Teach Primary 18.8

The clocks have changed. Shorter days and dark evenings are upon us, and winter is coming. Throughout history, people have created festivals and celebrations to help alleviate the winter darkness and build a sense of togetherness. Festivals such as Diwali, Hannukah and Christmas use lights to brighten up the darkness, with candles, lanterns, bright colours, bonfires and fireworks burning brightly. As well as having religious significance, celebrations like these help us cope with the gloom of the cold and darkness of long winter nights. So, let’s get your class exploring light and dark in time for the winter festivities. You’ll need the following materials for this lesson: • A collection of shiny and sparkly things in a bag – this can include crisp packets, sweet wrappers, shiny foil, old jewellery, beads, shimmering cloth, shiny ribbons, stars, tinsel, small plastic mirrors, etc. • Different light sources, such as small torches, battery-operated light strings and tea lights • Black cloth, several sheets of black sugar paper, some large sheets of black card • Pre-cut colourful cardboard shapes, including swirls, spirals, coils and stars • Smaller shiny art materials, such as reflective foil, tinsel and lengths of sparkly string • Glue and glitter • Coloured chalks, silver pens and fluorescent paint 1 | SIGHTS AND SOUNDS With the class seated in a circle, explore things that shine by passing around the bag of shiny and sparkly things and inviting individuals to take out a piece and describe what they have. Think about using the different senses: What can pupils see? What sounds do the materials make? What do they feel like? Put the pieces on a black cloth in the centre of the circle for everyone to see. Start to generate a word bank for any descriptive language – this is going to START HERE MAIN LESSON WHAT THEY’LL LEARN l To develop social communication, taking turns while working collaboratively l To build a richer vocabulary l To use observations to compose ideas orally ready for writing l To use a range of materials creatively to share their ideas and imagination Art Discuss the darkness in the evenings now the clocks have changed – what can children see in the night? Talk about the celebrations of Halloween and bonfire night and how we make pumpkin lanterns with glowing lights, and watch fireworks that brighten up the night sky. Explain that you’re going to explore light and dark. You’ll be looking at lots of different materials and thinking of vocabulary to describe what you see and feel, then setting up a sensory table. Finally, you’ll imagine a night sky with stars and fireworks, while working together collaboratively to make big collages. Make your own illuminated night skyscape Madeleine Fox shows how your class can find out about light and dark while creating imaginative artwork KS1 LESSON PLAN 96 | www.teachwire.net