Edition No 13 January 17 2021 Share your artwork with us on Facebok @thetimesIE and on Twiter @SunTimesIreland using #thechildrenstimes Colour us in Extracurricular lessons for primary school children 2 INTRODUCTION LETERS 3 Getting away from screens and out into the fresh air is important during lockdown LETERS TO THE CHILDREN'S TIMES IT’S HAR STAYING Throughout the lockdown last spring and summer we loved receiving your letters, AT HOME stories and poems by email every week, as well as those you have shared online. Hi, my name is Beggah and I am nine years old. I don’t Staying fi t Now that we nd ourselves in yet another lockdown, The Children’s Times would like staying at home at all. It would be a little bit better if love to print your contributions once again. Let us know how you are feeling, what we could walk a little longer, but the good thing is that it’s you are doing to pass the time and how homeschooling is going for you. Email us at sunny. I love going outside we have so much stu to do. I Simple exercises to help [email protected]. like going on the trampoline with my sister and brother, cycling and going on walks. I miss all my friends, I don’t keep you healthy see them any more. I wish Covid-19 would stop. It’s hard BAKING staying at home. You see all the same people every day. CHANGE We FaceTime my aunt and my nanny. I don’t like listening I wrote this for a school speech project earlier this I let my sister bake a cake to the news: all there is is Covid-19 – it’s boring. I hear a lot of people are buying lots of fl our. Thank you for reading. school year, long before Covid-19, quarantines I mean what could go wrong? I hope you enjoyed. and in general all the changes we have all been I left the room nervously humming a little song! dealing with. It’s interesting to go back and read Beggah Carroll, it now. Co Sligo She splashed the mixture Hello, today I will be talking about change. here and there, A warm welcome Change cannot be avoided. Since the beginning and let out a little giggle of time there has been change. The distance Then popped it in the oven ROBIN back to you all between galaxies has been getting bigger, Boy it started to sizzle our planet’s temperature has risen, life has he Children’s Times is back – ended and begun, humans have evolved from When she took it out hopefully for a shorter run than apes! Think of anything and you will always it was black and burned all over our last outing, which began in be able to nd a change. My point being that, But she then put on a pink March for the fi rst lockdown until and white icing cover! Tthe summer holidays. Things haven’t everything around us has changed in some been easy since then, but the intervening way. There are people who have a clouded I came in as my sister popped months have seen the approval of new concept of life, where they believe that they vaccines that can hopefully help us can keep their lives the same and that nothing some sweets on the cake restore some normality to life and o er will ever change. This is ridiculous for many And what degree a glimmer of hope that we can face into reasons: at some point they will realise that was the oven on? the future with a more justifi ed sense of they are no longer a child, they can no longer Boy we were going to bake! optimism. GETTY live without a care in the world. Eventually With the chilly mornings and icy loved ones will die, our planet has changed When I looked around puddles, this time of year can be a in so many ways in the last century, soon, there was cake batter challenge, even without Covid-19 all over the room thrown into the mix. It’s di cult to keep PE FOR EVERYONE despite their efforts to ignore it, even they will Then I shouted: “Dad, focus, especially for those of us who realise how much the world has changed. are homeschooling while working from Change is a dif cult thing to cope with get the hoover and the broom!” home. With the exercises, puzzles and sometimes. I know rst hand how hard change WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Eleanor Giblin, challenges in these pages, we want to can be. When I was seven years old I moved Spell out your full name below and complete the activity listed for each letter. Co Dublin once again contribute something useful to across the Atlantic Ocean. I had to adjust to Ireland’s hard-pressed parents. There are the change in the timezone, I had to make new lots of winter-themed lessons in this issue to keep little minds occupied. friends, I had to live in a new house in a new Even though it’s cold, it’s still important country that I had never heard about before for everyone in the family to get out we moved. Five years later I moved again to a MY SPACE CAT in the fresh air for some exercise away different country. This time was even harder, from screens as much as you can. For we were living with grandparents in America I have a curious moggie, the mind and spirit as much as the body, Spin around in a circle three times Flap your arms like a bird 25 times whilst my dad was working in Dublin and my She likes to avoid my doggie. exercise has untold benefi ts. The angle of A N sister and I were homeschooling. And I remember she swore to me elevation of the sun in winter makes for Climb a pretend rope for 20 seconds Jog on the spot for 20 seconds During this time I came to realise that not to go out before me. dramatic light and long shadows. Winter B O whatever change is happening, it will pass has its own beauty and plays a unique Why oh why, did she go out part in the cycle of the seasons. If you can Hop like a frog and count to 15 Do 20 starjumps eventually, and all will be ok in the end. C P on that cold dark night? get a stroll in on a crisp morning, you’ll be Change happens everyday, everywhere and rewarded with some spectacular sunrises D Do three cartwheels Q Walk backwards for 10 seconds instead of trying to escape it or prevent it, Why did my cat decide and dramatic sunsets. we should all learn to accept it, appreciate it it was the time to ride that kite? Although it may seem dark and grey, E Walk on your knees for 10 seconds R Jump up and down 10 times and follow the way it goes. Because change is the days have actually been getting longer simply the opportunity for something new to My cat, she really was divine. since the winter solstice on December F Do 20 jumping jacks S Bear crawl and count to 20 emerge. But I guess I am happy, 21, when a shaft of winter sunlight Thank you. not all soft and sappy, slowly illuminates the Neolithic tomb in Touch your toes 10 times Hold a plank for 10 seconds ‘cause she became the Newgrange and the days fi nally start to G T Alexander Fought, rst space feline! lengthen towards spring. When you think Walk like a bear for 10 seconds Crawl like a crab for 10 seconds Co Wicklow that the tomb dates back to about 3,200 H U Maedhbh McCarthy, BC, it really brings home how much this Dublin 14 ancient country has seen. Ireland has I Sit against a wall for 20 seconds V Do 10 sit-ups faced all sorts of challenges and always comes out the other side – just as we will Do a forward tumble over Handstand against a wall do with Covid-19. J W When The Children’s Times fi rst Do 10 squats Hop on one foot ve times THE SHOW WHERE IT GOES appeared, one of the highlights was K X hearing from children of all ages and Run on the spot and count to 20 Balance on one foot for ve seconds Hey Mister Turtle let’s put on a show, receiving the wonderful letters, poems and L Y Hey Mister Turtle where did you go? pictures. We look forward to publishing as many as we can, so please get in M Pretend to ride a horse Z March like a soldier counting to 10 Liam O’Rourke, Naomi Walsh, touch by writing to thechildrenstimes@ Co Kilkenny Co Meath sundaytimes.ie COVER ILLUSTRATION: GETTY ILLUSTRATION: COVER All educational resources provided by Twinkl Ireland 4 JUNIOR AND SENIOR INFANTS Find more at twinkl.ie SHAPE HUNT Shape Hunt GOING TO THEGoing SHOP to the Shop WRITING PRACTICE RHYMING WORS Draw and label the things you nd that have these shapes For each word below, nd three rhyming words on themDraw and label the things you find that have these shapes on them. Trace the words below Square Triangle 2c 3c Goldilocks 1c 5c 4c Mummy Bear + = + = Daddy Bear + = + = Rectangle Circle + = + + = Baby Bear You have 10c. What could you buy? Draw what you would buy in the box.