Teach-Primary-Issue-19.7

teachwire.net/primary 25 I t was Christmas term 1988, I was in my probationary year at a primary school in Hounslow, and I was assigned management of the reindeer for the nativity play. I had thirty sets of antlers to conjure up. Cut to an afternoon of polythene sheeting on the classroom floor, overalls on, and sixty cardboard antlers cut out and painted by happy seven-year-olds; it was all sorted (or so I thought). However, it soon transpired that the weight of the paint on the slightly flimsy cardboard made the antlers bend and I was left with a class of children with dachshund-ear headbands instead of jaunty antlers. That night I dreamt the solution: drinking straws! Every day, each child had a carton of milk given to them at school – and with it, a drinking straw. Over the next two days, the children taped their drinking straws to their headbands and, hey presto, we had a full herd of smartly antlered reindeer. Future years saw similar adaptations; like the rainforest of paper-feathered parrots made out of loo rolls; saucepan drum kits; and hobby horses crafted from donated broom handles with stuffed socks for heads. It was practical, cheap, fun, inclusive and educational. Move forward a few decades to our world of tech and gadgets. The inventive and budget-aware teacher knows that, although it is essential to move with the times, traditional and practical core equipment is still at the heart of supporting healthy developmental skills. With a little bit of imagination, already-on-hand resources can offer just as much excitement, play and exploration for learning across the curriculum as anything new. For example: • Playground markings . A simple hopscotch grid, playground number square, Snakes and Ladders markings, or painted clock face is such a great way to get to grips with addition, division, multiplication, subtraction, and time through active play. All this learning is inspired by resources that the children associate with play and free-thinking, thus blurring the (sometimes daunting) distinction between formal lessons and playtime. • Readily available staples – like hoops, beanbags, jingle frogs, skipping ropes and balance benches – can have a second life as maths, creative writing and music resources. For example, can pupils describe the feeling and sounds of the beanbag as they scrunch it with their fingers and let it thump on the floor? Or, try stamping a rhythm (choose a simple, well-known song) by jumping over a long skipping rope, and see if the children can embellish it with handclaps and jingle frog melodies. • A fixed trim trail is also a common feature in primary school play areas, offering endless fun and helping children to develop their balance during breaktime. What if it were to become a treacherous Amazon rainforest rope bridge that needs to be traversed, or a rickety plank leading to a pirate ship, or a narrow path between crevasses in the Arctic? How amazing to experience the challenge before settling down to write about it, or sketch a map? Inexpensive portable sections plus mobile goal posts can be added (and used indoors) to refresh ideas. • The school hall doesn’t just have to be for PE, drama and lunch. Encourage pupils to arrange the PE balance benches and floor mats as a maze, seats on a bus, islands in a lake, hot and cold zones, or different planets. This will inevitably involve teamwork skills; learning to articulate and share plans; development of spatial awareness; the improvement of practical gross motor skills; learning to look at things from a different perspective; and scaffolding imaginative ideas. Suddenly, there is a real purpose to creative thinking: maps become physically interactive, and each child can participate and contribute within their own capability, whilst learning by watching what others come up with. This dynamic approach can engage the child who previously struggled with creative thinking, did not ‘get’ geography, or was limited by the confines of pen, paper, spelling and fine motor skills, while stimulating the already- thriving child to take their learning to the next level. Whilst new equipment and the wonders of modern technology offer a multitude of benefits, don’t forget to look at the resources your school already has, and breathe new life into these much-loved staples. TP Reclaimed LESSONS www.teachwire.net | 25 “A little bit of imagination can transform much-loved staples” Anderley Hampson is a former teacher with 35 years’ experience, and is now a copywriter for Sportsafe. sportsafeuk.com @sportsafeuk You don’t need shiny new resources for an engaging and lively curriculum– all it takes is a bit of creativity with what you’ve already got, says Anderley Hampson F EATURE S RE SOURC E S