Teach Primary Issue 18.6

76 | www.teachwire.net FLUFFY BUMBLEBEES Creating fluffy bumblebees will not only result in some rather charming bees to add to your own hive, it also gives pupils a chance to develop their fine motor skills. Ask the children to describe the distinctive pattern of a bumblebee – look at some photos if this helps. Tell them they are going to be creating their own fuzzy bumblebees by wrapping wool around a sturdy cardboard template. Take it further Book topic which events Norman might need to apologise to the bees for. (Eating all the honey in their secret honey store, lying about being a bee…) The pupils are going to make a ‘sorry’ card on behalf of Norman that he could send to the bees as an apology. They will need to write a sentence inside which describes what Norman is sorry for. Create a creature This text provides a great opportunity for children to play with words and create their own hybrid characters. Look carefully at the cover of the book. Identify the title, author, and illustration. Can pupils spot which two creatures have been combined to create a ‘bumblebear’? Which other part of the front cover gives us a clue? The children are going to create hybrid creatures of their own. You could randomly use two spinners to help children generate the first and second creatures to combine, or pupils could pick from a table with two columns. The first column will need to have the ‘starters’ of multisyllabic animals, for example, bumble, cater, ele. The second column needs to contain single syllable animals (shark, dog, cat, etc.) Once children have got their animal names, the should draw a picture of their creature, adding a sentence describing what it looks like. As an extension, pupils may like to create a labelled diagram of their creature, or include additional sentences describing their character, diet, or preferred habitat. Norman’s daily planner The Bumblebear lends itself beautifully to exploring several KS1 maths objectives. In the story, readers get to see the timetable for Norman’s day, which is obviously a great match for the objectives of ordering events and telling the time. Ask the children what activities Norman completes during his day. How can we tell in which order he does them? At this point, children might point out the clocks, or the sequencing words used in the text (then, before…). Ask the children to sequence a jumbled-up version of Norman’s timetable, using the clocks in the book to help them. Are any of the activities in Norman’s day the same as the children’s? What other lessons do we have each day? Can pupils sequence picture of these and match the correct clock? In another twist, the children could have a blank clock for each activity and draw the time onto it themselves. Include some on the hour and at half past. Honeypot inventory Recap on age-appropriate vocabulary for capacity. Which terms can the children remember? Ask the children to sort containers filled with liquid into sorting hoops labelled ‘more than half full’ and ‘less than half full.’ As a challenge, the hoops could overlap to have a category in the middle. Can the children say what should go there (half full)? Can pupils order the honeypots from least full to most full? Add appropriate labels to denote how full they are, using the vocabulary discussed in the lesson introduction. Honey store hunt Tell the class that the bees have moved their honey to a secret storeroom to try and hide it from Norman. The children are going to help Norman navigate his way to the storeroom. Have children stand up and physically demonstrate moving whole, half, and quarter turns. Practise stepping forwards and backwards (or north, south, east and west, depending on your class.) Translate these movements onto a paper grid or a grid on an interactive whiteboard screen. Model how to follow simple instructions to navigate a character around the grid. Now give the children pre-written