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This is a complete play/show I wrote from scratch that could be used for an assembly or end of year stage performance. It connects the themes of Earth and the Solar System/Space with the performing arts and includes an originally written song based on Nina Simone’s - Ain’t Got No. I have made a video with lyrics and the karaoke version of the song to make it easier for the children to learn. The moral of the play is about being ‘yourself’. It is therefore as much about social and emotional health as science. My children performed it last summer and it got rave reviews - to quote the head of school - “It was the best assembly I’ve seen in my decade as a school head”. The children made the roles their own and added a lot of the ideas during class discussions (e.g. using a hula hoop for Saturn, or doing a cartwheel for Uranus). For the song, the children also improvised the actions for the different lyrics - again this was a big part of the learning (we were doing a performing arts unit so working on improvising moves to words/choreography was part of this). While my students were Grade 3 (8-9), this play would definitely work with older children too. After all, the play is just the idea - it is the actors that bring it to life and make it their own!

An inquiry-based template. Using the kidshealth website and search function, students work individually or in pairs/threes to research the different food groups and fill in the necessary information in the table. A specially-made food label reading comprehension activity (can be completed as a whole class/in pairs or individually).

Children used the Ducksters website page about the life of Helen Keller to complete a specially-made informational poster about her life. The activity challenged their research/inquiring skills while helping them to learn all about this remarkable woman.

A PowerPoint of activities based on communities and cities/urbanisation. This includes: Pictures of various communities (rural, urban and suburban) that can be used for a warmer quiz introducing the subject of different communities. Smaller versions of each picture (4 x one page) which can be printed out and used for sorting activities (I had 3 teams sort them and make a poster using them to compare characteristics of the 3 different types of community at the start of my unit on communities). A maths lesson on rounding which compares 5 large cities. This was used to raise awareness of the rapid increase in urbanisation across the world. A table for students to organise their rounded figures and fill in information about each city. Pictures of each city - printed and used by the students to complete their table. The students then used their tables to make bar charts comparing the population of the 5 featured cities.

Powerpoint Presentation on the benefits of being vegetarian. This thorough account is a good way to show the class persuasive arguing/create debate and discussion, etc.

A PowerPoint I made as part of a quiz based on Famous World Monuments. Each monument has a number of clues - students earn more teams points for using fewer clues.