How to teach ... Chinese year of the monkey

From exploring our simian relations to creating Chinese art and learning Mandarin, here’s our guide to teaching this festival.

Are you a rat? A tiger? Maybe you’re a dragon? Don’t worry, we’re not talking about your staff room persona – although we can all probably think of a snake or two – but rather the signs of the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese lunar new year and the beginning of the year of the monkey starts on 8 February. It’s a time of celebration and new beginnings, and a great way to introduce your students to another culture. So how best to bring a bit of monkey business to your classes?

Primary

This comprehensive year of the monkey education pack from the British Council is an excellent place to start. It includes detailed lesson plans and resources looking at the history of the festival, creative tasks such as making indoor kites and Chinese opera masks, and a research project on the endangered snub-nosed monkey.

For more background on the celebrations, this simple video will give your students an understanding of the Chinese calendar and its roots in the legend of a swimming race between animals of every species. And once your pupils have got to grips with that story, they can create their own tales with this simple monkey-themed story starter from PrimaryLeap. This comprehension activity uses a character called Marcus the Monkey to present a series of monkey facts before asking pupils to demonstrate their understanding with a quiz.

This Chinese new year-themed worksheet from TeachIt takes the traditional colour of the festival, red, and uses it as the basis for games and poetry-writing. Sticking with tradition, Twinkl has this resource that asks pupils to imagine how they would make use of the envelope of money given out for the festival, as well as a series of writing frames based on the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Twinkl also offers these Chinese zodiac-themeddecorative borders for writing tasks and animal-adorned posters of numbers for a numeracy reminder. If you want to go further in decorating your room for the festival, these resources from the British Council will show your students how to make Chinese hand scrolls and traditional lanterns.

How to teach ... cold and flu

From making cuddly bacteria to lessons on Louis Pasteur, here’s our guide for teaching your students the basics of avoiding the dreaded lurgy.

Winter brings lots of wonderful things – a new year, snow, the chance to break out your scarf collection. But they are all doomed to arrive during the most disgusting time of the year: cold and flu season. For those in schools, each day brings a chorus of other people’s coughs and sneezes, and a gauntlet of germs to dodge. So how can you teach your students the basics of staying healthy?

Primary

For key stage 1 pupils, this three-lesson module – linked to the science and personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum – from Share Good Times Not Flu offers a simple overview of what it means to be healthy and how exercise, diet and hygiene can help your young charges stay that way. A key stage 2 version, also made up of three lessons , goes into greater detail about how germs enter the body through coughs, sneezes and unwashed hands, and how good hygiene practices can keep them out.

This resource pack from e-Bug offers a variety of fun ways to look at germs and microbes, including yeast races (exploring how microbes cause dough to rise), an experiment to see how far germs can spread through handshakes (using glo spray), and a toothbrushing tracker to highlight the importance of oral hygiene.

This guide to preventing the spread of bugs through handwashing, also from e-Bug, uses quizzes, colouring and a bowl of water and pepper (yep) to teach pupils the power of soap and water. And you can decorate your classroom with this accompanying poster to reinforce the message.

This US guide provides more puzzles, word searches and songs (“If you’re happy and you know it, scrub your hands!”) to ensure your little ones remember to clean their mitts, whileHygiene4Health offers a variety of resources on the topic, including this poster explaining the principles of good hand hygiene.

How to ... turn your classroom into a haunted house

Deck out your classroom for a spooktacular Halloween with pumpkin lanterns, scary sudoku and ghostly faces.

It’s Halloween again, the only time in the teaching calendar when it’s perfectly acceptable to come into school dressed as Dracula and plaster your classroom with spiders, ghosts and pumpkins. Creating your very own haunted classroom is an exciting, if ambitious, way to celebrate. For those willing to go the extra Halloween mile, here’s our crafty guide:

Draw your students in

A haunted pathway leading up to your classroom – refuse bags are really useful for this – will capture imaginations. You can hang spiders (see below for tips on making these), streamers and tape above it. Make a sign to direct students to your spooky setting or, for a novel twist, create a treasure hunt for students. Check out this example for inspiration.

Come up with a theme

Pirates, creatures of the night, or goblins and ghosts – there’s lots to choose from. If your theme is a haunted hospital, for example, create a section of the classroom with gruesome body parts, such as eyeballs (grapes) and brains (noodles). Or if you’re showcasing creepy creatures, put false spiders in jars filled with hand sanitiser – they’ll look eerily suspended. For more inspiration, check out these drawing exercises that explore the symmetry of black widow spiders and vampire bats.

Create an atmosphere

The sounds of your haunted setting (of which there are lots to choose from online) will have students on the edge of their seats. Involve them in creating a creepy atmosphere by getting them to record their own piece of spooky music ahead of the lesson. Or get everyone involved in a singalong with these spooky song lyrics from Musical Contexts, which can be sung with familiar tunes such as The Addams Family .

Create effective lighting by making a leaf from green card and cutting orange card into strips to make pumpkins. Put flameless tea lights at their centre for a safe but spooky mood setter.

How to teach … Mars

Is there life on the red planet? Could you colonise it? Inspire students across the curriculum with our lesson resources.

Mars has been the subject of human fascination for a long time, and we’re closer now than ever to sending humans to explore its surface. With the revelations that there could be flowing water (and possibly life) on it – and the release of Matt Damon’s new film, The Martian – now is a great time to engage your students in the red planet.

Here are some out-of-this-world lesson ideas to help you.

Primary

Challenge children to find out where Mars sits in our solar system with this wall chart and poster planet guide. Once they’ve located it, set your young astronauts a mission to find out more: how far is Mars from the sun? How many moons does it have? Students can record their ideas in this Mars-themed log book with from Twinkl.

With the basics covered, you can compare Mars with Earth using this poster from Nasa. What similarities and differences can they find? There are variety of classroom activities to keep young minds interested, including making a model of the solar system using coloured beads and an explanation of how to calculate the distance between the two planets.

Step into the unknown with Mars Adventure, an online group problem-solving exercise that gives students 10 minutes to select 10 items they would pack for a journey to the red planet. Points are awarded for the suitability of each item, with a final score revealed when the rocket is ready for blast off.

But what is life like when you get to Mars? This resource on building a space habitat has been designed to get students thinking about their needs and how these could be met so far away from home. In groups, ask your class to consider what kind of structure they would opt to live in – a geodesic dome or an inflatable habitat? Get them to list the features it would need to have and produce a labelled diagram before building a model.

Intergalactic lessons: five creative ways to teach about space

Create your own big bang in the classroom with our lesson ideas, including making edible meterorites and studying real lunar rocks.

When Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the dusty surface of the moon, Armstrong summed up the epochal event with the famous words “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

The first moon landing will be remembered for centuries to come and this summer (Monday 20 July 2015) marks 46 years since it happened.

The anniversary is a great launching pad for teaching about outer space. We’ve gathered a few creative intergalactic lesson plans below – including edible meteorites and studying real lunar rocks. Our list isn’t exhaustive, however, so feel free to offer your own ideas in the comments thread below, or tweet us your favourites @GuardianTeach.

Borrow the moon

Get engagement levels soaring by bringing in real moon rock. The Science & Technology Facilities Council loans out moon rock, brought back to Earth by Nasa’s Apollo astronauts in the late 1960s and early 1970s, free of charge.

Advice on the website says that teachers should reserve samples four months in advance, and each loan comes with a wide range of support materials including books and DVDs. For example, as part of the Earth science unit at key stages 2 and 3 you can use the rocks to hold a talk exploring what lunar idioms and expressions mean. Teach about the differences and similarities between the Earth and the moon, as well as whether humans could survive there. There are plenty of ideas here on how to use the samples with secondary students.

Edible meteorites

Explore chondrules and fusion crust by making edible meteorites from peanut brittle and chocolate brownies. This resource, designed by Nasa, is aimed at 10- and 14-year-olds (fifth to eighth grades) in the US to help teaching the exploring meteorite mysteries unit. It can easily be adapted for other curriculums, however, including the Earth science unit in the UK.

How to teach ... yoga

Back bends, side bends and pretzel twists – here’s how to stretch students’ minds and bodies through yoga.

Students with legs squeezed into chests and arms in the air can mean only one thing: yoga in the classroom.

The physical benefits of this exercise are well-known, but it also has educational benefits, such as improved attention, self-confidence and relaxation.

So this week on the Guardian Teacher Network, we offer a collection of ideas and lesson resources to stretch your students’ minds and bodies through yoga.

A quick-and-easy way to get started is by using short yoga-based exercises in the classroom. These activity cards by Yoga 4 Classrooms can be particularly useful to help centre students before a lesson or to regain focus if a class becomes restless.

The cards cover six areas: breathing, loosening up, stretching, standing strong, feeling well and being mindful. They give clear instructions and all of the activities can be done while standing beside or sitting at desks. Examples include a “corkscrew stretch” and “pretzel twist” to help students re-energise.

Follow up this activity by asking students to create activity cards of their own. Get them to write step-by-step instructions with illustrations; they should be able to explain the benefits of their exercise. Groups can then try out each other’s cards. Alternatively, challenge students to use the cards to create a sequence of between two and five actions for a chosen time of day, or to address a particular issue. For example, “When I am frustrated, I can help myself to calm down by … ” or “When I need a break from writing it can be helpful to … ” The full set of Yoga 4 Classrooms activity cards is available here.

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere!

Bubbles are scientific?

That was the question I had when I first realized there was a Bubbles show at Science World at TELUS World of Science. Then, after watching the show and learning more about bubbles leading up to doing my own first Bubbles show performance, I learned that there is actually a lot of science and math involved. Even more, there’s a special chemistry and geometry when it comes to making bubbles.

What's bubble chemistry?

 

Well, bubbles are more than just a soap solution filled with air. Bubbles are actually made from a bubble film that looks like a sandwich with soap on the outsides and water on the inside. The soap works to reduce the surface tension of water so that the water can stretch. This means that bubble film is elastic and stretches out and snaps back to its original shape.

 

 
Why are bubbles round?
This is where the math comes in. Forming a bubble takes energy and bubbles want to form a shape that is the least stretched out. This shape must have the least amount of surface area for its size. The shape that results is a sphere. This is why bubbles are round when they are floating through the air around us!

How to teach … Halloween crafts

Ever used pumpkin carving designs to teach reflective symmetry? Use art to trick your students into an educational treat.

Halloween has become a major event in many school calendars, with fun days and fancy dress parades galore.

This week the Guardian Teacher Network is getting into the spirit of All Hallows’ eve with a goody bag of themed arts and crafts lesson ideas – perfect for tricking students into an educational treat.

Classroom decorations are the first port of call. Students can make their own skeletons by cutting out the pieces of this template by Teaching Ideas and attaching them together with brass paper fasteners. They might also enjoy making a 3D witch puppet. This idea from Sing Up involves decorating a wooden spoon with materials including wool, felt and foam. As a follow-up activity, students could work in groups to perform – and even write the script for – a short Halloween play.

Dressing up is at the heart of Halloween, but rather than relying on extravagant shop-bought ensembles, why not encourage pupils to make their own? A good starting place might be these masks for a maned wolf, dyeing poison frog or green anaconda. Before students get sticky with the masks, teach them about the animals of Brazil which the templates represent, using this lesson plan and presentation created by the conservation charity ARKive.

Carving a pumpkin is too tricky (and potentially dangerous) to attempt in class, even with this step-by-step beginner’s guide. An easier (and much safer) alternative is to carve a bell pepper. Orange and yellow ones are best as they look just like mini pumpkins. Ask pupils to bring in a pepper or two from home. Craft knives should be sharp enough for carving. If that sounds too risky still, students could stick on cut-out shapes instead. There are plenty of ideas here.

How to teach … World Food Day 2014

Famine, under-nourishment and the role smallholder farmers play in feeding our growing population – tackle all these issues using our collection of lesson resources about World Food Day.

 

 
While the world has never produced so much food, 842 million people are estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger and under-nourishment.
Food production and nourishment relates to a range of topics including human rights, climate change, politics and health and is a problem that can be explored through many areas of the curriculum, from geography and citizenship to economics and science.

So this week, to mark World Food Day on Thursday 16 October 2014, we have a generous helping of ideas and resources about food security and the challenges of feeding an ever-growing population.

The focus of World Food Day 2014 is on the significant role that smallholder farmers play in feeding the world. In the poorest parts of Africa and Asia, around 500 million small family farms are responsible for 80% of all food production. This game from Oxfam will help pupils learn more about the global food system and the impact it has on family farmers. There is an accompanying video and PowerPoint here.

This Flying the Kite for Food activity is also handy for introducing younger students to the idea of food injustice. Let pupils explore the reasons why some people in the world are hungry before making a kite to which they attach their wishes for a world without hunger. Follow-up activities could include: organising a food collection as part of a harvest assembly; interviewing school catering staff to find out how much food is not eaten at lunchtime and what happens to it; and investigating food composting.

Top 5 Ways to Get to Know Your Students

Help your students get to know each other, too!

Here are several great ways to build connections with and among your new students! These icebreakers and community-building activities double as assessment opportunities, skill-building lessons, or projects that result in a unique, inspiring classroom decoration. 

Getting Acquainted: Create a Class Slideshow

On the first day of school, I begin by reading Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10. We discuss the fact that teachers are "real people" and have normal lives. Next, I share a PowerPoint slideshow with my students. I include pictures of my family, my home (and all of the rooms in it), pets, what I did over the summer, things I do for fun, etc. After I share, the students are to write an introduction of themselves. When they finish writing their draft and editing, they type what they have written. I make a slideshow of their introductions and include their picture on the slide. On parent orientation night, I have their PowerPoint showing on my television. The images of each student and their writing rotate automatically as I am giving my orientation "speech." It's a relief to look at 22 sets of parents and not have their eyes fixed on me. Instead, they are reading what my students have written. I also leave the slideshow opened on all of my computers for the first couple of weeks of school so that students can read what their peers have written. --Angie Kelly, Grade 3 teacher, Main Street Elementary, Shelbyville, IL 

Everyone Is Unique: Spin a Classroom Web

At the beginning of the year, I focus on the idea of everyone being unique. On the first day of school, we get in a circle on the reading carpet. I begin by saying that I am going to say something about myself that is unique or something that is special and no one else in the room shares that quality with me (I tell them that it is ok if some people have the same ideas, but that we want to try to find ideas that make us different). I tell them that unique is another word for different. I ask them, what do you think about when you hear the word different? Often, they name things with a negative connotation. I tell them that I like the word unique, because it means the same thing, but that negative connotation hasn't ruined the word.

Four Skills to Teach Students In the First Five Days of School

The first few days of school are a vital time to set the right tone for the rest of the year. Many teachers focus on important things like getting to know their students, building relationships and making sure students know what the classroom procedures will be. While those things are important, Alan November, a former teacher-turned-author and lecturer says the most important ideas to hammer home will help students learn on their own for the rest of the year.

POWER RESEARCHING

“The name of the game is to find the right information with the right question,” said November during a workshop at the 2014 gathering of the International Society of Technology in Education in Atlanta. “My job used to be to give you the information, now my job is to teach you how to find the information.” November firmly believes this dynamic needs to be made very clear in the first five days of school.

Kids think they know how to use the internet to search and find the information they need, but November has found through many interviews and school visits that often students have no idea why Google or any other search provider works the way it does. And they don’t know how to phrase questions to get the answers they seek.

“Kids literally take their teachers assignment and Google it,” November said. “They don’t understand that Google doesn’t speak English or any other language.” He’s tested his theory in classrooms, asking students to research the Iran Hostage Crisis. Students inevitably Googled the event and cited the first few pages that came up. But every resource was written from a U.S. perspective on an event that affected two very different countries.

How to teach … water safety

The warm weather and school holidays are the perfect recipe for a summer outside. Ensure your students stay safe while they have fun by water with our lesson ideas.

Accidental drowning causes more than 400 deaths in the UK every year and is the third highest cause of death in children, according to the Royal Life Saving Society UK.

The risk is particularly high during warmer weather and the school holidays, so this week we have a range of resources to help you teach young people how to stay safe whether they are in, on or beside water this summer.

School swimming is a great form of exercise for children of all abilities – it boosts confidence, improve concentration and is the most effective way to teach children how to be safe around water. But a recent survey conducted by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), the national governing body for swimming in England, revealed that 1.1 million school children cannot swim.

With this in mind, the organisation has created a number of resources including a school swimming and water safety guide for teachers and a primary school learn-to-swim guide aimed at anyone involved with school swimming at key stage 1 or 2. It addresses some of the barriers to school swimming, such as a lack of facilities or high transport costs, and makes suggestions for raising the profile of swimming and water safety by linking it to other parts of the curriculum. In science, for example, students can explore the idea of propulsion; in maths they can make estimates and calculations based on the dimensions of a pool; in ICT they can design achievement charts or certificates; and in PSHE they can explore the health benefits of swimming.

Learning through play ideas: top 10 activities

From building a memorial garden for a selfish giant to deciding whether to release the big bad wolf, here are some exciting activities for engaging pupils with play.

What would you do if you captured the big bag wolf? Here are 10 ways to teach your students using play. Photograph: Jim Schulz/A

 The use of play for developing children's learning is a well established feature of most early years settings. Visit a nursery, reception or many year one classrooms and you will find ample opportunities for children to play.

Unfortunately, as children move through school the pressures on teaching the formal aspects of the curriculum take over and play is pushed to the margins. Resource, space and activities for learning through play decline until they almost disappear by the time children reach the end of key stage 2.

While the medium of play for learning isn't disappearing in every school, where it does, there are fewer opportunities for teachers to plan effective lessons, and fewer chances for students to study in diverse and meaningful ways.

The following list of activities are focused on using play as a medium for learning – particularly through drama and imaginative inquiry. Each lesson idea is focused on a particular aspect of learning and links to a planning unit on the Imaginative Inquiry website.

How to encourage students to read for pleasure: teachers share their top tips

While students might trudge through set texts in lessons, how can teachers inspire them to open a book when they get home?

 

 

The big challenge for teachers is not simply getting students to read – it's getting them to enjoy it too. It's one thing for students to trudge through set texts in a lesson, but will they open another book when they get home at the end of the day?

The National Literacy Trust has noted that becoming a lifetime reader is based on developing a deep love of reading.

"Research has repeatedly shown that motivation to read decreases with age, especially if pupils' attitudes towards reading become less positive," it said. "If children do not enjoy reading when they are young, then they are unlikely to do so when they get older."
For younger readers in particular, their home environment is critically important.

"Home is a massive influence," says Eleanor Webster, a primary school teacher in Nottinghamshire. "Supportive and understanding parents are key to developing their child's reading."

But if a pupil doesn't see people reading at home, it may be harder to instil the idea of reading for pleasure. So what can teachers do to encourage it? Here are some of the best ideas, initiatives and projects that teachers have developed to motivate children and help them develop a love for reading:

How to teach ... the World Cup 2014

As the 20th Fifa World Cup kicks off next week, these lesson ideas and resources will help teachers use football to tackle learning across a range of subjects.

 

Football fever is about to sweep the nation as the 20th Fifa World Cup kicks off on Thursday 12 June. The international spotlight will be on Brazil as 32 countries from around the globe compete for footballing glory.

While PE teachers will be in their natural habitat, it's a topical event that can get young people excited about their learning across the curriculum. So with just over a week to go until the tournament starts, check out our selection of World Cup-themed lesson resources.

The National Literacy Trust has worked with children's football fiction author, Tom Palmer, on a fabulous set of reading resources. These include Foul Play: Brazil, a 26-episode adventure that Palmer will write over the course of the World Cup, responding to events as they happen. The first chapter – the length of a five to 10 minute classroom read – is available now, and a new chapter will be published before 8am every weekday from Wednesday 11 June. The chapters will be accompanied by 26 short writing activities that will be published on the National Literacy Trust website.

Palmer has also written a World Cup themed reading toolkit that encourages young people to read for pleasure. It includes a range of practical ideas and activities, such as creating a reading display in the shape of a goal. Pupils can write book reviews on ball-shaped pieces of paper then place them in the back of the net if they liked the book, on the goal frame if they thought it was okay and high or wide of the goal if they didn't like it. The resource also features a message from Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard.

How to teach … mental arithmetic

Practising mathematics doesn't just help students develop academically, it's also a useful life skill. Here's a collection of lesson ideas and resources to help teachers get started.

 

 

In a world full of gadgets and technology it's easy to be lazy about things like adding numbers in your head. Even a simple calculator is often more favourable to counting on both hands.

But encouraging pupils to practise their mental maths doesn't just help them tackle increasingly complex mathematical problems, it's also a really useful life skill – whether that's checking your change or working out how long you have to wait for the next train.
So this week, we have a variety of resources designed to boost your pupils' agility with arithmetic.

Attempts to make maths more fun are essential to engage students in the subject from a young age. Primary students might enjoy a mental maths quiz in an audio format. It asks 15 questions that become progressively more difficult based on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and time. If this works well and you would like to try more of this type of activity, further tests are available on the Teaching Packs website.

For secondary pupils, Mel Muldowney, one of the teachers behind the Just Maths website, suggests putting these 30 mental arithmetic questions on the board as a settling activity as students come into the room.

How to teach … outdoors

There will be lots of outdoor activities going on this term as the summer holiday draws near. The Guardian Teacher Network has resources to help teachers develop outdoor learning throughout the year.

 

 

As the term draws to an end, there is more outdoor learning going on than usual. For those interested in developing outdoor learning further throughout the academic year, the Guardian Teacher Network has some resources to help. First, there is a project to start this summer and then continue next term and beyond. The Geography Collective (a partnership of over 25 teachers and educators) has developed some outdoor learning activities as part of the Mission Explore website and online summer camp. First, find a schools' guide to getting involved. Now check out these 51 amazing outdoor missions that will challenge young people to go wild this summer and create some fantastic new outdoor learning opportunities.

See also a set of activities to help young people follow in the footsteps of nature conservation's father figure, John Muir. Mission Explore John Muir is packed with great ideas, from getting windswept to going barefoot, to making a trail and staring at the stars. Pupils also get to learn more about the late John Muir himself.

Also highly recommended is Project Dirt, which has been set up to connect and encourage green projects across the country.

How to teach … healthy eating

New research suggests that five portions of fruit and vegetables a day isn't enough. Here's a collection of lesson resources to help you teach students about balanced diets.

 

Five portions of fruit and vegetables a day may no longer be enough, according to new research from scientists at University College London.

In the research, having at least seven portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day was associated with a 42% lower risk of death from all causes. There was also a 25% lower risk of cancer and a 31% lower risk of heart disease or a stroke. Vegetables seemed to offer more protection against disease than eating fruit.

At a time when the World Health Organisation is warning that child obesity "is in danger of becoming the new norm", teaching about healthy eating and exercise in schools is absolutely essential. Here's our collection of lesson resources to help your students develop habits that will last a lifetime.

The Great Grub Club is a resource from the World Cancer Research Fund that contains a wealth of ideas for teaching primary students about healthy eating. These include an assembly with teacher's notes, and a fact sheet about the importance of eating five-a-day. There are also child-friendly recipes including funny face pizzas and pirate party food.

Why students should set and mark their own homework

Teacher Mark Creasy has turned the traditional concept of homework on it's head by tasking his students with the administration and assessment. Here's how it works.

 

Over the past 10 years as a teacher, I have come to view homework as a Goldilocks issue. For some parents, there's always too much, for others not enough and for the rest it's just right.
For me, though, the bigger issue is the inverse relationship between the time and effort taken over setting, completing and marking homework and the benefit for the learner. Traditionally-set homework – involving worksheets, workbooks, research, answering and memorising – does not and cannot meet the needs of every learner individually. Furthermore, the well-intentioned ideal behind homework – to prepare learners for the future – is impossible as children have no influence over the work, except for those who decide not to complete it.

As the parent of a nine-year-old, I view homework as something which I need to support the school in getting my daughter to complete, but I also see the way it affects how much time she has for other activities which often have as much – or more – educational benefit: baking, making, playing, and so on. Having been taught to think for herself she can frequently find better learning opportunities. I've written notes to teachers explaining why she hasn't completed the set homework and stating what she has done instead – complicated, as I work at her school too.