Mince Pie Mystery Christmas Fun. Someone has stolen the mince pies whilst everyone was in assembly - it is up to the class to turn detective and work out who it was! This is a structured activity suitable for Key Stage two - Years 3, 4 or 5 ideally, to be carried out close to the last few lessons of the term, when typical teaching has stopped and you need something engaging to hold them which has more value than a traditional quiz/Christmas activity. It would work well on Christmas Jumper day or Christmas Dinner day as a break from the usual routine, too. This is designed to take up the session which is typically the maths session, after play, but the skills needed to solve this are cross-curricular. Alternatively, it could end an afternoon session when something out of the ordinary has preceded it, such as a recorder concert/hymn rehearsal/church visit and the children need a highly structured activity to refocus them with the prospect of a treat at the end. Core skills being developed include: Maths- working within time periods and calculating time overlaps, English -reading and making deductions, Logic and Critical Thinking - Eliminating suspects based on cross-referencing given facts, Drama - acting or reading out in role (if you prefer). The lower abilities will simply need more support with the reading element and the deductions, but it would work well in mixed ability groups. The actual culprit is the most obvious one - but that was deliberate so that everyone feels good at the end - even if they couldn’t say with as much certainty why, most children will put their finger on the correct thief. There is an accompanying plan. Slides should ideally be printed and stapled as copies per table: a ‘Clue’ pack, an ‘Evidence’ Pack, Witness Statements, and an elimination sheet. The mystery itself is based on a story my son told me that actually happened at his school with the chocolates in an Advent calendar going missing during play, but I’ve gone for mince pies being stolen- all the better if you can buy a bulk lot of 30 cheaply, leaving tantalisingly on display all morning only to have them suddenly disappear at the start of the lesson - and then all munch on them as a reward once the activity has ended. I hope that the activity is as fun for you as it has been for me to envisage and create. As always, I would appreciated feedback once you have delivered it in class.

This is a whole lesson encouraging children to think critically and evaluate whether the information they see on the internet is real or fake. This resource includes: lesson (or session) plan and an activity. The plan details how to encourage children to think about what we use the internet for, and through the use of classroom clips introduces the idea of fake news. Children are given tips about how to evaluate whether a story etc might be fake or genuine. The activity is to look at a screen shot of a news story/twitter feed/web page/email/viral photo and decide whether it is is real or fake. Children click the answer each time (real or fake) -most are fake - and then there is extra information about how they might have reasoned this, what clues or warnings there were etc. These are mostly real-life examples. Although the activity has been entitled ‘Fake News Spotter’, the scope of the lesson is actually much broader than ‘Fake News’ as it also touches upon scams, trusted sources of information and using the internet for research. Tip: The activity is designed to be completed by the children individually/in pairs in ppt, but if that is not possible, it can be delivered as a whole class activity, or the slides can be printed and children can examine them in groups or pairs and sort them into a pile of ‘real’ or ‘fake’ before the answers are talked through as a whole class. This makes a nice reading-based activity in mixed ability pairs - perfect if there are carousels of activities taking places as part of a whole school approach to Safer Internet Day. I’m really pleased with this lesson which I have used with Year 4. I did notice that, when using the ppt, they all were very keen simply to see if they were correct or incorrect and whizzed through the slides without really reading the important information, so I would advise that you put in place some incentives to ensure that they actually read the slides - perhaps partner has to ask a question based on the content, or each taking it in turns to read the slide aloud before moving on - I had to make at least one quarter of the class go back over it again when finished. I hope you enjoy using this resource - there is so much misinformation out there, even for us adults - anything that helps our young people think more carefully about what they see or share, or how they select what sites they visit, is, in my view, a good thing!

This is a slide show that contains 22 slides of puzzles and riddles. They are easy enough to guess the answers but hard enough to present a fun challenge for primary school-aged children. I used these riddles as part of an English lesson in Year 5 and they were very well received. It also includes a worksheet where the riddles have been differentiated to solve in groups as an alternative to a whole-class activity. This is a light hearted end-of-term fun activity for the children who are tired, and in need of something a bit lighter, but it will nonetheless develop their critical thinking skills, and hopefully foster a love of these word-play type problems. The presentation includes slides explaining what riddles are and how they work, and giving several guided examples before launching into the whole class slides. Each separate riddle is presented on one slide, which is then animated to reveal the answer, alongside an explanation of any that may need further clarification. Having carried out this lesson previously where children simply read the printed riddles from a worksheet, I am really pleased with the slide show, as the pictures add another element of deception - you are further able to mislead their thinking with subtle/subconscious red-herrings! I hope you have fun using this resource. I would be grateful if you could leave a review.