Category Archives: Numeracy

Resources and Suggestions for implementing CfE in the EY, the primary school

Early Years Web links

Movie Makers –
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sharingpractice/m/moviemakerscathkincommunitynursery/aims.asp?strReferringChannel=earlyyears&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-621275-64

Organising a Summer Fair –
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sharingpractice/s/sighthill/introduction.asp?strReferringChannel=earlyyears&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-619335-64

Percy the Puffin Returns Home –
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sharingpractice/p/percythepuffin/introduction.asp?strReferringChannel=earlyyears&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-619326-64

CfE comes to life at Riverside PS
When Riverside Primary School invited parents to workshops on Curriculum for Excellence, it was an eye-opening experience for all involved. Teachers forged stronger relationships with parents and saw the curriculum in a new light. Parents discovered how education has progressed since their school days. Pupils gained a deeper understanding of how their learning is planned. ‘My dad said he would have liked school more if he could have learned like we do,’ said one child.

Literacy and English Resources index
Find resources in this section which are aimed at helping practitioners with the implementation of the experiences and outcomes under Curriculum for Excellence

Literacy ideas

Knowledge of Language
Curriculum for Excellence has made explicit the expectation that all staff have a responsibility to contribute to the literacy development of learners. However, not all education professionals are fully confident in their own understanding of how language works. The Knowledge of Language modules provide staff with a way of accessing further information about some of the common features of our language

Robert Burns – works
BBC Radio Scotland is recording all of Robert Burns’s poetic works. Some of Scotland’s best-known actors will perform his verse over the next couple of years. The first works are available now, with more to follow. The texts are available alongside the recordings. Some include additional music video

Comic Books resources for literacy activities

Scottish Storytelling Centre
The Centre is the ideal place to discover live oral storytelling, develop your own storytelling skills, or find out more about storytelling in your area. Download the latest edition of Blethers for news on recent projects across Scotland. The Centre also presents a seasonal public programme of storytelling, theatre and literature, supported by exciting visual arts, craft and multimedia exhibitions…

Literacy Genre Posters – free!
This series of eye-catching posters has been designed to help raise awareness of the main features of different genres.

Numeracy ideas
Have Sum Fun
The Have Sum Fun leaflet contains lots of games you can play with your children to help them develop an interest and love of numbers. As a parent or carer you can help your children develop their mathematics and number skills by playing these games with them.

Talk Money, Talk Solutions – Financial education through numeracy and practical tasks
Talk Money, Talk Solutions is a collection of practical problem solving activities for use in primary school. The aim of the project is to help develop the financial capability of primary school pupils as part of their general education. Activities such as those described in this resource give pupils opportunities to carry out tasks, to develop problem solving skills, and to do this in a very creative and enjoyable way

Secret Codes
For thousands of years codes and ciphers have been used to keep important information secret. Codes can also be a fun and engaging way to let learners play with numbers. The attached PowerPoint presentation gives a brief introduction to the history of codes and codebreaking, and illustrates a number of simple codes. There are also practical activities suitable for primary and secondary learners.

Count On website gives access to a great range of activities for developing numeracy skills

Multiplication
This site contains the techniques, tips, and secrets used by master teachers!

Starship Maths – a BBC schools website full of a huge variety of ideas and activities

Connect Four game website anyone can play!

Health and Wellbeing ideas

Food for Thought
This activity helps children and young people to see things from other people’s points of view.

This is a fun assembly, involving volunteers trying to eat a marshmallow or piece of fruit from the end of a four foot long ruler or any other long item.

On your marks!
‘On Your Marks!’ is an online education toolkit focusing on the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games which has been launched by the London 2012 Organising Committee. The website provides schools and young people across the UK with a range of up-to-date information about the Games – including factsheets, news articles and a bank of images for use at home or in school.

321 Go!
321 GO! is an interactive dance resource specially designed for use with 4-7-year-olds. The CD-ROM is hosted by Gorf the dancing frog, who will show you how to do safe warm-ups and make cool music with his Groove Machine.  321 GO! also includes seven original music tracks which teachers can freely use for classroom activities and performances. Music tracks can be played on a standard audio CD player.

Health and Wellbeing Activities
These ideas and activities can be used within a curriculum framework of equal opportunities. They can be developed along with those on culture and difference and using a diversity poster.

Fruit salad
This activity will show children how to take turns, play co-operatively, respect the needs and feelings of others and respect different preferences. By selecting different fruit, children will realise we do not all like the same things, but the things we like are similar.

Modern Languages

P7 Harry Potter (Modern Languages)
Examples of how a Harry Potter theme has been used to teach modern languages.

Passport to Europe
This three-part resources provides reading, writing, speaking and listening tasks on weather, clothes, numbers, times on the clock, places in the town, rooms in the house, personal language and animals. They contain materials for a fun day event for Primary 7 pupils but many of the games and materials provided are suitable for use in the MLPS classroom
French
German
Spanish

ICT games French – mais oui!

Teaching ideas – Foreign Languages
A huge range of General Foreign Languages resources listed ready to use

Gaidhlig

Gaidhlig resources index
Find resources in this section which are aimed at helping practitioners with the implementation of the experiences and outcomes under Curriculum for Excellence

RME ideas

Create your own Game
Primary 6 pupils in Crosshouse Primary School, East Kilbride, created their own partnership games to challenge sectarianism. The teacher and learners explored human rights and considered how these rights are a reason for challenging sectarianism

Drama ideas for RME
These 10 activities encourage learners to be aware of the origins of prejudice through the lenses of both the victim and the perpetrator. Learners begin to empathise with those on the receiving end of prejudice and, by understanding the motivation of the perpetrator, to react effectively to it

RCRE
Using sense over sectarianism
St Mirrin’s Primary and Croftfoot Primary are situated on the south side of Glasgow and serves the areas of Croftfoot and Simshill

Social Studies ideas
Playing for Keeps
This downloadable publication from Scottish Natural Heritage contains ideas for introducing the wonders of nature to pre-school children. Activities and games cover the following: cookery; art and craft; dance, drama and music; adventure play; parachute games; imaginative play; dressing up, and a whole variety of role play suggestions. It contains suggestions for themes as well as large-scale projects, and has ideas for using different materials, for example sand, water, dough and clay, junk (for collage).

Map Zone
MapZone® is a totally free, bright and lively web site produced by Ordnance Survey that aims to teach children, between 7 and 16 years, mapping skills in a fun way. This free resource offers interactive play with stimulating questions and answers together with animations and games to make the structured learning process a joy to come back to

Water Aid learning zone
WaterAid uses practical solutions to provide clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people. Water Aid now works in 26 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region. Find out more about where Water Aid works and what they do.

Culture and difference – The Iceberg
These ideas for teaching could be used with the Drama activities or they could be adapted for use in Social Education or other curricular areas. The ideas consider culture as a system of behaviours and beliefs passed from one generation to the next. The rules, language, religion, family systems, recreation and education shared by a group of people create feelings of safety and routine in their daily lives. They understand each other and the world around them has meaning for them.

WWF Scotland site full of resources for classroom use

The MoneyTree Game
Try your skills at making money. Play the Money Tree Game to see if you can make a profit over a five year period. Remember though, that rarely things go to plan and you may encounter unforeseen difficulties along the way.

Technologies
Animation in Action
The technologies experiences and outcomes provide pupils at all stages of learning with the opportunity to become involved in the production of animations. This creative use of ICT provides scope for developing technological skills, knowledge and understanding through practical activities. At the same time this media production offers a rich basis for interdisciplinary learning or opportunity to reinforce learning from other curricular areas.

Moovl
Moovl is a unique online tool that creatively embeds ICT across the curriculum. Both teachers and learners can use it to draw, animate and apply physical properties to objects, bringing pictures and words to life. Delivered online and accompanied by lesson plans and pre-drawn screens, Moovl can be used flexibly across the curriculum. Use Moovl to investigate concepts in science; children can explore gravity by creating a simulation of a man walking on the moon. Moovl also supports visual literacy; children can create their own animated storyboards and make words come to life.
Show me – Science and Technology website resource – a tremendous resource for overworked teachers!

ARKive web resource
Wildlife films and photos are vital weapons in the battle to save the world’s endangered biodiversity from the brink of extinction. So, with the help of the world’s best filmmakers, photographers, conservationists and scientists, ARKive is creating the ultimate multimedia guide to the world’s endangered species.

Early ICT
This site aims to support both teachers and pupils in the use of ICT across the curriculum by providing pages of resources, lesson ideas and links to ‘safe’ websites on the internet.

Street Sense
‘Streetsense’ is a road safety education teaching pack for primary schools which takes a comprehensive and innovative approach to teaching road safety in the classroom. The pack comprises five sections covering levels A to E and contains teachers’ notes, suggested lesson plans and pupil activities for each level. All the pupil activities are linked to attainment targets in the Health Education: 5–14 National Guidelines. ‘Streetsense’ materials also highlight other curricular links including citizenship and ICT as well as fitting road safety education into the context of the health promoting school. The teaching pack includes posters, photographs, an audio CD, gym cards and leaflets to supplement the classroom materials. It has been distributed to all primary schools in Scotland, including special and independent schools, and is also available to download from the website

CfE comes to life at Riverside PS
When Riverside Primary School invited parents to workshops on Curriculum for Excellence, it was an eye-opening experience for all involved. Teachers forged stronger relationships with parents and saw the curriculum in a new light. Parents discovered how education has progressed since their school days. Pupils gained a deeper understanding of how their learning is planned. ‘My dad said he would have liked school more if he could have learned like we do,’ said one child.

Literacy and English Resources index
Find resources in this section which are aimed at helping practitioners with the implementation of the experiences and outcomes under Curriculum for Excellence

Literacy ideas

Knowledge of Language
Curriculum for Excellence has made explicit the expectation that all staff have a responsibility to contribute to the literacy development of learners. However, not all education professionals are fully confident in their own understanding of how language works. The Knowledge of Language modules provide staff with a way of accessing further information about some of the common features of our language

Robert Burns – works
BBC Radio Scotland is recording all of Robert Burns’s poetic works. Some of Scotland’s best-known actors will perform his verse over the next couple of years. The first works are available now, with more to follow. The texts are available alongside the recordings. Some include additional music video

resources for literacy activities
Scottish Storytelling Centre
The Centre is the ideal place to discover live oral storytelling, develop your own storytelling skills, or find out more about storytelling in your area. Download the latest edition of Blethers for news on recent projects across Scotland. The Centre also presents a seasonal public programme of storytelling, theatre and literature, supported by exciting visual arts, craft and multimedia exhibitions…

Literacy Genre Posters – free!
This series of eye-catching posters has been designed to help raise awareness of the main features of different genres.

Numeracy ideas
Have Sum Fun
The Have Sum Fun leaflet contains lots of games you can play with your children to help them develop an interest and love of numbers. As a parent or carer you can help your children develop their mathematics and number skills by playing these games with them.

Talk Money, Talk Solutions – Financial education through numeracy and practical tasks
Talk Money, Talk Solutions is a collection of practical problem solving activities for use in primary school. The aim of the project is to help develop the financial capability of primary school pupils as part of their general education. Activities such as those described in this resource give pupils opportunities to carry out tasks, to develop problem solving skills, and to do this in a very creative and enjoyable way

Secret Codes
For thousands of years codes and ciphers have been used to keep important information secret. Codes can also be a fun and engaging way to let learners play with numbers. The attached PowerPoint presentation gives a brief introduction to the history of codes and codebreaking, and illustrates a number of simple codes. There are also practical activities suitable for primary and secondary learners.

Count On website gives access to a great range of activities for developing numeracy skills

Multiplication
This site contains the techniques, tips, and secrets used by master teachers!

Starship Maths – a BBC schools website full of a huge variety of ideas and activities

Connect Four game website anyone can play!

Health and Wellbeing ideas

Food for Thought
This activity helps children and young people to see things from other people’s points of view.

This is a fun assembly, involving volunteers trying to eat a marshmallow or piece of fruit from the end of a four foot long ruler or any other long item.

On your marks!
‘On Your Marks!’ is an online education toolkit focusing on the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games which has been launched by the London 2012 Organising Committee. The website provides schools and young people across the UK with a range of up-to-date information about the Games – including factsheets, news articles and a bank of images for use at home or in school.

321 Go!
321 GO! is an interactive dance resource specially designed for use with 4-7-year-olds. The CD-ROM is hosted by Gorf the dancing frog, who will show you how to do safe warm-ups and make cool music with his Groove Machine. 321 GO! also includes seven original music tracks which teachers can freely use for classroom activities and performances. Music tracks can be played on a standard audio CD player.

Health and Wellbeing Activities
These ideas and activities can be used within a curriculum framework of equal opportunities. They can be developed along with those on culture and difference and using a diversity poster.

Fruit salad
This activity will show children how to take turns, play co-operatively, respect the needs and feelings of others and respect different preferences. By selecting different fruit, children will realise we do not all like the same things, but the things we like are similar.

Modern Languages

P7 Harry Potter (Modern Languages)
Examples of how a Harry Potter theme has been used to teach modern languages.

Passport to Europe
This three-part resources provides reading, writing, speaking and listening tasks on weather, clothes, numbers, times on the clock, places in the town, rooms in the house, personal language and animals. They contain materials for a fun day event for Primary 7 pupils but many of the games and materials provided are suitable for use in the MLPS classroom

– mais oui!
Teaching ideas – Foreign Languages
A huge range of General Foreign Languages resources listed ready to use

Gaidhlig

Gaidhlig resources index
Find resources in this section which are aimed at helping practitioners with the implementation of the experiences and outcomes under Curriculum for Excellence

RME ideas

Create your own Game
Primary 6 pupils in Crosshouse Primary School, East Kilbride, created their own partnership games to challenge sectarianism. The teacher and learners explored human rights and considered how these rights are a reason for challenging sectarianism

Drama ideas for RME
These 10 activities encourage learners to be aware of the origins of prejudice through the lenses of both the victim and the perpetrator. Learners begin to empathise with those on the receiving end of prejudice and, by understanding the motivation of the perpetrator, to react effectively to it

RCRE
Using sense over sectarianism
St Mirrin’s Primary and Croftfoot Primary are situated on the south side of Glasgow and serves the areas of Croftfoot and Simshill

Social Studies ideas
Playing for Keeps
This downloadable publication from Scottish Natural Heritage contains ideas for introducing the wonders of nature to pre-school children. Activities and games cover the following: cookery; art and craft; dance, drama and music; adventure play; parachute games; imaginative play; dressing up, and a whole variety of role play suggestions. It contains suggestions for themes as well as large-scale projects, and has ideas for using different materials, for example sand, water, dough and clay, junk (for collage).

Map Zone
MapZone® is a totally free, bright and lively web site produced by Ordnance Survey that aims to teach children, between 7 and 16 years, mapping skills in a fun way. This free resource offers interactive play with stimulating questions and answers together with animations and games to make the structured learning process a joy to come back to

Water Aid learning zone
WaterAid uses practical solutions to provide clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people. Water Aid now works in 26 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region. Find out more about where Water Aid works and what they do.

Culture and difference – The Iceberg
These ideas for teaching could be used with the Drama activities or they could be adapted for use in Social Education or other curricular areas. The ideas consider culture as a system of behaviours and beliefs passed from one generation to the next. The rules, language, religion, family systems, recreation and education shared by a group of people create feelings of safety and routine in their daily lives. They understand each other and the world around them has meaning for them.

WWF Scotland site full of resources for classroom use

The MoneyTree Game
Try your skills at making money. Play the Money Tree Game to see if you can make a profit over a five year period. Remember though, that rarely things go to plan and you may encounter unforeseen difficulties along the way.

Technologies
Animation in Action
The technologies experiences and outcomes provide pupils at all stages of learning with the opportunity to become involved in the production of animations. This creative use of ICT provides scope for developing technological skills, knowledge and understanding through practical activities. At the same time this media production offers a rich basis for interdisciplinary learning or opportunity to reinforce learning from other curricular areas.

Moovl
Moovl is a unique online tool that creatively embeds ICT across the curriculum. Both teachers and learners can use it to draw, animate and apply physical properties to objects, bringing pictures and words to life. Delivered online and accompanied by lesson plans and pre-drawn screens, Moovl can be used flexibly across the curriculum. Use Moovl to investigate concepts in science; children can explore gravity by creating a simulation of a man walking on the moon. Moovl also supports visual literacy; children can create their own animated storyboards and make words come to life.


Show me
Science and Technology website resource – a tremendous resource for overworked teachers!

ARKive web resource
Wildlife films and photos are vital weapons in the battle to save the world’s endangered biodiversity from the brink of extinction. So, with the help of the world’s best filmmakers, photographers, conservationists and scientists, ARKive is creating the ultimate multimedia guide to the world’s endangered species.

Early ICT
This site aims to support both teachers and pupils in the use of ICT across the curriculum by providing pages of resources, lesson ideas and links to ‘safe’ websites on the internet.

Street Sense
‘Streetsense’ is a road safety education teaching pack for primary schools which takes a comprehensive and innovative approach to teaching road safety in the classroom. The pack comprises five sections covering levels A to E and contains teachers’ notes, suggested lesson plans and pupil activities for each level. All the pupil activities are linked to attainment targets in the Health Education: 5–14 National Guidelines. ‘Streetsense’ materials also highlight other curricular links including citizenship and ICT as well as fitting road safety education into the context of the health promoting school. The teaching pack includes posters, photographs, an audio CD, gym cards and leaflets to supplement the classroom materials. It has been distributed to all primary schools in Scotland, including special and independent schools, and is also available to download from the website

Organising learning using E/Os Weblinks

Expand your classroom – delivering CfE in your school grounds
We’re all in the business of nurturing confident, responsible young people who enjoy success in learning and can communicate effectively. School grounds offer a great opportunity on your doorstep to open up learning in a practical, fun and meaningful way where you can deliver an excellent curriculum that’s inclusive to all.

Involving learners in reviewing your curriculum
The framework for learning and teaching puts the learner firmly at the centre, actively involved in every aspect of their own learning. It is important therefore to consult and involve pupils when revising curriculum structures.  This section provides some examples of learner engagement, to generate thinking, and workshop materials to support consultation with pupils.

Outdoor Learning at the Chalkface
These short videos highlight different aspects of the ‘Outdoor Learning at the Chalkface’ event organised by Scottish Natural Heritage on 10 November 2009

Literacy across learning a variety of strategies is being developed at Fraserburgh North PS

Writing across learning at St Hilary’s PS
In 2008 HMIE highlighted St Hilary’s learning and teaching of writing as good practice. The school has since built on this success by focussing particularly on writing across learning.

Numeracy – a skill for learning, life and work
This resource reinforces numeracy as a skill for learning, life and work. It is presented in three sections: Skill for learning; Skill for life; Skill for work.

Planning health and wellbeing across the curriculum
Torbain is a primary school situated in Kirkcaldy, Fife. It has around 500 pupils and also incorporates infant/nursery accommodation for 140 children. The school has been very proactive in taking forward health and wellbeing in its widest sense over the last couple of years and has particularly focused on whole school planning, CPD and consultation with pupils and parents/carers.

A whole school approach to health and wellbeing
This video case study explores the ways in which the community of Nethermains Primary School – the staff, pupils, parents/carers and partners – has taken a whole school approach to health and wellbeing

Support materials on language progression – Gaidhlig
These examples show children developing and extending Gàidhlig language skills in active motivating and fun ways. Children are encouraged to speak to each other in Gàidhlig when participating in all activities.  This presents opportunities to reinforce their language in real, relevant contexts.

Let’s make the music and dance
North Ayrshire Council employed a professional singer and a dance teacher to work with groups of children and staff to create songs and dance. The project involved staff and children at Springvale Nursery Centre, St Luke’s Nursery Class and the P1 class and nursery class at Mayfield Primary School.

Co-operative learning activities: an active approach to teaching numeracy
The following case study was designed and produced by a mathematics teacher in Our Lady’s High School, Cumbernauld, who has been trained in the use of co-operative learning. There are five activities highlighted to promote an active approach to teaching numeracy

Using numbers to Count
Baker Street Nursery School worked in partnership with neighbouring school, Allan’s Primary. The theme was ‘Using numbers to count’. Staff from both settings held joint planning meetings to discuss the project, the way forward and how to evaluate their findings. An audit was also conducted across both settings to ensure maximum use and exchange of active learning approaches in Numeracy.

Involving learners in their learning – Science
The 2010 Scottish Science Education Conference, ‘Sustaining Science: bright ideas for the future’, was held at Dunblane on 5-6 March 2010 and was hosted by the ASE (Association for Science Education) Scotland and SSERC (Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre). The conference aimed to support learning and teaching in the sciences through keynote addresses and workshop sessions.  Videos and information about four of the workshop sessions can be found here. All four of these workshops had a common theme running through them – the importance of involving learners and the benefits that it can bring.

Journey within Sciences to a CfE
This video shows how a school community turned their school garden into a vegetable patch. Watch teachers and pupils discuss the benefits of eco activities and how they help to develop citizenship and personal and social skills.

Creativity Portal ideas illustrating ways of learning through creativity
The Creativity Portal is a collaborative environment for practitioners. It is designed to inform, inspire and encourage debate around creativity. It aims to stimulate new approaches to learning and teaching through partnerships between education and the cultural sectors, supporting Curriculum for Excellence.

Taking a Critical Skills approach to Modern Languages in the Primary School
The trained MLPS teacher at Lainshaw Primary School, East Ayrshire, uses critical skills challenges as part of her modern languages methodology. This study and accompanying film clips demonstrate the key elements of the development of the skills for learning, life and work which underpin the aims of Curriculum for Excellence

Environment meets Enterprise – the litter police are out and about
Echline Primary is a large, suburban primary school with 322 pupils located on the outskirts of South Queensferry, near Edinburgh. The school achieved a first Eco Schools Green Flag Award in June 2004. The school has addressed a number of sustainable development issues through work on Eco School activities. In particular, the work that the school has done linking their Eco Schools work with Enterprise is exemplary. The school’s extensive grounds have been developed to provide a range of additional resources for the school for teaching and learning, play, physical exercise and to encourage wildlife

Planning for the Scottish dimension in the curriculum
This advice offers a suggested method of planning to help ensure that from the ages of 3-15, learners have a coherent and progressive experience of learning about Scottish history across a range of periods and contexts within people, past events and societies.

Chicken eggs
This project was undertaken by the children of Hermitage Park Nursery Class, who incubated and hatched 18 chicken eggs. They gathered, recorded and shared relevant information with the wider community.

Healthy Eating project at Dollar Academy Primary
Primary 4 pupils at Dollar Academy, Clackmannanshire recently undertook a project aimed at improving their understanding of healthy eating. An interdisciplinary approach to learning was employed by the teacher, bringing together experiences and outcomes from both the technologies and health and wellbeing curricular areas.