Teaching materials (practice)

Teaching materials affect the process of teaching and learning; therefore, it is crucial to use resources which are appropriate for students including their abilities and needs. There should be a variety of different resources so that students and the teacher are not bored during the lesson. I would like to share with you some of the teaching materials used by my mentor teacher during my observations. 

Let's start with the most common one, which is used during every single lesson, sometimes more than once, it is WordWall. I will mention some of the activities used in the classroom. First of all, WordWall is used at the beginning of every day to draw lots the classroom jobs for children such as desk inspector, snack inspector, backpack monitor, electrician, office assistant, library assistant, recycling master, teacher helper or line leader. When talking about food and calories, WordWall was used to match the descriptions with the corresponding words. For example, calories  - a unit of energy, often used as a measurement of the amount of energy that food provide,  or dietitian - a person who gives advice about food and eating. The other day, WordWall was used to put products into the categories including fish, meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and other. The activity took 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Besides, WordWall is regularly used as a warm-up activity during the circle time. For instance, children had to spin the wheel and answer the question such as what is one worry you have about today? What made you smile this morning? What are you the most excited about today? Additionally, WordWall was used to display the map of the world and match the countries, for example, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Japan or Australia. Before the task, they were talking about food transport including what could be transported by car and what means of transport are not good for food transport. After the task, there was a discussion about the continents and topics of food miles and means of transport were continued.

The next teaching material is YouTube. The teacher quite often plays some YouTube videos for children. For example, today, there was a video called SavingFood Educational on Food Waste. The video was 3 minutes 29 seconds long. Videos shouldn't be too long because of children's short attention span. The video was played after the introduction at the beginning of the lesson. The other video they watched was called Introduction to Food Miles. After the video, students were asked to explain how they understand the concept of food miles. 

Moreover, today, the teacher brought flashcards which were placed in the cardboard bag and children had to choose one. After the drawing, children were asked to present what they have on their cards and explain it without using the word from the card. It was a game similar to charades. Children were very exited and all of them were focused on showing rather than explaining. One student came to the teacher to ask for the possibility of choosing another card as she didn't know how to present her card. But, the teacher encouraged the student to try. Despite the fact that words on the flashcards were challenging, children were able to cope with the task very well. There were words such as: planet, wood, water, gas, recycling or animals. Children had to use their creativity and there was a lot of fun. The activity was an introduction to the new unit of inquiry called Sharing the Planet with the following central idea: what resources provide humans with natural resources to survive. Then, students were asked what they could do for their last project and they shared some brilliant ideas including how to take care of Earth or how to be eco-friendly. I am impressed that children are very open-minded, reflective thinkers and inquirers.

In the previous week, the teacher prepared pictures of fruits for the lesson about food miles. Students had to work in groups to cut the pictures and place them on the poster according to the place of origin of the products. There were products such as a raspberry, apple, papaya, watermelon or coconut. Beforehand, the teacher prepared also a poster for each group with two overlapping circle, so the technique of Venn Diagram was used. The activity was effective as students were collaborating to sort fruits and they seemed were engaged.

The teacher sometimes prepares PowerPoint presentations, for example, when talking about calories, there was the presentation with the numbers of calories needed for everyday activities including sleep, sport or going to school. Students were asked to add the numbers to find out how many calories the eight-year-old boy needs. The teacher regularly uses a projector and an online timer (classroomscreen.com). As a result, children are aware of the time limit to complete the task.

Sometimes, students are asked to bring something from their houses. For example, students had to bring some food packaging and then, they worked in groups to describe them. Consequently, there was the element of using realistic resources.

What are your favourite teaching materials?

Angelika :)