Page 27: The illusion of magic
'Magic' is exciting and captivating at any age, however, illusions and creations that you stimulate to be 'hooks' in your learning is key to engagement and enthusiasm - especially with such active and shorter attention spanned learners in the EYFS.
I am using and approaching the term 'the illusion of magic' as a metaphor. When teaching in the EYFS, I did not pull out my magic hat and a deck of cards, I installed illusions into my teaching to truly captivate the minds of our youngest learners. I think back to some of my most memorable lessons in primary school, and one has to be when we found jewellery sealed into a packet of tortillas for a class drama performance we were watching. This hook then stemmed a whole scheme of writing work and 'fun' lessons. For me, years later to remember this so vividly, really highlights the effectiveness of the illusion of magic in primary education.
When approaching my weekly planning, I knew I was teaching 2 follow on understadning the world lessons tackling the topic of lifecycles (specifically the life cycle of a chick). I knew from my understadning and prior assessment of the children, the lesson needed to be as visual and as active, with lots of elements being participation driven. I decided that I really needed to focus on planning creatively, (an element I really enjoy reflecting and delivering on, from further understanding as a result of reading chapters of Creativity in Primary Education by A Wilson). As I knew this is what would work best for my learners, I decided it was time for some simple DIY to deliver a highly creative practical lesson.
When pupils (specifically at such a young age), are learning anything new, there is high emphasis on repetition and a visual understadning of the learning taking place. The lesson contained lots of follow up tasks, group and individual work such as large flashcards, and mini cards for pupils to order themselves, consolidating the learning taking place. However, for the main input and the introduction into the learning it was DIY time.
To illustrate the life cycle and the process, I wanted to make it as realistic as possible. As we were learning and approaching it as such a basic level I stuck to the three simple stages of egg, egg hatching and chick. The first and last stage were pretty easy to re create. I hard boiled an egg (to make it slightly more durable and less likely to break being passed around), and picked up a packet of art chicks from my local b and m for the end. The middle stage is where the 'illusion of magic' began. The pupils did not have understanding of the process before, so when I cracked the egg to find a chick in the middle pupils were truly 'hooked' into the learning. To create this illusion, I carefully cracked the egg in two equal halves as possible, then I washed, drained and dried the egg shell and finally placed a chick in and glued it back together. To say I went through a few eggs would be an understatement, it wad pretty fiddly! However, all these efforts and multiple eggs were worth it and truly effective. Pupils had a clear visual understadning of the process, they were able to touch and interact with these resources and draw on this for the follow up task. It also stimulated lots of questioning and discussion in the surprise of the chick cracking. Below is an extract from my lesson plans describing the use and the follow up activities for the two lessons:
Lesson 1 -
'Introduce basic lifecycle of the chick through the physical hard boiled egg, cracked egg and then the final chick. Explain how after easter we will be having our own eggs that will hatch to chicks in our classroom. Talk through the story together and encourage lots of talk (used targeted language of first and last in the life cycle events). Flash though the life cycle flashcards and get pupils to repeat the process. Lay the cards randomly over the floor and get group to rearrange into the correct order. (Emphasise again first and last).'
Lesson 2 -
'Start by showing and repeating the physical process with the resources, and follow by flicking back through the flashcards. Then to practically get all involved, act out the process of the lifecycle. Start the egg (children lie in ball on floor), cracking (start stretching and shaking), hatching (children jump up and down) and hatched (chicken action with arms). Again whilst completing focus on the targeted vocabulary of first and last. To highlight this further, rein-act the cycle in the normal order and the a jumbled order. To finish and consolidate learning, in pairs give all pupils their own cards of the life cycle to order.'
From my experience so far, I personally find it most effective to have lots of small engaging practical activities rather than one main listening input.
To briefly sum up, when planning and aiming to teach creativity to deliver the most engaging lessons it has to be considered through multiple lenses. Firstly, as a teacher we are not just planning for creativity (traditional art style practical input etc), we are indeed planning creativity, exploring and furthering our plans, thinking out side of the box. This does not always have to be huge, elaborate and expensive; like stated above, cracking an egg and some simple DIY (if I can hack it - anyone can), stems an equal response!
Over the next few weeks sharing my EYFS experiences, I will end each post with a little advice on some of the invaluable things/tips I have learnt:
6. For a slightly different style tip this week, I have thought to share two invaluable resources to me. Both books have be throughly helpful for developing my inspiration as well as understanding when carefully planning (creatively) in the aim to deliver the most high quality lessons for my learners:
1. Creativity in Primary Education by A Wilson
2. Learning Threads in the EYFS by E Hoskins
Both books contain great and helpful theory as well as inspiring practical examples too.
- Miss Yeoman
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