I often enjoy taking a few lessons off timetable now and again to complete activities linked to events that are currently going on in the real world.
On the 28th September, the Ryder Cup will be starting and there are a number of opportunities to develop the literacy and numeracy skills of the children using this theme.
I have put together a few resources linked to the competition that will develop literacy, numeracy and numerical reasoning skills.
The activities include:
A Comprehension Activity
The comprehension style is based upon the National Tests in Wales
A Co-ordinates Activity
Children will place the different players onto a part f the course and identify their co-ordinates.
The activity is differentiated for 2 / 4 quadrants.
An Area / Money / Reasoning Activity
Children will design their own golf hole using squared paper.
The various different features will take up different sized areas.
Different parts of the course will cost varying amounts of money, children will be able to calculate the total cost of their hole once completed.
The resources for each activity can be downloaded below.
Over recent years, the developments in technology and engineering have been staggering and it is only going to move faster. Experts who attended attended the IFTF workshop in March 2017 estimated that around 85% of the jobs that
today’s learners will be doing in 2030 haven’t been invented yet. (https://bit.ly/2u46JgQ).
With this in mind, it is important that children in Primary and Secondary School develop an interest and enjoyment in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects.
Looking at developing STEM, there are thousands of resources available on the STEM website. You will be required to register an account, but once created, all of the resources are free and can cover a variety of topics.
Cluster Transition Project
To help develop STEM, we recently completed a cluster transition project called ‘Beat the Flood’ using a set of resources from Practical Action.
Children from each of the cluster primary schools were challenged to design a house which could survive a flood on a fictional island. In each primary school, children worked in groups to plan, design, test, build and evaluate their own flood proof house models. Within the pack, children were given lists of materials that they could use and the relevant material they could use for their models. These included:
Polythene Roll
Concrete
Steel
Bamboo
Soft / Hard Wood
Corrugated Iron
Bricks
Clingfilm
Plasticine
Foil Trays
Straws
Lollipop Sticks
Kitchen Foil
Lego
Once children had tested their models, they were required to create a presentation to show the process they took from start to end of the project.
Each school chose one winning group to represent their school in a Finals Day. The winning group from each school presented to the other schools and a judging panel, before an overall winner was decided and announced.
The plan for the future is that the competition will become a yearly event, with the challenge alternating between ‘Beat the Flood’ and ‘Squashed Tomatoes’, where the children have to develop a machine that can transport tomatoes from where they grow (on the top of a mountain), to the market (bottom of the valley).
Feedback from this year has show that children have really enjoyed the challenge, and hopefully have developed an interest and passion for STEM subjects.
Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of Escape Games. Escape Rooms have popped up across the country with a range of themes from finding lost gold and raiding Egyptian pyramids to escaping Alcatraz prison.
After taking part in a few escape games with my wife and various friends, I kept thinking how engaging it would be to create an ‘Escape’ game that could be completed in the classroom.
Through working on an escape game type activity, children could develop a number of skills, including:
Teamwork
Communication
Perseverance
Problem Solving
Concentration
Maths / Language skills
I have since created and completed 2 escape game type activities with my class based on the themes of an Alien Landing and the ‘Elf on a Shelf’. I used one of the sessions as an observed lesson by the Headteacher and Deputy as part of Performance Management.
Despite the volume in the class being high, and organisation of children during the lesson limited. The outcomes of the lesson in terms of skills developed and their engagement were fantastic.
Creating an Escape Game
To begin with, I worked out how many groups the class would include so that children were working in groups of 4/5. It was then time to purchase some resources, including:
Key Locks
Number Locks
Directional Lock(s)
Black Light Pens
Working in a school, it is a little awkward and a potential fire hazard to lock the children in the classroom, so it was easier give the groups a box which was sealed with a variety of locks and envelopes that could only be opened at certain points. The children would be required to solve puzzles to eventually get into the box.
Also, whereas an escape game has winners and losers, to develop teamwork further, once each group had got into their box, the contents from each would form one final clue, which the class as a whole would need to solve to complete the challenge.
I then thought about the types of clues to give which would help to solve the puzzles and give the children the information needed to unlock the various locks. The different puzzles included:
Morse Code
Pigpen Cipher
Emojis matching different letters
Black Light messages written on paper
Maths Questions
Vocabulary questions (Number of nouns, etc)
When children had solved each clue, the answers would either reveal a number to unlock a number lock, or a location in the class, where they would find a key, etc to unlock another part of the box. They could then open the next envelope in the sequence providing clues and items needed to solve the next problem.
Escape Game 1
Escape Game 2
Escape Game 3
Escape Game 4
Setting up an escape lesson does take time to and effort to plan and create the resources, however, the enjoyment and engagement of the children throughout the lesson make it worthwhile. I will definitely be completing more in the future, linked to the topics that are being taught in class.
Below are a few images of my scribbled notes created during the planning phase of each game. They are hard to understand, but show the thinking that went into each puzzle and the order of receiving clues.
Alien Escape 1
Alien Escape 2
Elf Escape 1
Elf Escape 2
Elf Escape 3
Elf Escape 4
Elf Escape 5
If anyone is interested in setting up an Escape Game in their class, I am more than happy to talk through ideas and support in any way possible, just get in touch via this page, my Facebook Page or on Twitter.
After watching an episode of #AppShareLive hosted by Mark Anderson (@ICTEvangelist), I was introduced to the app BLOXELS by Steve Bambury (@steve_bambury). I really liked the look of the app and all the possibilities that could be created by using it in class.
Once the episode finished, I downloaded the app onto my iPad and began to have a ‘play’. This started of as an investigation to see how the app worked, and how easy it would be for the children to use, but ended up as an hour or so of pure enjoyment and total engrossment. The app is extremely easy to use and the possibilities of what can be created are endless.
As the weekend came to a close I decided that I would definitely be incorporating the use of BLOXELS into my teaching for the forthcoming week. I was not 100% how I was planning to use the app, but was determined to use it in some way during the week.
On the Monday morning, I explained to my class how I had found out about a new app that we had not used before and proceded to describe the app to the class, before showing them the example I had created on the weekend. The children were engaged straight away, they loved that they would be able to create their own games, as they really enjoy playing platform games when given choice on the computers during Golden Time.
The next day, I introduced the BLOXELS basics to the class and showed them how to create a level, what the different blocks mean, how to change the design of the level and how to create a character. After that, I explained that they would be working in groups of 5 or 6 to create a game (where they all create one square, which linked onto the next one).
We decided together that they could create any game they wanted, as long as they were linked to the topics that we were looking at in other subjects.
Three of the groups decided to make their games based on St Lucia and the banana trade, while the final group wanted to work on a game involving the Celts and the Romans.
The groups started off by creating a miniature story board for their games, describing who their character would be, where they are trying to get to and from, what they need to collect and who they need to defeat. Once this was all decided, the groups worked on designing their levels and recording them using paper and DIY BLOXELS boards (as I was new to the app I had not purchased any official boards).
Once each member of the group had designed their levels the children began to use the app to create their game. The groups worked really well, taking it in turns to create their level, then working collaboratively to decorate the different type blocks and design their characters.
After a few sessions, the children had completed their games and spent some time playing their own game, as well as the games from other groups. They then evaluated each other’s games and gave constructive feedback on what they liked about each other’s games and how they could modify / improve their games.
The groups took this feedback on board and were given the opportunity to edit their games before deciding that their game was complete.
When the games were near completion I began to think where we could go from here and what activity we could complete next based on their games.
The children are very familiar with iMOVIE and again really enjoy creating videos and trailers when given free time. So I decided that we would attempt to use one of the trailer templates and make an advert using a mixture of clips from the games and short sentences which explained the aim.
The children were given a template, into which they could put 9 sentences to describe their game. We spent a small amount of time talking about the use of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and alliteration. The children worked on their sentences individually, before gathering together in their group and choosing the best to create one finished script.
The children used a screen-cast of them playing their game, and these sentences to create their finished adverts.
Unfortunately due to time and various other commitments, this was the extent of what we managed to create on the back of their games. However the options are endless. Children could create a story based on their game, create and instruction booklet explaining how to play or create their game, the possibilities really do go on and on.
I really enjoyed using BLOXELS, and will definitely be using it again in the future. It is great to use as an end of topic plenary, but also as a mid topic ICT activity, with plenty of options to follow up.
To start the term, children spent a few lessons looking at place value of different numbers. Children identified the value of different digits in numbers, and moved on to ordering numbers. Children worked through ordering numbers up to 1000, 10,000, 100,000 and finally 1 million. To bring this mini topic to an end, I challenged the children to apply their maths skills. They were given a sheet containing 12 ‘celebrities’ (our school and local comprehensive included) and the number of followers they had on Twitter. Children then had to apply the skills they had learned to put the celebrities into order. The children thoroughly enjoyed the activity and with some suppprt, all were able to complete the task accurately. I later tweeted the work out to all of the celebrities that we included. Unfortunately, a large number did not react to seeing their Twitter profile in a Year 5 child’s maths book. However @ICT_MrP posted an image of the work on his Facebook page. The children could not believe it when i told them that a simple picture of their work had received over 4,000 reactions, 2,000 comments and 307 shares. When looking through the comments on Facebook, a number of teachers were saying how they would like a copy to use with their class. A PDF of the images is attached at the bottom of this page, free for anyone to download and use as they wish. All I ask is that teachers may take a look at my Facebook Page (Mr J – Primary School Tech Ideas) and follow me on twitter (@MrJ1199)
