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.