Chester Zoo

Our Year Fours visited Chester Zoo today. Chester Zoo is one of the largest zoos in country, with plans for further expansion. It's a great day out with your family, and also with your class. We visited as part of our Animals Around The World topic.

The children took part in the Amazon Adventure Rainforest Habitats workshop. The children enjoyed investigating the different materials to find out more about the animals who live in threatened rainforest habitats.

After the workshop we looked around all of the zoo. The children loved visiting the African Painted Dogs, cheetahs, bats and chimps. The dinosaur exhibition was popular too! I don't know if it was because the zoo was quiet that the animals all came out to show themselves, but we saw all saw the animals. They never did that thing where they hide from the visitors - they were there to be seen (apart from the black jaguar, who I don't believe actually exists. It was beautiful to see the lion roaring, the bear taking an afternoon stroll and the tiger snoozing.

After the visit the children have been learning more about Amazonian habitats in Science lessons, and exploring the geography of South America too.

Classroom Routines

I loved this article about establishing positive classroom routines in order to ward off behaviour probems. It can be found at: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/head-behavior-problems-classroom-procedures

This article was adapted from The New Teacher's Complete Sourcebook: Grades K–4 by Bonnie P. Murray, ©2002, published by Scholastic. 

There are so many routines that we have in the classroom (never mind outside the classroom in corridors, etc.) but until reading this I have never thought about writing them all down.

I plan to instill these routines in my classroom during our induction week (our first week back) and continually refer to them throughout the year.

Here's my own (adapted) version of the list of routines I will teach.

1. Entering the room — I always remind the children that when they enter the room they should be 'ready to learn'. Enter quietly and politely; remove your hat if you're wearing one; don't interrupt other students; follow the appropriate procedures for each time of day (e.g., morning, after lunch, after a special class).
    
2. Lining up — Stand up quietly; push in your chair; take all necessary items; line up without touching others or talking; face the front of the line; watch where you are going. I have set places in the room for the lines to be formed.
    
3. Leaving the room — Tell me where you are going; take the correct hall pass; do not run or play in the hallways or restrooms. At the end of the lesson, children should leave calmly, without disturbing others who may be working.
    
4. Beginning the day — Enter the room politely; put away your backpack, lunch, and coat; turn in your homework; sit at your desk and find your Busy Book. Check the board for today's Busy Work Challenge. Sometimes you might be asked to read.
    
5. Ending the day — Clean off your desk; leave out your work notebook; pick up any rubbish on the floor under, or around your desk; stack your chair; collect any newsletters; wait quietly to be dismissed.
    
6. Taking out/putting away/caring for supplies — Share group supplies; recap markers and glue; put all supplies back in the correct place. 'A place for everything, and everything in its place.'
    
7. Participating in class and group discussions lessons — Sit facing the teacher with nothing in your hands; Don't speak when someone else is speaking.
    
8. Obtaining help with tasks — Quietly ask the students at your table for help with directions if you need it; if you are working alone, raise your hand to get help from me; if you are working with a group, ask them for help in understanding how you do the assignment.
    
9. Handing in finished work/homework — Make sure your name is on your paper; place your work in the correct place.
    
10. What to do with unfinished work — If I ask for work to be turned in, let me know if it isn't finished; if I ask you to keep an unfinished project, put it in your work folder.
     
11. When and how to use the school toilets — You should always use the toilet at break times. You won't usually be allowed to use the toilets at the beginning or end of class time. If I am not teaching the whole group, calmly raise your hand to ask an adult; do not play in the restroom; return to class before two minutes have passed (promptly).
     
12. When and how to use the drinking fountain — When I am not teaching the whole group, you may get a drink; take only a three-second drink; you may bring a water bottle to keep on your desk.
     
13. When and how to use the pencil sharpener — You may sharpen your pencil at the start of the assignment. Spend no longer than 30 seconds at the bin. Make sure that all of the sharpenings fall into the bin.
     
14. Classroom jobs at lunchtime  — Helpers will be given a badge which should be returned at the end of lunchtime. No one else should be in the classroom.
     
15. Getting into work groups — Take all the materials you will need; greet each other; complete the task doing your personal best; make sure each person signs the project; thank the others in your group.
     
16. Using the school library — When you are given time to change a library book, you should be no more than 5 minutes. Make sure you use the library appropriately.
    
17. Lunch  — Go to wash your hands before going to get your lunch. If you have a lunchbox, after eating your lunch you should put it carefully back on the lunchbox trolley before going outside.
     
18. Getting a tissue — You may get a tissue from the tissue box whenever you need one; you don't even have to ask; throw the used tissue away immediately; make sure it lands in the bin; get right back to work.
     
19. Registers — You should be respectful of the register. The adult will take the register and say, "Good morning," "Good afternoon," or ask a question to each child. You should respond appropriately. Nobody should talk during the register.
     
20. Throwing away rubbish — You may throw away rubbish whenever you need to if I am not teaching the whole group; do not play basketball with your trash; make sure it all lands in the bin; pick up trash even if it isn't yours.
     
21. Turning in lost items — Ask the people around you if they lost the item you found; if not, write your name and the date on a slip of paper and tape the item to it; if it is money or something valuable, put the item and slip on my desk for safekeeping; if not, put it in the Lost and Found box; give yourself a "pat on the back" for being honest.
22. Visitors in the classroom — When the Head Teacher, Deputy Head Teacher or Assistant Head Teacher enters the room, you should quietly stand up wherever you may be in the room. The teacher will tell you when to sit down. If other adults enter the room to talk to the teacher you should be respectful of the conversation. All visitors to the classroom will be introduced to the class; please make them feel welcome. 
23. Fire drill — Stop everything; stand up and head for the door quickly, but without running or pushing; do not cover your ears. In your line you should make your way to the fire assembly point.  Wait patiently, calmly, and quietly in line outside until we are allowed to go back to what we were doing.
     
24. Signals for attention — When an adult needs your attention, they will do a countdown - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. By 1 everyone should be sitting down quietly, looking at the teacher. Alternatively the adult will clap a rhythm which you should clap back and then stop what you are doing.
     
25. Helping other students — In a cooperative classroom, it is good to help one another; if someone needs help with directions or reading an assignment, help him or her if you are able; if someone needs help with understanding the problem, tell him or her to ask me for help; never put down another student who asks for help.
     
26. Organizing desk — Remove all loose papers; decide if they should go home or stay at school; put papers that should stay at school in the front pocket of your work notebook; put pencil or art supplies in your pencil case; everything else goes on the right side; pick up your trash. You should tidy your desk at least once every two weeks.

Do you have routines that you teach your class?

Types of Sentences

Harry Potter Teaching Resources

Many years ago I remember using a brilliant website which shared resources to teach Harry Potter in the classroom. It was run by Gareth Pitchford from Primary Resources. Unfortunately, I believe the site was removed for legal reasons.


I recently discovered that the site has been archived online at http://web.archive.org/web/200012022312/http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/harry/index.htm. You can find out ideas for using the first four books.

Purplemash

I guess we are relatively late in jumping on board the Purplemash bandwagon as we have only had a subscription since September this year. However, our school is increasingly becoming hooked!


We have signed up so that we can access Mash through our Uniservity learning platform. This way the children can save any work created using Mash into their own space easily. Once into Purplemash there are thousands of activities that can be used in all parts of the curriculum.


These are the activities I plan to use in Year Four this year:

• Postcards - at the beginning of the year we will send postcards to our headteacher.
• Newspapers - we will use the grids in 2Publish extra to write newspaper reports.
• Roman and Viking resources - lots of cross-curricular work can be done here.
• 2Investigate - to explore the idea of databases.
• Logo - to introduce programming.
• 2Animate - to create a slideshow about our residential later in the year.
• 2Graph - to enhance our work in handling data in maths.
• 2Type - to continue to develop our typing skills.
• Maths games - we tried some of these in Year Three and they proved to be popular, so we'll give them another go.
• 2Sequence - to bring ICT into music.

I'm sure they'll be loads more facilities that we'll use, in particular in 2Publish and 2Publish Extra.

I love the fact that we can start something in school and then it can be finished at home!

How do you use Purplemash in Year Four?

Good features of planning

During the year we are reviewing our school planning format. In David Dunn's book he writes about the most important features of planning that are needed to have an outstanding lesson.


He makes it clear that planning doesn't have to be incredibly detailed - just delivered well.

"Your outstanding judgement is based on how well the children have learned, not how many words you have on your detailed lesson plan. I have seen lessons planned on the back of a cigarette packet (well, not literally you understand, but you get the idea) that have been outstanding; and I have seen lessons that have had the planning equivalent to a Tolstoy epic that have barely been satisfactory... It's quality, not quantity, that counts." David Dunn, How to be an Outstanding Primary School Teacher.

The most important aspects are:

• Objectives
• Differentiation
• Support/Teaching Assistants
• Assessment
• IEPs/Special Needs/G & T
• Resources
• Questions
• Key information - putting the plan into context.

 What key features do you include in your planning?

Flat Stanley

 One of the best projects that we have enjoyed in Year Three this year is based on Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. I found a copy of Flat Stanley: Three Books in One and I immediately felt it would provide real inspiration and would allow the children to produce some great work during the last few weeks in school.


These are the activities that we completed:

• We read the book together, with the children taking turns to read the story. We discussed the themes of the story and its realism (or not).
• We wrote play scripts based on parts of the book after looking at a play script version (Flat Stanley: Play (Take Part) and comparing the features of play script writing with the book itself. 
• When Stanley travelled around the world we pretended we were Stanley and sent postcards back home to mum and dad.
• We wrote instructions for how to catch a museum thief.
• We looked at the picture of Stanley flying like a kite in the picture book version of the story (Flat Stanley). We read the description of Stanley flying in the wind. Using a video of a carrier bag 'dancing' in the wind we wrote a similar paragraph about the movement of a bag. The children wrote some great descriptive writing.
  
• We wrote a newspaper report about Stanley stopping the museum robbery. (We entered our reports in a local writing competition for journalism and three of the class won awards!)
• We used the Flat Stanley iPhone app to take some pictures of Flat Stanley in our school. We then wrote letters to a school in Cornwall (thanks @purplelady1979) to share information all about the school. We received letters from our new friends as well.
• We designed our own flat characters and wrote short stories about how they came to be flat.

The whole project was real fun and it was great to have a real reason for writing. The work produced was fabulous and I'm pleased that it kept the children focused and enjoying their writing during a very busy summer term.

Catalyst Discovery Centre

We took our Year Three pupils to the Catalyst Discovery Centre in Widnes. We had a great day out and we were well looked after by the staff.


We had the chance to try various science experiments (all with a practical industrial theme). There were lots of problem solving activities to explore. We watched a film all about recycling. We were able to find out about industry in the area and enjoyed looking out through the observatory across Cheshire and Merseyside.


The best part of the day was in a data logging workshop. We are expecting a delivery of a class set of data loggers in September so this would be a great opportunity to see how they can work with a whole class. The challenge was to investigate which sunglasses were best by finding out how much light they let through. We then explored best colours for sunglasses which prevented light coming through (purple was best!)


Data logging provided a real, practical application of science investigation and I'm looking forward to using them next year!

Promoting wow words and understanding connectives

The idea of using Ros Wilson's VCOP to improve children's writing is one that I've fully embraced. Although it should be used carefully, when I teach it well I find that it can really help to scaffold a piece of writing.
For anyone who doesn't know, VCOP stands for Vocabulary, Connectives, sentence Openers and Punctuation. It's actually a simple but brilliant concept that will help a child's writing mature (and it will help with SATs scores!). I find that I need to introduce a couple of things at a time to allow them to master their use and experiment with their new skills.

One way I've tried to encourage children to use 'wow words' (ambitious vocabulary) is to record exciting words for all the class to see when a child has used one. We discuss the word and its meaning and at the end of the lesson we make up sentences together so that we can see how the word is used. The children loves to have their word on show for all. We also have a tally to record when other children have used it too.

The children love to see how many words they can use each day. I've seen a big improvement in descriptive writing. It's also really encouraged children to try to think of new words and to have a go at coming up with something different!

With connectives I tend to teach a few connectives at a time so that the children are really clear about how to use them. As many connectives can also be sentence openers, it helps to spend a little time teaching how they are used to extend sentences.

But whilst we only look at a few connectives at a time, many words are displayed on the classroom wall and I encourage the children to listen out for their use by adults. It really helps them to understand how they are used and it provides a good context for each word. Again, the words are displayed on the classroom wall and it is fun to discuss which words have been spotted and remember how they were used. We also use the opportunity to put them into new sentences and situations.

A quick search on Google will bring up tonnes of VCOP resources. I'd love to hear how others use the skills with their class.

Bee Bots

I recently purchased some Bee-Bots for the school. Programming robots is an area of ICT that we were not really hitting - and it's one of the most exciting!!


So that I could inspire our teachers I asked on Twitter if there are any Bee-Bot resources out there. @ianaddison recommended @simonhaughton and @bevevans22. 


Simon recommended: 
http://simonhaughton.typepad.com/ict/2010/11/learning-to-control-the-bee-bot.html
http://simonhaughton.typepad.com/ict/2010/06/an-introduction-to-control-technology.html
These are blog posts written by Simon - real practical ideas for using the robots.
http://y22011.leamoreblogs.net/2011/01/31/tombot-jerry-bot-tts-x-factor-competition-entry/
An amazing demonstration of how Bee-Bots can grip children's imagination.

http://vimeo.com/18591377
How Bee-Bots can be used in the classroom


Bev recommended:
http://technostories.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/go-beebot-crazy/
An excellent post about how Bee-Bots have transformed Key Stage One.
http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/BeeBot.htm
There are excellent Bee-Bot resources here - these particularly enthused the staff.


Bee-Bots seem to be primarily used in Foundation and Key Stage One but I believe they have a use in Year Three too. Here are some ideas that we will be trying:

• Creating a map of the local area for Bee-Bots to navigate
• Exploring compass directions and making a course for Bee-Bots to explore
• Investigating negative numbers

Here are some other Bee-Bot links:
http://bee-bots-downunder.blogspot.com/
http://www.terrapinlogo.com/bee-bot.php
http://edtechlounge.com/bee-bot-activity-center/


There is software available from Focus Educational which allows children to programme an on-screen robot.


Does anyone else use Bee-Bots in Year Three? What sorts of activities do you do?

Jumpstart Literacy

Jumpstart Literacy by Pie Corbett is a fabulous book for anyone wanting to spice up their English lessons!


The best way I can describe the book is that it is full of easy to teach mental starters for English. At least that's certainly how I have begun to use it.


Activities described in the book are:

• Jumpstarting spelling - activities for memorising and improving spelling.
• Jumpstarting words - different word classes and playing with words.
• Jumpstarting sentences - developing control, manipulating and inventing sentences.
• Jumpstarting writing - establishing a creative frame of mind for imaginative writing.
• Jumpstarting speaking, listening and drama - activities to develop confidence in verbal and physical expression.
• Jumpstarting learning - strategies to establish a learning mood in any subject

An example is Odd Word = Story:

This is a story-starter game that shows children how stories can spring up from the most extraordinary places!

• Spend a few minutes brainstorming a list of nouns with the children. Write these on the whole-class board, creating a 'word wall; of suggestions. Encourage them to make their list as varied as possible... it will make for more imaginative stories in the long run!
• The children each select two nouns that do not seem to go together, e.g. horse and pumpkin or toothpaste and space, and then have a few minutes to begin a narrative linking the two together. Explain to them that this was precisely what C.S. Lewis did in his classic tale, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. A narrative might look something like this:
• One morning, while an astronaut was busy brushing his teeth, he noticed how beautifully white they were looking. He was due to launch off into space that day, so he decided to take a rocket fill of toothpaste with him, so that he could make the stars sparkle even brighter! 

I love the simplicity of the ideas and the ways that they can grab attention and inspire learning. I always felt that one of the strengths of the original National Numeracy Strategy was the mental starter. It started lessons with a bang! The ideas in this book could start your lessons off with a bang too!


I think the ideas are suitable for Year Three and upwards.

2DIY

My class and I have fallen in love with 2Do It Yourself (2DIY) which is an incredible piece of software made by 2Simple Software. This is not new software, as it has been around for a few years now, but I have only just begun to use it!

This is a unique child-friendly yet incredibly powerful piece of software.


"Create your own interactive Flash resources, activities, games, puzzles, quizzes. With this software teachers and primary school children can create cross-curricular, personalised resources and use them on whiteboards, websites and even on Learning Platforms. There are plenty of opportunities for meaningful learning as children plan, design, create, publish and play."


The software could just as easily be used by teachers to create games and activities for their class as it is for children to use it to demonstrate their learning. It has cross-curricular potential and it could be used in all year groups!


I began using the software with my class by demonstrating the very basics about how to set up a matching pairs game. They were shown how to save their work, create pairs, use the drawing and typing tools and change the timings and sounds. Within 40 minutes they had learned lots of other things - adding music, recording sounds, changing the colours of the backs of cards, adding instructions, animating the instructions menu and more. I believe this is the beauty of the software - it is great for allowing the children to just 'have a go' and find out what they can do! There were a number of 'magic moments' around the ICT Suite as everything that was discovered had a wow factor!


Here are the tasks I have (currently) planned to set the children to try:

• Make a times table matching pairs game
• Create a map labelling activity for our junior building (ready for our Year Twos)
• Put together a multiple choice quiz about Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
• Create Venn and Carroll diagram activities to demonstrate what they have learned
• Make a game about Isis collecting all of the pieces of Osiris' body
• Design a catching game to catch all of the organs removed and placed in canopic jars during mummification

Websites and resources that could be useful if you are interested in using 2DIY are:

• Examples of 2DIY projects: http://www.2simple.com/2diy/examples/
• Lots of ideas are shared here: http://www.2diyarchive.co.uk/
• Southwark Primary's 2DIY planning: http://ict.southwarkprimary.net/2009/11/09/2diy-planning/
• Simon Haughton's 2DIY planning: http://www.2diyarchive.co.uk/2010/01/simon-haughtons-2diy-planning.html

The games that our children have made can be found on our school website here.


Do you use 2DIY with your pupils?

Liverpool World Museum

As part of our Ancient Egypt topic we took the children to World Museum Liverpool.


The day was very busy but we crammed in such a lot. The children had a fabulous time learning all about life in Ancient Egypt and they also had chance to explore other parts of the museum.


We took part in these activities:


Natural History of Ancient Egypt


This was a museum-led presentation and the children really enjoyed learning all about the animals and natural resources in Egypt. 

"It introduces their rich ancient world by looking specifically at habitats, animals, plants and rocks. It uses images and real museum specimens and begins by looking at how Egyptian civilization and life was shaped by the environment of the desert and the River Nile. It then looks at the Egyptians’ relationship to the natural world not only in terms of their gods and myths, but also in terms of their practical use of natural resources, farming, fishing and hunting. Some of the specimens used in the session include snake skin, crocodile skull, peregrine falcon, scorpions, and scarab beetles.
Students then look at some of the plants that were important in the life of the Ancient Egyptians, including wheat, barley, papyrus and flax. The session ends by looking at some of the geological materials used: for example, granite in sarcophagi, limestone in the pyramids, and gold in jewellery."

We tried an Ancient Egypt trail around the vast collection of artefacts from the period.

"Lead your class round the Egypt gallery with our free activity trail leaflet looking at themes such as everyday life, jewellery, writing and mummification."

Finally we watched a theatre show called 'Death on the Nile' which explained to the children the value of historical artefacts and it gave them chance to learn more about mummification.

"An interactive presentation in the Treasure House Theatre - looking at life, death and mummification in ancient Egypt."

All of the museum-led activities were free meaning that the cost of the visit was kept relatively low. The staff at the museum were incredibly friendly and were always helpful.


You can learn more about the education provision at the museum here. 


Quotes taken from http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/learning/groups/

Writing ideas for Ancient Egypt

During the half-term I had a bit of 'teacher's block' - trying to plan a unit of work but your brain just grinds to a halt. In the old days this would mean a few hours staring at a screen trying to come up with something that might just spark some inspiration. These days colleagues on Twitter kindly offer some inspiration and the process is much quicker!


Whilst trying to find some ideas for planning a unit of work for writing based on Ancient Egypt I asked if anyone had any ideas. 


Here is what people said:
@NickiA10: Used to do a Howard Carter [newspaper] report on artefacts and a fantasy type story based on the pyramids.
@NickiA10: Yes it was children interviewed each other and did lots of role play & hot seating in diff characters, i.e. gods points of view.
@theotheralig: Instructions, Narrative based on Israelites flight , tie in with Passover.
@NickiA10: Boys loved the adventure/mystery story. Based it on a story start on teachers tv going through a portal.
@NickiA10: Instructions on making canopic jars. Also did writing on journey of the dead.
@NickiA10: Got some of best writing from them. Was lucky as had a big classroom so set up a role play area as a museum with artefacts in.
@NickiA10: Created a pyramid style using a white sheet with stone painted on it. Was fab. And don't have a pic of it. Grrr...
@theotheralig: Terry Deary has also written some Egyptian stories for starters - he always hits the spot with language and accurate detail
@mooshtang: A local school made this animation through creative partnerships. Might be able to use it in some way? http://bit.ly/h9NqtX
@NickiA10: Think it was Julia Jarman, Time Travelling Cat but not sure. Also did lots of artwork with it too.
@theotheralig: I also encased pennies in sawdust/clay mix for excavating in archeological manner after Carter - and had deep sand for digging
@KonfluxTheatre: see our 'Cleo's Egypt' play in a day for a lovely intro or way to round off the topic - www.konfluxtheatre.com
@Cloudlilly: or instructions for mummification! Gross but great fun!
@NickiA10: Also forgot we got someone in 2 take chn through mummification process & covered older child in modroc!


Fabulous - I feel that I can now plan English for the rest of the term on the basis of half-an-hour's chat on Twitter!

How Santa Really Works

The last few weeks of English lessons have been based upon a fantastic book called 'How Santa Really Works' by Alan Snow.


This wonderful book explains how Santa makes Christmas happen, talking you through the different departments of his North Pole set up, describing the training that the elves must go through and then explaining  his specialist equipment. It also gives top secret information about how he can get around the world to visit every child without being discovered!


It really is a wonderful book and the children loved reading it. I used it as inspiration for various pieces of writing, and I thought I'd share the ideas.


The elves' jobs: We read about the different jobs of the elves and the training that is required to do the jobs well. We then wrote a letter to Santa to apply for a job in one of his departments.


Toys: After reading about the Research and Development departments we designed our own toys for our friends. We drew a picture and labelled them with short explanations of all the special features.


Recount: We recounted an explanation of how Santa manages to deliver all of his presents, describing some of his specialist equipment


Santa's Suit: We produced a labelled diagram of Santa's suit, explaining all of its special features. One child included special pockets for storing mince pies!


Reindeer Food: We watched a video of Santa's reindeer in action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzCnQSwuFhk) and then created our own special recipes for reindeer food.


Stories: After watching the Snowman, we wrote a story about the day a snowman met Santa and helped him to deliver his presents.


Have you done any special Christmas writing activities?

University

One of the reasons I have been so busy recently is because I have organised our annual 'university and college' for the whole school. Let me explain...

College
Our 'College' is for our Foundation and Key Stage One pupils. The children are all mixed into groups. The teachers and teaching assistants all choose an activity they would like to deliver to the children. The activities include things like games, outdoor pursuits and team games, cake decorating, science, floristry, drama, yoga and lots of craft activities. Over three Friday afternoons the children attend a course each week. The children love it because they are in mixed groups and are trying something different. Although it can get a bit chaotic, the staff enjoy the fact that they can choose what to offer to the children. Many parents come in to volunteer too.

University
Our fourth 'university' was a phenomenal success this year. The idea of the university is that the school offers courses in a skill that could be used in a working career, and not necessarily something normally offered in the curriculum. The children are given the option of what they would like to attend (in fact they choose their top five courses and they will be allocated one). They attend this course for three Friday afternoons (at the same time as the college took place). This year we had 25 courses - our highest number ever. The courses offered included being a librarian, team building, sports coaching, cookery, musical theatre, website design, cross-stitch, gardening, woodwork, running a supermarket and being a magistrate. The courses were run by teachers, teaching assistants, governors, parents and grandparents and members of the community. One of our local high school has become very involved in the university and they not only bring ten students to the school to assist with the courses each week, but they also took a number of pupils to the high school to take part in a music studio course. Various trips took place this year - to a local library, a local farm, a local restaurant, a local supermarket and to local allotments. It's such a team effort - over 50 adults helped to make it a success (in addition to high school students) and the university is becoming well known in the community.

After the college and university have been completed graduation assemblies are held where the pupils are awarded certificates to celebrate their achievements in their course

All of this takes a mammoth amount of time to organise but it is very much worth it.

A researcher from National Strategies came in to school to talk about the college and university with a view to including it in a publication about parental involvement (due before the end of 2010). I'm quite excited by this and I hope it can inspire others to try something similar.

River Study

Our summer topic is rivers and mountains and one of my favourite parts of the topic is our visit to a local scout camp for a river study.

Scout Camps are likely to be very busy at weekends but perhaps not during the week. This means that they are ideal for use by schools and it's worth getting in touch with a local scout camp if you'd like to arrange something similar.

We organise the day into three parts - water activities, dry activities and a barbecue.

I'll start in reverse order: the barbecue is a fantastic social event. Transport back to school is not arranged. Instead we ask parents to come to collect their child and to stay for a barbecue. Our school cooks kindly give up their time to prepare the food whilst the children play football and a dads vs children cricket game. Other parents bring chairs to have a sit down and chat. Although it is quite a way before the end of the year, it is almost like the first of our leavers' events as it is a great way for everyone to come together.

The dry activities are orienteering and team games, photography and a river walk (the children are given a list of river-related features to photograph) and a tree study (finding the age and height of a sample of trees).

The water activities are to measure the speed of flow (using a tape measure, stop watch and lots of dog biscuits!) and the depth of the river using rope and a metre stick.

All of the data collected is used in school to form photo collages, comparisons of speed on bends and on straights and graphs to show the depth of the river.

Careers Day

In June Year Six hosted its annual Careers Day.
 The idea behind Careers Day is that children are encouraged to ask a parent (or grandparent) to come in to school to talk about their career. It is a fascinating day and once again we had a variety of careers to hear about. A police inspector, army sergeant, football scout, human resources manager and district nurse proved to be very popular.


The brief for our visitors is to give a 15-20 minute talk about their career to inspire the children. Each person presented slightly differently - many used PowerPoints this year, others preferred to bring in work-related items to share.


The purpose of the day was to give the children a taster of the possible careers available and to encourage them to think about the future (although not necessarily to make their mind up about a career).


The day was a valuable addition to our money and careers topic.

Pop Maths Questions

I don't know about you but I enjoyed The Chris Moyles Quiz Night which finished its second series a while ago. My favourite part was the Maths Questions - I always thought they would be great to share with my class.

Well, here they are, on the shows producer's website. Perfect for a mental maths warm up!

I recall a few other artists being featured on the programme which aren't featured here. I hope they will eventually be found somewhere on the internet eventually!

Money topic

Over the last couple of weeks we have delivered a short unit on money.

Our main focus was our Grow A Pound Week. This exciting week begins when the Friends of the school give the children a pound each to form a business. They team up into teams of up to four and decide on a service they would like to provide. They put together a business plan and carry out market research to find out prices and try to estimate the popularity of their idea. They then spend their pounds and prepare their business for opening.

The children run their stalls at lunch time. The businesses this year vary - from games to shoe shining, from caricature drawing to jewellery making. The children in the rest of the school are able to visit the stalls and purchase items/services. Parents are also invited to attend.

During the week each business keeps accounts which are used to prepare graphs.

What is interesting about the week is the way their ideas evolve during the week, aiming to meet the demands of their customers. I like how the children work well as a team and interact with their customers, changing their sales pitches for older pupils and for the children in Foundation.

In the end £57 was grown into nearly £500 - each pound given out was grown into over £9! The money will be used to pay for a leavers' treat to go bowling, and also to buy something for the school (at the moment they are thinking about buying head microphones).

It was also interesting to see the lack of awareness of how much money is worth. Prices were sometimes plucked out of thin air and the unrealistic ideas of what they can buy with their money revealed a naivety which needed to be addressed. Lots of guidance was needed with this and the children's understanding improved during the week.

During the project we also completed a classroom project on money. We used the Bank of England's resource 'Pounds and Pence' to do this. This is a very child (and teacher) friendly package which enabled the children to meet with concepts such as what money actually is, interest, savings, loans and inflation.

This resource is available to download here. There are videos included, but these can also be found on YouTube.

The topic certainly engaged the children after their SATs.