Do You Know?

It's my own children and the TV box in the corner of my living room helping me out again...

My toddlers and I have recently discovered 'Do You Know' on CBeebies. "Join Maddie as she finds out how things work."

As it is on the CBeebies Channel, it is aimed at toddlers, much younger than most of the primary age group. But, it's still largely appropriate. Maddie covers technical aspects of aeroplane flight, how plant pots are made, friction on a slide and more. It is a fine balance between being technical and factual, much of which goes over my chidlren's heads, whilst also being engaging to very young children. Primary age pupils will 'get' the factual information and be mostly still engaged by the child-friendly format of the show.

I have used them as an opportunity to add to our general learning by playing some at the start or end of the day or between lessons. But, they can be useful in lessons - the playground program in science when learning about friction for example. 

At the time of writing, a new series has just started a run...

Magical Hatching Writing

Recently, my daughters purchased some 'Magical Hatching Unicorns' and in school we used some hatching dinosaurs as a writing prompt.

With my daughters, toddlers, they knew that there were unicorns in the eggs and that they would hatch, but not how or why.

With the children at school, they knew the item was a 'toy' and that it would hatch, but not what was going to come out of them.

For those of you who have not come across these, it's a plastic egg, with an item inside and when it is placed in water for a couple of days, the egg hatches and the animal grows in the water.

To add to the excitement of the animal hatching, we used so augmented reality apps to make a dragon fly around the classroom.

The anticipation of what would come out of the egg, seeing it slowly appear and all the talk that went with it, created excitement and intrigue that lead to enjoyment of writing. 

What will you do with them?

Pause for Thought for Your Thought

We are required to hold an act of collective reflection each day.

In our school, these are assemblies with the head teacher, church leaders, in year groups and as part of year group singing.

Recently, I was working at home (with Radio 2 for company). The Pause for Thought that day matched our assembly theme (humility) for that week perfectly. It reminded me of what the head had said the day before and I saw how it could be used as part of year group assemblies, on the same theme, later in the week. Some year groups did: the children listened perfectly, responded well and it made our assembly, and the reflection better. On key element was that it was spoken word, not TV or animation, but just a simple voice.

I'm going to use Pause for Thought more in assemblies, in class, and, as someone with faith myself, maybe even make more time to listen to them myself.

Take a listen...