Olympics

From: Wendy French
Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 at 7:44am

Our topic this term is the Olympics and we have planned an interdisciplinary project which combines maths, language, health and wellbeing and technologies.  As part of this project we are working towards an Olympic day where the children will create events, where the Primary 6's will go around in teams and compete against each other.  We hope to make use of the maths they have been learning by getting them to record times and scores and to measure and to timetable the event.  Each team will also have to create clear instructions for their games and use apps such as popplet to help them with the planning of the timetabling of the event and the recording of scores.

 

As part of this work we have begun looking at decimal numbers.  This weeks first lesson revised what tenths and hundredths were using a cut up apple, and then we did some ordering activities, talking through tricky examples.  The children used the i-Pads as write boards to show answers and then each table was given a set of numbers and each individual put a number into their ipad then the team had to order themselves.  

 

The main activity involved the children being given 100 metre world record times which were ordered alphabetically by athlete.  Their task was to display the information in a table and put the times in order from fastest to slowest time.  They were also asked to display the athletes' names, countries and the years they ran in.  We also talked about the links between last weeks work on graphing and how this was also a way to display information.  This was a relatively simple task but I think it had knock on effects to how they did the text book work the next day which was working out positions of different children competing in different timed events and solving other problems in relation to this such as who got the best time overall from the 3 events.  The childrens' work doing the textbook task was very focussed and it was a natural progression as they had to work with more data and a more complex table.

 

 

One sequence of lessons that we have begun is about what it takes to be a great Olympic athlete.  This follows on from work we have done looking at the Olympic values and what they mean.  We are also going to relate these values to the life of Jesse Owens, where we will look at his life story, his achievements and the hurdles that he overcame.

 

Three of our learning intentions for this term are:

Investigate the role of sport and the opportunities it offers.

Understand the link between good health, diet and exercise

Communicate aspects of the lifestyle of a top sportsperson

 

For homework the children are researching a past Olympian to find out things like their background, their achievements, their successes.  They have been given a choice of apps to present their notes on e.g. Sticky notes, Notebook, Keynote, Moodboard.  We will talk about how to add to, improve and organise their notes next week. They will be given a chance to find out more detailed information about diet and training.

 

This week in class we read an article that looked at Usain Bolt's background, his training schedule, the types of training he does, his diet, etc.  The children worked in pairs to highlight and discuss key information and then used one i-Pad to take notes on.

 

We are also going to invite in Alex's dad who is a top boxer to discuss his life, training, diet and insights into what he had to do to become top of his field. The children will be asked to prepare questions in advance and think about how best to find out the information they need.

 

Next week the children will be asked to create a simple script to present information about their chosen Olympian or Usain Bolt (using their notes made for homework and in class), as a Puppet Pals animation, to give others an insight to the kinds of training, diet, personal sacrifice and rewards and achievements involved in sport.  They will also be given an opportunity to reflect on the personal benefits to them of being involved in sport.  This ties in with our school wider achievement day which is tomorrow but as we are on a trip we are going to celebrate their wider achievements in sports and other pursuits next Friday.  In addition, we have been working towards our JASS Award for Get Active, Stay Active so  this will feed into our reflections on the benefits and importance of personal exercise and healthy lifestyles.