You all know my motto is that there’s more to books than reading, well, there is also more to Minecraft than screen time.
If you are at home and wanting to help educate your little ones, here are a few ideas (that I used via Skype lessons) When planning things for G7, I wanted to choose something that she was intrinsically motivated about which is half the battle, hey!
Writing a Manual can be about any subject that your child loves.
What I love about a manual is they get to tell you all they know and they are excited to learn more about the subject.
We did a fun facts page where we used different shapes for information boxes.
We learnt the key features of a non-fiction text, having a title and subtitle, writing a caption under our pictures, making a contents page and glossary.
When adding in instructions for someone else who has never played Minecraft, they start to use bossy verbs naturally.
Taking an actual interest in what they are doing online, can take it offline. I definitely don’t advocate lots of screen time but as a child who grew up on theme hospital and the sims, I think it’s worth using what they love to help.
G7 told me all the features that she has in a map that she had built on Minecraft. So we mapped out the coordinates and placed the items on our own map.
Using the map, have your “skin” character go on an adventure. Use the coordinates to say where they go from and to.
They can write out their adventure, use their senses to explain where they are, where thy do and choose some mobs to create something exciting, perhaps they need to go to the cave to find some diamonds or defeat the Enderdragon.
More to books…
Also unofficial but I’m excited about the arrival of this book, we ordered it for g7! There is even a volume 2. Children are more likely to want to learn if they are motivated and using a subject that excites them will do just that!
Minecraft- the survival collection (Photo credit: Amazon.co.uk)
And to get them outside, download Minecraft Earth, like Pokemon go a few years ago, but they collect things as they walk around and then have adventures and “build” things for other people to find in augmented reality! Also, when they are holding the phone, it keeps their hands from touching benches and fences and gates etc! (Do practice safety when crossing roads- I take the phone off her when we are crossing a road to keep us extra safe!)
Please send in your Minecraft fun.
Love Kat x
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