Entries Tagged 'PfS on the Road' ↓

Students in Mr Farthing’s and Miss Wallis’ class have been taking part in ‘Corby Reads with PfS’ today. They have been working with Miss Letts, Mrs Weedon and Ryan Lovell, the football coach from Rushden and Diamonds FC. Rob Jones, the centre manager from the Diamonds Study Centre also dropped in. Throughout the day they have taken part in literacy activities based around sport.

To find out more about ‘Corby Reads with PfS’, and to see the scheme of work (mapped with reading skills and national curriculum levels) used, visit:

http://ontheroad.northantsstudycentres.org/corby-reads-with-pfs/

Here are some of their evaluation comments:

Tyler: “We’ve been reading stories and writing comments, watched a movie looking at facial expressions.”

Ben: “We looked at different letters to make lots of words”

Melise: “We looked at bend it like beckham the book and then we looked at a bit of the movie and it was cool !!!!”

Lewis “We played games and did ICT. We found out about fact files. I enjoyed it”

“I really enjoyed playing football.”

Vanessa “I liked it when we played games with Ryan and when we copy and pasted pictures and words for player profiles.”

Only the year 5 children took part in the PfS lessons this week. We played some team games which focus on co-ordination, teamwork, communication and social skills. The group struggled a bit with group juggling but soon got the hang of it. They enjoyed ‘click clacks’ too.

The ICT lesson was around the Olympics logo, and the group looked at past media coverage of when the logo was launched and the reaction to it. We talked about why we liked/disliked it, the cost, risk of epileptic seizure, London icons and whether we could have designed a better one.  The children used color magic to design their own, thinking of ways to encourage people to come to London 2012.  They used sporting images as well as London’s sites and the Olympics rings. They had to think of a catchy slogan. For more on this, visit http://www.london2012.com/ and for the controversy, visit GoLondon’s pages

For literacy, the students used some ‘Tackle Learning’ resources to exoplore the qualities of a good captain. (such as motivating others, respect of others, good knowledge of the game, most skillful player, being patient…) After a group ‘mind shower’, they had to discuss and agree in their pairs the priority they would give to the various qualities. They were asked to report back to the class and explain/write down their choices. There were some really good ideas and explanations and it was agreed that some of the qualities had equal importance. The pairs found it difficult prioritising the qualities.

Next we looked at preparations for a rugby match. The pairs were asked to sort cards into three categories: items/actions needed before a game, items/actions needed during a game and items that would be needed at hand. These included: knowledge of the rules, letting injuries heal, first aid kit, trimming finger nails (!), drink plenty of water, get some rest, referee, pitch inspection and so on. Everyone came up with a list, usually finding one category to be much larger than the others. A group dicussion found that several of the items could fit in more than one category and we talked about why, using examples. The children showed some complex thinking and were able to relate to the context of a rugby game.

On Saturday 7th March, students from House Martins’ class (and a few ‘returners’ from Wrens and Ravens) attended a NTFC match with their parents/relatives as a reward for their hard work in ‘PfS on the Road’ sessions. The game was against Tranmere Rovers, ending in a 1-1 draw. The action was end to end, with exciting near misses. It really could have been anyone’s game.

For the full match report, visit NTFC’s homepages

House Martins yesterday read a chapter from the famous book ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ and took part in a literacy activity on how the main character Jess felt at particular points during it. The children analysed her reactions to racist language and how she dealt with falling out with her friend, the opposition fouling her, the manager Joe having a go at her and scoring a goal. Everyone came up with some really good explanations about Jess’ feelings and emotions.  They examined the chapter’s text and used it to back up their ideas. Afterwards we watched the corresponding DVD extract, which confirmed our ideas. Watching out for facial expressions and body language was key as the extract is quite short.

In ICT, the group created their own version of ‘Room 101′. They used persuasive language to explain why they wanted to banish certain items/people into Room 101. These included everything from boys, to dogs, swans, bendy buses, school, jellyfish, homework and teachers! The children were very good at putting in excellent adjectives to sway Miss Letts and Mrs Weedon when it came to voting ‘yay or nay’ about what went in. About half of the pairs got their way and after each person read their work out, lively discussions were held.

House Martins used teams in the European Champion’s League to do their geography work yesterday. In ICT, they put together factsheets about various teams and cities like Barcelona, Munich, Liverpool, Manchester, Inter Milan, Roma, Juventus, PSV Eindhoven, PSG Paris. They had to research facts on the internet and create a powerpoint factsheet covering famous buildings, famous events/festivals, club logo, city motto, language and so on.

Back in the classroom, students used atlas’ to find the locations of the European teams on a map. They used indexes and grid co-ordinates to estimate where to place the teams’ logos. Mrs. Weedon and Miss. Letts were very impressed with their geography skills and many pupils commented that doing geography this way made them more interested in the subject.

Check out their blog to see what they had to say about the sessions so far…

When asked how the children had been getting on in their ‘PfS on the Road’ sessions with Miss Letts and Mrs Weedon, they had this to say…..

Jack: “The football was good, we did some passing and 2 balls keeping still. It helped me and the coach told some jokes.” (zip it .com)

Sammy “I think the lessons are fun, we learn while having fun so that’s more fun. I have learned more things about football.”

Farren “When we did the trying on rugby stuff it was really funny. We learnt about what they wear.”

Max “The football was really cool. The lessons are fun because you don’t do lessons, you talk about football.”

Sam “This has made me more interested in football, I have started watching football and collecting Fifas. The lessons have helped me concentrate, know more things and feel more confident.”

Chloe D “The lessons  are fun, they have built my confidence because it isn’t boring where the teacher talks a lot. It has boosted my confidence in writing, I find my thoughts hard to put down on paper and I am not very good with my imagination. I have to think more in these lessons.”

James “I think I have become more confidence as the lessons are fun. We do stuff about sport, helps me learn as we learn about where teams are.”

Thomas “I am getting more confident in my work and generally with people. I am a quiet person, I am now a lot more chatty”

Shannon “I have been learning that football isn’t so dangerous. The rudgy kit isn’t as heavy as it looks on TV. The lessons help me realise that I thought geography was boring but it’s not because we don’t just sit there, we do stuff.”

Lucy “I think that learning like this has helped me, learn with other people, not just my friends. I have started working with Shannon. The learning is fun, better than learning learning. We get motivated because usually in normal lessons we write a lot. Here we get into it a bit more than usual. I like the breathing lessons, they calm me down at the end of the lesson when I am excited”.

Connor “I have been learning about football, what clothes rugby players wear, where they play. I like working with different people.”

Caroline “I think that it’s different to other lessons. It’s fun, I didn’t like sports before but I’m getting into it now. It’s not just kicking a ball around, it means something different to supporters.”

Luke “The football was fun, we played a game where we ‘did this, did that’ (Simon says). The lessons are different, its things you know about. Normal maths and english not so fun.”

Tommy “I think we are learning but we don’t realise we are, I like the lessons because it doesn’t feel like lessons, its fun.”

Lewis “We do stuff in a  fun way, where places are, maths. Using sport is better for me as I like sport and I don’t get bored.”

Luke “We held cards with adding, taking. It was mental maths, we had to do it quickly. We did PE, we learned how to pass, score goals. The coach was friendly, I enjoyed the matches”

Jordan “I like how you can do maths in a different way. It has helped me learn more things I like.”

Ellis “The football PE was great as the coach taught us to play, even those people who couldn’t play.”

Monty “The lessons are fun, ICT, book work.”

Rebecca “The lessons are fun in many ways, you get taught in a fun way.”

William “I think it’s interesting because I learn. I like working with different people. It makes me a bit more interested in sport. ”

Charlie “Quite fun, it’s not like normal lesson, we do exciting things. I like it better than normal ICT.”

In ICT today, (week 3) the children analysed, compared and contrasted sports adverts. They had to examine the persuasive language used in the slogans, the layout and colours as well as thinking about who would buy the items and why. Adverts included Tetley’s beer, Coca-Cola, tickets for women’s football games, trainers, Guiness and sponsorship deals.

After a note-taking exercise about the Saints rugby kit, the class designed their own adverts about a piece of the equipment. They used the information they had recorded to sell the items based on safety, comfort, design, flexibility and materials used. Of course they tried on the kit to make sure it could stand up to all that they were claiming.

In the second week, students started their ICT sessions by researching sports websites to construct player profiles. They had to find and edit interesting facts about their players and make an attention-grabbing powerpoint. The hardest part was narrowing down the google searches to find specific pieces of information.  

The ‘Hot Air Balloon’ literacy game focusses on speaking and listening skills. In pairs, the children had to write persuasive paragraphs as to why their sports player should gain a place in the hot air balloon saving them from a desert island. As there were only 6 places available, and 15 pairs, there was fierce competition. The whole class voted for the most persuasive speeches to see who would be saved. All the speakers were confident and used their voices to help persuade us.

A quick mental maths game with playing cards finished the afternoon. Everyone worked hard and showed how well they can listen to each other.

To find out more about Towcester Primary doing ‘PfS on the Road’, visit their page.

For the schools’ website, follow this link:  http://www.towcesterprimary.northants.sch.uk/

Year 5/6 children in House Martins class at Towcester Primary school started their term of ‘PfS on the Road’ last week. Last term, Ravens and Wrens worked very hard with Anna and Helena in their literacy, numeracy and ICT work. We think House Martins will do the same.

The first week was a ‘getting to know you’ week, with player card maths, ‘relax kids’ activities and a combined literacy/numeracy programme trail using NTFC resources. Everyone tried their hardest and staff were very impressed with the determination shown when doing the programme trail. The work was for older children but House Martins coped brilliantly and showed they are a bright bunch.

Mrs. Weedon says: “My team worked really well on the player card maths and worked superbly as a team. They gave advice to the other team on how to improve their team skills.”

The class are working in teams: Barcelona and Real Madrid, to collect goals. Miss Lipinsky is in charge of Barcelona and Mrs. Weedon is in charge of Real Madrid. We are keeping an ongoing league table in the classroom.

Wrens and Ravens certainly put their ‘all’ into their stadium scenarios. They played the parts of stewards, fans, car park attendants and bystanders. To see more, visit the school’s page.