Great way to start the year

I felt compelled to write this as soon as I came home; I have spent one of the most enjoyable days with my class today thanks to the BRILLIANT resources from  the ASE.
' Why you'll never catch smallpox'

My Year six class were captivated from the moment we started.
It certainly helped that the village our school is in is where Benjamin Jesty lived (see http://www.dorsetcountymuseum.org/benjamin-jesty) . Another session or two could follow up as to why he isn't as famous as Jenner.

There are enough activities to fill a week or a half term, but I had chosen just the 'Speckled monster' resources . At the summer PSTT conference ( see www.pstt.org ) the resources had been introduced and the suggestion made that this would work well as a stand alone exercise.

We began with a chat about microbes and watched a cartoon about how germs from a sneeze travel ( 'That's so gross, I'm always going to keep my hands clean!' exclaimed one of my class)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yToii3-p-NI

We then watched the excellent film, James. Quite hard to watch at times, but sparked loads of discussion .

We used the concept cartoon to channel ideas and then embarked on the role play. I have fewer than 30 in my class so they had brought various toys in to make up numbers. Much hilarity as these were allocated as grandmothers, sons, butlers and others.

The children threw themselves into their characters and we're trying to guess who would 'get the pox'

We have recently introduced various signals across the school for behaviour management and these were indispensable as I could leave them to immerse themselves and quickly get their attention for the next part of the scenario.

Small pieces of wool were tied around little fingers of sufferers ( again much hilarity when this was a toy!)  The 'graveyard' was used to map the village and observe proceedings. Children were discussing where they thought the next victim would be, who would survive and so on. They were sceptical about the wood lice charm and agreed that they were pleased that such superstitions don't still exist. ( (Although , later in the day some of the children told me about various superstitions they had heard)

When we came to the end of the scenario there were cheers for the survivors ( funnily one of the tiniest toys that had been brought in!) and lots of talk about why that could have been.

The teacher PowerPoint was brilliant at keeping discussions on track.

We spent the whole morning on this , drew line graphs , looked at genuine case studies from Jenner's diaries and discussed how the language was different. We will spend a little time tomorrow to finish machine up the case studies.

The resources are all here : http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/whyyoullnevercatchsmallpox

A fabulous way to start the year off and great for team building. The resources are so accessible and totally age appropriate for my year  six class.  Curriculum constraints are such that time won't allow for a lot more , but the activities could easily be stretched out for longer . We have no internet in school at the moment , else I would have gone straight onto biography work. However, I shall return to this later in the term.  I would definitely use this to start the year off again .  Personally I like the fact this can be used as a stand alone and feel inclined to use it in the same way as it made such an impact . I can then revisit aspects as appropriate.

Check out the resources and see a different way of linking science, history, maths, English, drama, pshe.

Drama and Science

Since moving into Year 6 I have been determined to give the children plenty of opportunities for creativity. This has always been high on the agenda, but with new curriculum and assessments it has become even more important.

These are some of the most successful activities I have carried out so far this year.
Please try them out and feedback. I will endeavour to take photos next time so that I can include them. We were too carried away with what we were doing to remember to take photos!

1) The circulatory system.

I did this with my whole class as I am lucky to have a very small group of 20. With a larger class I would split it as follows:

2 children- lungs. Holding a container with red counters (or similar)

2 children heart- could make a 'bridge'

2 children- body. Holding a container with blue counters (or similar)


Rest of group- blood cells, start off at body with blue counters.

Children process round the body, through the heart, to the lungs where the counter is swapped to show the exchange of gases, back to the heart, round the body where the blood becomes de- oxygenated, back to the heart and so on.

Could have a couple of children beating out a rhythm on drums, or play a suitable tune to keep in time too (I especially like Mr Parr's heart song which you can find  here   or  for lots of others click here )

2) Pollination 

Again this can be done with the whole class or groups. No fancy equipment needed, just some space.

Some children- flowers- they need yellow counters/stickers etc. to act as pollen

Fewer children- bees/butterflies (or bats if you have been looking at a range of pollinators!)

Pollinators move from flower to flower, collecting and depositing the 'pollen' as they travel. This demonstrates how pollination occurs.

3) Electrical circuits

All you need is a group of children and a piece of thick cord long enough for everyone to hold when it is in a loop.

The loop is held gently by all (health and safety not to grip too tight to avoid burns)
One (or more) act as the cell and gently pull the cord to demonstrate the flow of electrons in a circuit. The more cells, the more energy . The fewer cells, the lesser the amount of energy.
The others can demonstrate resistance by holding onto the cord more tightly; this makes it harder to move the cord round the circle. If the cord is cut, the circuit is broken and the energy cannot flow all the way around.

4) Not so much drama as freeze framing . Light

Groups of children use string/wool to show the path of light from source to eye . For example one child acts as light source, string goes to object (child two) and then to observer (child 3) . This can help to show how light travels in one continuous line that is reflected from the object to the eye.
 Other groups can then narrate the path of the light.