These slides are designed help your class understand how international initiatives like the UNCRC are enacted nationally, locally and then in their own school. Looking at Shannari and your own school values, the class should have lots of examples to draw upon when creating their own charter.
This is a series of 4 money lessons that link to the Global Goals (SDG 1 No Poverty). It’s a pretty hard hitting topic and will definitely be pertinent to many of your pupils (1 in 4 children in Scotland currently growing up in poverty).
Looking at coins with fun, open ended activities, the lessons centre around cost of the school day, uniform, wages, wealth inequality and budgets.
I intend to take my class through taxes and government spending, as well as enterprise activities but will look to upload those slides at a later date!
This Sci-Fi Thriller has echoes of Stranger Things and has been designed for upper primary to read as a whole class. Every chapter is an A4 page and can be printed or shared via device for pupils to read in pairs. There are tasks to accompany every chapter, covering all of the second level reading E&O’s (some not in much depth but enough to complement any other work you might be doing in literacy).
“I can see this working brilliantly at the start of the year for any upper primary classroom”
“I was hooked and raced to find out what happened as every chapter seemed to end on a cliff hanger”
“A fantastic read, I really need to know what happens in the final chapter”
And that, is where you might be a little annoyed - this story doesn’t have a final chapter - it hopefully reveals enough throughout the story for the pupils to try and create their own endings. Could be a Big Write or end of unit assessment style task too.
However, if you are desperate for a solid ending, just message me on twitter and I’ll gladly send it over to you.
This is a whole day of Encanto learning, with 6 curricular areas being covered.
Literacy: I would envision having learners use garageband to record their own podcast but you could even have them do so with the audio recorder that comes as standard on iPads. Alternatively, they could simply record a short interview or promotional video discussing the importance of representation.
Maths: volume of cuboids and cubes (following a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach)
Art: Origami butterfly and discussion of the symbolism
Science: I would look to draw on an interactive whiteboard with the simulation however pupils could observe and jot on their own whiteboards or even create models with playdough? The dancing raisin experiment DOES NOT replicate the water cycle but it does show gases and liquids interacting and CAN be illuminating to understanding evaporation.
Dance: Bachata isn’t originally a Colombian dance (it’s Dominican) but it is popular in the region and some of the dances in the movie use steps and elements from the genre.
This is a set of 10 reading lessons aimed at upper primary. All the tasks are designed for success criteria to be co-constructed. I have found these to be a great vehicle for pupils choosing their preferred reading style.
A general lesson sees the class reading for 20 minutes in their chosen setting (independent, pair, small group, techer group) and with their own novel. We then all come together as a class to co-construct success criteria before moving to desks and jotters to complete the activities.
I’ve found peer assessment and self assessment to work well with these tasks. I pause 10 minutes before the end of the lesson, the class assess and then they have 5/6 minutes to act upon the feedback.
16 games for your class to enjoy that don’t require anything more than a set of cones and some enthusiasm! Games that can be played individually, in pairs, trios and even some whole class games.
I am a big advocate of the Daily Mile but in my experience it doesn’t motivate every pupil and doing it daily can become a chore as opposed to a joy. Little games like these are intense, inclusive and add a small element of competition (not that there are ever any prizes on offer) which is great for building resilience.
This is a format of business enterprise lessons that I hope to use throughout this term. It begins with tackling issues in school around inflated resale of Prime, using sustainability and discussions around influencers to act as a catalyset for pupil led change.
A handy activity for the start of the year, presenting pupils with the opportunity to explore their reasons for coming to school. Some short case studies of athletes who have used their platform to affect social change is followed by a discussion and reflective activity for the class to complete.
Ten sheets that I used to anchor my planning for my Wednesday Global Goal days. Hopefully act as a useful idea bank and a stimulus for creating your own immersive days in the classroom.
I must apologise as this is unfinished but had a fair number of people ask me to upload it. This is a poetry unit designed for upper primary, teaching about famous figures from black history and culture, whilst also learning about different poetry techniques.
This is a four lesson unit of work that explores 2D shape whilst exposing children to abstract art from a diverse group of artists around the world.
Lesson one: Kandinsky and Circles - learning to use a compass and identifying properties of a circle
Lesson two: Thomas and Circles - learning about Archimedes and how to calculate the circumference
Lesson three: Malevich and regular/irregular shapes - lots of drawing and drilling down into the definitions of regular and irregular
Lesson four: Ocampo and symmetry - opportunities to practice with partners and concrete materials and exploring what symmetry and mirroring are
Starting with a verb
Setting the scene
Sentence length
Word Choice and Vocab building
This is a four part writing workshop sequence that could be used in either a one-off carousel style lesson or split into 4 separate lessons with a mini assessment at the end.
I’ve used it previously over the course of three days. Split my class into 4 mixed ability groups. Day One I had each group attend to two activities. The next day, they got involved with the final two stations and then on the third day they composed a piece of descriptive writing and I was able to see if they were using the techniques they had explored the previous days.
This is a unit of lessons that involve your class building a paper town as a hub for their learning. they can add to it as the topic progresses. I have plans to look at bus timetables, cars and pedestrians but these initial 4 lessons cover cycling in cities.
Lesson 1:
Consider and identify problems with transport in cities worldwide and in local area, initial time assessment, create paper city
Lesson 2:
Consider pros and cons of cycling, discuss Finnish town video, time telling activities, explore how bike gears work
Lesson 3:
Compare and contrast road cycling and cycle path, calculate journey times, create paper cycle path solutions
Lesson 4:
Balance exercises, calculating journey times
This is a selection of 12 reading lessons - 5 of them short ones for when you only have 20 minutes and the rest longer response activities that children can really dig their teeth into.
Many are designed to have the pupils read the example and co-construct the success criteria with you the teacher - I usually just write this up on the slide with numbers (“What is the purpose of paragraph 1?”)
Most importantly, these are all tried and tested activities that a whole class can work on together YET still be reading their own unique stories. I have 33 pupils all reading their own stories and doing these tasks together, peer assessing one anothers work and producing great jotter work.
A series of 5 lessons that explores budgeting and calculating percentage increase/decrease all whilst discussing the Global Goals:
"You now work for Breakwater Bank.
Your first client has asked you to invest £200 in a variety of companies. They are looking for you to buy shares in businesses that are looking to rapidly expand.
You must read and understand the goals of each business before deciding how many shares you will buy.
You need to calculate your expenditure, display your investments in a graph and email your client justifying your decisions"
This is the second part of my money lessons for upper primary. through a Global Goal lens of no poverty, your pupils can calculate profit and loss with a Social Bite carousel case study. They can also ponder the power of social enterprise.
Looking at accurate wages for a variety of professions, pupils can calculate how easy/difficult it is to save money. they will also discuss why savings are important and factors that lead to inequality in our society.
Finally, there is also a lesson on tax. It uses rounded figures and smaller amounts to make things easier for primary pupils. However, there is a great deal of maths involved for developing their working knowledge of money and the ultimate goal is to show them that tax operates in bands and not in flat rates applied to a full wage (eg someone earning over 80k is taxed at the higher rate on ALL their earnings)
These lessons are designed to provide stimulating and immersive writing experiences. I would:
Have pupils draw out the map on a large surface (like a whiteboard table or big sheet of paper)
Create a LEGO figure/peg doll to serve as their character
Gather kids on the carpet and model writing the first interaction with an object
Then set the class to play independently
You could stop half way for a wee peer or self assessment
With 5 minutes to go, present the last slide in the story and have pupils conclude their stories
The Napier Code is a 6 lesson mathematics unit that explores patterns and sequences within number through an immersive story telling experience. It’s effectively a play on the Da Vinci Code but uses the Scottish Mathematician John Napier as the central figure in a deathly treasure hunt around Edinburghs landmarks.
Covered are:
Fibonacci Numbers
The Golden Spiral
The Number 9
Quadratic Sequences
Pascals Triangle
The Vedic Square
Whole class reading sounds great but I’ve always found two issues - financing and finding a suitable text the whole class can engage with. Books can be long!
This is designed for upper primary. Each chapter is no more than two pages long but there is a real variety of rich language and literacy techniques. Every chapter comes with a set of questions - ranging from word finding, literal questions to more higher order thinking tasks and a playful activity.
If you are lucky enough to have 1:1 devices (I am in that position) I am looking to airdrop this to their iPads using the Notes app, chapter at a time. Means they can markup, use read aloud and quickly look up definitions of words - whilst also saving on printing.
The story links to the Global Goals - specifically Climate Action and Life on Land.