RE
Exploring a faith in full
Top Trumps brings Hinduism to life
Explore key aspects of the Hindu faith with this collection of resources. There is a useful overview of Hinduism supplied by Loulieb, while key stage 1 pupils will enjoy a story about twins Seema and Ranji, who live in a village in Wales, as an introduction to Hindu worship and traditions.
BexMO has uploaded a set of Top Trumps cards about Hindu gods, most suitable for K^S2 children. Pupils can compare the characteristics of gods and learn what they symbolise. Missjulieclark created a worksheet of the Hindu home shrine, which pupils label with the correct terms, such as “prashad”.
She has also uploaded a PowerPoint lesson on how Hindus celebrate the birth of a baby - it looks at the ceremony of Jatakarma, performed as soon as a baby is born. The baby is cleaned and placed in the father’s lap, given a spoonful of honey and ghee. The father whispers a prayer in his or her ear and the baby has been welcomed into the world.
For an overview of Hindu festivals, go to Jolfair’s “big book” of Hindu facts and festivals, or lorraineterris’s PowerPoint resource on Holi, the festival of light. TES Resources has also pulled together relevant QCDA schemes of work for years 3 and 4, which can be found at the link below.
tes.co.ukre-hinduism
English
Fantasy stories
Flights of fancy to stimulate young imaginations
This collection of adventures and magical stories, from TESiboard, will help to develop pupils’ imaginations, giving them ideas for their own stories and imaginative play. The stories feature a brother and sister, Connie and Bobby, who visit a parallel world through a special tree in their garden. The stories tend to start with an everyday situation but take an imaginative turn where the children embark on an adventure.
During these escapades, they meet and help magical characters. In The Ogre’s Birthday, Connie and Bobby follow a mouse into the Ogre’s castle and, initially fearful, end up helping the Ogre to celebrate his birthday in style.
Each story includes a magic wand feature that pupils can use to separate the characters from the story and rebuild it using their imagination. In addition, there are resources that allow them to focus on or compare specific characters. Pupils can also choose a “one scene focus” where they can dictate the expressions of the characters, their surroundings and their props.
All of the stories come with adaptable Word documents that teachers can use for writing tasks.
tes.co.uktesiboard-fantasystories
News
Racers hurry up
Schools have just a week left to sign up for a national run to promote exercise and healthy eating. More than 4,000 schools are expected to take part in the 2k Tesco Great School Run, which was launched in 2005. The event can be held any time before 17 June and schools signing up before 20 May will get a teachers’ pack, including race numbers, posters and a guide to taking part. For details, go to www.greatschoolrun.org
Put your art in it
Access Art is running a four-week evening course on developing sketchbook skills. The sessions are aimed at teachers and practitioners and take place in Cambridge from 7 June. To book a place, visit www.accessart.org.ukevents^?p=533
Script doctors
Pupils have the chance to see their Doctor Who script come to life in a nationwide competition. Script to Screen, open to Years 5 and 6, challenges pupils to come up with a three-minute script featuring the 11th doctor, Matt Smith. The winning class will see the cast and crew perform their piece. Details are available from www.bbc.co.ukteachers
Maths
Fractions
Fast-moving games and number machines
Introduce key stage 2 pupils to numerators, denominators and equivalence with these TESiboard resources on fractions.
These activities include a fraction machine tool which allows pupils to compare two sets of fractions and make them equivalent by using illuminated blocks, and a marble tray where pupils label the proportions of red and blue marbles in fraction form.
There are also a number of activities looking at mixed and improper fractions, including a fast-moving game where pupils have to put pizza slices into whole and partial boxes to demonstrate mixed fractions.
As well as iboard activities, TES users have also uploaded a number of useful fractions resources. Ravenking has designed a game called “equivalent dominoes”, where players have to match fractions to their equivalents. Clangercrazy has come up with a maze where pupils must work out the correct fraction of various amounts to find their way to a pot of gold. J.M Powell, meanwhile, asks children to use small boxes of Smarties to work out the fraction of each colour represented in their box.
Fractions and their decimal equivalents are featured in a collection of worksheets uploaded by TES web staff, while Shahidayasmin has provided a resource that looks at fractions of shapes.
For revision of fractions, there is a series of videos from mathsmaster.org that covers all the main objectives. Share this with pupils for independent learning opportunities.
tes.co.ukks2-fractions.
