Peace Day Activities

September 19, 2017 By Zoe Ross

peace-day-activities The 21st of September is the International Day of Peace (known as Peace Day) and we think that’s a pretty important topic to get children thinking about at the moment.

So, we thought we’d give you some activities you can do with a whole class, small groups of individual children (at home if you’re a parent).

We hope you have a peaceful day.

Overview

These activities look at what peace means around the day’s theme of ‘Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for all.’

Introduction (if needed)

Ask the whole class, ‘when you close your eyes and think of the word peace, or peace, what do you see in your imagination?’
Get them to write their ideas down, or draw a picture on a post it note and stick them on a board and discuss their ideas.
Ask what synonyms they could think of when thinking of the word peace, e.g. calm, serenity etc…and create a mindmap of them. They can use a thesaurus to help them (it is important that they understand the new word they have come up with.)

Activity 1: Peace Poem

Using the letters in the word PEACE ask children to work in groups, or work with them to come up with an acrostic poem.

Activity 2: Peace Pledge

Discuss with children what a pledge is, e.g. a promise or a guarantee.
Ask them what they could pledge for peace. Write the children’s ideas onto a mindmap, e.g. I pledge to think about the words I speak etc…
Write a class or home pledge. Each children could write one or two things and this gets put together as a whole class pledge and displayed around the classroom, school or home.

Activity 3: Images of Peace

Discuss with the children images of peace, e.g. a dove.
What other images can they think of which might represent different aspects of peace?
Using a range of different art materials ask children to create a collage of something that represents peace and being together as a class, e.g. a globe with children on the outside holding hands. This could be made into a display.

Summary:

Ask children to summarise their main points of learning regarding peace and what pledges they could make.

Extension

Children could create an assembly or song about peace and working together.

Click to download activities

Moving on Up: Helping year 6 prepare for secondary school

July 5, 2017 By Zoe Ross

Overview

It’s that time of the school year when Year 6 pupils are finishing their primary education and heading off into the big world of secondary school. It’s an exciting time, however it can also be a bit scary for some pupils, so this activity helps to talk through how they are feeling about the transition to secondary school and deal with any concerns in a positive way.

Time: 45 mins – 1 hour

Life timeline

Give out the ‘timeline worksheet’ to pupils (see download below).
Model how they can plot the main events in their life (they need only share things they are happy for others to know).
Give pupils 5 minutes to complete their timeline and share with a partner.
Ask pupils to highlight any events on their timeline which involved a change (i.e. starting primary school, moving school, moving house, their family changing etc).
Ask pupils who are willing to share how they felt at these different times. E.g.
- What change happened?
- How did it make them feel?
- What helped them to deal with the change?
Discuss as a class before asking what change is coming next for them: moving to secondary school.

Moving on up

Give out the ‘moving on up’ sheet and ask pupils to complete it individually.
Discuss their ideas as a class, pulling out any common themes in both what they are looking forward to (e.g. making new friends and learning new things) and what they are worried about (e.g. getting lost, not remembering books, getting to school, being bullied etc).
Write these on the board and explain you’re going to focus on any worries and how they can be dealt with.

Worry busting

Ask pupils to work in pairs or small groups and take one of their worries and discuss it for 1 minute maximum. Then, ask them to talk about what they can do to alleviate that worry.
Model this with one of the class examples.
- e.g. I’m worried about getting lost.
- Discuss why this is a worry for 1 minute maximum.
- Then discuss the practical ways you can stop it being so much of a worry (i.e. get a plan of the school, ask someone if they get lost).
Give pupils time to work through a few of their worries, encouraging them to focus on practical strategies.
Ask pupils to share their ideas, adding your expertise to the discussion.

Top tips for others

As a class or in small groups invite pupils to share a ‘top tips for moving to secondary school’ (this could be a simple list, a poster, or a video).

Ideas for extension:

You could share the top tips with other classes or with parents to help them to understand how they can support their child with the transition.
You could link with a secondary school to run this activity, so they can contribute their expertise.

Click to download lesson plan PDF

Click to download timeline worksheet

Click to download moving on up worksheet

Pre-SATS Body Scan Relaxing Meditation

April 25, 2017 By Zoe Ross

We know that SATs can be an anxious time for some children (and teachers and parents!). So Zoe has recorded a free audio for you to use with your children.

It’s a relaxing body scan mindful mediation that is just over 3 minutes long. Our chief year 6 testers said it helped them to feel a lot calmer!

We hope it helps – good luck!

Click to download

Spring Poem Lesson Activity

April 15, 2017 By Zoe Ross

Mind-Moose-Spring-Activity-Image This spring poem activity celebrates that spring has well and truly sprung here in the UK.

So, we thought we’d give you another free lesson activity to help you spring into the summer term (spring puns over!).

Overview

This KS2 spring poem English activity encourages pupils to share adjectives and feelings associated with spring and other seasons before writing a poem. You will need to print out copies for small groups of slides 7-10 or use slide 6 to create a spinner for each group (see downloads at the end).

Objectives

To use adjectives and creative vocabulary to describe the seasons.
To understand and express how the seasons can link to our emotions.
To develop written language by creating a poem based on the seasons.

Introduction

Ask pupils to share with a talking partner how they feel today (slide 3). You could use these emotion cards by the wonderful Bev Evans.
Take the ‘emotional temperature’ of the class by asking some pairs to share how they feel (or holding up their cards).
Discuss that how we feel can change based on a range of different factors (e.g. what we are doing and who we are with, what is going on in our lives, how much we slept last night etc).
Ask the class if they think that the seasons affect how they feel (slide 4). i.e. do they feel any different now it’s spring than they did in winter? Or do they feel better in summer? Explain that you will be exploring this in today’s lesson.

Words to describe the seasons

Take a look outside of the window and invite pupils to describe the signs of spring that they can see (slide 5). Make a list on the board.
Split the class into small groups and give out printed copies of the seasons cards or spinner (slides 6-10).
Give out large sheets of paper and ask groups to create a mind map of adjectives describing the seasons by taking turns to spin the spinner or turn over a card and each time writing an adjective to describe the season e.g. yellow or bright for summer, blooming for spring etc.
After a few minutes invite groups to stick up their paper and discuss their ideas as a class.

Seasons and feelings

Give out another sheet of paper to the groups and this time ask them to consider and explain how people might feel during those seasons. For example, they might feel happy in spring because they like seeing the flowers and eating Easter eggs!
Encourage pupils to think about people other than themselves too. E.g. they might feel happy in winter when they can play in the snow, but who might feel a different way?
After 5-10 minutes invite pupils to stick up their large sheets and discuss as a class. How do the different seasons make us feel and why? Are there any patterns? Highlight that even if most people feel one way, others can feel differently; there is no right or wrong answer.

Writing a spring poem

Explain to pupils that you would now like them to create their own spring poem using the work they have done so far.
Model how to take a season, an emotion word and an adjective to create a sentence. E.g. In spring I feel joyous with a yellow glow.
Invite pupils in their groups or individually to create a poem about the season they have chosen.

Review and wrap up

Invite pupils to share their poems and highlight how language can express our feelings.
As the poems are read, ask the rest of the class to close their eyes and listen to the poem, then share any pictures the poem being read brought to mind for them.
Ask pupils to share what they have learnt about the seasons and how the seasons can make us feel in today’s lesson. What one word would they use to describe how they feel about spring?

Ideas for extension:

Pupils could use expanded phrases within the poetry. E.g. The burning heat of summer, melted my heart and with it its worries.
The poems could be used to create a feelings/emotion display of the seasons and/or spring.

Click to download lesson plan

Click to download lesson presentation

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International Day of Happiness Activity

March 19, 2017 By Zoe Ross

Mind-Moose-Happiness-Day The 20th March is the UN’s 4th International Day of Happiness. So, after the success of our Kindness activities, we thought we’d give you a ‘Happiness’ Activity to use with your pupils and hope you enjoy it!

Click here to download PDF

Overview
This ‘happiness’ activity is suitable for any age and asks pupils to consider what ‘happiness’ really is and what it means to them.

Introduction

Give out flip-chart paper and pens to small groups of pupils.
Introduce the word ‘happiness’ and ask them to brainstorm onto the paper what they think happiness is.
Ask each group to present their flip chart to the class and discuss commonalitities and differences.

Main

Highlight from the flip-chart activity that happiness means different things to different people – and that’s fine as we are all different!
Introduce ‘World Happiness Day’ and explain that you’ll be looking at happiness in more detail and what it means to them during this lesson

What does happy feel like?

Ask pupils to think/pair/share what being happy feels like to them? (e.g. warm, safe, calm).
Discuss as a class and make a list on the board of the words they use.

What makes me happy?

Explain that it’s a good thing to know what makes us feel those feelings and ask pupils to share why they think that is the case? (So we can cheer ourselves up when we feel down, or can calm oursleves when we feel a bit stressed out, or just do the things that make us happy more so that we are happier in our lives).
Emphasise that often the things that make us happy are small, everyday things rather than large, extensive purchases!
Ask pupils to consider the things that make them feel that way. You could share your own example to help them (e.g. reading a book with the fire on and my dog snoring on my knee).
Give pupils 5 minutes to write in their books or on paper what makes them happy. You could split this into home / school and alone time.
If appropriate for your class, ask some pupils to share their examples.

Happy activities

Depending on the age of your pupils choose from:
- Ask pupils to write a poem or an essay about what makes them happy and why.
- Create a ‘happy display’ as a class by asking them to draw out and annotate one of the things they have identified that makes them happy. Add the words you used to describe how happiness feels and some add in happy stories and pictures.
- Ask pupils to view the research on what makes people happy and present their findings to the class.

Plenary:

Ask a few pupils to share their work and celebrate the happiness and warm, fuzzy feelings you have created in your class by focussing on happiness.
Ask pupils to ‘pass the happiness on’ by talking to at least one other person about happiness today.

Ideas for extension:

You could ask pupils to create and give a ‘happiness’ assembly, or simply to go and talk to another class about happiness.

Peace Day Activities

Moving on Up: Helping year 6 prepare for secondary school

Pre-SATS Body Scan Relaxing Meditation

Spring Poem Lesson Activity

International Day of Happiness Activity

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