The Sun is a million times larger than Earth so how can its rays sometimes be obscured by the much smaller Moon? Children discover how eclipses are created and how the Earth’s tilt on its axis creates seasons. Suitable for Year 5 pupils.

Investigate the climate of the UK and different parts of Africa. Consider how the weather affects our daily lives – clothes, homes, transport, food, etc. Keep a weather chart to swap with your link school or research climate change in UK and Africa. Suitable for years 5 and 6.

Look (again) at the list of UN Children’s Rights. Discuss whether or not children feel they have all their rights and explain how various people and organisations can help achieve them if not. Learn some words and phrases in link school’s language (or Swahili). Suitable for years 5 and 6.

Use three traditional tales to study characters and settings, sequence events, tell oral stories and plan new versions of old favourites. Use story maps to retell tales. Children write a story based on a traditional tale using adjectives and compound sentences. The plan uses Snow White in New York by Fiona French. Hamilton Group Reader Billy Dogs Gruff is used to build confidence in reading aloud.

In this session children take a closer look at the causes of global warming and look at the long term effects. How can they do their part to reduce the greenhouse effect? They put it to the test in the Great Greenhouse Effect Quiz!

Use the story of Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems, to inspire children to write a story about their favourite soft toy. Practise forming upper and lower case letters. Use capital letters for names and to start sentences. Investigate words ending in 'le' and words containing /oy/.

Look in more detail at Mandela’s life and in particular share with children a film of his release from prison. Reflect on reasons why Mandela is considered a hero by so many people all over the world. Add further details to the timeline. Suitable for years 5 and 6.

Learn another circle game and then find out lots of different ways to say hello. Practice saying hello making good eye contact. Work as part of a group to make a ‘hello’ flag. Teach the new hello to the rest of the class.

What is censorship? Join the BBFC, become a film examiner and argue your case to classify film clips. Present reasoned decisions as ‘black cards’ to be shown before the film! Participate in debating a scenario relating to film classification.

Simple advice for parents on helping a junior child enjoy writing.

Make a water container out of a paper towel to get children thinking about the importance of understanding material properties. Look closely at some great new vocabulary to describe materials and make a large glossary for the classroom. Suitable for Y3 pupils.

A wonderful food web is weaved in this session as children create more complex feeding relationships. Through practical activity they discover the impact that subtle changes can have on the whole web! Suitable for Y6 pupils.

The book Deep in a Rainforest shows that the rainforest really is as bright as a rainbow. Children get access to a variety of natural materials and prepare them to create natural dyes. They record the process and dye small pieces of fabric.

Children look at Roman weapons and discuss the materials that these would have been made from. They then carry out some experiments to discover which materials are most suitable for which purposes. They devise a series of fair tests and communicate results. Suitable for years 3 and 4.

In this session children find out that it’s not only the Orangu-tans that are endangered. Children select animals or plants from the lists provided and start to find out more about their chosen animal or plant.

Children learn the differences between weather and climate. Are we the cause of changes in the weather? What might we have done to make this happen? Children are given some websites to research and the activity is to produce a leaflet for younger children to explain this.

Children discuss the advantages and disadvantages of texting and emails, then write an email with attachments to an email ‘pen pal’ about their favourite session from this topic.

Through artwork/ poetry/song the significance of the ‘Rainbow nation’, and of valuing diversity, is celebrated. Suitable for years 5 and 6.

Discuss how sound enters the ears and the information is passed to the brain. Investigate the sounds animals make and why; relate to animal treatment. Activity to help children discriminate sounds in a group. Draw animal pictures and label with the sounds they make. Suitable for Year 1 pupils.

Did you know that Polar Bears don’t actually have white fur? But what they do have are many other adaptations that make them well suited to the Polar habitat. Children identify how other creatures have adapted to their habitat. Suitable for Y6 pupils.