University Workshops

Skulls

Lesson Plan

Notes from the warm-up exercise.

If you can get your hands on a few skulls, they make for a striking observation and discussion lesson. I borrowed mine from the local wildlife trust, but school county library services will probably have skulls they loan out.

For warm-up, I asked the children to spend 30 seconds each time jotting down: things that are usually white; things that happen in complete silence (e.g. the grass growing); things that are hard, and things that are sharp. They shared their ideas afterwards so that pupils who'd struggled with a particular section could fill in any blanks.

Then I gave out the skulls and allowed time for the children to have a really thorough look and feel of them. I let them share any surprises and details they'd noticed, such as what happened to the end of the nose. In our case there was a 'mystery' skull - an animal that was difficult to guess - and this added to the fun.

Finally, I gave out the poem templates. As usual, I got the students to work quickly and in silence. Because they were revved up they were able to fill in the gaps fast, and every poem contained some lovely imagery.

Pop-up Fantasy Stories Completed

Here are some of the finished stories (I haven't had the permission slips yet to put them all up). To see a few more, click here.

One-line Fantasy Stories

Pop-up cards are easy to make. You can see some straightforward instructions here: How to make a pop-up card. 

You'll need to assemble a few things in advance: A3 card, a sheet for every child, plus scissors and glue and maybe some bits and pieces with which to decorate the finished story, like cheap gems or stick-on stars. You might like also to put together a sheet of images for them to cut out and colour, although many children will want to draw their own.

Show them the finished card, then give out the grid sheets, go through the format, and ask them to fill in as many blanks as they can. Then they can share their favourite(s) with the group.

Each child should choose their favourite, and then on the sheet of blank banners, copy out each part of their one-line story on a separate banner, so "there was a mad prince" on one, and "who ate a poisoned apple meant to kill him" on another and "and became sane and lived happily ever after" on the third. They can then cut out all the banners they've used and assemble them on the card as above, illustrating the story with three or more images.

This is a great activity for students who are a little bit scared of writing.