80 Daily Starters based on UNESCO International Days

This is a collection of 80 different starter activities that are ideal for settling and focusing a class in Upper Primary School (Y4-6 England / P5-7 Scotland). The theme of each starter activity is a different International Day according to UNESCO’s list of International Days. This includes a selection of International Days deemed applicable, relevant, or of interest to young people.

Purpose and Theory
The idea of these activities is not to inform or teach students about these days in any depth or detail (this will be saved for lessons.) The aim is to introduce and inform students of different international days but ultimately, activities are designed around and linked in with the theme of the day in question. The aim is to help settle students and prepare them for learning through a range of calming activities which are based upon engaging topics that are relatable and relevant to their lives beyond the classroom. In some cases whole lessons could be made out of the theme of day, in which case the starter activity could be used at the start of that lesson. In other cases, activities would work well at the start of the day when students first enter the classroom.

Timings
A vast range of activities is included that aim to target a range of different skills. These activities are designed to take between 5 – 15 minutes, depending on the needs of your class and how long they may need to settle. If being used at the start of the day or immediately after lunch, 15 minutes is recommended to help put students in the mindset of learning and engagement.

Differentiation Opportunities and Inclusion
Starter activities are not designed to be overly taxing. In many cases, differentiation opportunities and limited choices are available. Most activities include an “early finisher extension task”. Equally, it isn’t recommended that the resource always be used prescriptively. Should you feel a starter would require too much brain power for a class / group of students, differentiation is recommended or indeed, not using the starter for that day. The idea of this resource is a bank of ideas. You could follow each day prescriptively or you could do some tasks but not others or you could take a task and adapt it to different day or topic if that suits your students / topic better. If students particularly enjoy one task, why not use the activity idea again on a different topic?

Activities
A range of activities are used that target a variety of different skills. Activity examples include: themed boggle, drawing, A-Z challenges, craft challenges, poster designing, quizzes / riddles, hang-man, Pictionary, acting, The Telephone Game, acronyms, wordsearches, maths problems, strategy and planning challenges, guided discussions, team-building challenges, leadership challenges, design challenges, research activities, colouring, acrostics, translation activities, coding etc. Use of technology is optional in some cases.