Maths Madness in March

There’s so much happening in March there just aren't enough school days in the month to cover it all!

Here’s a selection of some of the most important and exciting events happening this month:

1st: St David’s Day
4th – 10th: Climate Week
5th: World Literacy Day (part of World Education Games)
6th: World Maths Day (part of World Education Games)
7th: World Science Day (part of World Education Games)
7th: World Book Day
8th: International Women’s Day
10th: Mother’s Day
11th: Commonwealth Day
13th: No Smoking Day
14th: Pi Day
15th: Comic Relief: Red Nose Day
15th – 24th: National Science and Engineering Week
17th: St Patrick’s Day
20th: Spring Equinox
21st: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
21st: World Poetry Day
22nd: World Water Day
23rd: Earth Hour
24th: Palm Sunday
26th – 1st April: Passover
27th: Holi
29th: Good Friday
31st: Easter Sunday & British Summer Time begins (possibly the best day in March!)

Here are just three activities to try this month.

Key Stage 1
22nd March: World Water Day
International World Water Day focuses attention on the importance of freshwater and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
– How much water do you use?
Ask the children to investigate how much water they use in a day.
Ensure they have access to the following information:

Lower Key Stage 2
23rd March: Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a worldwide event that aims to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change by encouraging homes and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour. Earth Hour 2013 will be held on Saturday 23 March between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m.
– Energy audit
Undertake an energy audit in your school.

• Ask the children to work in groups to make a list of all the different electrical appliances in the school – perhaps assigning different groups to different areas of the school. Encourage groups to collect the data in a table, detailing the type and number of each appliance.
• Provide children with the information in the table below. If there are appliances in the school that are not on the list, ask them to find out the average yearly running costs for these appliances.
• What about the cost of heating?
• Bring groups together to pool and present the results.
• Discuss the results – What conclusions can you draw? Where does most of the school’s energy consumption occur? How could the school reduce its energy consumption?

Children could undertake their own energy audit at home.

Upper Key Stage 2
14th March: Pi Day
Pi Day commemorates the mathematical constant  π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in month/day date format), since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of pi in decimal form.
– Discovering Pi
Begin by discussing the terms ‘circumference’, ‘diameter’ and ‘radius’ with the children.

Gather together a collection of at least 6 circular objects, all different sizes. For example, plates of different sizes, waste paper basket, analogue clock, geometric circular shape.
Ask the children to:

• use a tape measure to measure the diameter and circumference of each of the objects
• record their measurements
• find the average of all of the answers they have just calculated

Discuss the results with the children. Explain to the children that mathematicians have calculated that the circumference of a circle is about 3.14 or 31/7 (22/7) times the diameter and that this number is called pi (after a letter in the Greek alphabet) and it is written: π.

Find more activities related to Pi in Collins New Primary Maths – Enriching Maths Resource Pack 6

Peter Clarke
Series editor, Collins New Primary Maths

Maths Activities – The 25th Anniversary of Comic Relief

You’ll have a red nose soon and it won’t be just because of the cold – it’ll soon be Red Nose Day, aka Comic Relief and the numbers will be crunching telling us how well we've been doing raising money to help children around the world.

This year is very special for it’s the 25th Red Nose Day and the celebrations and fund raising drives are going to be keener than ever. Usually schools take their feet off the pedals a little to allow children to enjoy the fun or to carry out fund raising activities of their own. If you want to get a little work done in the maths lesson that day but still involve Comic Relief, try these activities and the English activities that accompany them.


Activity One – Allocating Money
Year 3 to Year 6

This activity enables children think about how a number can be split using fractions or percentages and allows them to make decisions based on their concerns for others.

LO:
Be able to use fractions and percentages to divide up a sum of money and allocate it based on personal beliefs.
Be able to calculate sums involving large numbers using a calculator

Talking Point:
Each year Comic Relief raises tens of millions of pounds, all of which is spent on helping children around the world. Expenses are paid by sponsors from the interest earned on money in the bank waiting to be used.

Ask the children to say what kind of children are helped by donations to Comic Relief and can they suggest any others.

Should all the money be given to one type of need or should it be spread around, one country or region or several. There is often controversy over the amount that is spent in foreign countries instead of on suffering children in the UK. What are their views on that?

Activity:
In 2011, almost £75m was pledged or donated during the day of Comic Relief and over £100m in total. Using the total figure of £100m ask the children to decide which of the following causes would be most deserving of receiving some of the money.

How many children in each category could be helped if the money was spent purely on them?

Talking Point:

Ask them whether this is a fair way of spending the money. How else would they apportion it and ask on what basis they are making their decisions.

Ask them to calculate how much they would spend as a fraction or percentage of the £100m on each cause and calculate how many children would be helped in each scenario. How many children would be helped overall? They should write notes for each justifying their decisions.

Talking Point:

Should the decision be made just on how many can be helped or are there other criteria that can be used? Ask them to reconsider their decisions and calculations based on the class discussion.

At Home:

Get the children to research projects that have been funded by Comic Relief in the past. How much was spent, what was it spent on, and how successful was it in terms of numbers helped?

Activity Two – Scale: How Many Times?

Year 3 to Year 6

In their daily lives children often encounter large numbers that seem abstract in isolation. This activity enables the children to compare large numbers by scale. E.g. England is ten times bigger than…, there are a hundred times more starving people in Africa than… etc.

LO:

Use ‘times bigger’ to compare the size of numbers, measures etc.

Use pictures to compare size.

Talking Point:

Ask the children to say how many times taller they think their teacher is than them. How many times heavier is the teacher than they are?

Activity:

Start off writing pairs of numbers on the board e.g. 4 and 32. Ask the children to say how much bigger 32 is than 4. You are likely to get the answers either 28 (difference) or 8 times (multiplier). Use further pairs of numbers and ask the same question. Ask the children which they think gives them the better idea of comparable size.

Use the worksheet that accompanies this activity and ask the children to measure the differences in length, width or height of the first few examples then calculate the number of times greater each measurement is (to the nearest whole number). Does ‘five times bigger’, give a more accurate comparison than say ‘4cm bigger’?

Back to Comic Relief now and the accompanying sheet gives children practice on calculating how many times bigger numbers are using the receipts from Comic Relief over the last 25 years.

At Home:

Ask the children to compare things such as size of food packages, length of gardens, speed limits etc. by using ‘times bigger’

Dave Lewis, Primary Teacher

You can find ideas on how to celebrate Red Nose Day in your literacy lessons here...

Primary Maths Activities for the 40th Anniverary of the UK joining the EU

One of the main changes Britain encountered when joining the EU was the use of metric measurements in our daily lives. Still not completely integrated to the European system of weights and measures, does the dual system actually cause confusion or can children cope better than adults at mixing and matching imperial and metric measures? Using money abroad has got a lot easier with the adoption of the Euro by many of the holiday destinations that the children may visit.

Activity One – Measuring and Weighing
Year 2 to Year 6

This activity enables children to work on weighing and measuring using imperial and metric measures, estimating and using different scales and finally decide which system is easier or better.

LO:
Be able to use metric and imperial scales to measure mass, length and capacity.
Be able to estimate length, mass and capacity in the different scales based on previous knowledge.      

Talking Point: Ask the class to tell you how tall they are and how heavy they are (sensitivity is likely to be needed here!)

Compile a chart of the children’s names with height and weight on it. If they give answers in stones and pounds or feet and inches, mark them on the chart in red, if they use metric measures, use blue. At the end of the exercise compare how many used each type of measure and ask a selection why they did. Which do the children find easier to use to compare against others and why that is so.

Activity: Ask the children to bring in scales, rulers and tape measures from home with a combination of imperial and metric measures on them and spend some time discussing the breakdown of units into m, cm and mm or feet and inches etc.

Set out a selection of objects and ask the children to estimate their lengths and masses in whichever unit they prefer to use, then measure them accurately. Give them rough equivalents for the conversion from metric to imperial and vice versa and ask them to convert them.

Talking Point: You can play a little game to check their understanding of the units of measurement. Hold up a book and ask ‘Does this book have a mass of 200g?’ or ‘Is this book eleven inches long?’ By repeating the questions with different standards of measure you’ll get an idea of their preference and understanding.

At Home:
Get the children to ask their parents and grandparents which units of measurement they would use for driving distance, weight, height, capacity etc. and compare answers. In class, you can collate the information and do a Carroll Diagram showing age ranges against metric/imperial usage. Discuss the results which are likely to show a large number using imperial measurements.

Activity Two – Shopping European Style!
Year 3 to Year 6

This introduces children to the operation of ratios for exchange rates, which whilst not obviously in ratio form, operate as, for example, one pound = 1.2 euros so, 1: 1.2

LO:
Use ratios to answer questions based on exchange rates
Use multiplication to answer questions based on exchange rates

Talking Point:
Ask the children to put up their hands to tell you which foreign countries they have been to on holiday or to visit friends. Ask them what the name is of the money that is used in the country they have visited. If they can remember, ask them if they think they can buy as much with a dollar, a euro, a rupee or a zloty as they could with a pound. Tell them that the way to work out if something is cheaper or more expensive in another country is to use exchange rates so that prices can be compared in the same currency.

Activity:
Show an exchange rate in a calculation table such as this:

Ask them if they can predict how many euros would be the same as 3, 4 or 5 euros etc.

You can do this simply by adding 1.20 onto the euro column figure each time you add one to the pound column but there is another way. Ask if anyone can tell you how many euros equal £10 and if they give you the correct answer ask how they calculated it. It’s likely that some will continue adding 1.20, ten times but some may have worked out that you can use 1.20 x 10 and get the answer.

If you have completed work on simple decimals such as 0.5, you can extend this activity to calculating how many euros are the same as £1.50 or £2.50 etc.

Activity 2:
Use the accompanying worksheet for children to calculate the equivalent costs of items in a toy shop. You can amend the prices to suit the level of challenge you want to present. You can also amend the currency if you wish.

Extension:
You can use the reverse exchange rate to get the children to calculate how much an item priced in a foreign currency might cost in pounds.

At Home: Ask the children to find the tourist exchange rate table from a newspaper and calculate the currency equivalent of £5 and £10 in perhaps ten of the world’s currencies.

Dave Lewis

Primary Teacher

Applying maths to the real world

The activities this month are aimed at helping children see the application of mathematics in the real world, while at the same time discovering things about some different parts of the world.

Key Stage 1

A Rangoli is an Indian design often used to decorate floors near the entrance to homes to welcome guests. They are traditionally drawn using rice grains, flour, sand or chalk. Here are some:

• What patterns do you notice?
• Is there anything symmetrical about these patterns? What makes them symmetrical?
• Design your own Rangoli similar to those above.
• Try designing a Rangoli that uses colour. Can you make your design symmetrical?

Lower Key Stage 2

Fairtrade Fortnight runs from Monday 25th February, 2013 to Sunday 10th March, 2013. Fairtrade aims to help farmers and workers in developing countries achieve better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade. Sixty percent of the Fairtrade market involves food products such as coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, honey, and bananas. Non-food commodities include crafts, textiles and flowers.

Fairtrade products can often be identified by this symbol: 

• Visit your local superstore and investigate differences in the Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade prices of each of these products: coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, honey and bananas.
• Over 3,000 products are Fairtrade certified. What other Fairtrade products can you find in your local superstore? How do these prices compare with non- Fairtrade prices?
• Which countries do Fairtrade products tend to come from?

For further information and activities about Fairtrade Fortnight go to www.fairtrade.org.uk.


Upper Key Stage 2

On January 26, India celebrated Republic Day, which honours the date the constitution of India came into force in 1950.  Also on January 26, Australia celebrated Australia Day, which commemorates the arrival of the first fleet at Sydney Cove in New South Wales in 1788.

The chart below shows the price of different food products in India (Hyderabad) and Australia (Sydney) in February, 2013.

• To compare the price of these products we need to convert the cost of each product to the same currency.
  What is the exchange rate of the India rupee (INR – ₹ or Rs.) to the British pound (GBP – £)?
  What is the exchange rate of the Australian dollar (AUD – $) to the British pound (GBP – £)?
  What is the cost in GBPs (£) of each of the food products purchased in India?
  What is the cost in GBPs (£) of each of the food products purchased in Australia? 
• Investigate what each of the food products costs in the UK.
  How does the cost of the food products purchased in India and Australia compare with their cost in the UK?
• What conclusions can you make about the cost of these food products in India, Australia and the UK?

Peter Clarke

Series editor, Collins New Primary Maths

Why not also try Belair's Crafty Rangoli Pattern Ideas

Architecture and Primary Maths

Architecture to the artist is all about design and beauty but through part of those aspects; symmetry, we link into mathematics.  Whilst no one wants an ugly building, the practicality is that without maths and science, we’d never know whether the design of beautiful buildings would work until it was too late.

Activity One - House of Cards

LO:  Understand how different shapes have different properties relating to strength and stability
       Be able to state how a shape can be strengthened by introducing triangles into it

This activity helps children to understand the strength of shapes and how they can be used in buildings
Divide the children into groups of four and give them a pack of playing cards. Ask them to build a structure as tall as they can using the cards. Don’t give them any clues as to how they should do it. Some will begin with standard square shapes but find that they are unstable whilst others will use a triangle shape which they’ll find more stable.

Ask the children to tape four cards together to make a square and another three to make a triangle. Place each on the desk and get them to press gently on the top of each, what do they notice happening?
Talking Point: If they have completed a science module on forces ask them to describe what is happening at the places where the cards join and to the cards themselves. They should notice that the square simply collapses as the angles change from 90 degrees at each adjoining edge. With a lot of force placed centrally, the top will bend inwards causing the sides to fold in also. With the triangle they should feel more resistance and whilst the sides may flex inwards, the shape should remain more stable. Ask them how they could stabilise the square shape and they may suggest adding a brace so it forms a triangle.

Extension: Get a tray of 36 eggs and ask the children what they think would happen if they stood on them. Tell the children that one of them is going to try. Place a piece of board on top of the eggs and ask a child to slowly and carefully stand on the centre of the board. The eggs will not break. Now show the children the cross section of the eggs, the tray and the board and ask them to say why they think the eggs supported their weight.

At Home: Find pictures of objects which are strengthened using triangles e.g. cranes, bridges, greenhouses etc.

Activity Two: Density and Weight
LO: Understand how the force exerted by an object is determined by the weight of the object and the area of the base where the force is being applied
Understand that the force can be reduced by increasing the surface area of its point of contact or by reducing its mass    

Ask the children to research why New York has many skyscrapers and why London has so few. They should discover that it’s because of the type of ground the building is constructed on. London is mainly built on soft soil whilst New York has a rock base. If London had the same size buildings as New York, they would sink into the soil. Demonstrate this to children with a tray of wet soil and a block of wood. Stood on its end, it sinks into the wet soil. Placed on its side, it sinks in much less.

Talking Point: Why does the horizontal building sink less than the vertical one? This is a difficult question but many children answer it by saying there’s more of the building touching the soil without going on to explain why this helps.

You can demonstrate why it works by getting two or more bathroom scales and a plank of wood. Place the plank of wood on one of the scales and ask a child to stand on it, noting their weight. Now try the same with the wood placed across two scales and again across three if you have another. The children will find that the two scales each show half the weight whilst three will show a third of the weight.
Explain to them that it’s forces at work again and that the building presses down over its base area and that the force is calculated by the weight divided by the base area in each case so with the horizontal building having a bigger base, the force is less.

Talking Point: Ask the children if they can think of another way in which the force could be reduced. Remind them that the key elements are the surface area of the point of contact, the mass and gravity. They should suggest reducing the mass by using lighter materials.

At Home: Ask the children to investigate pressure around the home. With parents’ help, move some of the furniture and see the marks left by it in carpet or lino. Which has the deepest marks? What can be done to reduce damage to the floor coverings?

Activity Three: Plans and Scale Drawings
LO: Understand how scales are used to represent buildings or locations in real life
Use scales to calculate actual sizes or to reduce actual size to be able to represent an object on a piece of paper

Architects and builders work from plans drawn to scale to ensure that the finished building is as the architect designed it. It would be very difficult to work from a full size drawing so the plans are reduced in size and drawn to scale.

Show the children various maps and plans drawn to scale. Ask them to identify how they would know what size it represents. They should notice two kinds of scale; one where it simply gives a ratio so 1: 100,000 where 1cm on the plan or map represents a kilometre or it may have the scale as a bar with the relevant distance marked off on it.

This activity needs a big space such as the school hall or playground if the weather is good.

Put the children in groups of four and ask them to bring in up to ten cardboard boxes of the same size if possible. Ask them to construct a ‘building’ from them and then draw it to scale from various aspects. They will need to think very carefully which scale to use so that it fits on a sheet of A3 paper. Remind them that they need to mark the scale on their plan.

Extension: Once everyone has completed their plan, place all the boxes in the middle of the hall or playground, jumbled up, and pass the plans to different groups. Ask them to decide what size the ‘building’ is in real life using the scale and get them to find the correct size boxes to build it.

At Home: Ask the children to draw the floor plan of their home to scale so it fits on a piece of A3 paper.

Dave Lewis
Primary Teacher

For even more inspiring activities based on architecture take a look at Projects Inspired by Architecture, a brand new addition to the Belair On Display series.

Exploring Calendars in Primary Maths

Happy New Year!

The start of a new year sees the annual taking down and putting up one of the most frequently referred to data handling charts – the calendar.

Exploring calendars with your children provides lots of opportunities to link maths with other areas of the curriculum, particularly science, history and geography. Make use of this valuable opportunity by asking children to investigate some of the following.

Key Stage 1
- What patterns do you notice in the month of January? Are these patterns the same for February? What patterns are similar in these two months? What patterns are different?
- What similarities are there between the 2012 calendar and the 2013 calendar? What differences are there?
- Choose any two by two square of dates from a month on a calendar. Add together the two pairs of numbers that are diagonally opposite, for example 7 + 15 and 8 + 14. What do you notice about the two answers? Repeat for other sets of four numbers. Try a different month. What do you notice? Explain why this happens.

Lower Key Stage 2

- In 2013, the Chinese New Year begins on February 10th.  According to the Chinese calendar, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. Investigate how the Chinese calendar works. Find a Chinese calendar and use it to work out which Chinese year you were born in. What about other members of your family? 

- Choose any two by two square of dates from a month on a calendar. Add the four numbers together. Multiply the smallest number by 4 and add 16 to the product. What do you notice about the two answers? Repeat for other sets of four numbers. Try a different month. What do you notice? Explain why this happens.

- Choose any three by three square of dates from a month on a calendar. Add together the two pairs of numbers that are diagonally opposite, for example 15 + 31 and 17 + 29. What do you notice about the two answers? Compare these answers with the number in the centre of the square, i.e. 23. What do you notice? Repeat for other sets of nine numbers. Try a different month. What do you notice? Explain why this happens.

Upper Key Stage 2

Ask the children to investigate one or more of the following:

- January 1st marks the start of our Gregorian calendar. Investigate the history of the Gregorian calendar.

- Other calendars operate on a different cyclical pattern. Investigate other calendars such as Islamic, Jewish, Chinese or Hindu calendars. 

- Investigate different historical calendars, for example, the Mayan, Egyptian, Sumerian, Athenian or Julian calendars.

- Our calendar year runs from January 1st until December 31st. Investigate other “years” such as the academic or fiscal years. How do these differ between countries?

- Choose any two by two square of dates from a month on a calendar. Multiply together the two pairs of numbers that are diagonally opposite, for example 9 x 17 and 10 x 16. What do you notice about the two answers? Repeat for other sets of four numbers. Try a different month. What do you notice? Explain why this happens.

- Choose any three by three square of dates from a month on a calendar. Add together the numbers in the four corners, for example 13 + 15 + 27 + 29. Compare the sum with the number in the centre of the square, i.e. 21. What do you notice about the two numbers? Repeat for other sets of nine numbers. Try a different month. What do you notice? Explain why this happens. 

- Choose any column of five dates from a month on a calendar. Add the five numbers together, for example 3 + 10 + 17 + 24 + 31. Compare the sum with the number in the middle of the column, i.e. 17. What do you notice about the two numbers? Repeat for other columns of five numbers. Try a different month. What do you notice? Explain why this happens. 

- What other amazing patterns can you discover from a month on a calendar? Investigate dates in rectangles rather than squares, for example, 3 x 2 (or 2 x 3), 3 x 4 (or 4 x 3) and 4 x 2 (or 2 x 4) rectangles.

Peter Clarke

Series editor, Collins New Primary Maths

Changes to the Primary Maths Curriculum

When and how is the curriculum changing?
In June 2012, the Education Secretary set out the draft Primary National Curriculum Programmes of Study for English, Maths and Science. The next draft is expected for consultation in early 2013, including details about how current levels of achievement will be replaced with the expectation that children master age-related concepts and skills in the new curriculum. The final version is due in schools by September 2013, with statutory implementation beginning in September 2014. The new Programmes of Study are clearly more demanding than the existing National Curriculum, so schools need to be aware of the changes.

What are the aims of the Programme of Study for Maths?
The draft National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics
• can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry.

How will the curriculum be organised?
The Attainment Targets of the current National Curriculum (2000) and the strands of the Primary National Strategy Mathematics Framework (2006) will be replaced and the 2014 Programme of Study for Mathematics will be structured and sequenced under the following domains, with content arranged into yearly blocks which children will be expected to master.

What are the key differences?
Overall, the levels of expectations have been raised, especially in relation to number and recall of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division number facts. A strong emphasis has been placed on mental and written calculation of whole numbers, decimals and fractions. Many mathematics topics are now introduced at an earlier stage and taught at an accelerated pace. This is especially the case in Key Stage 1 where, at the end of Year 1, children will be expected to recall and use number bonds and related subtraction facts within 20. Some new topics have also been introduced, such as Roman numerals, identifying parts of a circle, recognising binary numerals and a more formal introduction to algebra in Year 6.

How can schools get ready for 2013–2014?
In preparation for 2013–2014, I would strongly advise schools to:
• become familiar with the draft Programme of Study for Maths and updates to follow
• begin to look at any differences between current levels/standards and expected levels/standards
• identify two or three priorities for your school and begin to implement these
• refocus teachers, support staff, children and parents on the importance of memorizing key mathematical facts and, in particular, knowing by heart the:
- addition and subtraction number facts to 5, 10 and 20
- times-tables and related division facts up to 12 x 12
- product of a multiple of 10 and 100 and a 1-digit number, e.g. 40 x 7, 600 x 9.


Where can schools find more information?

Keep up to date with the new Primary National Curriculum:
www.education.gov.uk/nationalcurriculum

Download reports related to this article:
• DFE–00135–2011 (report of the Expert Panel)
• DFE–RR178 (analysis of curricula of high-performing jurisdictions worldwide)
• DFE–00136–2011 (responses to the call for evidence)
www.education.gov.uk/publications/Search/Search

Peter Clarke
Series editor, Collins New Primary Maths

Codes and Communications - Primary Maths

You’d normally associate English with communication but maths has an almost equally important role to play. This series of activities introduce children to codes and communication.

Activity One – Sequences and codes

LO:  To be able to recognise simple number patterns and sequences
        To be able to identify the next term in a sequence and state the progression

The simplest sequence is counting on in ones which we do from an early age but what is tricky in those tender years is to recognise the relevance of the name of the number to what it actually signifies. It’s learning a new language where a group of five objects is named by the word ‘five’. Sequences gradually get more difficult, from counting in 2s, 3s and so on to ones where it’s squares of numbers or cubes or where the next term is algebraically calculated.

The easiest way to identify the progression of a sequence is to calculate the difference between the terms.
Show the children this example:

0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 and ask them to tell you the progression

They should identify that it goes up by 1 then 2 then 3 etc.

This is a sequence of triangle numbers but they don’t need to know that to be able to work out that the next two terms will be 21 and 28.

Try these with them, asking them to identify the progression then the next two terms.
a) 1, 3 ,7, 13, 21, 31
b) 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19
c) 0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,  (a tricky one)

Codes are an interesting use of number, especially if you match the alphabet with the numbers 1 to 26. This is a simple code but allows the children to begin to understand the principle. Use it to get them to write their names in code and use the cipher to work out whose name is which.

Talking Point: The idea of a code is that it’s a secret between people who want to share messages without others knowing. The simple code we've just looked at makes it easy for others to intercept messages. How could we make it more difficult?

The children should suggest changing the numbers that go with the letters either randomly, in which case the recipient would need the cipher or progressively by making A be 4 and B be 5 for example.
Ask the children to change the original code progressively and see now if anyone can decode the names.

At Home:  Devise your own code and write a message using it for the teacher to decipher!


Activity Two – Base Numbers

LO: Understand that although our number system is effectively metric, you don’t have to count in hundreds, tens and units
      Understand how base 2 numbers (binary) can be used to express numbers

Base numbers dropped out of the primary curriculum a long time ago but may be making a comeback!

Whilst many are of little use except in codes, binary code; using 1 and 0 to represent numbers, is used in computing across the globe and is fun to work with.

Write these numbers on the board:
1 = 1
10 = 2
11 = 3
100 = 4
101 = 5
110 = 6
111= 7

Talking point: Ask the children if they can work out how the numbers match. If they struggle place the numbers in places with the place value headings as question marks. This will help them to consider what value each digit might be.

Once they have realised that the place value headings are 4s, 2s and 1s, ask them to rewrite a selection of base 10 numbers up to a hundred, predicting what the extending place value headings might be.

They should notice that whereas in base 10 the numbers in each place holder can only go up to 9 before beginning again and adding a digit to the next column, in binary (base 2) it can only go up to 1.

Extension or At Home: Numbers can operate from any base so ask them to write out the numbers 1 – 10 using base 3. You should get the response:
1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101


Activity Three – Morse Code 

LO: Understand how binary numbers can be expressed by a series of on/off commands or short or long pulses
       Understand how Morse code uses a binary system to convey messages

Morse code was one of the best inventions in the field of communications – a quick and simple way to communicate using dots and dashes. You’ll notice that Morse code is almost a binary system with dots and dashes representing the 1s and 0s. A dot was a quick pulse on a transmitter whilst the dash was a longer one.

A great activity for the children to do which involves translating Morse code into binary and then base ten numbers giving an excellent code that they can use between themselves.
The Morse code alphabet is as follows:

Taking the letter A for example, if a dot is a 0 and a dash a 1 then A would be 1 in binary and base 10, B – dash, followed by three dots would become 1000 in base 2 and 8 in base ten. C would be 1010 in binary and so 10 in base 10, D would be 100 and so a 4, and so on.

The code for ‘dad’ would be 4, 1, 4 and for ‘cab’ would be 10, 1, 8

Ask the children to continue working out the letters of the alphabet. There are one or two which duplicate so can they suggest a way around it?

At Home: Ask the children to use their code to write a message to a friend.

Dave Lewis - Primary Teacher

Take a look at: Collins Big Cat: Code Making, Code Breaking

Primary Maths - Pompeii

The burying of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius throws up lots of numerical information; the length of time the ash fell for, the depth of ash, the numbers killed etc. This information can be used not only for a number of investigative activities in maths but linked to geography and history as well.

Activity One – Which was the worst volcanic eruption in history?

LO: Be able to compare numbers saying which is bigger
Be able to order numerical information and recognise which is better or worse in context

Read the children the Collins Big Cat book on Pompeii and use the questions at the back to reinforce their understanding of the events.

Ask them now to collect information on the top five worst volcanic eruptions; Mount Tambora 1816; Mount Pelee 1902; Krakatoa 1883; and Mount Unzen 1792. The children should collect information on deaths, damage, explosive power and volume of material expelled. Ask them to compare the numbers and decide which they consider to be the worst eruption and to say why. Encourage them to present the information in a table and then as a bar chart.

If you have time, you could ask the children to present all their findings in a PowerPoint including some of the eye witness accounts of the time. Finally, as an extension activity, ask the children to plot the events on a world map.

Talking Point: Do the children notice anything about the location of the volcanic eruptions?
Draw a red line on the map showing the fault lines that cause volcanoes.

At Home: Volcanoes are still erupting today. Ask the children to find out the names of the ones that are currently erupting and which countries they are in. Plot these on your volcano map.

Activity Two – Problem Solving

LO: Be able to use pictures to help understand problems
Accurately label Picture sums to show their understanding of a problem and how they solved it

You can formulate a number of questions for the children to problem solve using the information about Pompeii. Ask them to use the information they have to answer questions such as…

1. How many metres of ash fell per hour on Pompeii?
2. Use the formula x9 then ÷5 and add 32 to change the temperature of the hot air flows to Fahrenheit.
3. If the population of Pompeii was 20,000 and you could fit 300 people on a Roman ship, how many would be needed to rescue the population?
4. If the Romans had only 17 ships, how many people could they have rescued and how many would have died?
5. Records show that the goods found by the archaeologists included dried fruit, sealed wine jars and dried grain. What time of year do you think the eruption took place? Explain your answer.
6. Do you think the main eruption took place at night or during the day? How do you know? How would it have affected the number of people who died if the eruption had been 12 hours later?

These are just a selection of problems you could ask but to help the children solve them you need to encourage them to draw the problem to visualise it. In this way, maths becomes an art lesson and you can display their visual working out on the wall as proudly as you would any piece of art. Encourage them to label their pictures so you know their train of thought.

At Home: Children can get a greater understanding of problem solving if they are allowed to make up some of their own. Ask them to write a volcano related problem and have an answer for it. The next time you do maths, write some of them on the board for the children to solve.

Activity Three – Roman Money

LO: Convert between different currencies using a calculator
Be able to calculate change from an amount by subtraction or adding on

At the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, The Roman Empire used nine coins as shown in this chart:

You can use this information to ask the children which Roman coins they would use to pay for everyday items today. You can use the ideas below or make up some of your own…

At Home: Ask the children to imagine they were given a sestertius for their pocket money.  What could they buy with it? Ask them to calculate the change in Roman coins that they would get.


Dave Lewis
Primary Teacher

Take a look at Collins Big Cat: Pompeii The Lost City.

Primary Maths - Scott of the Antarctic

In planning his epic and ultimately tragic journey, Robert Falcon Scott needed careful navigational skills and these involved map reading, measuring distance and using bearings. He would also have needed to be acutely aware of weather conditions. This series of activities allows the children to practise some of the skills Scott would have had to use.

Activity One – Grid References

LO: To be able to identify the position of an object on a grid by its coordinates
To be able to use coordinates to place an object on a grid or map

Grid references are fun no matter what level you use them at.

The first activity is great for younger children. If you’ve got an interactive whiteboard you can prepare this in advance. On the board, draw an 8 x 6 grid and draw a picture of an object in each square – you can repeat some pictures. Label the boxes along the bottom A to H and up the side 1 to 6. Begin by demonstrating how we name each box by reading along the bottom and up the side. Remind them to think ‘Along the hall and up the stairs’. Now ask them to say which picture is in say, square D5 or H3 moving on to asking them to say which square an object is in. If you’ve repeated pictures, it gives other children a chance to see how a square is named before naming the repeated picture following the same pattern.

Older or more able children should now work with the coordinates placed on the lines of the grid and remember that the coordinates of the bottom left hand corner defines the square.

The progression on from this is to give and ask for grid locations where the grid is further subdivided virtually into ten so for example a mark in the middle of square 5, 4 would have the reference 55, 44. For the very able you can introduce ordnance survey maps and use six digit referencing.

At Home: For an extension activity, ask the children to find out the coordinates of their home either from a map or from Google Earth. In the classroom pin up a labelled grid of your catchment area and ask the children to plot their homes on it.

Activity Two – Bearings

LO: Be able to describe a direction to be taken in terms of bearings
Be able to follow directions given by a bearing

Bearings are an interesting way of giving direction. In KS1 and KS2 it’s likely you will have used quarter and half turns clockwise and anticlockwise but this activity introduces the notion of bearings.

Chalk a large compass on the playground marking NSEW and labelling them with degrees, 0, 90, 180 and 270.  Place an object at north (0 degrees) and another at east (90 degrees). Ask the children to say what direction they would have to turn and by how many degrees? You can place the object at different places around the compass but make sure that the children always count clockwise from north.

You can extend the activity to direction from one object to another. Mark a north/south line on the playground crossed by an east/west line. Place an object where they intersect then another in one of the quadrants.

Directions are always calculated from north or south depending which sector they are in so the first part of your direction finding will either be N or S. The next part of it is the angle measured from north or south to the line that joins the two objects so if the line bisects a quadrant the next part of the bearing is 45 degrees followed by E or W depending on the quadrant.

Practise this with the children asking them to estimate the angle (which is always less than 90 degrees).

In class, ask the children to draw a treasure map on a piece of cm squared paper. Mark different landmarks or locations and use a protractor to calculate the bearing.

At Home: Draw a plan of your room and calculate the bearings of the different items in it.

Activity Three – Positive and Negative Numbers

LO: Be able to recognise and use negative numbers in the context of counting on and back
Understand what happens to a number when you count through zero

Another playground activity, this helps children to count through zero into negative numbers.

In early subtraction work, children use objects and remove some of them to show subtraction so 11 sweets take away 5 sweets equals six sweets. There they can physically see the process taking place so visualising the problem. This doesn’t work with negative numbers so a different approach is needed.
Either draw a long number line across the playground labelled -10 to 10 or give each child a card with a number from -10 to 10 on it. You can ask them to arrange themselves in order to begin with then get the children without a card to count up or down a certain number making a sum from their exploits so counting 9 down from 4 would give the sum 4 - 9 = -5 and so on. The complicated part is when you take away from a negative number. So counting down 5 from -4 would give you the sum -4 -5 = -9.
Give the children photocopied number lines back in class and ask them to calculate similar sums to those they worked out on the playground.

At Home: Measure the temperature of a glass of salt water then place it in the freezer. After an hour check the temperature and calculate the difference between the start and end temperatures.

Dave Lewis
Primary Teacher

Take a look at Collins Big Cat: Captain Scott Journey to the South Pole.

Primary Maths - The Paralympics

The London 2012 Olympics were the highlight of the sporting year with new world records achieved, new faces bursting onto the sports scene, joy for many and despair for others. But then at the end of the day, the important thing for all was just being a part of it.

Whilst all the hype was over the main games, the Paralympics give us the chance in schools to continue the citizenship work we began with the Olympics.

In this set of Maths activities you’ll find the chance to work across the curriculum and enrich the learning of your pupils.


Activity One – Units of Measurement

LO: Be able to understand the concept of standard units
       To develop a standard unit of measure they can use

Units of measurement are vital to us to ensure we do a job accurately, to get what we pay for in shops and to compare things and of course, in the Olympics they are used to help decide the winners in events but how did we get them?

Many of our units of measurement come from ancient times when parts of the body were used; so a thumb’s width gave us an inch, a yard was the distance from our nose to the end of our outstretched arm whilst a foot, well that’s obvious. Metric measurements are more scientifically calculated with a metre being 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the North Pole.

The difficulty with all of these is that they can differ between people and even the geographical measurement can vary as the North Pole is moveable. This activity helps children to understand measure and why it needs to be standardised.

Get the children to draw around their feet and cut out four examples of their own foot shape. Now ask them to use the ‘feet’ to measure the width of their desks.

Talking Point: Are the measurements the same and if not, why?

Now get the children into groups and get them to use the ‘feet’ to measure the width of the classroom.

Talking Point: Compare answers from the groups. What do the children notice and why do they think it’s happened? How could we ensure we all get the same answers?

Tell the children that we use standardised units of measurement to avoid these problems.

Talking Point:  If we were to decide on our own standard unit of measure, how could we do it?

The children may decide on one person’s foot or decide to do an average of all the children’s feet sizes. Duplicate the chosen measure and use it now to recalculate the measurements done previously.

At Home: Invent your own unit of measurement and measure different objects with it. In school, swap your homework with a partner and ask them to work out how long your unit of measurement is in cm or m.


Activity Two – Measuring Time

LO: Understand that time is divided up into units which we use to measure its passing
       Be able to convert between different units of measurement

Some years ago there was an April Fool’s Day joke that time was going to be made metric. Imagine the day split into ten portions and each ‘hour’ portion divided into 100 minutes with each minute having 100 seconds.

This activity allows the children to use calculators to work out equivalent periods by comparing metric time with our usual time and to work out a timetable of daily events based on the metric time.

Talking Point:  How can we work out how many normal hours are in a metric hour?

Using a calculator, the children should be able to divide 24 hours by 10 metric ones and suggest that there would be 2.4 hours or 144 minutes in a metric hour. They can then progress to working out how many minutes in a metric minute (be careful, you can’t just divide 60 by 100) and onto seconds.

Talking Point: How would you make a year metric?
Talking Point: Is metric time a good idea?

At Home: Using the ‘new clock’ draw up a timetable of your day with the new times so breakfast might be at 3.0 am in metric time, you may go to school at 3.3 am and school may start at 3.6 am. You could illustrate your work with a new watch or clock face.


Activity Three - Simple Algebra

LO:  Be able to represent sums with equations where the letters represent variables
         Be able to solve problems using algebraic equations

The Paralympics can be used to practise simple algebra, by simply looking at news reports of the events. For example:
‘Oscar Pistorius won the 100m in 10.91 seconds, improving on his previous time by 0.3 seconds’.

To find out his previous best we can simply do 10.91 + 0.3 = 11.21 but we can write out the sum as an algebraic equation thus:
P = 10.91 +0.3 or even p = t + d where p = previous time, t = new time and d = difference.

This formula can then be used to remind children of how to do similar questions.

Other examples will include perhaps:
‘Janez Roskar’s 90m javelin throw was twice as far as that thrown by the last placed competitor’.

This time the algebra looks like this:
90 = 2c
So from this we can calculate that the last place threw 45m

Use these examples to get you started then look for examples from daily reports on the games
1. In the 200m the margin between first and last place was 0.52s with the winner coming home in 21.49s
2. The discus event saw the winner throw one and a half times the distance that won the event in 2008. His throw of 33.3m was the best this year.
3. In the 50m pool, the leaders were already half a pool ahead by the third length.
4. The gold medallist in the fencing event scored 12 points more than the silver medallist and 34 more than the bronze with the medal positions racking up 95 points between them. (a tricky one!)

Dave Lewis
Primary Teacher

Primary Maths - The Cultural Olympiad

The Cultural Olympiad which has run parallel to the 2012 Olympics comes to an end on the 9th September as the 2012 London Paralympics draws to a close. This summer’s finale was the end of four years of cultural events that went hand in hand with the preparations for the Olympics. Through art, music, theatre and literature, the Olympiad has sought to exercise our brains and emotions in the same way the sporting events exercised our bodies.

You might think it strange that we can include maths in activities related to the Cultural Olympiad but then maths does pop its head up in the strangest environments.

Activity One – Maths and Music

LO: To be able to recognise the link between maths and music in terms of counting
       Recognise how changing the length of notes can change a piece of music

It’s long been recognised that good musicians make good mathematicians and vice versa and this activity seeks to make the link between the two disciplines clearer. In fact the Old English word for number was ‘rim’ from where it is thought the words rhyme and rhythm come.

Music is all about timing – you need to count beats to play a piece as the composer wrote it, then there are the number of beats each note is held for which sets the overall tone of the piece.

This activity lets the children see how counting is linked with the playing of a piece of music.

Use the score from a recorder book and annotate the notes as to the number of beats it has. Play the piece and count the beats as you play.
Talking Point: How many beats are there in a bar? Does it vary with the style of music?

Now change the piece to all notes being the same duration and play it again.
Talking Point: What difference did it make? Can we recognise the piece still? Is it better or worse?

Ask the children to look at the number of beats that each style of note has
Talking Point: What do you notice about the sequence?

Now ask the children to compose a simple piece themselves that they can play on a recorder. Ask them to consider the length of each note they write and then get a partner to play it.
Talking Point: Did it sound like they intended it to?

At Home: Change the duration of the notes in your composition and play it again. Keep experimenting until you find an alternative you like.


Activity Two – Maths and Poetry

LO:  Be able to understand how poetry and rhyme depends on number sequences and patterns
         Experiment with different number patterns in the syllable count of poems to produce effect

Just like in music, poetry relies on maths through counting to help it rhyme, flow and have structure. This activity helps the children to see the importance of counting syllables to help a poem work.

Read the following poem to the children:
Today I wrote this poem,    (7 syllables)
but I'm not sure if it's good. (7)
It doesn't have the things (6)
my teacher says it should. (6)

It doesn't share the feelings (7)
I have deep inside of me.   (7)
There are no metaphors     (6)
and not one simile.     (6)

At this point the metre of the poem changes.
Talking Point: Get the children to count the syllables and then to say if they think the rhythm still sounds right.

It's missing some narrative.
Alliteration too.
It isn't an acrostic,
diamante, or haiku.

There's nothing that's personified.
It doesn't have a plot.
I'm pretty sure that rhyming
is the only thing it's got.

It sure was fun to write it,
and I think it's long enough.
It's just too bad it's missing
all that great poetic stuff.

I put it on my teacher's desk
and, wow, she made a fuss.
She handed back my poem
with an A++++!

Now try this one…

I went out to tea with my friend James today
He lives far away
He lives in a big caravan
With his pretty mum called Terri and his clever dad called Dan

Talking Point: Ask the children if they think this is a poem and how they came to their decision.

Some will say that it rhymes so it’s a poem whilst others will notice that the metre is awkward and despite rhyming words, it can hardly be called a poem.

Now investigate the syllable count of Haikus, sonnets, limericks and diamante poems. Do all of them follow the same syllable count? Do you think they all work? Which is your favourite?

At Home: Experiment with your own poem using a number pattern of your own. A simple one is similar to the diamante in doubling the syllables each time or alternate in a pattern such as 4,1,4,1 etc.

Activity Three – Maths and Art – the Golden Ratio

LO:  Understand how ratios are calculated

        Be able to identify where the golden ratio has been used in art and nature

The Golden Ratio has been talked about now for over 2,400 years and appears in many aspects of our daily lives. The ratio or approximations of it are used for architecture, postcard size, widescreen TVs and more whilst it is believed it’s also seen in nature, most prominently in the spiral of a nautilus shell. For the layman, it’s the measures used to make sure something looks aesthetically pleasing, be it buildings or paintings and is linked to perspective. Its use in art, despite being a mathematical expression, is a hot topic still today with academics arguing whether it was used deliberately in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Dali and Mondrian or whether their keen artistic eye simply found the best proportions anyway.

If you want the explanation of how to get the Golden Ratio, imagine two numbers. If the ratio of the bigger to the smaller is the same at the ratio of the sum of the two numbers to the bigger one then they said to be in the Golden Ratio.

Now for the activity…

Show the children a picture of a nautilus shell and trace the spiral with a thick pen. The picture the children are going to draw will imitate it using a mathematical sequence. 

Give each child a piece of cm2 paper and ask them to draw a square in the middle, 1cm x 1cm adding another above it. Then draw a 2cm x 2cm square alongside it then a 3cm x 3cm square underneath it. Continue drawing squares whose sides are that of the next numbers in the Fibonacci sequence so next they will draw a 5cm x 5cm square alongside it.

There’s no need to draw in the diagonals but instead use the measurements with a compass to make a quadrant where the quarter circles touch each other. Keep going and soon you’ll discover the picture is the same as the spiral of the nautilus shell. 

Now get the children to use a calculator to work out the ratio of each of the numbers in the Fibonacci series to each other. 

Talking Point: What do they notice about their answers?

They should find that the numbers begin to approach the Golden Ratio of 1.618.

You can follow up this activity with a look at the paintings which use the Golden Ratio in them such as Dali’s sacrament of the Last Supper and Mondrian’s Composition with Grey and Light Brown and ask the children to identify where the ratio has been used.

At Home: How many examples of the golden ratio can you find in your daily lives?

Encourage the children to look at buildings, playing cards, postcards, TV screens etc.

Dave Lewis

Primary Teacher

Primary Literacy - The Paralympics

Whilst the Paralympics would seem to give us plenty of scope for activities in sport and in maths, there’s a lot of English work that can easily be drawn out of it, linking to other curriculum areas. In the following activities we’ll show you how to use the event for some thought provoking English.

Activity One - Overcoming adversity

LO: To be able to ask relevant questions to obtain information
       To be able to plan an interview and take notes on the answers given

One of the overriding features of the Paralympics is the courage and motivation that athletes have had to enable them to avoid self-pity and to achieve a goal despite the adversity.

Many of us are faced with adversity in our lives and it’s the way we deal with it that defines us. In this activity the children develop interviewing techniques as well as gain an understanding into what it is like to be unable to compete on the same level as able bodied people.

The Organisation England Athletics supports disabled athletes in their sports and encourages local athletics clubs to do the same. 

Invite a member of your local club to visit school and to tell the children their story. The children should prepare questions beforehand to ask the athlete and focus on the level of determination it took for them to be able to compete in their chosen sport.

Follow this up with a citizenship lesson on facing and overcoming adversity, not necessarily a physical one but maybe one in learning or in social situations.

Ask the children to talk about things they find difficult to do, perhaps a particular subject or a topic in the subject and find out from them what their response is to facing the problem. Ask them to write a short piece comparing the difficulty they face with that the athlete did and identify similarities and differences.
At Home: Can the children find examples from other fields where people have overcome great adversity to be successful – examples could include Helen Keller, Beethoven, Einstein or Franklin D Roosevelt.

Activity Two – Biography

LO: To be able to write for different purposes and audiences
      To identify relevant information in research activities and make notes on it

There is often a tragic, yet ultimately heart-warming story behind the lives of disabled athletes. The website
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/25/disabled.athletes/index.html

lists some of the world’s greatest and best known disabled athletes and tells a little of their story.
Biography is a great writing skill to acquire and this activity helps the children to develop it.
Read the children the brief biographies given on the website and ask them to choose a disabled athlete that they want to find out more about. Use the internet to research key information in note form and ask them to write a biography of them.

Begin by reading a brief biography of a famous person to the children and ask them to tell you the features of the biography. They are likely to include that it’s chronological, deals with their family life to begin with then lists their achievements. It uses a lot of description but is still concise. It also uses no dialogue.
With younger classes you can use this template:

What is their name?

When and where were they born?

When and how did they become disabled?

How and when did they become interested in their sport?

What were the difficulties they faced?

How did they try to overcome them?

What successes have they had?

What are their hopes for the future?

Older children can still use the template as a guide, completing their writing as a passage rather than as a series of statements.

At Home: Ask the children to find out what the difference is between biography and autobiography and think of a way in which the two might differ in terms of how the subject is perceived.

Activity Three - Empathetic Poetry

LO: To be able to use the structure of a poem to help express the emotion of empathy
      To be able to respond empathetically to expressed emotions

Empathy is a difficult emotion to develop but by listening to stories of someone’s life and experiences together with the opportunity to talk about it afterwards, you can help children to develop empathy. Use one of the biographies from a previous activity, either one of the athletes or one of the other famous people who overcame difficulties or disabilities.

Questions are important here and you should begin by asking the children to think of what they’d like to find out more detail of about the person. Encourage them to ask questions which use emotion words such as ‘How did you feel when…?’ ‘What did people think when…?’ or ‘Did you think you would ever…?’
These kinds of questions elicit responses which the children can take a position on, either they will feel sorry for the person, pleased that they overcame the problem, in awe of their determination or proud of their achievements.

Poetry can be a very expressive way of showing emotions and no less so than to display empathy.
Depending on the ability of the children you can start them at different stages of the process in this activity.
For the less able, give them a template where they need to make a response to a statement. e.g. 

When I found out that I couldn’t walk...
When I found out I couldn’t run to play with my friends…
When I found I couldn’t see…

The responses could be in the simplest form as a verb such as ‘I cried’ or in a longer sentence.
More able children could use a template that allows for more detailed information such as…

When I see children running I..
When I hear children playing …
When a friend picks up a puppy …

The responses to these encourage a longer sentence with more emphasis on how they might feel if they can’t walk, don’t have functioning arms or can’t see.

Finally, the able poets in the class could really get to grips with feelings, either if it’s them in that position or if they see another with disabilities by starting their poem off with how they feel.

At Home: Use a dictionary or thesaurus to find words which convey feelings. Use them in the next English lesson to improve the verbs in your poem.

Primary Literacy - The Cultural Olympiad

You’d be right in thinking that the Cultural Olympiad would include many works by Britain’s most famous poets, writers and playwrights. Performances of plays, readings of extracts of famous books and recital of great poetry have all marked the Olympiad. In this series of activities you will introduce the children to some of Britain’s best loved poetry, the world’s most enjoyed stories and help them to use recognised plots in creating great stories of their own.

Activity One – Poetry Recital

LO: Be able to confidently recite a piece of poetry to an audience using expression, pace and dynamics
       Be able to learn a piece of poetry or prose off by heart

Reciting poetry develops speaking and listening skills, confidence and an understanding of poetry and prose. Children get too few chances to express themselves through performance these days with the crush of the curriculum but spending some time working on poetry recital is very worthwhile across the curriculum as it gives children the confidence to speak out and offer opinions.

Children are mainly exposed to modern and often humorous poetry but have little experience of more serious or classic poetry until they reach KS3. Begin by reading a poem to the children that is in a style and on a subject that may be unfamiliar to them. Suggestions include Christina Rossetti’s ‘A Birthday’ William Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ or for something a little different, Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘Talking Turkeys. You could also choose pieces from the LAMDA syllabus
http://www.lamda.org.uk/exams/candidates/subjects/documents/GradedExaminationsinCommunicationwebversion.pdf

You can of course choose your own poems but try to aim for ones that express ideas from other cultures or countries.

Begin by reading it in a normal voice avoiding emphasis and dynamics. Ask the children what they thought of the poem. Now read it with feelings, expression and dynamics and ask the children what they think now.
Write a simple phrase or sentence on the board, for example ‘No, I won’t go’

Talking Point: Discuss the different ways the sentence or phrase could be said.
Under what circumstances might we say the words in each of those styles?
Now choose one of the ways the children have suggested the words could be said, for example, in a whisper. Suggest to them that if this was a line in a poem, what lines might come before it and after it. You should find that they’ll suggest lines that indicate a secret or a desire not to be heard, for example…

Will you go with me?
‘No I won’t go’
I’m too scared

Ask the children to use the way they suggested ‘No I won’t go.’ might be said and to write the line before and the line after.

Talking Point: Ask the children to read out their work using the style they suggested. Ask the rest of the class if they think it worked with the additional lines.

The next step is to get children to practise a piece of poetry or prose for recital. You can do it formally by entering the children into the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) Speaking and Listening Exams or more informally, choose poems or prose from their syllabus and do it yourself in school. The document also gives guidance as to what the performer needs to do to recite it perfectly.

It’s good to give the children an audience so try to arrange an assembly when they can perform their pieces to the whole school.

At Home: It’s important for the children to practise their pieces and setting practice for homework means they get to perform it to family where they are likely to be more confident.

Activity Two – Using Plots in Different Settings

LO: Be able to identify the plot within a story
Use a recognised plot as a scaffold for rewriting the story in a different setting

Many of us will have been to performances of plays or operas, or seen them on TV where the original setting has been changed giving a freshness to the play or opera. One of the favourites of Hollywood is to use the plots from Shakespeare and place them in a modern setting.

For this activity, unless you’ve been studying a Shakespeare play in detail, you’ll need to start simply. Choose a play from the BBC Animated Shakespeare series and watch it with the children.

Talking Point: Ask the children to tell you what the plot of the story was. You may have to explain the word plot to younger or less able pupils.

Map out the plot on the board avoiding using specifics that tie it to the original setting and ask the children to think about how that plot could be transposed into say, the school playground, or a soap opera.

Write the story as a class on the board as a precursor to the children writing their own. Read out the class story and check with the children that they think the plot is the same.

Now choose a different play from the animated series and after identifying the plot, ask the children to write their own story using the plot.

At Home: Shakespeare’s plays had characters of different shades. Give the children a list of the ‘dramatis personae’ from the plays they’ve watched and ask them to sort them into good or bad characters. Many of his characters were influencers or influenced by others. Ask the more able children to decide which of these labels they would place the characters under.

Activity Three – Shakespeare’s Sonnets

LO: Identify and translate unfamiliar language in classic poetry using contextual clues
      Be able to identify the metre of sonnets and use it to maintain the style in work of their own

Shakespeare’s sonnets are some of the earliest forms of poetry that children will come across in school. They are quite hard to access but they provide a useful tool for decoding language and understanding the meaning of words and phrases.

Choose one of the better known sonnets such as…

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d
And every fair from fair sometimes declines
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Or lose possession of that fair thou ownest
Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou growest
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this and this gives life to thee

Read the sonnet to the children and ask them who they think it’s from and to.

Go through the poem and explain the meaning of thou, thy and thee.

Now ask the children for their ideas on the meanings of some of the more difficult words which are underlined. Encourage them to use contextual clues to help their suggestions.

Can they spot the use of metaphors in the sonnet?

Finally, give them a copy of the sonnet, double spaced, so they can try to turn it into modern language. Some of the less able may need help and it can be useful here to use learning partners.

At Home:  You’ll find that the translation will make the sonnet a little clumsy. As an extension activity or for homework, ask the children to rewrite their translation to make it flow better.