Five Instant Classroom Lessons Jigsaw Painting: Individual paintings can be joined together to make a large group or class mural. Choose a class or group painting topic, eg buildings, shapes from nature … Each pupil consults the painters on either side before they begin their painting and plan ways that they can join and blend their paintings together. eg part of a tree painted on the right hand side of one of the paintings can be continued on the next painting sky and clouds can be continued on the next paintings on either side patterns and colours can be continued on the next paintings etc. Remember that paintings on each side must be blended together so each pupil must consult with two fellow painters! Children really enjoy this co-operative experience and it makes a great wall display! Simply Animals fun language/art activities Animals have revolted and are in charge of the world. If this happened, have the pupils write answers to the following… (Junior class pupils can brainstorm their ideas for the teacher to write down) what animal would you choose to be in charge? why would you choose this animal? how would the world be different? what would life be like for humans in this new world? where would humans live? what jobs would humans do to help the animals? Challenge the pupils to design the perfect animal made up from the best bits of every animal they know. What would it look like? draw it describe its habits how does it move? what does it eat? make models of these animals in either wire or clay have a super animal display. invent and make the sounds that these animals make. Use voice and percussion instruments. Record these sounds. show the rest of the class how your animal moves. make up an animal dance with 'other class animals'. design animal costumes. run an animal fashion parade. Totally Useless Things - language and art Have pupils brainstorm and write a list of things that they, their parents, sisters, brothers and friends have bought that are really useless and just don't work. write a brief description of each item and say why it is useless how could it be made useful? could the design be changed? could it be used for a purpose not intended by the maker/designer why did that person buy the useless thing to start with? Was it advertising? can the pupils write a checklist to help prevent them from buying useless things? invent, design and promote the most useless thing to your classmates either as a poster or radio or video advertisement. Exploring Our Highways - social studies, language, study skills Using road maps or an atlas, have pupils plan journeys along the State Highways of New Zealand, eg What are the main towns along State Highway 2, State Highway 6 etc? Pupils conduct library and atlas research to: find the populations of the towns and cities they will pass through list the tourist attractions of the towns and cities find the main industries of the towns and cities describe the rainfall, terrain, climate locate airports A Pacific Quiz - social studies, language, study skills How many pupils : • have been to a Pacific Island? • have friends or relations from a Pacific Island? • have friends or relations that live in a Pacific Island? Graph the results. Using an atlas have the pupils identify and list the islands that make up • Polynesia • Melanesia • Micronesia Introduce the idea of a Pacific Island Quiz. What questions will we ask? How will we find this information? Using an atlas, challenge groups to prepare a series of questions to ask other groups, eg name the two biggest islands in Fiji? what is the capital of Vanuatu? what is the closest Polynesian Island to New Zealand? what is the latitude and longitude of Niue? Put all the questions on cards and place into a question box. Run the quiz on a regular basis and keep adding to the questions. www.teachingonline.org is published by s&s Publishing P.O. Box 229, Turangi, (Southern Lake Taupo) New Zealand. Phone in NZ: (07) 386 6667 Phone Outside NZ 0064-7-386 6667 email: sspub@reap.org.nz