Tuesday 21 January 2020

Secrets of the Egg








This session generated a lot of talk and interest because it's pretty practical. You will need hen's eggs (one between two children), bowls to crack the eggs into, and forks to burst the yolks, as well as a Secrets of the Egg sheet for every student. I treated my group to some quail's eggs too because they're so pretty - I boiled them first to make them more robust, but the shells are still fragile so they need to be handled carefully.

The warm-up exercise was supposed to be five lists - twenty seconds each to see how many items they could write down under a heading, and then a quick sharing of ideas. However, I only did four lists in the end because I decided there was no need to do the one about hidden things. 

After that I simply followed the lesson plan above. I didn't let the children share their ideas for each line until the whole poem was finished, but you could if you preferred. I was very pleased with the results which can be seen here. The children range from Y3 to Y6.




Tuesday 14 January 2020

Teeny Weeny Books





This task requires a small investment, but I'd say it's worth it for the excitement it generates. Over Christmas, I bought some extremely tiny blank books off Ebay. They are not expensive (less than £4.50 for 12). I knew the students would love them.

Today I began the session by showing the children my own miniature books (top photo) which I filled in when I was about 14. Then the brief I gave them was to write a story about something very very small. The very very small thing has to be in danger at the start of the tale.

We discussed possible subjects for the story, ants and butterflies, koalas lost in the jungle and shrunk-down giraffes. One Y6 wanted to write about the tiny book itself, and another decided to write non-fiction about the lives of shrimp. They got their heads down and wrote and wrote. I don't yet have permission slips from the parents to feature the children on my blog, but you can see them on the school website here.

Only one word of caution: the books are moderately fragile, so the children mustn't bend the spines right back or pages will come away.