Don't forget to look at the pages for other year groups too - many of the activities are suitable, or can be adapted, for older or younger children...

Reception log in for Oxford Owl:

Make paper plate portraits

Get the children to make paper plate faces (paper plate painted with googly eyes and wool hair stuck on and nose and mouth drawn on in felt tip) and write their name on a card to display at home.

Who lives in my house?

Draw a house template in which the children can draw and label who lives in their house and draw each room. Maybe draw their dream house and design the layout etc. Would you have a pool? A ball pit and trampoline?!

Helping Hands

Make "helping hands" - children draw around their hand (with some help), then write their name on using a felt tip then decorate with pencil crayons. Everyone in the house could do this and create a special fridge display!

Happy Birthday

Give your child a premade card/paper that says happy birthday on it. The children are to draw a picture on their card and place in a card box. Whenever it is someone's birthday, you can choose a designed card to give to them.

Self Portraits

Look in a mirror. Ask your child to look at the features of their face. Ask them to paint a portrait of themselves using paint or pastels. Can they label parts of the face?

A box of personalities.

Using a suitcase or a shoebox, what objects do you all like (teddy, chocolate, special trinket for eg. ) Explain that everything in this box is what we like and it’s part of us.

Give your child a template of a suitcase or a shoebox and ask them to draw objects they would include in their box to describe themselves. Encourage children to have a go at writing what each object is.

Amazing personality adjectives.

Sit in a circle. Ask members of the family to introduce themselves (name and age) then introduce the person on their right and add in an adjective (This is Milly, she is 5 and beautiful) You could include family on Facetime or Skype!

Name writing

Write 'My name is ______' in dotted writing at the top of the page. Trace it. Then write it underneath on a line. Then keep writing it on every narrower lines. How neatly can you write your name?

Leaf and tree rubbing

Take some paper and crayons on your walk. Find a tree, put your paper on the bark and rub gently using the crayon. What can you see? What else can you find to make a pattern like this?

Do a friendship painting

You need a piece of paper, your family sit around it, and start to paint or draw a pattern. When you start to play music, move around and keep moving until the music stops then carry on painting/drawing in your new spot. And keep going until the paper is as covered as you would like it to be.