Aimed at upper primary, these whole class lessons allow pupils to explore the Fibonacci sequence using concrete materials, drawings and present the opportunity to unleash their creativity in a purposeful way.
The Napier Code is a 6 lesson mathematics unit that explores patterns and sequences within number through an immersive story telling experience. It’s effectively a play on the Da Vinci Code but uses the Scottish Mathematician John Napier as the central figure in a deathly treasure hunt around Edinburghs landmarks.
Covered are:
Fibonacci Numbers
The Golden Spiral
The Number 9
Quadratic Sequences
Pascals Triangle
The Vedic Square
Whole class reading sounds great but I’ve always found two issues - financing and finding a suitable text the whole class can engage with. Books can be long!
This is designed for upper primary. Each chapter is no more than two pages long but there is a real variety of rich language and literacy techniques. Every chapter comes with a set of questions - ranging from word finding, literal questions to more higher order thinking tasks and a playful activity.
If you are lucky enough to have 1:1 devices (I am in that position) I am looking to airdrop this to their iPads using the Notes app, chapter at a time. Means they can markup, use read aloud and quickly look up definitions of words - whilst also saving on printing.
The story links to the Global Goals - specifically Climate Action and Life on Land.
These resources are aimed at creating playful learning experiences in primary. The direction of the learning can be led by the pupils, with the teacher using the sheets to guide and nudge towards desired teaching points. Pupils could flexibly work individually, in a pair or in a small group.
This is a format of business enterprise lessons that I hope to use throughout this term. It begins with tackling issues in school around inflated resale of Prime, using sustainability and discussions around influencers to act as a catalyset for pupil led change.
A fun IDL lesson mashing maths and PE together, where pupils consolidate their understanding of fractions whilst getting active outside or in the gym hall.
Some reflective activities for your class to return to throughout the term as a means of stimulating conversation around feelings and their learning journey.
This is a resource designed to work with 1:1 devices - but could be adapted using the QR codes to print out/show the pertinent information for pupils.
The idea is that children pick one QR code, scan it and take notes. They have 20 minutes to fill the main part of the ‘prof forma’ (example found in slides). The final 10 minutes is spent carouselling round other pupils to fill shorter boxes with information about the other two events from the decade.
There are regular recall sessions which I would suggest you present as a quick ‘test’ at the start of a session.
Over the course of (up to) 12 weeks, the pupils will have created their own encyclopedia of the past 120 years. The events picked aim to allow pupils to form links and see how events develop and the decisions of leaders and populations have consequences that can last many years,
This 4 week unit of work looks at music review writing. It starts with identifying key features and structure, before moving on to subject specific vocabularly and relevant imagery. Pupils have lots of choice throughout and I’d highly recommend you edit the musical artists to those that your class are interested in.
Folding a square piece of paper into four and chopping on line to the centre, you can create small backdrops for peg dolls or other characters. Using the scene descriptors included in this pack (which all link to the Global Goals) pupils can scan for key information, before drawing onto their paper to create a vivid scene.
3 activities that link to Global Goal number 3 and will have your class getting active whilst developing their understanding of fractions and decimals.
This is a digital literacy progression for any school using iPads. All outcomes are linked to the benchmarks and it is designed to allow for a great deal of flexibility and teacher autonomy. 4 core apps that come pre loaded with any iPad are used to furnish children with choice and core skills in how they are able to present their learning (video, poster, presentation, document)
Plenty and ideas and links to other areas of the curriculum included. Each stage is provided with two tracking sheets, one which is quite prescriptive for teachers who lack confidence with tech and another that gives a lot more choice and scope for teachers to use other apps to achieve the same benchmarks.
This resource is designed for upper primary pupils but could be adapted for those either side. Exploring Area and Perimeter through a Global Goals lens of ‘Decent Work’ pupils can involve themselves in practical activities that link to a variety of trades involved in construction. There are 4 lessons in total in this mini sequence but the tasks could be easily extended to provide consolidation and further personalisation
A Spiderman themed day of learning all linked to the Global Goals. Easily adapted for most primary stages, pupils cover a wide spread of curricular areas (literacy, numeracy, HWB, science and STEM)
Create a play sandbox and help spiderman save the day. Write a newspaper article. Calculate how much it cost to make the spidey suit. Workout with spiderman and consider what muscles you are exercising. Discover the incredible science behind spider silk and see how scientists continue to try and learn from nature. Finally, become a true group of Avengers and work as a team to create a web of string to save a bus from plunging into the sea.
Starting with a verb
Setting the scene
Sentence length
Word Choice and Vocab building
This is a four part writing workshop sequence that could be used in either a one-off carousel style lesson or split into 4 separate lessons with a mini assessment at the end.
I’ve used it previously over the course of three days. Split my class into 4 mixed ability groups. Day One I had each group attend to two activities. The next day, they got involved with the final two stations and then on the third day they composed a piece of descriptive writing and I was able to see if they were using the techniques they had explored the previous days.
Low floor, high ceiling math tasks are designed to cut down workload and champion pupils in leading their learning. I usually start with a practical, hands on role play task before doing a little bit of input, followed by around 20 minutes independent work off the slide.
Percentages - get the lost property out, have pupils price it up with post it notes and then task them with reducing the items by 50%
Barbers - get A4 paper, cut it into ten strips (almost to the end of the paper) and attach to the back of chairs. Hand scissors to pupils and watch them cut, style, curl, taper and add extensions!
Area - get the blocks out, give them a rough blueprint with measurements and let them build the foundations with rulers for accuracy
All my Christmas lessons packed in here:
A 3 lesson unit of script writing, with WAGOLLs, progressions and full story
Two circuit lessons
Two maths lessons (revising FDP, Time and Measure)
A couple more small activities
Currently delivering this to two P6 classes but could be used from P4 to P7 with ease.
5 Circuit lessons, all one slide each (and linked to the Global Goals) that aim to be easy access for both teachers and pupils:
Conductors
Circuit Diagrams
Morse Code Machine
Doodlebot
Windmills
This Sci-Fi Thriller has echoes of Stranger Things and has been designed for upper primary to read as a whole class. Every chapter is an A4 page and can be printed or shared via device for pupils to read in pairs. There are tasks to accompany every chapter, covering all of the second level reading E&O’s (some not in much depth but enough to complement any other work you might be doing in literacy).
“I can see this working brilliantly at the start of the year for any upper primary classroom”
“I was hooked and raced to find out what happened as every chapter seemed to end on a cliff hanger”
“A fantastic read, I really need to know what happens in the final chapter”
And that, is where you might be a little annoyed - this story doesn’t have a final chapter - it hopefully reveals enough throughout the story for the pupils to try and create their own endings. Could be a Big Write or end of unit assessment style task too.
However, if you are desperate for a solid ending, just message me on twitter and I’ll gladly send it over to you.