Practical guides for teaching fundamental skills
Big Ideas titles
incorporate two levels – one for the lower-primary classes and one for upper primary.
Each level comprises a teacher book with an accompanying set of Learning
Journals for pupils, which are available individually or in packs of 15.
Teacher’s Guide
Each teacher’s guide focuses on a core project to promote the development of a fundamental skill. This core project is carried out over seven sessions, which are structured to provide a practical and child-centred approach to the learning.
Each session is divided into the following:
Explore: children are encouraged to use a variety of research methods to find out a range of information that will provide the stimulus for their activity.
Create: during the create activities, children communicate their learning from the Explore session by demonstrating their understanding through practical work.
Support/Extend: differentiation advice is provided for how you might support less confident or more confident learners. This may include additional preliminary activities or extension activities that will give children additional opportunities to develop their learning and understanding.
Cross-curricular links: should you wish to extend the themes of the project into other areas of the curriculum, then these practical ideas will provide detailed support on how you might plan and deliver a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic.
The book also includes
Alternative project ideas and support in getting started.
Learning Journal
Each Learning Journals contain 24 worksheets, which have been specifically designed to support and extend the learning from the main session activities. Images of these worksheets are reproduced in the teacher’s books, with additional suggestions on how you might use them to focus on specific areas of learning or as the stimulus for further activities and discussion.
As children complete the worksheet activities, planning and responding to their project experience, they will be creating a valuable record of their learning journey. This will be helpful to the children when it comes to their own self-review of their work and also for your assessment of their learning and achievements.