Activities

From DB Primary Wiki

Contents 1 Incorporating platform use into Topic Work 2 Blogs 3 Wiki Pages 4 Forums 4.1 Threads that lead into a new topic 4.2 Threads during topic work 4.3 Reflections on topic work 4.4 Literacy 4.5 Maths 4.6 Other Topics

Incorporating platform use into Topic Work

Blogs

• A reading record blog could be added to at home in the evenings/on weekend or holidays.

Children would include general thoughts about their books or more structured activities such as book reviews, newspaper articles linked to events in the book, lists of powerful : words, questions you would like to ask a character etc. Children could also use the draw tool to draw characters from their stories.

• Writing a blog from the point-of-view of one of the characters shown in a photo or picture.

View example

• Using the blog to record diet /exercise daily (Science / PE).

• Write a paragraph about what you got up to in your holidays or on the weekend. A recurring task can be set up if you want to remind the children to update their blog every week.

• Keep a learning diary. (Learning Logs can also be used for this purpose. See here for more information).

• Ask the children to carry out research to a current topic and to post on their findings on a blog.

Wiki Pages

• Post some web links for children to explore the topic if they are interested before the teaching of the work commences.

View example

• Set groups of children a task to find out and write about various aspects of the current topic. Assign each group an area of that topic to update as a wiki page.

View example

Forums

One way to look at forums is as a ‘virtual carpet time’ – an online space to have those conversations, question & answer sessions, discussions etc.

Forums can be used in a number of ways. Depending on their ability and the topic, children could make written or pictorial responses to a topic thread.

Remember, important threads can be made 'Sticky' so they don't get lost amongst the other stuff. This can be done in the edit view of the admin screen.

Also, teacher/admin users could use the admin tools (via the cogs) in a forum to keep them from getting too rambly.

Here are a few ideas:

Threads that lead into a new topic

• 'Ask a question about...' (kids can answer each other)
• 'What do you know about?'

Threads during topic work

• Use a picture to stimulate discussion about the new topic.

View example

• 'What’s your favourite toy?’
• 'Find some websites about...and share them on the forum'
• 'Draw a picture of...' (e.g. a minibeast)

Reflections on topic work

• 'What have you enjoyed about...?'
• 'What do you need more help on?'
• 'Tell us one thing you have learned about...'

Other possible threads:

Literacy

• 'Continue my sentence': the children add a sentence of their own to make a collaborative class story.

View example

• Make my sentence more interesting, for example:

Title: Help me out please Y5!

“Hi. Thanks for helping.

Would you mind making this boring sentence more interesting?

‘The cat walked into the garden.’

Thanks!”

• Make book recommendations and post reviews.

• Similarly, a reading record blog kept at home in the evenings/on weekend or holidays. Include general thoughts about their books or more structured activities e.g. book reviews, newspaper articles linked to events in the book, lists of powerful words, questions you would like to ask a character etc. Children could use the draw tool to draw characters from their stories.

• Have a discussion with a fictional character (Santa Claus, historical character).

• ‘Predict what you think will happen in the class book and why.’

• ‘Write a sentence with…’ ‘Write a paragraph that…’ etc.

• Post a picture, poem, other stimulus and invite pupils to contribute thoughts, adjectives etc.

• Create a class poem based on a stimulus such as an image or video.

View example

• 'What's your favourite nursery rhyme? Draw a picture!'

• 'What's your favourite moment in...?'

Maths

Maths Challenges could be set as a mental starter, plenary exercise or for homework. Click below to see a number of example you could use:

View some examples

Other Topics

• Discuss a photo or picture, e.g. 'Here's a famous painting of Henry VIII. What can you tell about his character or the Tudor times from what you see?'

View example

• ‘Moving to Year 3.’ A thread for children to share any anxieties or expectations about moving up to a new class and new teacher.

• Transition threads for children moving to a new school.

• Twinning threads with another school.

View example

• Weekly brain busters.

• Ask a controversial question: ‘Do aliens/UFOs exist?’

• School Council suggestions.

• Have a whole-school forum – ‘Do we have a problem with bullying?’ ‘What do you think of the uniform?’ etc.

• Post a stimulus (words, pictures, and video) and get children to think of questions.

• Ask a revision question. (Children help each other).

• School trips/residential visits – ‘What are you looking forward to?’ ‘What are you worried about?’ ‘What did you enjoy?’

• What’s in the news? – Discuss.

• Life’s huge questions – ‘Why is the earth spherical?’ ‘Why is the sky blue?’ etc.

• 'What am I?' Children practice their questioning skills. Choose an object, such as an animal or 'something found in school'. They must be questions that can be answered with a yes or no and children may only ask one question at a time. Also try 'Who am I?' for example a 'Mystery History Person'.

• 'Where am I going?' As above. Choose a destination. Children can ask questions which require a yes or no answer.

Note: In some cases you may want to moderate the forum, so that posts require acceptance by yourself before being published. To do this, click the cogs in the forum in order to take you to the advanced view. Select 'Forum Properties' and choose from the drop down. 'Topics Only' lets you accept or decline everytime a users starts a new forum topic. 'All posts' lets you accept or decline all forum topics and replies.

If you would like DB Primary to send an email to your DB email account every time someone replies to the topic, click on 'Watch Topic' in the cogs view.

Once a forum topic thread has run its course, you can close the topic by clicking on the topic title in the advanced forum view (via cogs), selecting edit and then changing the 'Current Topic Status' to 'Closed for further posts'.