-12 and offers a story starter).
Share this video of a read-aloud of Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis and ask the kids to translate it into English/Irish. (It’s written in a made up language, but with help from the pictures, punctuation and general code-breaking skills, it’s totally understandable). They might come up with different wordings, which is interesting too.
Branar theatre has made available full recordings of their plays for young kids. Anna Newell Theatre Adventures have put up a recording of their wordless show Big Kid Little Kid, 30 mins, ages 3-6.
Check out Emily Arrow who turns picture books into songs with her ukulele. Could the kids be inspired to turn their favourite book into song too?
Musician Thomas Johnston is doing daily half-hour music sessions for kids on his Tradoodle TV Youtube channel. 

(Visual) Arts and Crafts, Make and Do
For arts and crafts, some excellent go-to sites include: www.redtedart.com;
https://artfulparent.com/


Some doodle starters from Irish illustrators in free access over here. A design-a-cover competition run by the O’Brien Press, here.
Craft lesson plans For videos, links, lesson plans and more, visit I Am an Artist, a visual arts initiative aimed at supporting primary teachers and pupils in the adoption and delivery of the visual arts curriculum in Ireland.
Fast drawing for everyone at https://www.autodraw.com/ https://www.mrsbrownart.com/ (Loads of art lessons and ideas)
Browse through the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and their resources.

The Glucksman is offering daily art activities. They are also sharing tutorials on their YouTube channel.

Artist Maeve Clancy has made available a 13-part lesson plan for Observational Drawing, suitable for children from age 8, which includes example drawings by kids.  

Marvel Artist Will Sliney is doing tutorials on youtube live, and taking theme suggestions, and challenging the children to draw things every day. It’s #WeWillDraw https://twitter.com/WillSliney https://www.youtube.com/embed/0GnC1g1-uHw

Alan Nolan makes brilliant books and comics.  Here he’s giving tutuorials - great art lesson for homeschoolers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE2zD2Bcsfs This could go in Visual Art or Writing! Comic book Templates I’ve used before and got children very excited! Comic Book Templates