As the Christmas season is drawing nearer, I decided to use it as the focus for some recent science CPD.  From there my Christmas science ideas have snowballed (oh dear…), so I thought I’d present (get it?) them to you here so that you can have a go with your class.

Ways to use Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo and the Waitrose Christmas Advert

1. Observing and describing

• Watch the advert once – just for fun and for getting an overview
• Watch the advert a second time and ask the children to note down what they ‘notice’ e.g. robin in a kettle, mountains, boat, bird table, waves
• Watch the advert for a third time and ask children to add detail to their original notes e.g. Robin peeping out from an old-fashioned kettle; Bird table with a welcoming mince pie feast; vast crashing waves almost drown the exhausted bird.
• Your list of ‘noticings’ should read like a poem.
• Edit and refine as necessary.
• NB: if you’ve never used the ‘Art of Noticing’ before you will need to teach your class how to do it, or write one together for younger/less experienced children.

2. Giving reasons/explaining

• Select objects from the video/book and make slides with 3 photos of objects on. E.g. robin, hawk, girl; mountain, sea, river; kettle, shed, bird table;
• Ask the children to say which one they think is the odd one out and why. Insist that the children reply with a full sentence – I think the odd one out is_________because_______
• This activity is great for AfL and also for getting children the children to use ‘because’.

 3. Collecting information to answer a question

• Create a list of statements about the story and ask children to read/listen to the story and then say whether they are true or false
• The back of the book contains information about migrating robins. Create statements and ask the children to use to text to find out which are true or false.
• Find/write texts about any other aspect of the book/video and repeat the above!

Marvellous Mince Pies

What’s not to love about a mince pie!  Not only do they taste delicious, but they also contain a myriad of scientific opportunities.  Here are a couple of simple ideas to get you started.

Observing, describing and comparing mince pies

• Have your children become consumer advisors and do a mince pie comparison
• You can use a simple comparison grid (see below) to collect their ideas and then write a piece of prose using all the connectives, comparative phrases etc. required of your by SPAG.

Describing, sorting and explaining – mince pie dissection!

• Get your children to dissect a mince pie and sort it’s component parts. Can they think what the ingredients list would be?  What were the ingredients like before they were baked?  How are they different?  Why?

Try downloading Kitchen Concoctions for further information on mince pie dissection.

Investigating Christmas

• Which stocking holds the most presents?
• Which stocking is the stretchiest?
• Which is the best paper for wrapping our present?
• How many paper chains can you make in 60 seconds?

Wishing you all a marvellous end to the term, and a very peaceful holiday.

When I am planning a curriculum, unit of work or a lesson, I always like to think of myself as a disaffected 6 year old who doesn’t see the point of coming to school. I am sure that in your career you will have come across at least one of those children.

Why do I do this? Because if you can engage them, then you’re pretty much guaranteed to engage all the rest.

One simple way to engage your children is to find out what makes them tick.  What we are after here are those things, ways of being, or experiences, that make their eyes light up and bring them joy. Ask them what they love doing, or how they like to be when they are not at school, and then just sit back and listen. Talk to parents and ask them what makes their child tick – it’s a lovely thing to be asked as a parent, and a great way to increase parental involvement.

If you wanted to find out what makes me tick, whatever we did would have to be fun, creative, have some outdoor element and involve big bits of paper and felt tip pens!

Children I’ve listened to talked about Stars Wars, Lego, reading, dancing, words, climbing trees, sport, animals, crafts, pets, cycling, cooking and music, amongst many others, as the things which make them tick.

Once you’ve taken the time to find out what makes your class tick, you can use this information in lots of ways:

• Building rapport
• Guided reading texts
• Basing your lessons around what interests your children
• Simply adding to displays or worksheets to grab their attention
• Doing science investigations that are interesting to them e.g. can you free Elsa/Darth Vader from the ice? (So much more exciting than watching an ice cube melt!)
• Class novels/story books
• Curriculum hooks and outcomes

I was once working with a group of Y3 boys who were really not keen on writing, and whose attainment was low. I listened to what made them tick, and learned they liked being outside, climbing trees, being with their friends, sport, wrestling and superheroes. Their topic was Ancient Greeks and the teacher wanted them to write Greek myths. After some discussion, the school bought in the services of an outdoor practitioner who designed an Greek Hero Day with lots of physical and mental challenges for the class. I went back a few weeks later to see the boys in question, and was astounded to hear them retelling Greek myths with great excitement, precision and clarity, and also to read their writing which they were now motivated and able to do after they had a real-life experience to refer to.  Amazing!

Finding out what makes your children tick is such a simple thing that can make a huge difference. Try it, because I am pretty sure that no child ever feels joy when they have to ‘sit on the carpet!’