But ESL students, on the other hand, may disagree. Adult learners will argue that they have busy schedules and a life outside the classroom, which translates into “ ”. Young learners and teens may come to terms with the fact that they have to do homework, but do we want them to do it because they are compelled to do it... or do we want them to do it because they are excited to do it? Which would you prefer?
The only way to get young students excited about doing homework, and get adults to set aside some time for it, is through . And here are 5 examples:
A Word Book or Vocabulary Journal is a classic among teachers of very young learners who are not adept at using dictionaries; here they have a chance to make their own. Help them design their very own Word Book from scratch, out of construction paper, cardboard, or any materials you have on hand. At the end of a reading task or activity, make a list of the words they have learned for the day. Their homework assignment is to enter each of the new words in their Word Book. The littlest ones simply copy the word and draw a picture of it; older students can use the word in a sentence that illustrates its meaning. There is no need to copy “dictionary” definitions. They may also cut out pictures from magazines or newspapers and get as creative as they like. But one thing is certain… these will be words they won’t easily forget!
This is an extremely engaging way to provide extended practice of any grammar point. Say you want your students to practice . Tell them you need information on this year's Oscar nominations. Tell them to go to and give them a list of questions they must answer:
You may assign any number of research tasks: ideal places for a family vacation ( ), best restaurants in the city ( ), or anything based on local information. Just make sure you give them a website to go to, a set of questions to answer or a task to complete, and above all don't forget to plan the assignment with a grammar point or learning objective in mind.
This is an ideal assignment for adult students. Most read the newspaper anyway, right? Or watch the evening news. Ask them to choose a news story that has piqued their interest, and have them:
”, thus prompting them to use , for example ( )
This is clearly one of the homework assignments that works best with adult learners or those who specifically study . Give them an email to read and ask them to write an appropriate reply. Or give them a situation that would require them to compose a message, like a complaint over a bad service experience or an inquiry into vacation rentals.
Choose a TV series that is shown in English, either with or without subtitles (you may ask students to cover the subtitles). Choose a show that is suitable to your students’ ages. Tell your students that their homework for that night will be to watch an episode of , whether they usually watch the show or not. Give them a task to complete after viewing the episode: a synopsis of the episode, a character description, or a questionnaire (Do you usually watch this show? If not, would you start watching it? Why/why not?)
Another great way to get students actively engaged in their homework assignments is to ask them to come up with some ideas for creative assignments on their own and share them with the class. They may surprise you!
And if you’re still stumped as to which worksheets to assign to , , or , BusyTeacher.org is always available to help, 24/7, with wonderful ideas for activities and great ready-to-print worksheets.
If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.
Mov parent: time management for school homework assignments.
(Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)
I feel a strong need to discuss the significance of homework. There is nothing that irritates a teacher more than students who procrastinate completing their homework assignments.
Throughout the remainder of this writing, I will offer ideas for doing homework. I am writing it specifically for students; therefore, it is imperative that parents share this important information with their school-aged children. Now let’s begin with the following athletic analogy.
Coaches, first and foremost, want all their players to gain positive experiences from athletics. To accomplish this goal, the participants need to be as committed as their coaches. A major part of that dedication includes hours upon hours of drills.
Although the majority of athletes hate drill work, they know that to be successful in their sport, it is a very necessary evil. As with athletics, the same is true with the academic realm as well. But in the case of studies, it is known as that dreaded activity referred to as “homework.”
The key to proper homework preparation is “time management.” Many students do not know how to wisely organize their daily studying routine. Hence, homework is either turned in late or never completed. Furthermore, such problems can lead to student anxiety and feelings of always being in a rush.
What I want to share with you from this point on are some helpful hints for homework. Likewise, I also devised a generic time schedule for “after school” study habits.
Helpful Homework Hints
1. Try to eliminate dead hours. Accomplish something every free moment of the day. Research has demonstrated that an hour of daytime study is worth an hour and a half of studying at night.
2. Always allow enough time to eat good, nutritious meals. As they say, “You are what you eat.”
3. Do not follow a schedule that could cause lack of proper sleep. All evidence supports the importance of acquiring the basic eight hours of sleep a day.
4. Determine how much time you really need to study each subject area, and develop your homework schedule accordingly.
5. When you are faced with lengthy homework projects, double the time you think it will take and start early. Keep in mind, big assignments always take longer than you originally expected.
6. During the day, look for small blocks of time in which you can get minor tasks accomplished. For example, if you take a school bus to and from school, you could be reading a chapter in one of your textbooks at these times.
7. Always schedule your most difficult homework during a time of the day when you feel totally alert. This time will vary from student to student.
8. When studying at home, select a homework site with no distractions. You can’t learn when the television is on or family members are having discussions near your study area.
Generic Time Schedule for After School Hours
* 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – Recreational or Sports Practice Time.
* 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. – Chore Time, etc.
* 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. – Evening Meal.
* 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. – Homework Time. (Note: Allow 10 minutes of each hour for a study break.)
* 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. – Recreational Time for Watching Television, Calling or Texting Friends, etc.
* 10:00 p.m. – Bedtime
To be quite honest, at first you can anticipate having some difficulty putting together a daily time schedule for homework and other activities. Here is where parents can assist their child, having more lifetime experiences in organizing their personal and professional affairs.
Moreover, please realize that your child’s schedule may need to be revised or adjusted from time to time.
I have one final tip for students who take their schooling seriously. Even if you are not sure how to complete a homework assignment for a certain class, always hand something in when it’s due – be it right or wrong. Believe me, this is very sound advice from my own educational experiences.
With the above approach to studying, all your teachers will realize that you have made sincere efforts to perform homework assignments. Likewise, should a completed homework paper be incorrect, your teacher will know where you are having learning problems. Thus, your teacher will be able to guide you toward better understanding of the material being taught.
On the other hand, when students fail to hand in homework assignments, their teachers will think they don’t care, and nothing can be learned by anyone. Hence, the bottom line is: “Do Your Homework!”
Bill Welker, EdD, is an educator who has 40 years of experience as a K12 classroom teacher in both public and private schools. He was the recipient of the prestigious “Jasper N. Deahl Award” from West Virginia University for his accomplishments as a certified reading specialist.
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Alien evolution: these deleted concepts and scenes eventually made their way into the sequels..
Warning: Spoilers follow for Alien: Romulus.
The Alien franchise has had a round robin of amazing creatives over its storied 45-year history, so there should be little surprise that a few brilliant ideas fell through the cracks, such as Vincent Ward's sadly aborted version of Alien 3 which took place in a floating wooden gothic monastery in space, or Neill Blomkamp's abandoned Alien 5, which would have brought back Ripley, Hicks, and Newt in a fan-service smorgasbord.
Even on the films that were made, there was often a surplus of ideas discarded for creative or budgetary reasons. Some of these cool concepts were eventually carried over into later films, including the latest entry in the series, Alien: Romulus . Whether the filmmakers were intentionally cannibalizing the surplus imagination of previous IP caretakers or just happened to come up with similar notions is up for debate, but what's not are the many deleted concepts and scenes which were utilized in subsequent Alien entries.
Here is a (likely incomplete) list of some of those ideas. And remember… Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
And one more time for the cheap seats: Spoilers follow for Alien: Romulus!
Ridley Scott actually shot a roughly two-minute scene for Alien (later incorporated into the Director's Cut in truncated form) in which, during the climax aboard the Nostromo, Ripley discovers a dead Brett and a cocooned, half-dead Captain Dallas embedded in the wall of the ship by alien resin as they are slowly turned into alien eggs. Dallas is only able to quietly beg "kill me" to Ripley before she torches him and Brett with her flamethrower. This process, called "Eggmorphing," was Scott's explanation of how the vessels containing the facehuggers were created.
When it came time to do Aliens, James Cameron – who knew the first film very well - incorporated a similar scene when the marines stumble upon a cocooned female colonist in the Atmosphere Processing Plant, still alive but begging the soldiers to "kill me." However, he simplified the cocooning to merely being a way for the aliens to imprison the humans for facehugger implantation. We later see Newt in similar dire straights but prior to implantation. The idea of Eggmorphing was abandoned, perhaps rightly so.
"What this suggested was that once an individual was cocooned by an alien, that individual then became an alien egg – which I thought was a stupid concept then, and a stupid concept now," opines James Cameron in J.W. Rinzler's The Making of Aliens . "That's something that would have been hard for the audience to swallow, because it involved the transformation of the human host. So I went in a totally different direction: I determined that the eggs were actually being laid by a single, more highly-evolved alien organism. A queen, if you will."
While the eggs were found by the crew of the Nostromo in the belly of the derelict ship, the original plan in Dan O'Bannon's screenplay was for them to be inside a large round structure called the Egg Silo or pyramid. While the outside of these structures are visually akin to the buildings found by the crew of the Prometheus, the interior was visualized by artist Ron Cobb as being similar to Aztec pyramids , which was something that Paul W.S. Anderson reworked into the pyramid structures below Antarctica where most of the action in AVP takes place.
Said Scott in The Book of Alien , "The pyramid and the Derelict - two different elements - were still the subject of a seesaw debate when I came onto the project. I would love to have shot it, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it would have been wonderful in a three-hour version. What finally cracked it was the budget. We just had to get rid of it. And you know, sometimes financial practicalities force you to do a certain amount of editorial work, and I'm glad we simplified it."
Interestingly, Cobb's initial designs for the Nostromo also bear a striking resemblance to the ship in Prometheus, with the glass-domed segmented cockpits and large bridge interior. Those early paintings depict a much sleeker ship than the more utilitarian one Cobb ultimately designed for the first movie.
Ridley Scott's incredibly detailed initial storyboards (referred to affectionately as Ridleygrams) for Alien visualized all sorts of incredible possibilities, some of which didn't make it into the movie for various reasons. One was the "flying mice" which would have been seen at the start of the film before the crew woke up.
Scott told Fantastic Films in 1979, "I wanted to have small flying objects, like sensors, which flew up and down the corridors. They would find a problem, stop by a computer bank and fix it like little handymen. I wanted to call them 'Mice.' At the beginning of the film they would be the only things that were alive on the ship. We'd have shot a long empty corridor so you'd hear them coming before you actually saw them. Then WHOOSH! It would pass by the camera, going through the corridor. I think Fox felt it was too much in the direction of sci-fi, and we dropped it."
A similar gadget eventually found its way into Prometheus as the geologist Fifield's flying mapping balls which he calls "pups." While not functioning like the mice in Scott's original boards, they certainly share a similar visual feel and animal nickname.
One of the most frightening death scenes in Alien was Lambert’s, which occurs mostly off-screen directly following a suggestive shot of the alien's tail near her nether regions. The ensuing sounds imply a kind of rape/death that is perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of the film. While a clever way to do a lot with a little, Ridley Scott had a much more elaborate ending in mind for Lambert.
“Because of budget reasons and time we just couldn’t shoot it, but I wanted Lambert to get sucked out of the ship through an opening about the size of a keyhole," said Scott to Cinefantastique Online . "Not a very heroic ending – but dramatic. We couldn’t afford it. Besides, I couldn’t work out in those days how to squeeze a body through a hole that big.”
This idea was eventually carried forth rather effectively in the climax of Alien: Resurrection, in which director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had the alien/human hybrid known as the Newborn get sucked out of the Betty through a tiny hole in a port window. It's incredibly graphic, a combination of CGI and gruesome makeup effects, and perhaps one of the most memorable moments in that fourth film. Thanks, Ridley!
While Ripley's triumph at the end of Alien is very well-earned, there was an alternate ending storyboarded for the film which would have made for a much more kinetic ride. In the movie, the creature gets blasted out of the airlock while Ripley is secured in her chair, but originally the filmmakers wanted her to be attached to a cable tethering her to the ship while she briefly struggled with the alien in space, shooting it in the head and – once she gets back onboard the ship - blasting it with the ship's thrusters.
Scott was able to do a similar sequence in Covenant in which our hero Daniels fights a xenomorph with a gun while tethered to the flying cargo lift. However, Alien: Romulus has a climactic scene which mirrors Scott's original planned ending with the hero tethered to the ship much more closely, while adding other elements of danger including an approaching planetary ring that will pulverize the ship.
A sequel to the original Alien was slowly simmering at 20th Century Fox for years due to a profit participation lawsuit against the studio from the three original producers: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill (a.k.a. Brandywine Productions). Once the lawsuit was settled, Hill and Giler hatched a very short pitch for Alien II which is fairly close to the movie James Cameron ultimately wrote, with Ripley waking up from hypersleep, joining space marines on a trip back to LV-426 to check on colonists, the ensuing battle and destruction of the alien hive, etc.
A few elements of this pitch were not realized, including the marines storming the derelict ship to destroy the eggs, but this was the most interesting discarded idea (via The Making of Aliens):
"Maybe they should discover something on the spaceship left from the dental patient [space jockey] that tells them something about the alien and its potential menace to all other living forms. That it's an anti-life force. Some bullshit."
While Cameron ultimately left this "bullshit" unexplored in Aliens, it must have clearly intrigued original director Ridley Scott since the idea that the xenomorph was born out of an attempt to wipe out whole species was carried over wholesale into his 2012 prequel Prometheus. In that movie, the crew of the title ship discover that there are vials of a black substance developed by a species called the Engineers to wipe out the human race on Earth… a race that was hatched by them to begin with. In Scott's next film Covenant, we get to see this black gunk in action as the android David returns to what seems to be the Engineer world and wipes them all out rather gruesomely. He then spends years perfecting the substance into the lifecycle of the xenomorph we all know and love.
That black goo also makes an important appearance in Romulus, where it is referred to as the "Prometheus particle" (or something to that effect) but its result is less cut-and-dry and does not produce the same squid-type offspring (the Trilobite) as it did with Shaw in Prometheus.
In 1987, famous cyberpunk author William Gibson of Neuromancer fame was hired by Brandywine to develop a screenplay that would follow the events of Aliens. This script sidelined Ripley to her cryotube as Hicks and Bishop battle aliens aboard a scientific research space station called Anchorpoint.
Once scientists get ahold of alien tissue that's been planted inside Bishop, the powers that be at Weyland-Yutani order them to begin experimenting on it, which leads to the cloning and genetic altering of xenomorph DNA. An airborne alien contagion follows which causes one of the lab's employees to shed her skin and transform into a human/alien hybrid.
In Alien: Covenant, members of the title ship's crew release a similar powder-like contagion from pods planted like mines on the planet which, when inhaled, eventually lead to small Neomorphs (also known as "bodybursters") emerging from them via the mouth or the back.
Although the only Gibson contribution which made it to the screen in David Fincher's Alien 3 was the idea of barcodes tattooed on the prisoner's heads, it's cool to see some of his ideas carried forth in later films and games. His script was also directly adapted into a Dark Horse comic book as well as a novelization, the audiobook of which stars Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen… so it's practically been made!
While Alien 3 would run with the idea that a facehugger can implant any warm-blooded animal by having the creature born from a dog (an ox in the assembly cut), Eric Red's unproduced script had a whole menagerie of hybrid creatures, including a chicken, thanks to its setting of a farm on a space station. It also contains a character named John who transforms into an alien/human hybrid, which foreshadows the much-maligned Newborn in Alien: Resurrection.
Alien: Romulus takes the idea of a hybrid one step further by having the genetically altered black goo transform Kay's in-utero baby into a swiftly born alien/human hybrid which resembles the Engineers of the prequels as well as the xenomorph. Looking more human than xeno, this version of the hybrid is much more effective and frightening than Resurrection's Newborn.
There were many planned endings developed by writer Joss Whedon for Alien: Resurrection, including a climactic fight with the Newborn on Earth which took place in a desert location, then through a spaceship graveyard, then finally a snowy forest as Ripley 8 chases down the creature before it's finally destroyed by Winona Ryder’s Call driving a harvester. Part of this sequence was even shot, including the final conversation between between Ripley 8 and Call which ends the Special Edition cut on the Blu-ray, although the snowy backdrop it was shot against was replaced digitally with a ravaged future Paris.
Having a battle in the snow with an alien wound up becoming the climax of the next film in the series, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, in which Alexa and the predator Scar are chased through a snowy rural village by an alien queen before she is ultimately defeated. It is one of the few scenes where AVP really comes to life, and might have worked better in the context of Resurrection.
When you were watching Prometheus you may have asked yourself, "Why did they cast famous young actor Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland and then put him in old age makeup for the whole movie?" Well, when Pearce was hired, there was meant to be a scene where the android David reads the elder Weyland's dream aboard the Prometheus.
Explained screenwriter Damon Lindelof to SlashGear , "There’s a scene in the script that we decided not to shoot, where we see the inside of that dream, and basically David takes a jetski out with a beautiful woman in a bikini, to a yacht, and on the yacht is Weyland. Played by Guy, without old-age make-up: This is his dream."
"We didn’t end up shooting it," Pearce told Vulture . "We got close to shooting it, and as we got closer, Ridley just started to see it as something that would just be a little distracting, almost. And funnily enough, there was this sort of marketing idea from the outset that we would do Peter Weyland giving this TED lecture , and it was kind of funny that that ended up taking precedence over what was in the movie. So, yeah, I guess in the end, they could have cast an older actor."
While that TED short (directed by Scott's son Luke) is interesting, it wouldn't have worked in the context of the movie as it's just Pearce reiterating things from the film over a six-minute lecture. Luckily the gambit paid off in the long run via the cold opening of Alien: Covenant, in which an only slightly aged-up Pearce speaks to David for the first time, decades before the events of Prometheus.
As stated previously, Anchorpoint Station in William Gibson's script (and later the confusingly named Sulaco Space Station in Eric Red's draft) were meant to be the primary setting of Alien III before it morphed into a prison planet for the final film. Luckily the very potent idea to put xenomorphs on a large space station has finally been utilized in Alien: Romulus, which more closely resembles the descriptions and circumstance of the Gibson draft where it's a scientific/military outpost for Weyland-Yutani as opposed to the North Star farming communities in Red's script.
Keen-eyed viewers paying attention to computer screens in Romulus will note that the Renaissance Station in the new film originated from the Zeta Reticuli system, the same as Sevastopol Station from 2014's Alien: Isolation video game.
What do you think of all the ways the Alien movies have repurposed ideas from earlier scripts and concepts? Did we miss any big ones? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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Figuring out how to make homework fun can be a tricky task for parents.
Does it feel like you’re constantly nagging your kids to do their homework? If your answer is yes then worry not as we’ve all been there! It’s natural for parents to want their children to progress and do well in school, but after an entire day of paper, pencils, and books many youngsters will resist getting on with their homework – and that’s putting it mildly!
Thankfully, there are ways of making homework less boring and that little bit more fun for your child. Whether they need to practice spellings, learn their times tables or revise for an important exam, our top fun homework ideas will help you to magically take the ‘work’ out of homework.
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A FREE downloadable games and activity pack, including 20 home learning maths activities for KS2 children. Bring maths into your home in a fun way.
Adults often work best in the company of others, and the same can be said of kids, so why not sit with your child while they’re studying and get on with some of your own work or life admin?
Whether you’re returning emails, doing your online banking or organising the next primary school PTA fundraiser, creating a shared workspace and modelling focused work is a great way to spend quality time together while they complete their homework. Win-win!
Quick win : Whilst your child is tackling their fractions homework, you could sit down with them and take a look through your finances or even test yourself on the work that your child will be doing in their SATs .
Rewards and incentives are great when it comes to getting your children to follow your household rules and routines, and homework is no different. Things like stickers or the promise of time on their iPad or games console for slightly older children can all work wonders in getting them to do their homework without a battle.
Quick win: For every few questions they answer they could get a minute of screen time!
Let’s face it: A hungry child is an unfocused, unmotivated and unhappy child.
Most children come out of school ravenous, so let them nibble on a nutritious after-school snack while they get on with homework; things like popcorn, apple slices, grapes, flapjacks, or crackers and cheese are all great snack options.
If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, Netmums has a list of healthy after-school snack ideas and recipes to try.
Quick win: One of the best brain foods for kids is a nice and crispy apple! So when your child is craving something sweet just cut up an apple and let them munch away.
Help to eliminate the late night ‘Oh, I forgot to do that’, and create a weekly homework chart so your child can see what they have to do each day and check off each homework ‘To Do’ as it’s been completed.
Again, Pinterest has some great free printables to help keep kids organised. Get them involved by letting them colour it, or decorate it with their favourite stickers, and pin it up somewhere at their height, where they will see it easily every day as a reminder. Some exciting new stationery and colourful pens might help too.
Quick win: An easy way to make homework fun is to grab a piece of paper and get your child to draw out and decorate a ‘homework chart’ consisting of 5 days. Stick it on the fridge and add a sticker to each day after they’ve done their homework, when they’ve collected 5 stickers they get a treat!
If your child prefers to be online, there are some great online apps around that children will have fun using, yet encourage learning too. Here are our favourite free maths websites for example. Speak to your child’s teacher too and see which apps the children use in school so you can support what they’re doing at home.
Quick win: One of our favourite apps that makes homework fun is Times Tables Rockstars!
Holding a homework playdate where your child can invite one of their best school buddies over to do homework together can be a great way for them to learn and make sure the work gets done, especially slightly older primary children.
Plus, it’s likely that their parents will be delighted!
Younger children may need a bit more support and guidance but can still gain a lot from the experience of learning together with a friend – think of this as a mini-educational play date for them – with a special tea afterwards of course!
Quick win: Let your child and their friend play for a while, and then get them to work through their homework with the incentive of a yummy ‘tea party’ when they’ve completed all of their homework.
If the weather allows, create a comfortable outside study space and allow your child to do their homework outdoors.
The fresh air can help kids with their concentration if they’ve been stuck in a classroom all day, and studies also show that being outside, closer to nature, can increase productivity. The reward of a quick game of Frisbee or a kick-around of a football between tasks will help them stay motivated too.
Quick win: Check out this fun outdoor maths activity for some inspiration of ways you can make homework fun.
Who said home learning had to be boring? If children enjoy what they’re learning, they’re more likely to remember what they’re being taught, so turn their learning into a fun game. Using sweets like Smarties to help with maths and number work can turn the experience from a chore into a treat. If they get the right answer, they get to eat some!
Another trick that you can use when your child is learning spellings is to write them in foam or in magnetic letters. It sounds simple, but we can guarantee that it will make homework a lot more fun for your child.
These maths games for kids and times tables games are a great place to start.
Quick win: If you’re looking for some fun homework ideas then check out this simple multiplication activity you can do at home, it’ll even get in one of your child’s five a day!
Make another fun homework game by creating your own mini-classroom and letting your child step into the role of teacher.
Have your child explain a concept to you as a teacher, as you, or their sibling, plays the role of the student. This game works particularly well with subjects that require theory, like Science for example, as it will improve their understanding of the concept and build logic and reasoning skills.
Quick win: Make homework fun by getting your child to choose their favourite teddys and toys and setting them up in their own mini classroom. Start off with registration, ‘mummy’ ‘present’, ‘mr teddy’ ‘here’ etc. You’ll soon notice that your child is growing in confidence regardless of the topic as children love playing teacher!
Some children may have difficulty working for prolonged periods of time without a break, so using a timer can be great for getting them to complete homework without the whining. For example, if your child is given 20 maths problems for homework, you can say “Complete the first 10 questions then we’ll take a 5-minute break, then complete the next 10 questions”.
Many children will need a mental break and will work more effectively when given the opportunity to take one. At the end of the task, they get to pick an activity of their choice. If your child gets easily distracted, a timer game can work well to keep them focused on the task in hand.
Quick win: Put the timer on your phone so that your child can see the countdown whilst they’re working.
A special study space can make homework more fun and help motivate your child to get it done! Choose a space in your house that’s least likely to distract your child, and create a simple, organised, and kid-friendly homework HQ.
You could hang up some of their artwork above the desk, and have all their school essentials nearby so everything is close to hand.
Quick win: Make sure that they aren’t surrounded by things that will distract them. Televisions and iPads are a no go at homework time!
Remember to always be upbeat and positive about school and the importance of their homework. Give your child lots of praise and encouragement about how well they’re doing to help them stay motivated and on track.
Quick win: After every homework session spend five minutes talking through what your child has accomplished. If you’re running out of activities to do, have a look at our list of home learning packs – all free to download.
Homework can be frustrating if your child doesn’t understand the material or gets bored easily. If your child is struggling, get them some expert help!
Quick win: Third Space Learning has plenty of advice on learning maths for kids and parents but if you need more support, our primary school maths tutors are easy to organise and very affordable.
Every week Third Space Learning’s maths specialist tutors support thousands of students across hundreds of schools with weekly one to one tuition designed to plug gaps and boost progress.
Since 2013 these personalised one to one lessons have helped over 150,000 primary and secondary students become more confident, able mathematicians.
Learn how pupils make accelerated progress or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.
Home Learning Ideas, Activities and Guides For Primary and Secondary School Teachers
Free Home Learning Packs For Primary Maths KS1 & KS2
Back To School Tips For Parents: 10 Ways To Help Your Child Get Ready And Excited For Primary School!
How To Prevent The Summer Slide: 10 Ways Parents Can Ensure Their Child Is Prepared For The New School Year
An A-Z of key maths concepts to help you and your pupils get started creating your own dictionary of terms.
Use as a prompt to get pupils started with new concepts, or hand it out in full and encourage use throughout the year.
Since 1987, Library Card Sign-up Month has highlighted the importance of having a library card. September is the time to celebrate the all-mighty card that unlocks worlds of possibilities. Whether patrons are looking for a beach read, searching for valuable information, homework help, crafts or job search assistance — all can be accessed with a handy library card.
This year's Library Card Sign-up Month campaign has teamed up with Skybound Entertainment and leading toy and game company Hasbro to encourage people to roll out to their libraries with the TRANSFORMERS franchise and special ambassador Optimus Prime highlighting that there's more than meets the eye at the library.
Use Library Card Sign-up Month as a way to highlight all that your library has to offer in programming, partnerships and more. How do you celebrate this month at your library? Read on for some ideas shared by fellow library workers.
Library checkout scavenger hunt
Create a scavenger hunt (for kids and adults!) with tasks to get them to use their library cards to discover new reads. Some example tasks could be: check out a book published in your birth year, a book with your favorite animal on the cover or a book written by someone with your first name.
Special prizes for new (and old!) library cardholders
To entice new library cardholders to return to the library regularly, enter them into a prize drawing every time they return to the library throughout September. On the last day of the month, choose a winner (or a few)! You can also offer kids a treat every time they show their library card on a visit.
Passive library card crafting
Leave out blank paper templates of library cards along with coloring materials for patrons to design their own unique cards. Pin completed card on a bulletin board to display throughout the month. To make it more engaging, you can encourage people to write their favorite things about the library on the card and highlight them on social media.
Transformers-themed book display
Gather up whatever Transformers books are in your library for an on-theme display of this year's ambassador. Decorate using the free mini posters available on the Library Card Sign-up Month website. To make it interactive, leave out Transformers-themed crafts like these headbands or some origami paper with basic folding instructions.
Social media fun
Create social media posts for every day of the month to highlight all your library has to offer. Include some quotes and photos from library staff and patrons so they can share their favorite things about having a library card. Patron video testimonials can also be a great way to engage your social media following.
Visit local schools
September perfectly aligns with the start of the school year. Arrange classroom visits at local schools to present all the benefits of having a library card. If you have a mobile way to sign people up for a card, this is a great way to get kids signed up on the spot.
Work with your partnerships
Have a great relationship with local businesses and organizations? Leverage those partnerships to get new library card holders. Ask partners to distribute information on the library with library card sign-up information. Local businesses can also offer discounts when customers show their library cards.
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Kamala harris and dems vilify project 2025 — but trump should embrace its winning ideas | reporter replay.
Kirk mckeand | 13 hours ago.
Black Myth: Wukong is a playable kung fu movie. Inspired by the Chinese novel Journey to the West, you play as a mute reincarnation of the Monkey King as he searches across the land for various MacGuffins, using your staff and magical powers to battle creatures from Chinese mythology – crouching tigers, hidden dragons, and plenty more.
It plays like a fast-paced Soulslike – checkpoints you manually activate, NPCs with vague quests, respawning enemies, and tough bosses – but it’s more forgiving. When you die, you respawn at the last checkpoint you activated, but you keep all your experience points, allowing you to grow your strength even through failure. It can even be paused… imagine that. Of course, there aren’t any multiplayer invasions here so pausing makes more sense.
I found it refreshing to advance even when I wasn’t making direct progress, and every stat increase, move unlock, and crafted weapon feels like a significant buff – you never change “class” or playstyle, you just get stronger in one direction. I found most of the bosses (there are loads of them, with plenty of variety) fairly easy. When I did hit a wall, though, I just found myself re-exploring the biome I was in, grabbing a few more level-ups, finding a few secrets, and heading back to the boss arena much stronger than before – sometimes with a new magical power that can change the tide of battle.
Like the Souls games, combat is simple. You’ve got light attacks, which you can string together for a combo, and a heavy attack, which can interrupt a combo or hit hard on its own. But you also build up energy when attacking to make the heavy attack a guaranteed stagger move – learning when to deploy this (the wind-up can be long depending on how much it’s charged) is key to winning tougher fights. Mixing this up, there are also different stances with their nuances and varied heavy attacks, such as one that pokes from a distance and another that allows you to perch on top of your staff, away from danger, before slamming down.
Despite the lack of a traditional parry, there’s an almost Sekiro-like rhythm to combat. There is an ability called Rock Solid, where you can turn to stone to parry an attack – like in Mortal Shell – but most of the time you’ll focus on dodging and weaving. Dodge at any time and you’ll roll away. Dodge at the last second with perfect timing and you’ll slip an attack, get a few invincibility frames, and leave a mirage of your body behind to confuse the enemy. It feels incredible when you get into the flow of it – especially once you’ve unlocked an ability that stops a dodge interrupting your combos. Every fight feels like a dance where you hit, dodge, hit, hit, and dodge, pirouetting through the enemy’s attacks before spinning your staff and connecting with some demigod’s jaw.
Enemy variety keeps things fresh throughout, forcing you to adapt to new threats, and there are a few mechanical twists I enjoyed. Particularly fighting a bipedal tiger in a pool of blood, and battling a giant warthog in deep, wet mud – in the latter, you roll slowly because of the mud, so you’re forced to time those dodges perfectly to initiate the slip and avoid those massive tusks.
It looks incredible, too (so good that players thought Black Myth: Wukong was a scam when it was revealed). During that tiger fight, the enemy’s fur reacts and sways with every movement, its belly wobbles as it swings at you, and the blood ripples and splashes. Environments are gorgeous and there’s a beautiful vista around most corners. My only complaint here is that it’s a bit uninspired. You’ve got the forest, the desert, the snowy mountains, a dark cave, and an ashen mountain with molten lava pools. It’s a bit archaic and ultimately makes the environs forgettable despite how high fidelity and painstakingly crafted the art is.
Level design is another weak point. While levels do open up and there are alternate routes and secrets to find, none of it will make you gasp. It’s all a bit disjointed and attempts to make the areas feel interconnected are often pointless shortcuts that don’t need to exist because of checkpoint placement. It’s also arbitrary where you can and can’t explore, with invisible walls boxing you into each region. In some areas, you can hop up and discover another path, while others will just look like they’re climbable but lead nowhere.
Still, these imperfections don’t detract too much from an otherwise stellar experience. Black Myth: Wukong is one of the best non-FromSoftware games in this genre, joining the likes of Lies of P in the pantheon of excellent Soulslikes. Instead of copying Dark Souls’ homework, it carries you through this journey with plenty of ideas and charm of its own.
Version tested: PC.
Check out our article on Black Myth: Wukong's release time and pre-load information to see when you can get stuck in.
KIRK MCKEAND
Kirk McKeand is the Content Director for GLHF. A games media writer and editor from Lincoln, UK, he won a Games Media Award in 2014 in the Rising Star category. He has also been nominated for two Features Writer awards. He was also recognized in MCV's 30 Under 30 list in 2014. His favorite games are The Witcher 3, The Last of Us Part 2, Dishonored 2, Deus Ex, Bloodborne, Suikoden 2, and Final Fantasy 7. You can buy Kirk McKeand's book, The History of the Stealth Game, in most bookstores in the US and UK. With a foreword written by Arkane's Harvey Smith, The History of the Stealth Game dives deep into the shadows of game development, uncovering the surprising stories behind some of the industry's most formative video games. He has written for IGN, Playboy, Vice, Eurogamer, Edge, Official PlayStation Magazine, Games Master, Official Xbox Magazine, USA Today's ForTheWin, Digital Spy, The Telegraph, International Business Times, and more. Kirk was previously the Editor-in-Chief at TheGamer and Deputy Editor at VG247. These days he works as the Content Director for GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage, serving media partners across the globe. You can check out Kirk McKeand's MuckRack profile for more. Email: [email protected]
Follow @MckKirk
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Students can make video projects of themselves learning or mastering a particular song, key phrases and more. For example, check out this violinist's progress video. 5. Create an ad or a promotional video for school events. Get students to make an advertisement or a pitch for a school event.
9. Questions for your future self. Think ahead with a video full of inspiring questions. This project is great for incoming freshmen. At the beginning of the year, have students create videos with questions for their future self or with goals for their life and career. At graduation, send the videos back to them.
Create a board game. Complete a quiz - you could also ask students to write the quiz in groups and then swap and complete for homework. Write a lesson plan for teaching the topic to a younger class. Teach the teacher - create a poster, Complete a series of exercises. Complete a family tree, real or imaginary.
25 Creative Video Project Ideas Your Students Will Love. Tell a story, make a newscast, create a vlog, and more! By Jill Staake, B.S., Secondary ELA Education. Aug 1, 2022. It's never been easier for students to create fun and engaging videos to show off their knowledge! We've rounded up 25 video project ideas for your students to try.
2. Make a board game. This is definitely one of the most creative homework assignments. Let your students come up with an idea for a board game about the lesson content. They have to make cards, and pawns, draw, write, cut, and paste. They have to use their imagination and inventive ideas to create a coherent board game. Click to open.
10 video project ideas for specific subject areas. 1. Recreate a historic speech or moment in history for a social studies class. 2. Display the work and results of a science lab project from beginning to end, from hypothesis to conclusion. Add images of lab data in the project to show specifics of the results. 3.
Here are her step-by-step instructions on how you can do it too: 1. Go to TED-Ed and create a lesson . This will be your next homework assignment. You can either create a lesson using any engaging video of your choice, or simply customize an existing TED-Ed Original or TED-Ed Select lesson. If you need help creating a lesson, read this.
Ask each member of the group to take responsibility for a different element of the video. This is an effective task at showing students the power of persuasive writing, and how to work effectively in a team, as well as the objective behind advertising. 3. Task: Create a video tour of the school for new students.
Here's some creative homework ideas for your students. Setting appropriate homework tasks is a big part of your teaching role. Here's some creative homework ideas for your students. 12345 6790. Request A Call View all jobs. ... Film a video. If your students are older and have mobile phones, you could set a video-making task for them to do at ...
For her TED-Ed Innovation Project, US History teacher Jennifer Hesseltine created a digital homework space that students love. Here are her step-by-step instructions on how you can do it too: 1. Go to TED-Ed and create a lesson . This will be your next homework assignment. You can either create a lesson using any engaging video of your choice ...
Share Practice Records. Learning a language, cooking, playing an instrument, or doing sports requires constant practice. If you're looking for a way to encourage kids to learn new skills, this project video could be ideal. You can ask them to record themselves learning to play an instrument or speaking a new language.
Ideas to Make Homework Fun for Elementary, Middle and High Schoolers. ... a funny video, an epic solo dance party or a little social media time. Upgrade your workspace. Spruce up the place you do virtual learning and homework to fuel your productivity, imagination and problem-solving skills. Keep tools and supplies on hand to help you work ...
The brain loves to do tasks in contexts with which it is familiar. 7. Allow students to collaborate in determining how homework will be assessed. If they help design the criteria for success, such as when they create the rubric for an assignment, they "own" the assignment.
Creative homework assignments can be fun and, at the same time, teach and enhance subjects introduced in the classroom. For more creative homework ideas, be sure to check out our lesson plans and YouTube videos! Learn some ways that you can make homework assignments both more exciting and more effective with our Creative Homework Ideas!
Break Tasks Down: Divide homework into smaller, manageable chunks. Reward Yourself: Treat yourself after completing tasks or goals. Study with Friends: Make it social by studying with buddies. Use Apps: Try fun and educational apps for learning. Listen to Music: Create a motivating study playlist. Make It Visual: Use colors and visuals to make ...
Here's an example of how you can use them for homework. Say you're working on revising perimeter with your students. Instead of giving them a quiz worksheet, break the questions up into task cards. Create a game out of the cards and ask them to complete a recording sheet as they work through the cards. Hey, presto!
Televisions and iPads are a no go at homework time! 12. Remember to be positive. Remember to always be upbeat and positive about school and the importance of their homework. Give your child lots of praise and encouragement about how well they're doing to help them stay motivated and on track.
1. Less is More. A 2017 study analyzed the homework assignments of more than 20,000 middle and high school students and found that teachers are often a bad judge of how long homework will take. According to researchers, students spend as much as 85 minutes or as little as 30 minutes on homework that teachers imagined would take students one ...
Educational YouTube Video Ideas 71. Homework Help Videos. For the student viewership, consider creating homework help videos. These can cover a range of subjects, like mathematics, literature, or foreign languages. Providing step-by-step solutions to common problems or explaining the themes of classic literary works will not only benefit ...
Working on homework teaches children that work is a part of life, not just school, and fosters friendship without being overpowering. 5. Design an Awesome Workspace. Improve the area where your kids complete their schoolwork to increase efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving abilities.
Today I show you how to quickly complete homework. When it comes to completing homework it's extremely important that you get it done on time, but most impor...
Homework Assignments That Work. 1. A Word Book. A Word Book or Vocabulary Journal is a classic among teachers of very young learners who are not adept at using dictionaries; here they have a chance to make their own. Help them design their very own Word Book from scratch, out of construction paper, cardboard, or any materials you have on hand.
Throughout the remainder of this writing, I will offer ideas for doing homework. I am writing it specifically for students; therefore, it is imperative that parents share this important ...
Marla Cichowski, with the Illinois Office of Tourism, joined WGN's Evening News at 4 p.m. to discuss a few ideas for a fun road trip with the family before the kids head back to school and the ...
The Alien franchise has had a round robin of amazing creatives over its storied 45-year history, so there should be little surprise that a few brilliant ideas fell through the cracks, such as ...
Set up a homework play date. Go outside. Turn it into a game. Let them play teacher. Use a timer. Create a special homework space. Remember to be positive. Get help if you need i t. Thankfully, there are ways of making homework less boring and that little bit more fun for your child.
Since 1987, Library Card Sign-up Month has highlighted the importance of having a library card. September is the time to celebrate the all-mighty card that unlocks worlds of possibilities. Whether patrons are looking for a beach read, searching for valuable information, homework help, crafts or job search assistance — all can be accessed with a handy library card.
Based on the acclaimed, contemporary love story of the same name, The Idea of You centers on Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet.
Kamala Harris went to Las Vegas over the weekend and flagrantly stole one of Donald Trump's signature policies: No tax on tips. Trump, who got the idea for the populist policy from a…
Black Myth: Wukong is one of the best non-FromSoftware games in this genre, joining the likes of Lies of P in the pantheon of excellent Soulslikes. Instead of copying Dark Souls' homework, it carries you through this journey with plenty of ideas and charm of its own. Score: 8/10. Version tested: PC.