Beach Ball Throw - Taskmaster

For the past four years, we've used the 'Backwards Video Task' as a team building task at the start of each year. It gets children working together and produces some imaginative and impressive outcomes. 

In the most recent series of Taskmaster, the contestants were given another video task I can see working well in the classroom. The contestants were given a beach ball and asked to film themselves in one location throwing the ball out of shot and then later film them self catching the ball in a new location. The winner of the task was the person who 'threw' the ball over the largest total distance. In school, I'd be looking for the group to ensure consistency by linking the throws and filming to make each throw and catch look authentic. 

Going to give it a go in September. We'll see what the children come up with! There's a planning sheet here that may be useful.

Synchronised Video Task from #Taskmaster

Ok, ok, maybe we should just start watching and enjoying TV instead of linking it back to the classroom. But...

Again, in the most recent series of Taskmaster there was a video task. The task was to perform something in synchronisation as a pair. We've previously used the 'Backwards Video Task' with some excellent outcomes and group/partner work.

In this task, pupils need to work as a three. Once to act as camera operator and the other two to perform something either mirroring or matching each other. This requires thought as a group to decide the act to perform, what each person will do and how they will remain in sync. In addition, linking it back to gymnastics; mirror or match?

Physical Multiplying and Dividing by 10, 100 & 1000

Here, we go. Another, "We saw a Tweet and post..."

Dividing and multiplying by 10, 100, and 1000 ➗✖️ #whatItaughttoday #activemaths #primaryrocks #school pic.twitter.com/osM62eEaD1

— Miss Jeeves (@MissJeeves) May 10, 2017

So, we saw the above Tweet and then went and tried it out. This video has always aided our teaching of this mathematical concept, but saw instantly how this could add to it. 

We took some chalk and wrote out some place value headings and asked the children to stand behind them. Then called out X and ÷ questions and watched them move. Sometimes they were correct, sometimes wrong and sometimes disagreed. They enjoyed it, did some learning and we had a few discussions. See below for a video of what we got up to.

Slow / Fast Motion Video Task

Again some inspiration from the TV series Taskmaster. We've had success in the past with the 'Backwards Video Task'. In the most recent series, the contestants were asked to film something that when sped up or slowed down made it more interesting or amusing.

Again like before, use it as a group work and/or ICT task. Both iMovie and Movie Maker allow speeding up or slowing down a clip and apps can be purchased to do the same too.

TED Talks in Class

I've watched TED Talks in the past. This week, for the first time, I used on in class. We used the one below, with a fantastic outcome and enjoyment by all.

 

The talk was engaging, interactive and at a level that all my Year Five children could join in with. The picture below shows my efforts.

All children were involved in all of the lesson. They listened intently and followed the instructions in the video. In fact, in my maths lesson that followed, I had to remind many that the art lesson had ended and we were now focusing on something else! 

Following on from this experience, I'm going to look for some more TED Talks that could be useful in class. Some linked to our curriculum, some to inspire about writing, maths or science and others to deliver a message, thought or outlook on life. I'll update this blog post with any that I use. In addition, if you have any that would be good to show in a primary classroom, please let us know in a comment below, email or via Twitter.

TED Ed is also worth looking at for videos aimed more directly at what may be part of a school's curriculum. 

The Backwards Video Task

Last year, we wrote about 'Television - Beaming Ideas into your Livingroom!' We'll, the TV watching has come up trumps once again... 

While watching Taskmaster on Dave, I saw the following task being carried out by the contestants (audio not appropriate for a primary school classroom):

The concept is brilliant. Film something, that is impressive when watched in reverse. Below is the video we came up with...

As part of our start of year; group work, English teaching and getting to know equipment activities we gave the children in Year Five this same task. They worked in groups, thought about and planned their video before then going through the technological steps to complete the task.

An example of the planning sheet is below and some of the finished examples can be viewed here.

 

For our implementation of it, we used iPad devices to film, iMovie app to edit and Reverser - Backwards Video Maker with Reverse Cam app to reverse the video. If we find other ways of reversing videos, we'll update this post.

@PrimaryIdeas that's brilliant! Really glad to have helped in some way...

— Alex Horne (@AlexHorne) September 7, 2015

Make Use of Time Lapse Video

I've always enjoyed watching time lapse videos. There's something about time passing along quickly and witnessing something that happened over hours or days in a matter of minutes or seconds.

Image credit: www.psdgraphics.com/psd-icons/white-webcam-icon-psd

Earlier this year, I planned to carry out an investigation with my class to prove that evaporation existed. The plan was to make puddles on the playground and then monitor and measure them throughout the day. The problem was that on the morning of the science lesson it had rained heavily over night. This meant we would not be able to create puddles to measure. However, I quickly realised nature had created one large puddle for us across the playground, so I set up a web cam looking out of my classroom and set it to take a photograph every minute between 07:30 and 15:45. The result was the video below, which my class loved watching and evoked a thoughtful discussion afterwards about what we could see happening on screen. I'm now looking for other ways I can make use of time lapse in the classroom...

Multiplying and Dividing by 10, 100 & 1000

After searching for ways to help children understand what is happening when multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000, this is the best method I've come across. Moving children away from the notion of 'adding a 0' or 'taking off a 0' is essential for them to be able to multiply and divide by multiples of 10 when using decimal numbers. This video shows a simple way to demonstrate this: