NIFSA 1 Hide & Seek - Thematic Unitnifsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Hide-Seek-1-Thematic-Unit.pdf · NIFSA 4 Hide & Seek - Thematic Unit This Thematic Unit - has been designed

Hide & Seek - Thematic UnitNIFSA 1


Acknowledgements NIFSA Northern Ireland wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Anne McErlane and Jonny McLarnon in the development of this thematic unit and to Des McCrystall of PUSH Advertising & Design for the design and development of the online resource.

Theme for Key - Stage 2

The Concept: Hide & Seek

Children within the foundation stage will investigate, explore and learn about the

environment by utilising and working in a Forest School setting. This may be within

their grounds or forest area nearby. They will meet the objectives of the Northern Ireland

Curriculum whist also developing the aims and values of NIFSA.

The children will use the forest to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills across

a range of learning areas. The theme allows the teacher a wide variety of opportunities

to connect the learning from the Forest School setting to other opportunities within the

classroom.

Classroom Activity

ICON KEY

Forest Classroom Activity

Optional Resource Available Online


Contents

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SectionThis Theme Unit Has Been Design to: Planning Activity

Section A

Activity One - On the Move

- My School Journey Activity Two - Finding Our Way Home Activity Three - Right Clothes To Wear

Activity Four - Animal Reveal Guess Who? Activity Five -Plant Spotter Activity Six - We’re Hard To Find

Section B

Activity One - Hidden Away Activity Two - Who’s Hiding & Who’s Hoarding Activity Three - Who’s Hibernating


This Thematic Unit - has been designed to:

� Meet the objectives of the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

� Meet and deliver some of the Statements of Minimum Requirement for the Learning Areas:

◆ Language and Literacy ◆ The World Around Us ◆ Personal Development and

Mutual Understanding ◆ The Arts ◆ Physical Development and Movement

� Promote the Core Curriculum Skills of Communication and Using ICT and to develop the Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities with particular emphasis on:

Managing Information ◆ Asking focused questions ◆ Using own and others’ ideas to

locate sources of information ◆ Selecting, classifying, comparing

and evaluating info ◆ Using a range of methods for collating,

recording and representing information ◆ Communicating with a sense of audience and

purpose

Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making ◆ Making links between cause and effect ◆ Justifying opinions and conclusions ◆ Generating solutions, trying alternative

approaches, evaluating outcomes ◆ Examining options, weighing up pros and cons

Being Creative ◆ Seeking out questions to explore

and problems to solve ◆ Making new connections between

ideas and questions ◆ Learning from and valuing others’ ideas ◆ Taking risks for learning

Working with Others

◆ Listening actively and sharing opinions ◆ Sharing and cooperating ◆ Understanding how actions

and words affect others ◆ Adapting behaviour and language to

suit different people and situations ◆ Respecting the views and opinions of others,

reaching agreements using negotiation and compromise

Self-Management

◆ Managing behaviour in a range of situations ◆ Organising and planning how

to go about a task ◆ Comparing own approach with others in

different contexts

� The Theme also aims to encourage and develop the aims of a Forest School in particular:

◆ Promoting curiosity and exploration using all senses

◆ Enhancing Spatial awareness and fine motor development

◆ Promoting Team work and cooperation ◆ Allowing for and encouraging Project planning ◆ Developing Confidence,

independence and self-esteem ◆ Enhancing Personal, social and technical skills ◆ Developing Problem solving skills ◆ Promoting the acquisition of of

language and communication skills ◆ Gaining knowledge, understanding and

skills for life through outdoor learning

Through studying the Theme children will have opportunities to connect learning within and across Learning Areas. Some examples are listed below.

Teachers may be able to include a variety of other connected learning activities.

◆ Literacy – phonological awareness, letter formation, poems, posters/flyers and begin to develop understanding of a range of other text types

◆ Mathematics and Numeracy - number, direction and positional language, data handling

◆ Art and Design - artistic technique development and understanding, posters and pictures, knowing about the work of artists

◆ Drama - imaginative role play scenarios, small world and construction

◆ ICT - using ICT for photography and video recording and word processing

◆ World Around Us - Science and Geography

Connected Learning


This Activity is designed to engage children in using the knowledge and language they already have in relation to the theme. This work can enable the teacher to see starting points for the work with the class and with individual children.

The teacher should introduce the concept of the theme by first showing the children a picture of a forest setting. The teacher should allow the children opportunities to relate their own prior experiences of the forest. This could be real life experience or experiences they have of the forest through the sharing of rhymes and stories.

Still using the picture of the forest setting, the teacher should pose the question:

The children should have the chance to discuss their thoughts and ideas. Then they could sort some toy animals or pictures of animals into categories to display those which they think could be “hiding in the forest”.

Alternatively children could be given a toy animal and asked to consider would they expect their animal to be hiding in the picture/forest. Some of the animals included should not be forest animals, for example penguins and tortoises could be included.

NOTE: At this point the children might mention animals which can be found in forests such as bears or monkeys. The teacher should allow these ideas. The children will refine their learning about animals from their locality as the work in the Forest School develops.

The same activities could be repeated in a similar way for trees and plants. The teacher could pose the question:

Again this can be done using pictures of plants which will be found in the forest and some which will not. Sorting games could be played. Children would not be expected to identify particular tree names.

The Activity can be repeated again for the third time and the question posed:

This time the focus of the discussion, thinking and recording will be mini beasts. The children should have a chance to talk about their own ideas and to sort pictures of mini beasts into those which they would expect to see in the forest and those they wouldn’t expect to see.

The teacher should allow for the children’s reasoning in these discussions as they will refine their learning in the forest setting.

Then the teacher can show a picture of the forest that they have access to and tell the children that we are going to investigate and explore our very own forest over the next few weeks. The teacher can explain that the children will be able to test their ideas and thinking while they are out learning in the forest.

see page 6 for resource sheet

Section A

They’re Alive! - Thematic UnitNIFSA 5

Planning Activity - Hide and Seek

“What animals could be hiding here?”

“Who else could be hiding in the forest?”

“What trees do we find in the forest?”


Planning Activity - Resource Cards

Section A


Activity One: On the Move!

In this section the children will explore movement to and from the Forest and also the movement of creatures in the forest.

During this activity the children are going to work out how they will travel to and from their Forest School. They will identify and plan the routes to their destination. They will also be encouraged to develop their positional and directional language.To begin with the teacher should lead a discussion about journeys that the children frequently make.

The teacher should list these journeys which might include:

� Going shopping � Going to school � Going to church � Going to Granny’s house � Going to the doctor � Other familiar journeys

Children should have time to talk about how they make these journeys and why they make them?

They should talk about how they know the way because they have made the journeys so often.The children could create simple maps of their journey to school or to another one of the well known locations they have discussed.

Alternatively the children could create a set of ‘Cue Cards’ of locations on the route of a familiar journey.

These cards would display places or buildings which would be easily identified like a church, a bridge or street.The teacher can choose to create these cards on the instruction of the children or to allow the children to

draw or paint or where possible write the steps for themselves. ICT can be introduced in this activity by the teacher sourcing relevant images using Google Streetview.

This activity involves the children in sorting and thinking through the steps of a well-known journey.

The teacher could then use maps, Google Earth or promotional materials, where appropriate to show the children the position of the forest they are using for their Forest School theme and work.

The children could explore all the ways that they could travel to the forest? They could make simple maps or write a set of cue card instructions with the teacher. These could be used to help them make their first journey to the forest.

Extension:The children could think about and record characters from rhymes or stories that made their way to the woods or forest? Alternatively they could sort pictures of characters to pick out those who went to the forest from those who did not. The children could use bee bot or roamer to follow a path to get the characters to the forest.



Section A


Activity Two: Finding Our Way Home

In this activity the children will use the stimulus of the story of Hansel and Gretel. They are going to decide which materials/objects would be best left as a trail to follow their way home from the forest in case they get lost.

The teacher should read the story of Hansel and Gretel to the class and talk about the problem they had trying to leave a trail behind them.

The children could complete the following template with their teacher. This will allow the children to think about good ideas and bad ideas for objects for their own trail. It will also encourage decision making.

The children should have a chance to test their ideas and to see if they work and then to discuss them. They can predict outcomes and draw results to record what happened.

Section A


Hansel and Gretel Leaving a Trail Test

The White Pebbles was a ..

Good idea?

Bad idea?

Why?

Our Idea

Good idea?

Bad idea?

Why?

The White Bread was a ..

Good idea?

Bad idea?

Why?

Our Idea

Good idea?

Bad idea?

Why?

Section A


During this activity the children will discuss the connections between the weather and suitable clothing for their visits to the Forest School.

Initially the children should have the chance to discuss all the types of weather that they could possibly encounter on their way to their Forest School.

This activity could be part of a play session.The teacher should lead a discussion which encourages the children to think about, discuss and record all the types of weather they may encounter on a planned visit to the Forest School.

The children could create a collage of different weather types. Alternatively the children could create symbols to represent the weather types they have discussed or suggested.

When a range of possible ideas has been created the teacher can ask the children to think about what clothes would best suit the different weather conditions.

The teacher should then engage the children in testing types of cloth or footwear that would be appropriate in the different conditions. For example the children could test canvas shoes and wellingtons and decide which is best for wet muddy conditions.

The different types of footwear could be set into water trays containing mud and water. The children could make; predictions, observations and decisions based on what they see happen in these conditions.Similarly, testing waterproof and non-waterproof fabric could be done to see which would be best in the rain.

The children could create a display using weather symbols and items of clothing or images to display the best matches found for particular weather conditions.

Activity Three - Right Clothes to Wear!

Section A


Each image can be cut into 9 basic pieces. The children can assemble the image one piece at a time to guess the animal before all images are displayed.

Activity Four - Animal Reveal Guess Who?

For this activity a set of images have been provided of forest animals. These can be photocopied and cut up for use in several ways.

The teacher could print off the images in A4 and cut into 9 pieces. This set can be given to the children who then can piece them togther jig-saw style

revealing a forest animal. The children may be able to guess the which animal is in the picture they are re-creating. The teacher may prefer to use the images in group work senarios or to print the images in A3 and lead the activity revealing sections of the picture one at a time until the the children correctly identify the forest animal in the picture.

Downloadfrom: www.nifsa.org.uk/downloads/

Section A


Activity Five - Plant Spotter?

For this activity a set of images have been provided of forest plants. Teachers could use the images to stimulate discussion the classroom about the type of plants the children might find.

Children can use these images to identify the plants they find in their forest classroom. The images can be used to record the plant species viewed in one visit or as a record of the species viewed over several visits.

Children could take photographs of other species which they find and try to identify these when back in the classroom.

The images are available in the resource section in the form of a bingo game which the teacher can print off and use with the children in the forest classroom.

To promote the skills of data handling the images are also available in the form of a Data Collection Sheet which the children can use to create a tally by counting the number of each species observed.

Section A


Spot & Tally

Count the plants you see and tally them like this = 5

Tally Here Total Tally Here Total




Section A


Activity Six: We’re Hard To Find

The teacher should recap from the earlier Planning Activity and ask the children to think about the mini beasts they might find in the Forest School area. The teacher should read the book ‘Mad about Minibeasts’ or similar text.

The teacher should write the heading ‘Where will we find them hiding?’ Then ask the children to talk about where they may find mini beasts in the forest? Teacher can make a list of the children’s ideas using forest pictures to prompt their thinking. The teacher should explain that they will hunt for mini beasts during their next visit to the Forest School.

In the Forest School Setting:The teacher should tell the children that they are going to go on a mini beast hunt to seek all the hidden mini beasts.

The children could; collect, draw, photograph, videoor list any mini beasts which are obviously visible. Then coould be encouraged to search for mini beats hidden in the types of places previously discussed. A new record of their findings could be produced.

Back in the classroom:The children could collect and collate as set of images and or toys versions of as many of the mini beasts found in the forest as they can. They are going to use these objects to carry out very basic classification activities. Two template sheets have been provided to support these activities. Template one encourages the children to classify the mini beasts according to the place they were found. Template two encourages the children to classify the mini beast according to the number of legs and or wings they have.

Extension Art Activity

Using clay or plasticine the children could make mini beasts for their own mini beast forest. To extent the learning on classification the children should ensure their model has the correct features of the mini beast they are making e.g. correct number of legs, wings etc.

As an alternative the teacher could give the children large pebbles which could be painted to look like mini beasts. The children could then be allowed to develop their learning by exploring and creating their own range of fantasy forest mini beasts.

Downloadfrom: www.nifsa.org.uk/downloads/

Section B


In this section the children will investigate concepts like seasonal change, hibernation and plant growth through the suggested activities.

Activity one- Who’s Hiding Here?

The teacher should introduce the concept that some people go into the forest to look at the animals there.They don’t want to be seen and so they actually hide too. They build structures to hide in and these are called “hides”. The children should have the chance to look at the images of the hides provided. The teacher should lead a discussion based on the images.

Questions should be posed to stimulate the children’s thinking. These could include such questions as :

� What are the hides made from? � What colour are they? � Why are these materials/ colours used? � Who are they hiding from? � What are they doing in the hides?

Then the children could build a hide in the classroom in an appropriate area. They could choose materials and camouflage the hide. They could pick from a collection of objects things which it may be useful to have in the hide. For example it would be useful to have:

� A camera � A notebook � A torch � A flask � A lunch box � A blanket and other useful objects

The children can decide what to put in their hide. They can play in the hide and decide what they see while in it. They can make drawings to record their sightings or choose cards or images from the earlier templates to display what they imagine they see whilst in the hide.

Activity One - Hidden Away!

Section B


In this activity the children are going to look at the concept of animals collecting and storing food and seasonal change. The children should be given images of their forest classroom in the Autumn.They will look at the picture and the teacher will pose the question:

“Which season of the year is it?”

The children should be able to discuss how they know that it is Autumn and a list of the signs of Autumn can be displayed around the images.

The children could create their own autumn woods scenes. Perhaps they could collect leaves and twigs from their Forest School to create their scenes. Then the teacher should pose the question:

“What is being hidden in the forest?”

The children should match images of animals which are collecting food with the foods they are collecting.

Info for teachers:Squirrels aren’t the only animals that store up food for the winter. Moles store up earthworms in mounds. Foxes might store eggs or bones in shallow holes. Mice hoard seeds and nuts in underground nests. Frogs eat extra bugs and worms.

Activity Two - Who’s Hiding & Hoarding?

Section B


Who’s Eating What?

Section B


In this activity the children are going to look at the concept of hibernation and seasonal change.They will look at the picture of their forest classroom in winter and again the teacher will pose the question:

“Which season of the year is it?

The children should be able to discuss how they know that it is winter and a list of the signs of winter can be displayed around the images. The children could create their own winter woods scenes. Then the teacher should pose the question:

“Who is hiding here in the winter woods?”

To stimulate the children’s thinking a story book could be read such as:

� Hodge the Hedgehog � The Winter Hedgehog � A Little Bit of Winter: Rabbit and Hedgehog � Whoever’s Heard of a Hibernating Pig?

The children could be asked to match pictures of the hibernating animals to the winter forest scene. They should try to identify where the sleeping animals might be.

These pictures should include: � Badger � Bat � Frog � Hedgehog � Mouse � Squirrel � Bears ( but it should be explained that we don’t have bears here)

Activity Three - Who’s Hibernating?

Section B


Who’s Hibernating Where?

Documents

NIFSA 1 Hide & Seek - Thematic Unitnifsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Hide-Seek-1-Thematic-Unit.pdf · NIFSA 4 Hide & Seek - Thematic Unit This Thematic Unit - has been designed