Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

Resources, put, are supplies that benefit the user and have some use.

• Resources can be described as what a living organism needs to function: a source of nourishment, water, shelter, and clean air.
• From another point of view, resources are things that an organization needs. For example, a gardening business will need resources like an income to pay staff, gardening tools, and communication devices.

It’s important to understand different types of resources. Some can be described as renewable, while others are non-renewable. Renewable resources are replenished, while non-renewable resources have a finite amount: once they’re used up, they’re gone forever. Most of the time, these terms refer to different types of energy. Energy is a resource we can attain from the oceans in many ways. First, let’s take a look at what oceans are.

What is an ocean?

An ocean is a very large area of salt water. Oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and are home to over 700,000 species of animals. There are five oceans in the world:

• Pacific Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Indian Ocean
• Southern Ocean
• Arctic Ocean

What are the resources we get from the ocean?

We live on a big blue planet. There isn’t anything the ocean hasn’t had some part in providing for us. All life on Earth depends on the health of the oceans.

• The air we breathe

The ocean is full of plants that help to produce oxygen. This is what we need to breathe. The sea also acts as a huge carbon sink. This helps limit the greenhouse effect, which is causing global warming.

• Water

The earliest human beings built their communities near sources of water. Later, cities would spring up with sources of water, too. Rivers running into the oceans provide water for drinking, cooking, making, cleaning – and having fun swimming. Lots of people agree that being by oceans is great for our mental health and physical well-being.

• Transport and shipping

For most of human history, the oceans have been the transport network for people and produce. This hasn’t changed in the age of the automobile, trains, and planes: today, 90% of produce is transported over the sea. In addition, many people take advantage of shipping lanes and ferries to travel or even sail the oceans on yachts or cruises for leisure and sport.

• Food

Around 200 billion pounds of fish and shellfish are caught each year. For centuries – and still today – people have carried out low-intensity fishing with a rod and pole, only seeing what they need. As demand for fish increases globally, however, more unsustainable kinds of fishing have taken place. Sometimes this involves throwing underwater bombs or using large nets that catch animals like dolphins; boats can cause fatal injuries to sea turtles and whales.

• Medicine

The world’s oceans largely remain a mystery. We understand more about the surface of the moon and some planets in our solar system than the bottom of our oceans! Moreover, we are only just discovering species of plants and animals that possess properties that have huge potential for fighting disease.

• Energy

The oceans are instrumental to the success of offshore wind farms, as well as other sustainable renewable energy sources like hydropower and tidal power.

Reading for meaning is a strategy focusing on understanding what we read and finding purpose. The plan focuses on two types of questions: literal and inferential.

When we read for meaning, we should be able to answer literal questions about the text we’ve read and make inferences from it.

Reading for meaning helps us to make sense of challenging texts and is a good building block for critical reading. It focuses on making interpretations based on evidence.

Why Should We Read for Meaning?

If we don’t comprehend the meaning of words and what texts are trying to tell us, what’s the point of reading?

When children first learn to read, the focus is on learning to pronounce the words correctly and to be able to read aloud fluently. Children begin to sound out and decode individual words. This is an important step for the foundations of reading, but understanding and comprehending what the words mean together, not just individually, is of equal importance.

It’s also important to consider that being able to sound out words and pronounce them correctly doesn’t automatically mean that children understand what they’re reading. For many years, it was assumed that if a child can read fluently, they can know what they’re reading. But, unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. That’s why the strategy of reading for meaning was developed in the first place.

Developing reading for meaning skills at an early age can help prepare children for what they might read later in their education. As they grow, they’ll be faced with more challenging texts with more difficult vocabulary. If they aren’t able to read the text and analyze it for meaning, they’ll struggle and become discouraged. This can hinder their development and cause children to lose their motivation for reading and learning.

Reading for meaning also encourages children to become active readers. Rather than just passively accepting what a text is telling us on the surface, they learn to take a closer look to find meaning in what they read. This is an essential skill useful for literacy and other topics in their education and life.

How Can Reading for Meaning be Implemented in the Classroom?

Reading comprehension activities are a traditional way for children to learn how to read for meaning. You can read for purpose in a story, a poem, a newspaper article, or just about anything with words.

To introduce your pupils to reading for meaning, you should give them a text to read alongside a set of questions or statements that relate to the reader. At this stage, these should be literal questions rather than inferential ones. In other words, they should be able to find a ‘correct’ answer by searching for evidence within the text.

When pupils answer the questions, they should show where they found the answer in the text. For example, if one of the questions asks what happened to a character at the end of the story, they should use a quote as evidence for their answer.

Once pupils grasp basic reading for meaning using evidence, they can move on to inferential questions. The questions can be slightly more open-ended, and the pupils must make inferences to find meaning. These could be questions like ‘How do you think the character felt during this scene?’ or ‘What do you think will happen next?’. Pupils should still use evidence from the text to support their answers, but they should also be prepared to defend their arguments!

This is a great opportunity for whole-class discussions where your pupils can share the meanings they’ve found, and other pupils can discuss whether they agree or disagree about the inferences made.

Comprehension activities like this show whether pupils can comprehend what they’ve read and understand the text’s meaning.

A fable is a short story featuring animals, plants, or forces of nature that have been anthropomorphized (given human qualities). The story always ends with a moral.

Fables are commonly used to teach children simple life lessons.

What are some of the most famous fables?

The most famous fables in the world are Aesop’s Fables. Aesop was an Ancient Greek storyteller, and there are now 83 fables credited to his name.

Some of these famous fables include:

• The Tortoise and the Hare
• The Lion and the Mouse
• The Fox and the Crow
• The Wolf and the Crane
• The Gnat and the Bull
• The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
• The Ant and the Grasshopper
• The Goose and the Golden Egg
• The North Wind and the Sun
• The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf (The Boy Who Cried, Wolf).

How do you write a fable?

Try writing a fable with your class by using these simple steps.

1. Decide on the moral of the fable. This is the most important part, as it will be the story’s main focus.
2. Design the characters. Typically, characters in a fable are animals or forces of nature, such as the sun or the wind.
3. Decide the characters’ traits. Characters in fables are usually straightforward, with one or two main characteristics related to the moral of the story.
4. Scope out the conflict. What is causing tension between the characters and in the story?
5. Figure out the resolution to the conflict – and make sure it reflects the moral of the story!

Ideas for morals in a fable:

• Cheaters never prosper.
• Better safe than sorry.
• Never give up.
• Kindness can come from anyone.
• Don’t judge by appearances.
• Honesty is the best policy.
• Appreciate what you have.

Brackets are one of the most common punctuation marks your pupils will learn about in a sentence. They are mainly used to add parentheses (a phrase containing additional information) to a sentence. Like we did just now!

The sentence will still make sense without the added information, but it usually brings something extra or interesting to the sentence. Here’s an example of brackets in a sentence:

She finally answered that she didn’t understand the question.

She finally answered (after taking five minutes to think) that she didn’t understand the question.

As we see from this example, brackets can make a sentence more effective and give a bit of context to what’s being said.

What are the types of frames?

Before we learn how to use brackets in a sentence, it’s important to note that there are four different types of frames, and they each have slightly other uses:

• Round brackets add an extra clause or information to a sentence that is usually non-essential. For example, My friend Chloe (who is three months older than me) is coming to my house tonight.
• Square brackets are mainly used to enclose words added by someone other than the original writer or speaker, typically to clarify the situation. For example, He [the police officer] can’t prove they did it.
• Curly brackets (which look like this { } ) are not as common as the first two types, mainly used to indicate a group of lines that should be taken together, as when referring to several lines of poetry that should be repeated.
• Angle brackets are rarely used when writing in English but are common in other languages, such as Spanish. In English, angle brackets are most often used in online communications.

But when using brackets in a sentence to insert parentheses, we usually use curved brackets. So now that we know all about frames let’s find out how to use brackets in a sentence correctly!

How do you use brackets in a sentence?

You can use brackets in many ways, for example, to indicate a change in capitalization, but the most common use your students will learn is how to use brackets to add information to a sentence. You can insert data into frames to add more context for your reader. For example:

• Without brackets: Bob was in charge of driving the forklift.
• With shelves: Bob (who had no training) was in charge of driving the forklift.

• Without brackets: After Louise finished her homework, she played computer games.
• With brackets: After Louse finished her homework (an essay about Shakespeare), she played computer games.

• Without brackets: Mila studied for the grammar test.
• With brackets: Mila studied (all night) for the grammar test.

In the second sentence, we have much more context to understand the situation in the sentence. Adding more detail can also make a sentence much more interesting!

The brackets set off, add emphasis, or further explain information presented to a reader. The brackets have slightly different functions and limited usage in academic writing, but learning to use a bracket in grammar is as easy as identifying and marking the extra information in a sentence.

That seems quite simple, right? However, students need to be careful not to overuse brackets in a sentence. All the information included in the brackets is extra information. Therefore, it is important that sentences still make sense even when the brackets and additional information are removed! This means that you can’t include any crucial information inside the brackets. Check out these examples of brackets used correctly and incorrectly to see the difference.

• Correct: Mila studied (all night) for the grammar test.
• Incorrect: Mila (studied all night) for the grammar test.

How do you punctuate a sentence using brackets?

Students must also understand how to punctuate within and around the brackets in a sentence. Follow a few of these simple tips to punctuate around brackets perfectly.

• Full stops: As a rule, you should add full stops inside brackets when an entire sentence is parenthetical. However, it would help if you placed the full stop outside the brackets in all other cases.

Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading. When a person reads a text, they engage in complex cognitive processes. We simultaneously use our awareness and understanding of phonemes, phonics, and our ability to comprehend or construct meaning from a text.

Reading comprehension helps children connect with reading at a deeper level. For example, your children can use individual words to produce a story or a conversation, but if the terms don’t make sense in any writing or conversation, they won’t make sense storyline-wise.

To understand a text, the reader must comprehend the vocabulary used in writing. The story won’t make sense if the individual words don’t make sense.

Readers with strong comprehension skills can conclude what they read – what is important in a story, what caused an event to happen, information about the characters, and so on. So, comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.

Why is it important to teach Reading Comprehension to kindergarten students?

Reading Comprehension in kindergarten is important for many reasons. One of those reasons is that it becomes vital to any child’s education as they start their reading journey. It becomes one way to help develop their abilities to construct meaning from text, speech, and more. It also helps set boundaries for creative flows to be created.

Reading comprehension skills can foster a love of books and stories from an early age. It combines the meaning of enough words to use, write, read, or talk about stories.

Another reason reading comprehension is so important is that it helps bring your kindergarten children together as they start to understand social skills. In addition, your kindergarten children will develop their personalities and uniqueness while dedicating time to showing preferences for picture books and stories.

Your children will be able to pick out relevant bits of information from texts that are not only covered in ELA lessons. For example, reading comprehension skills help children understand science experiments, math word problems, and social studies textbooks. In addition, they’ll be able to retrieve text from the information presented to them across a whole host of subjects.

How can the three types of Reading Comprehension help students?

There are three types of reading comprehension; literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, and evaluative comprehension. But how can these types/meanings of reading comprehension help your children?

When it comes to literal comprehension, it is all about what is happening at that moment. This could be the main idea in a story, the characters talking to each other, and the sequence of events all in that one book. It could also be the facts and figures of different areas of life. This type of comprehension can help your children describe what is happening, and it can become the foundation of advanced understanding, as any child couldn’t go further without it.

However, when it comes to inferential comprehension, this is where it gets more complicated for your children. This is because this type of comprehension is all about determining what the text means. Therefore, this is used more in written or spoken words as it has your child choose the deeper meaning behind what is written or spoken and requires you to think about the text and draw a conclusion.

This could be predicting the future or understanding cause-and-effect relationships within reading comprehension. This is also one way to understand an unstated main idea or generalizations about something or someone.

When looking at evaluative comprehension is all about figuring out what the text is telling us about the world outside the story. Then, your children can form an opinion based on specific information. This is typically known as looking beyond the text and looking at the bigger picture in terms of reading comprehension.

Each reading comprehension style brings together a unique skill for your children to practice in kindergarten.

What is comprehension in general?

Comprehension is all about understanding the meaning behind what they are reading. This could mean various things, such as your children being able to extract the meaning or message behind a writer’s story or text.

Comprehension is one way to help your children develop reading, writing, and social skills as they progress through the different grade levels. In addition, you’ll be able to use those comprehension skills to discourage children from “passive reading,” in which children read the individual words on the page without seeking to understand them.

As your children jump through the ranks of the grade levels in school, reading comprehension strategies will become second nature to them. These strategies are useful for practices and methods that can be used to help any young learner understand a passage, text, or story.

These reading comprehension strategies can help improve general thinking, logic, and creativity while encouraging children to pay attention to details, find hidden meanings and look for the big picture. This is why reading comprehension for kindergarten children is so special and important.

If you want to understand how children learn more and determine how successful they can be in the future, have them understand a text with different meanings and information that uses activities, challenges, and tests the young ones face in elementary schools. All of that will help with a mixture of things, such as reading an entire novel, solving a math word problem, or analyzing a poem.

Different reading comprehensions are an amazing way to build confidence in your children, but even more so when it comes to developing their reading, writing, and vocabulary skills as they deep dive into the world of stories and books.

Africa is the world’s second-largest continent. It spans 30.3 million km2, equivalent to 6% of the world’s total land surface area. This means Africa has many phenomenal physical features and spectacular natural wonders. Moreover, as Africa is so large, there’s a great diversity in climate and ecosystems.

Where is Africa located?

To answer, ‘what is the physical geography of Africa?’ in-depth, you’ll need to know its geographical location. Africa is south of Europe, with coastlines along the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean also bound the continent. The equator runs through the continent’s middle, dividing it equally in half.

What is the physical geography of Africa like?

We’ll need to look at Africa’s eight major geographical regions to answer this question. These regions are unique in climate, biodiversity, and physical features.

Africa’s eight geographical regions

Africa has eight distinctive physical geographical features. In the north are the Sahara desert and the Sahel below it. In the northeast, there are the Ethiopian highlands, which are a vast mountainscape that extends through most of Ethiopia and Eritrea. To the east is the Swahili coast, a coastal area of the Indian Ocean. And, further, on land, there are the African Great Lakes. To the west, lush rainforests are the largest in the Congo. Finally, Southern Africa, located in the south, is distinct for its temperate climate, and several plateaus stretch across this region.

Keep reading to learn more about these eight regions!

The Sahara

Did you know that Sahara is so large it equals the size of Brazil? It is the world’s largest hot desert and makes up 25% of the African continent. It stretches from the northwest in Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, and Mauritania, through to Mail, Niger, Libya, and Chad and ends in the northeast in Egypt, Eritrea, and Sudan.

The Sahara has many noteworthy features that make it a great case study in your geography lesson(s). In the Sahara, dunes (known as ergs) stretch for hundreds of miles. These ergs contain huge amounts of salt, which has historically been used for cooking! In addition, though, 70% of the Sahara comprises regs and sand plains formed from prehistoric sea beds. Other features of the Sahara include plateaus of rock, and oases, which are water sources such as springs and wells. The majority of the Sahara’s population lives in or around oases.

Despite being a hostile environment, 2 million people live in the Sahara desert. And an incredible number of plant and animal species live in the Sahara that has adapted to its harsh environment and conditions.

The Sahel

The Sahel is best described as a transition zone between the Sahara and the savannas. It begins in the western country of Senegal and ends in the eastern region of Sudan. The Sahel is made up of vast plains of semi-arid land. Within the Sahel is the rich, fertile delta of the Niger River, but this is changing drastically due to climate change. To prevent drought and desertification of this region, drought and fire-resistant trees, such as baobabs and acacias, are being planted.

Ethiopian Highlands

80% of Africa’s tallest mountains are found in the Ethiopian highlands. Some of the summits reach as high as 14,930 ft!

The Ethiopian highlands have an Alpine climate due to their elevation and proximity to the Equator. Plus, these highlands catch the monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean, which cause large amounts of rainfall. The rainy season can last from June to September, and it causes the River Nile to swell and flood in the summer.

Savanna

Savannas (also known as grasslands) cover 5 million square miles of land. These savanna regions cross most of Central Africa, originating south of the Sahara and Sahel and ending at the tip of Southern Africa.

The Serengeti is the most well-known savanna, home to large populations of the world’s biggest land mammals, such as elephants, lions, and giraffes. Savannas are home to both tropical wet and dry climates.

Swahili Coast

The Swahili Coast is a 1,000-mile-long stretch of coastline along the Indian Ocean. It begins in Somalia, going through Kenya and Tanzania, before ending in Mozambique.

The barrier islands and coral reefs protect the area from severe weather, giving the region both tropical and subtropical climates.

Rainforests

80% of Africa’s rainforests are concentrated in Central Africa and found along the basin of the Congo River. After the Amazon rainforest, the Congolian rainforest is the largest in the world. The Congo River rainforests are home to a rich diversity of life. According to National Geographic, a single four-mile patch could contain up to 400 species of bird, 150 species of butterfly, and 60 species of amphibians.

African Great Lakes

The African Great Lakes are located around the Great Rift Valley, a physical geographical feature caused by the African continent’s separation from Saudi Arabia. This caused huge cracks to form on the Earth’s surface. The most notable lakes in this geographical region are Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu, Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Turkana, and Lake Victoria. You will likely find plenty of hippos and crocodiles in these lakes!

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is celebrated for its rocky features. Plateaus and mountains are found throughout the region, alongside animal reserves. Lions, elephants, and rhinos, among other species, are protected in these reserves. Table Mountain, which overlooks the South African city of Cape Town, is the most distinctive and well-known plateau of Southern Africa.

More physical features of Africa

Here are some quick-fire facts about the other notable physical and geographical features of Africa:

• The highest mountain in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro, which is located in Tanzania
• Africa’s largest urban area is Cairo in Egypt, with a population of 15.6 million
• The world’s longest river is the River Nile, found in Egypt
• The African continent has the most countries of any continent (54 in total)

What are Fairy Stories?

Fairy stories are as embedded into our history as the trees are rooted into the earth. Every country and culture has a selection of fairy tales, myths, legends, or traditional tales that have been passed down through the generations by word of mouth or books of old. Fairy tales are a wonderful learning tool, as they teach important morals and life lessons. They also motivate children to make good decisions and analyze their notions of right and wrong.

One of the most famous fairy tale writers of our time was Hans Christian Anderson, author of The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Emperor News Clothes. He wrote over 3,000 fairy stories, so there are certainly many to tell. Typically, fairy stories follow a simple narrative style, making them a great tool for teaching children creative writing skills.

How to Write a Fairy Story – in Simple Steps

Fairy stories are one of the easiest to write, as they usually feature similar storylines and a moral or two at the end. They can be broken down into easy segments to show children how to write their own. Fairy stories are a great tool for developing children’s reading and writing skills. They allow children to be inventive and imaginative while improving and expanding essential reading and writing skills. They also enable children to practice their spelling, grammar, and handwriting.

The Magic Ingredients for the Perfect Fairy Story

Here is a list of simple themes that appear in most fairy stories and traditional tales:

• Overcoming the monster
• Rags to riches
• The quest
• Voyage and return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth

Step 1. The ‘Once upon a time’ Start

Fairytales classically begin with the famous words: ‘Once upon a time…’ When you read those words, you immediately expect to be whisked into a land of magical fairy princesses, dastardly villains, and wondrous worlds. This classic story starter sentence is a great way to introduce children to the art of writing a fairy story.

Step 2. Inspire an Idea Using Story Prompts

If story writing is new to your class, task children with re-writing a fairy story they already know. They can change the characters or give the ending a contemporary twist. Teachers may want to give students a little leg-up by offering a series of story starter prompts to inspire students to create their fairy stories. You can come up with your own, or we have made some lovely examples for you to use:

• There once was a king who had gone quite mad.
• Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. Then, one day, a fierce dragon stole her from the palace.
• There were once five curious rabbits who wanted to have an adventure.
• Once upon a time, a very old lady lived in a very large shoe.
• Once upon a time, there was a very beautiful girl. She woke up one morning to find she had been magically transformed into a fish.

Step 3. The Characters – The Hero and the Villain

Coming up with a brave hero and an evil villain is one of the fun parts of writing a fairy story. Students could use many methods to come up with interesting characters. Take inspiration from existing fairy tale heroes and villains, or draw a character with their ideas in mind. The hero could have magic hair or a magic cape. The villain could have an eyepatch, be cursed to look like a bear, or have completely green skin! They must ensure that the hero is good and the villain is bad. The villain will want to cause all sorts of unhappiness for the hero, often for no sensible reason aside from being very mean and evil. But in the end, the hero must overcome the villain! (Unless they choose to give the fairy story an unhappy ending.)

Fairy tale heroes:

• Cinderella
• Rapunzel
• Prince Charming
• Snow White
• The Little Mermaid
• Hansel and Gretel
• The Three Little Pigs
• Red Riding Hood

Fairy tale villains:

• The Evil Queen
• The Wicked Witch
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Dragons
• Maleficent
• The Big Bad Wolf

Step 4. The Plot

You can use two simple traditional plots when writing a fairy story. But first, allow your students to pick which one they would like to use.

• Rags to riches- this plot usually follows the story of a flawed character who ends up rich or marries a prince.
• Defeating the monster- the story of a character who battles and defeats a monster such as a dragon or an evil witch.

There are more, but keeping it simple means children are not overwhelmed with too many choices when trying to pen that masterpiece.

Step 5. The Setting

Task children to think about where their story will take place. Is it In a dark wood? Deep in the enchanted forest? Inside a magic lamp? Usually, a fairy story is set somewhere quite fantastical or mysterious. Imagination is key when choosing a setting and creating a mood for the entire fairytale. A house made from gingerbread may suggest a warm and cozy story will take place. A dark, gloomy wood might propose a dark, gothic fairytale, but the audience can certainly be surprised. Let your students’ imaginations run wild.

Traditional fairy story setting ideas:

• Enchanted Forest
• Dark Castle
• Gloomy Wood
• Gingerbread House
• Magical Palace

Step 6. The Moral of the Story

A good fairy story should have a moral. It could be very simple – be kind or never talk to strangers. Or, it could be a little more thoughtful, such as always reading the small print before signing your life away. Often, children might only realize the moral of their story after they have already written it, but it’s a great practice to get them thinking about it.

Magic!

Not all fairy stories have to involve magic, but most of the best ones do. Encourage children to think about what magical elements they can introduce into their accounts using the ‘what if’ prompt. What if the cat could talk? What if a genie could grant you three wishes? What if a fairy godmother could turn a pumpkin into a carriage so you could get to the ball on time? The sky is the limit – and the magical beanstalk could grow even higher than the sky!

The ‘happily ever after’ Finish

Another common trope in the history of fairytales is the ending of ‘happily ever after.’

When the prince heard her sing, he saw that the half-fish half-woman was his soulmate, and they lived happily ever after.

The girl’s miraculously small feet led the prince right to her, and they lived happily ever after.

You know how it goes.

The phrase is a great way of ending a fairy story for kids. Of course, they could always do the opposite and give their story an unhappy ending. Sometimes the villains win.

What’s Important When Teaching Children About Writing a Fairy Story?

Children should be encouraged to use their imagination and write a simple story full of colorful characters in the early years. Older children will learn traditional writing methods, how to make their stories better and more engaging, and how to format them correctly. These steps are an important part of writing a good fairy story – or any piece of writing.

• Planning

students should start planning and mapping out their story idea before writing. This can be done in a few different ways. Alternatively, students who enjoy a more visual learning style might wish to draw their narrative ideas or make a mind map.

• Drafting & Revising

After the initial marking session, return the work to your students so they can make changes and improvements based on your feedback. Classmates could always swap their stories with each other and improve their work with peer review.

• Proofreading & Editing

Allow students to re-read their work and make it shine to the best of their ability, considering any spelling and grammar errors they might have created.

Sense verbs are verbs that relate to our five senses. The most common verbs of the senses are:

• See
• Hear
• Touch
• Taste
• Smell

These verbs give the most basic descriptions of each of our five senses. However, we can use numerous other verbs to talk about our feelings. These include, among others:

• Look
• Watch
• Observe
• Notice
• Listen
• Feel

In writing, it’s a good idea to vary our vocabulary because this makes our content more interesting. For this reason, we need to learn a range of different sense verbs so we don’t have to keep repeating ourselves.

We also have to be careful of how we use these verbs in sentences, as some of them have more than one meaning, or they can change their structure depending on their grammatical position in a sentence.

Let’s take a closer look at senses verbs and how we can use them.

The three types of sense verbs

There are three types of sense verbs in English, classified by how we use them to describe what we’re doing.

Passive

Passive senses verbs relate to the things we sense unintentionally, without trying. We often use the main reason verbs in this way. For example:

• ‘I saw a bird flying past the window.’
• ‘My dog can smell the cheese.’
• ‘I heard your phone ringing.’

We haven’t been trying to do any of these things; our senses have picked them up.

When we use passive sense verbs to talk about what our minds are involuntarily doing at the moment, we usually use them with ‘can’ or ‘can’t.’ We don’t use the continuous form of the verb. So, we would say, ‘I can see the sea from here,’ not ‘I’m seeing the sea from here.’

Dynamic

We use sense verbs to describe an intentional action as dynamic sense verbs. Here are some examples of emotional sense verbs in action:

• ‘I looked out to sea.’
• ‘She’s listening to music.’
• ‘Let me taste the cake mix.’

These are all examples of our senses being used intentionally to achieve a specific purpose.

We can use dynamic sense verbs in their continuous forms to describe a current situation, as in the second example, ‘She’s listening to music.’ This suggests she’s listening to music at present. If we said, ‘She listened to music,’ this would tell us she was purposely listening to music but that this has already happened. It’s different from ‘She heard music,’ which is passive, telling us she wasn’t intentionally listening to it.

Stative

Stative sense verbs tell us about what we’re sensing and why our senses react this way.

• ‘That food smells delicious.’
• ‘Your dog looks so cute.’
• ‘This coat feels so warm.’
• ‘Their music sounded great.’

As we can see from these examples, we use stative sense verbs to talk about what our minds are responding to and how they make us feel.

Sense verbs with more than one meaning

Some sense verbs aren’t just used to describe what our senses are doing; they can also tell us about other things in our lives. For example:

• ‘We’ve started seeing each other.’ This refers to people dating.
• ‘I’ve heard he’s not very nice.’ Again, this refers to gathering information about something or someone.
• ‘I felt it was the right thing to do.’ This refers to an emotional state rather than physically feeling something through touch.
• ‘You look beautiful.’ This is a sense verb used as a non-action (copular) verb, as it refers to an observation about someone else.

Modifying sense verbs

If we want to modify a sense verb, we should use an adverb. Compare these sentences:

• He listened carefully to the teacher.
• He listened carefully to the teacher.

In the first example, the sense verb ‘listened’ is modified by the adverb ‘carefully.’ This is grammatically correct, so it makes sense. In the second example, we use the adjective ‘careful’ to modify the sense verb. This doesn’t make sense, as it’s incorrect.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. If we’re using a sense verb to observe someone else, it’s being used as a copular verb. This means we should modify it with an adjective. Compare these two sentences:

• She looked happy to be there.
• She looked pleased to be there.

The first example is correct, as the sense verb ‘looked’ is being used as an observation and modified by the adjective ‘happy.’ However, the second example doesn’t work because we’re trying to alter the sense verb with the adverb ‘happily.’

Using sense verbs to make comparisons

We can use sense verbs to compare something to something else by using ‘like.’ Some examples include:

• ‘Your dog looks like a teddy bear.’
• ‘He sounds like my dad.’
• ‘This jumper feels like cashmere.’

In the cases of ‘smell’ and ‘taste,’ we can also use ‘of’ instead of ‘like’ to make comparisons.

• ‘This soap smells of flowers.’
• ‘The cake tasted of almonds.’

This is because we’re more likely to compare smells and tastes to what they smell or taste like rather than making broader comparisons with our other senses.

Where is Kenya located? The country of Kenya is located on the East coast of Africa. The Indian Ocean, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania border it. Kenya’s coast is home to some of Africa’s finest beaches.

How many people live in Kenya?

The population of Kenya is approximately 53 million people. Around 28% of the population in Kenya lives in urban areas and cities.

If you’re teaching your children about the human geographical features of Kenya, then the urban areas and famous landmarks, such as the Bomas of Kenya, are important to mention! As well as the fact there are around 40 tribes living in the highlands and lowlands of the country.

What languages are spoken in Kenya?

Kenya has two official languages, Swahili and English. There are many different languages spoken in Kenya, however. It’s estimated that up to 60 languages are spoken, with Kikuyu, Dholuo, and Kamba being some of the most common languages spoken across the country.

What is the capital city of Kenya?

Kenya’s capital city is Nairobi. Nairobi is in the southwest of the country and has 4.4 million inhabitants. Nairobi is also known as the ‘green city in the sun’ because of its incredible surroundings. Both lush rainforests and spectacular savannah grasslands encircle the city.

What wildlife lives in Kenya?

Kenya is home to some incredible animals, such as:

• Elephants
• Rhinos
• Lions
• Hippos
• Zebras
• Giraffes

Kenya has over 40 nature reserves and national parks that are dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and the protection of nature.

What are Kenya’s most prominent geographical features?

Kenya is home to incredible human and physical geographical features. In Kenya, you’ll find vast plains, towering mountains, dense forests, and boggy swamps. Mount Kenya is the tallest mountain in Kenya, and the second-highest mountain in Africa, after Mount Kilimanjaro. Kenya is also home to Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake. Desert lakes are usually shallow and very salty.

What is Kenya’s climate like?

Kenya’s climate is mainly tropical but largely depends on the region. The areas of Kenya surrounding the equator are hotter and drier, along the coast, it’s more humid and warm, and in the mountainous region, it’s more temperate. On the peaks of the mountain, there is snowfall.

Kenya Facts

• Kenya’s currency is the Kenyan shilling
• Kenya is the world’s third-largest exporter of tea, after China and India
• Kenya’s largest exports are coffee, tea, and cut flowers
• Kenya’s motto is ‘harambee,’ which means ‘let us pull together’ in English
• Around 1 million to 2 million tourists visit Kenya every year

The atmosphere is the layer of gases that surrounds the Earth. It is very important because it keeps us all alive! All living animals and plants on the planet need the atmosphere to survive. The atmosphere is held to the Earth by gravity.

A mixture of gases makes up the atmosphere, including:

• 78% nitrogen
• 21% oxygen
• 0.9% argon
• ~ 0.1% carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, and ozone

Water vapor is also present in the atmosphere, varying in amount depending on where you are and what time it is. For example, humid tropical regions have more water vapor in the atmosphere (up to 4%), and cold Arctic regions have less water vapor (usually less than 1%).

There is also some dust in the Earth’s atmosphere. This dust consists of a mixture of solid and liquid particles, including particles from pollution, volcanic eruptions, and soil that the wind has lifted.

The bottom of the atmosphere is heavier than the top. 98% of the atmosphere’s mass is contained in the bottom 30 km. It gradually thins at higher altitudes until it reaches space, where there is no atmosphere. There is no definitive boundary between the atmosphere and outer space; it just gets thinner the higher you go until it blends with outer space.

We do not notice the atmosphere because it is so spread out and formed of invisible gases, but it is quite heavy! Its weight equals a 10-meter-deep layer of water covering the whole planet.

Scientists believe that most of the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere come from early volcanoes, and the oxygen came later from primitive organisms, such as bacteria, during photosynthesis: the process that plants use to make food from sunlight and other ingredients. As more complex plant life developed, more oxygen would have been added to the atmosphere until we arrived at the 21% oxygen that makes up the atmosphere today. This amount of oxygen took millions of years to accumulate.

Why is the atmosphere important?

The atmosphere allows life to exist on Earth because:

• The air we breathe is in the atmosphere.
• The atmosphere blocks harmful UV radiation from the Sun from reaching the Earth’s surface.
• The heat from the Sun is trapped by the atmosphere, so it doesn’t escape back into space, and Earth doesn’t get too cold.
• Earth’s climate is regulated by the atmosphere.
• It is a major element of the water cycle.

The atmosphere acts as a giant filter, keeping out the harmful radiation from the Sun, which causes sunburns and can damage living things. But it lets in solar heat (warm rays from the Sun), which is necessary for life to survive on Earth.

What are the different layers of the atmosphere?

The Earth’s atmosphere comprises layers extending from the ground to the sky. The boundaries between these layers are quite fluid, as they change depending on latitude and season. The layers of the atmosphere from the ground up are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.

What is the troposphere?

All weather develops in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. This is because almost all the atmospheric water vapor is in the troposphere. Winds in this layer of the atmosphere move air masses and different high-pressure and low-pressure areas, which causes weather changes and patterns. The troposphere can change suddenly and violently.

This layer begins at the ground and extends to about 6 km at the poles and about 16 km at the Equator. As we go further up in the troposphere, the air thins, and the temperature decreases. This is why the top of a mountain is colder than the valleys below.

The heat from the Sun can penetrate the troposphere easily. Winds high up in the troposphere are very useful for planes! This is because jet streams are at the top of the troposphere, which are fast-moving winds that planes can fly in to save time and money. Flying in a jet stream is quicker and more efficient than in the thicker air below.

What is the stratosphere?

This calm layer of the atmosphere reaches from the troposphere to about 50 km above the Earth’s surface. It is a very dry layer without many clouds. Any clouds in the stratosphere are thin and wispy. As you get higher up in the stratosphere, the temperature increases: the opposite of the troposphere! The planes that can fly in this layer are lucky because there are strong horizontal winds to aid the flight but little turbulence.

We are also lucky that the stratosphere exists because it helps protect us from harmful UV radiation from the Sun due to containing small amounts of ozone (a form of oxygen). The part of the stratosphere with this thin ozone layer is called the ozone layer. Unfortunately, the amount of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere is decreasing, which scientists believe is due to chemicals called CFCs being released from aerosol sprays. CFCs are banned in most countries worldwide, and the ozone layer is slowly recovering.

What is the mesosphere?

The mesosphere is the coldest layer of the atmosphere, with a minimum temperature of -120 degrees Celsius. It stretches to about 85 km above the Earth’s surface, and the highest clouds in the atmosphere form here, which look like silvery wisps you can see after the Sun sets. These clouds are made of ice because the mesosphere is so cold! So when we see shooting stars, we see them in the mesosphere.

This is the layer that scientists know least about because it is too high up for planes or weather balloons but too low for spacecraft. Two phenomena happen in the mesosphere that we don’t yet understand the causes of, which are called sprites and elves!

What is the ionosphere?

Zap! This layer of the atmosphere conducts electricity. This is where the Northern and Southern lights form: the colorful patterns of light in the sky that you can see from the poles. These beautiful light displays are created by charged particles in the ionosphere reflecting the solar wind, a stream of charged particles from the Sun.

Radio waves bounce off particles in the ionosphere. This was proved by Marconi, who sent a radio signal from England to Canada in 1901. Marconi demonstrated that radio signals bounce off the ionosphere rather than traveling in straight lines.

What is the thermosphere?

The thermosphere is the thickest layer in the atmosphere, extending to 690 km above the Earth’s surface. Consequently, the lightest gases can be found, including oxygen, helium, and hydrogen.

This layer is home to the International Space Station (ISS) and the Hubble Space Telescope! These satellites are in what is called ‘low-Earth orbit.’ Gas molecules are very spread out in the thermosphere. Temperatures here can be very high, reaching 1500 degrees Celsius, but it is not very hot in the thermosphere because there is not much pressure. Heat is caused when molecules pass energy onto each other in an area of high pressure.

What is the exosphere?

This is the layer of the atmosphere you can see in satellite images of the Earth as the fuzzy blue layer surrounding our planet. The exosphere is home to many weather satellites in ‘low-Earth orbit’ or ‘medium-Earth orbit.’

Hydrogen is the main element in the exosphere, with only trace amounts of helium, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and other gases. The exosphere stretches and shrinks depending on what is happening with the Sun. The exosphere is squeezed to about 1000 km above the Earth when solar storms happen. When the Sun is calm, the exosphere stretches to about 10,000 km.

Climate change

The greenhouse effect is a process that happens in the atmosphere and causes the Earth to warm up, which leads to climate change. The greenhouse effect is when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane, trap energy from the Sun. Humans have increased the number of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. We need a certain amount of these gases in our atmosphere to retain heat from the Sun enough to warm up the Earth. But too much is not good news! This is because too much heat can cause the Earth to warm up too much, damaging the planet and life on Earth.

The atmosphere on different planets

As well as studying the Earth’s atmosphere, scientists study the atmospheres of all the planets in our solar system. We know that none of these planets has an atmosphere that contains the right ingredients for life as we know it. This is because life is impossible without a stable atmosphere of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon in the right balance. Water must also be present on a planet for life to form. To read more about the different worlds, check out our Wiki on the solar system.