The Hueys are counting things, but when they realise that the number of pieces of cheese over there is ‘none’, they start to wonder, if none is a number or not? Task Questions: Is none a number? Is zero a number? Is zero the same as none? Is nothing, something or nothing? Is none the same as nothing? Extensi...

* This session uses a Pollock picture. There is one downloadable at the bottom or find your own image that would work! Looking Are there any objects in this painting? Are there emotions in this painting? Is there anything in this painting? Thinking Starter Question: Does this painting make sense? Q...

Preparation: You will need up to eight portrait pictures (e.g. 2 Ruben's portraits, a Titian and a Memling for the first part and a Rubens, a Picasso, a grotesque and an abstract for the second) A couple of music stands to prop the pictures up. Stimulus Part 1 For the first activity, put up the four portraits. The task is to ...

You are going to need the book 'Oh no, George!' by Chris Haughton for this session.  Harris asks George to be good while he goes out. George says, “Yes, I’ll be very good”. But left on his own, even if he wants to be good and hopes he’ll be good, there are so many things to distract George. Will he be go...

Play this video to the class, first providing the following context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e6Cfq_YchM This is a clip of the 100m men’s final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The two fastest sprinters were Carl Lewis, an American sprinter, and his longtime rival, Canadian Ben Johnson [point out which lanes Johnson and Lewis are ...

This story lends itself to the use of props (see page 47). If you would like to tell this with props then you will need two books, a larger book for The Big Story Book (preferably decorative to meet with its description in the story) and a smaller one for The Little Story Book. I wrap the larger book before the class arrives so that I can open i...

Because Matilda, The Fireless Dragon has been magically written by The Story Book, this story has been written in a more literary style. Though I have spent a great deal of time encouraging you to storytell, on this occasion I am going to recommend that you read Matilda, The Fireless Dragon rather than tell it, although, if you can learn and rec...

BACKGROUND I have noticed that children get to a stage where they are, basically, learning to lie. This seems to happen around 8 or 9 years old. Of course, much younger children will tell lies when confronted with evidence of their misdeeds, but they can’t usually maintain the lie when asked more questions, whereas when they approach ad...

Age: 8 + Themes: planets, inference, modal verbs Stimulus NASA scientists have found a planet deep in space that looks like ours. They call it Other World. They want to send astronauts there but it would take 100 years to get there and 100 years to get back so they can’t.  They decide to send a probe to gather data about the ...