Getting Inspired

So there’s a  big box and it’s  just sitting under the IWB. What was in the box? Do you think we should open the box? Who does it belong to? What if…? I’m sure you know where this is going: it generates lots of ideas and discussion which you could string this out for weeks.Inside the box is a large treasure chest and this starts the discussion off again: should we tell others about it or keep it as a secret just for us? Should we share it with others in assembly? What if the contents are poisonous – what could we do? And so it goes on…

The chest it was full of eggs (which started off a whole load of What ifs…? and other questions yet again) and in the eggs were little creatures called Querks who come with their own little ‘accessories’ which turn them into more ‘normal’ every day creatures. There was also a book, and plentyof ideas of how the Querks could be used or the topics they could be linked to (Inclusion, PSE, Geography, Animal/Habitats…the list went on). Other ideas that could inspire the pupils could be making it look like a crater or spaceship had landed in the school grounds, leaving clues around the classroom that suggest someone has been there. I’ve also learnt this week how to create a string poem. If you’ve not heard of a string poem before, here are some instructions: String Poem

My ICT tip today is visual literacy themed  – the delights of Deviant Art.  It’s a good place to find interesting pictures (and occasionally videos) that could be used as a basis for visual literacy. Unfortunately it is one of those sites that gets filtered out at our school but it is a fabulous site and well worth exploring at home in the evenings to get a bit of inspiration. As a starting point I have searched through and found some interesting images the night before and prepared them in PowerPoint format. You can see the ones I chose – I split them into three slideshows: Visual Art – Portrait images, Visual Art – Landscape images and, my particular favourite, Visual Art – Into your world – great images of imaginary creatures, and their habitats, from an artist listed as Tommi_75 (who also has a lovely selection called mechanimals too).

To stretch the use of these pictures (and the links to ICT) I suggest people use a zoom tool (like ZoomIt or even the magnifier in Windows accessories) to zone in on areas, or use the spotlight tool on ActivInspire to reveal little bits at a time before revealing the whole image. Another idea could be to import the image into something like LinoIt or Dabbleboard so that the pupils could annotate around it or answer questions posed by the teacher (or each other). You might have other ideas for the images but the site definitely falls into my ‘must see’ category.

Celtic Times

Not all schools cover work on the Celts and there is very little out there on the internet for this topic. Now, as luck would have it, I do know a fair bit about the Celts having covered it in the past.. Luckily there are some great resources available via the BBC: the BBC Celts site (for schools in Wales) and a fabulous animation showing how roundhouses were constructed. These are a good starting point for a number of activities: you could plan a literacy one based around instruction writing and time connectives using the roundhouse reconstruction and an internet research and post it challenge on based on using the other site and comparing our life to that of the Celts. If your not going to be working with ICT, or even if you are, then it’s worth exploring a Celtic design theme, which could be loosely based around maths and symmetry, where pupils have to  design, sketch and paint their own Celtic style designs. You could use the internet (and books to) research designs: there are plenty of Celtic arts and crafts on display, many of them really beautiful and inspiring. But what if you want to tie all these activities together at the end of your session? Here’s a plenary idea…

Why not introduce an online post it too for recording facts? Now, you could go with Wallwisher, which is a fantastic tool and I’ve it used before, but I’ve recently come across something that is a little bit ‘friendlier’ looking called Lino it. Lino is definitely a crowd pleaser – everyone can engage with it at their own level and you can import images and other file types in addition to adding written content. And, the best thing, it’s free. So why not try it as a way of finding out and recording how much your children have got out of a lesson!