The 5-minute challenge

The 5-minute-challenge snakes & ladders game

Creative Resources for primary children| Education| 11+
June 30, 2024•2 min read

We laughed and laughed some more as our brains started to break under the pressure.

This past week or two I’ve pretty much said goodbye to most of the GCSE students I’ve been working with. I was thinking about it the other day as I left a lad’s home for the last time.

Some of the kids we work with we get to know over a period of several years, I’ve known families through marriages, divorces, births, and sadly one girl I worked with lost her mum during the time that I worked with her.

Although you’re not tutoring them anymore, it’s strange you never forget those you’ve worked with.

Build your child's vocabulary

One of the first lads I ever worked with, our goal was to extend his vocabulary. Yesterday, I was playing the 5-minute-snakes-and-ladders game with someone, which is basically a mash up of the 5-minute challenge and snakes and ladders.

In the 5-minute challenge you have a list of 12 categories, and 5 minutes to try and think of 3 words that fit for each category: with adjectives starting with C, countries starting with C, 3 farm animals, etc.

In the snakes and ladders version instead of having 5-minutes we just had the categories written on the squares of the board, each time you land on a square you need to think of 3 words in the same way, but you’re not against the clock.

I don’t know how many times we landed on ‘warm weather’ (3 alternative ways to describe warm weather) but each time we did, the challenge got greater as you’re not supposed to use the same word twice.

We laughed and laughed some more as our brains started to break under the pressure.   If you have a go, I hope you enjoy it.

Our goal at Clara James Tutoring is to make learning fun and accessible to everyone. If children are engaged in what they are doing they are more likely to want to participate, if they are enjoying it, they are more likely to relax and retain the information.

If they are retaining the information it will help boost their knowledge and with knowledge comes confidence.

If you have a child who enjoys learning through games and being more creative, and you enjoy spending time with them, you might be interested in the Clara James Approach, the membership group we have put together to support you in supporting your primary school aged child with their maths and English.

Interested?

Click here to learn more: The Clara James Approach

VocabularyPrimary EducationEnglish Languagelearning through gamescreative learningholistic learninghome education
For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

Dawn Strachan

For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

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