Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

As we come to the end of the school year, it’s always a good idea to let your co-workers know how much you appreciate them. Having a fun and silly awards ceremony for your fellow teachers and staff is the perfect way to do that. It can be great for the morale and the general mental health of a workforce to have fun recognizing one another’s quirks. And, as we all know, happy staff and teachers mean delighted students! So here are just a few Silly Award Ideas to help your fellow staff and teachers feel appreciated – and have a bit of a laugh while they’re at it!

Most Likely to

1. Forget a student’s name – It can be tricky to keep track of students’ names for any teacher, but the recipient of this award takes the cake when it comes to remembering who’s who.
2. Take the Stairs – There’s something to be admired about finding opportunities to stay fit and healthy wherever possible. The salads they have for lunch, though, are less impressive.
3. Prank their Co-Workers – The most likely person to swap the sugar in the break room with salt or jump out at you from behind a door, causing you to drop your bag of crisps. It’s all in good fun, though. You’re not angry.
4. Win a Karaoke Contest – We all know who it is. They try to hide it, but we all hear them through the wall, belting out a power ballad. It’s time they stepped into the limelight.
5. Scare the Students – Some people have the natural ability to lead. But, whether it’s their silent classroom full of students or the military precision of the game of hockey they’re overseeing, you have to admire their capacity to rule with an iron fist.

Least Likely to

1. Take Part in Casual Clothes Day – Of course, it’s important to dress smart, but a top hat and tails? You can award this stylish Twinkl T-shirt to the snappiest dresser in your school to let them know how much you all appreciate their impeccable sense of style.
2. Eat a Ready Meal – Most people are happy with their sandwiches or pasta pots, but this gourmet chef takes things to another level. One of the day’s highlights is finding out what incredible culinary treat they’ve brought for lunch.
3. Turn Up On Time – Timekeeping isn’t some people’s thing. So it’s honestly impressive that this co-worker is so consistently late.
4. Slow Down – Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Whatever it was, I’m glad it missed us! It’s unclear how this person keeps their energy levels so high, but you can be sure they’ll have their paperwork done in time.
5. Stay Home During the Summer Holidays – Toss a dart at a world map, and the chances are this co-worker’s been to where it lands. Even with eight weeks o

Personality Awards

1. The Comedian – Every workplace needs to be lightened up with a joke or a bad pun once in a while. Luckily, this co-worker’s always on hand to deliver a punchline, regardless of whether it’s a good joke!
2. Coffee Addict – Coffee’s essential, we get it, but some people go a little overboard with their caffeine intake. This is a great way to recognize that co-worker who always needs to have a coffee in their hand to get through the day.
3. The Gift of the Gab – We all like to pass the time of day, but there are some people you might need to avoid in the hallway if you’re in a hurry. This person is always happy to chat; if talking were an Olympic sport, they’d be a gold medallist.
4. The Good Samaritan – That one person who always goes out of their way to lend a helping hand, whether it’s letting you borrow an umbrella or pretending to be your boyfriend that Christmas so your family would stop questioning you.
5. The Storyteller – They’ve always got a story to tell, and they can have a room full of students eating out of their hands with one of their fascinating yarns. Whether they’re true or not isn’t the point.

Incredible skills

1. The Interior Decorator – How did they get their desks in such a perfect semicircle? Did their pupils make those tissue paper flowers? You don’t know how they do it, but their classroom Feng Shui is on point.
2. The Walking Encyclopedia – No matter the subject or time of day, we all have a co-worker who knows about everything. Who would be your go-to source for information?
3. The Picasso – Maybe they doodle on paperwork or use their classroom whiteboard, but their artistic talents know no bounds! Surprisingly, it’s not always an art teacher, either!
4. The Human Megaphone – It can be tricky to be heard over the classroom din, but that’s not a problem for this foghorn on legs. Legend has it; they can be heard taking the register two towns over.
5. Mr or Ms. Clean – That co-worker who always keeps their classroom or office spotless, whose mug is always sparkling, and who leaves their table in the cafeteria cleaner than when they found it (Although some say their house is a mess).

There are two main ways that you can use the word web. The first way is to break down a comment and understand it better. Another way to use a word web is to help children think of words associated with different topics, events, or other terms.

Using a word web to learn about a new word

The first type of word web allows children to understand the new word better. Therefore, they can fit it into their writing more naturally. With this type of word web, you can fill in the boxes with the following information:

• What type of word is it – Is it a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.?
• What synonyms does it have? – Identify words that have the same meaning as the chosen word, e.g., fantastic means the same thing as brilliant.
• What antonyms does it have? – Identify words that mean the opposite of the chosen word, e.g., sad is the opposite of happy.
• What category does this word fit into? – This only works for some words. For example, the word pizza would fit into the category of food.
• Word parts and meaning – You can divide words to understand their meaning. For example, you could spill the word ‘balls’ into ‘ball’ and ‘s.’ Then you can explain what a ball is and that the ‘s’ means that there is more than one. This wouldn’t work for some words, like ‘butterfly.’ It is its word; separating it into ‘butter’ and ‘fly’ would mean something completely different.
• The function of the word – If the word is a noun, you can talk about the object’s position. If it is another type of word, you can describe the function of the word. For example, if it is an adjective, you could say it is there to tell something.
• What descriptors could you use to describe the word? – This depends on the term. You can use your five senses to describe the object if it is a noun. For example, what does it look, sound, feel, taste, and smell like? For verbs, you could think of adverbs you could use to describe the verb. For example, for the word jump, you could say quickly, slowly, energetically, etc.
• Any other information about the word – You can also include any additional information you know about the word that hasn’t already been mentioned.

Once you have finished the word web, you should better understand the word and how you would use the word in a sentence.

Using a word web to enhance vocabulary (a vocabulary web)

For the second type of word web (also known as a vocabulary web), you start with a topic word and work from there. For example, you could use the word Christmas. Then you can think of other words related to Christmas, like happy, family, presents, Christmas tree, Santa, etc.

The second type of word web is a great way to enhance children’s vocabulary before they start writing. For example, if the children are about to write a spooky story, you could use a word web to brainstorm different words that they would use. This helps stop children from using the exact words too often, increasing their vocabulary and spelling ability.

A classroom definition can be understood as a classroom where lessons happen. Teachers go here to mark work, plan lessons and teach their students.

All children attending school will go to the classroom daily to learn and meet with fellow students and teachers. In this sense, a classroom is a learning and social interaction space. There are usually several classrooms in one school for different year groups and academic subjects.

What would I find inside a classroom?

Now that we’ve got a sense of a classroom definition let’s look at some examples of what you’d expect to find inside. A classroom is usually filled with several different objects to help children learn.

This could range from some of the following:

• Equipment for writing and studying, e.g., stationary.
• Textbooks and learning resources.
• Storybooks for group reading.
• Storage containers, such as trays and cupboards, for keeping everything organized and tidy.
• Display materials, such as banners, bunting, and posters, to make it look lovely and colorful for children and their teachers.
• Small desks, tables, and chairs for students to sit at and learn.
• A more oversized desk where the teacher will sit and often mark students’ work.
• A blackboard, whiteboard, or a classroom projector for the teacher to give a lesson, illustrate ideas and explain them.
• Beanbags and a carpet area for children and their teachers to gather in a circle. Here you might discuss topics, do group reading, and do wet-play activities.
• Creative materials include crayons, markers, fabrics, paint, and glue for coloring, collages, and craft activities.
• A clock on the wall, so lessons start and finish on time!
• A ruler, set-square, and an abacus (a counting frame) for Maths-learning.
• Computers to use the Internet for independent research tasks and writing assignments.

Classrooms through time

Ever wondered what a classroom was like 150 years ago or in 2050? Would learning, teaching, and social interaction happen in the same way? What would a classroom from the past look like? Would they have a chalk board instead or a classroom projector? And what about the future: what will technology look like then?

A Classroom from 150 years ago

One hundred fifty years ago, it was the late 1800s: the Victorian era. It’s known as this as Queen Victoria was holding the reign of the British throne and played a decisive role across the British Empire. In countries such as Australia, India, Nigeria, and South Africa. Therefore, when we talk about a classroom from 150 years ago, we can say this was the Victorian era across several nations, not just the UK.

One significant aspect of this time was the difference between the rich and the poor. Rich people were known to live in large and luxurious houses with ornate furniture and traveled on many holidays. In contrast, low-income families lived in much smaller, often squalid houses. In addition, the school was not free until 1891. Therefore, only wealthy families could afford to send their children to school, while poor children were forced to work and earn money for the family.

So, to begin with, we can say that the children in a classroom from 150 years ago were wealthy. It would have been only boys until 1870, when the Education Act passed, meaning girls must attend primary school. In contrast to classrooms today, which may have 25- 30 students, a classroom from 150 years ago would have far fewer children inside, as many were home-educated.

The classroom in Victorian times was sometimes known as the schoolroom. Children would sit at desks facing the front. To prevent them from getting distracted, a schoolroom’s windows were often high and challenging to see. The room would also be lit with gaslights, in contrast to today’s electricity. Unfortunately, heating was also a luxury, so the classroom was probably cold and needed to be burned with fire.

A Classroom in 2050

Let’s fast-forward several decades into the future: what would a classroom in 2050 be like? For a start, we expect it would be much more eco-friendly than a classroom today and, of course, from the Victorian era! Perhaps it would have solar panels for power or a bio-mass heating system. But, as climate change and environmental damage become more of a concern, we hope schools will put practical measures in place to protect our planet.

Types of Relationships

We have a habit of hearing the word relationship and automatically associating it with something romantic, but there are many different types of relationships, most of which aren’t romantic. Some types of relationships that you may have include:

• Friends
• Family
• Romantic Partners
• Parent
• Carers
• Guardians
• Pets
• Doctors
• Nurses
• Dentists
• And many more!

Relationships are an essential part of our lives as they can provide excellent sources of pleasure and fun as well as comfort, support, and security – all necessary for our wellbeing.

Having various relationships is also essential because they can all serve different purposes. On top of this, it is necessary to remember that some relationships will come and go, only lasting for a short period, whereas others will remain for a lifetime.

Maintaining respectful relationships is also vital for our wellbeing. This means we need to recognize the critical relationships in our lives and those that may become unhealthy and bad for us.

Relationships can strongly influence our lives, sense of self, and identity. However, because of their importance, relationships require a certain level of work, respect, communication, and commitment.

Specific Types of Relationships:

Family Relationships:

These are typically the relationships between us and the people we are related to, involving parents, carers, guardians, grandparents, siblings, and more. Family relationships do not have to be with people to who we are related, and many people will consider their family to be people they share no DNA with; our family can be people who have been in your life for a long time, and you can count on them.

Friendships:

Our friends are people we enjoy spending time with and usually have common interests we can discuss. Friendships, for most people, involve a combination of affection, loyalty, love, respect, and trust. We can make friends at any age and stage of our lives; many people will have friends they met at school, through hobbies, and even at work.

Romantic Relationships:

This type of relationship is commonly associated with the word ‘relationship’ and involves a deep passion and love for the other. People may feel nervous or excited at the start of a romantic relationship. There is often a level of physical intimacy that is not present in other relationships (but this is not always the case).

Proximity Relationships:

Proximity Relationships are relationships we form with other people physically close to us, such as classmates and colleagues. They are often with people with who we would not usually become friends.

Your relationship with yourself

We would not usually think about this, but we have an essential relationship with ourselves. Having a good relationship with yourself means that you accept yourself fully, don’t try to change yourself for other people, follow your dreams and passions, and are entirely yourself. Being authentic and 100% yourself feels free as you align with your core values. This can allow you to create great things in your life and live happily.

Many people tend to be mean to themselves, but treating ourselves with respect and kindness is essential. Be your own best friend! Think of how you would speak to your best friend and treat yourself that way. This will help you be your own best supporter and cheerleader. Especially if you’re going through a hard time, think of what support and advice you would give to your best friend and give it to yourself. For example, if a friend were struggling, you wouldn’t tell them they are moaning, that they should stop being sad and carry on; you would support them when they are down and listen to them as much as they need. So you can also do this by giving yourself space to feel whatever you need and not trying to rush yourself through your emotions.

This relationship is the most important relationship that we have in our lives. Knowing yourself well can help you to understand your values, beliefs, culture, experiences, relationships, thoughts, and feelings, which can help you to communicate these things more clearly in your relationships with other people. Therefore, having a solid relationship with yourself will positively impact all the different relationships in your life.

Healthy Relationships:

As previously mentioned, it is essential to recognize the healthy relationships in our lives, so we know which ones we need to cultivate and which ones we should walk away from to protect our wellbeing. Characteristics of healthy relationships include trust, respect, honesty, kindness, generosity, boundaries, privacy, consent, conflict management, reconciliation, and the respectful ending of relationships. These apply to all types of relationships, not just romantic ones.

Other elements of healthy relationships include:

• Being able to talk about your emotions and feelings openly
• Feeling happy to see and spend time with the people you have relationships with
• Feeling safe and comfortable around others
• Not being forced to keep a secret that makes you uncomfortable.

Healthy relationships can have positive effects on our life as a whole, including:

• Feeling less stressed
• Having healthier behaviors
• Having a greater sense of purpose
• Living a longer life some research suggests that maintaining healthy relationships can have a more significant impact on avoiding early death than taking blood pressure medicine.

Conversely, unhealthy relationships can have negative impacts on a person and their life, including:

• Lower self-esteem, depression, and other mental health impacts.
• Damaged relationships with others, as you may not be able to see your friends and family as much, may affect your ability to maintain healthy relationships with them.
• Changes in appetite and sleep patterns.

Behaviors that are healthy and unhealthy exist on a spectrum, and lines can often be blurred, which is why some people struggle to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy relationships.

When does an unhealthy relationship become abusive?

There is not always a distinction between an unhealthy and abusive relationship. However, a typical way of understanding is that unhealthy relationships involve one or more people exhibiting behaviors that are not healthy or founded in mutual respect. In contrast, abusive relationships involve one or more people treating the other with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly. Abuse may look different in various situations; it may not always be violent. Abuse can be verbal, emotional, or physical.

Everyone will likely do something considered unhealthy in a relationship, but doing this occasionally does not mean that a relationship is unhealthy. When something like this happens, discussing it and ensuring everyone is comfortable with the relationship moving forward is essential.

Unhealthy signs in a relationship should not be ignored, as they can sometimes escalate.

Healthy and Unhealthy Relationship Behavior

A critical part of learning how to identify healthy and unhealthy relationships is knowing the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationship behavior.

Here are some common behaviors in healthy relationships:

• Being able to be yourself. No matter what kind of relationship it is, if it is healthy, you should feel comfortable enough to be yourself and not feel the need to change in any way.
• Feeling able to be honest in all conversations you have with each other. This ties in with communication which is a crucial part of any relationship. Communication is about being able to talk about the essential functions of your relationship, as well as showing that you have listened to and understood your partner.
• Following open communication and honesty should be respected. Respect in a relationship should be mutual, and no one should do or say anything that makes the other person uncomfortable. Care in a relationship should help you to feel safe; no one should be in a relationship with someone who makes them feel unsafe. You should feel confident that the other person won’t do something to hurt your feelings or body intentionally.
• You should be able to trust your partner. This means being able to count on them in several situations. Trusting each other is also about knowing that you have each other’s interests.
• A healthy relationship should also help you feel supported, which can be shown in many ways, such as by listening to your problems or attending important events.

Feelings and activities associated with healthy relationships are being happy when you get to be around your partner and not changing who you are just to fit in with them.

Behaviors that are found in unhealthy relationships include:

• Physical abuse is when one person in a relationship hits, pushes, or physically hurts the other in any way. This can also have bad things that belong to them.
• Being controlling dictates what the other person can do, wear and go, or prevents them from seeing their friends and family. A controlling partner may also make you constantly update them on what you are doing or use threats to make you do what they want.
• Another form of control may be pressure. A controlling or abusive partner may pressure you into doing things that make you uncomfortable. They may use threats or ultimatums like “if you don’t do this, I’ll leave you” to force you into doing something you are uncomfortable with.
• Humiliation is another sign of an abusive relationship. For example, a humiliating partner may call you names that make you feel bad about yourself or say things that put you down in private or in front of others.
• It may signify an unhealthy relationship if you feel like your partner is unpredictable. An unreliable partner may have large emotional outbursts with little to no warning, for example, getting angry when there isn’t an apparent reason. This can make someone feel like they’re walking on eggshells and be scared in their own home.

Some feelings and activities that are associated with unhealthy relationships are feeling like you can’t say “no” to your partner or being scared of your partner in moments that should be romantic.

We are often told to avoid unhealthy relationships and traits and characteristics in our relationships, but it’s not always as simple as that. Knowing when to let go can be a difficult decision to make, this can be for several reasons. For example, you may still care about the other person or be scared of what comes next if you decide to leave.

One way to know that it is time to leave is to think about the effects a relationship has on your body, such as “my body is hurting” or “my body is tired.” When we say things like this, it is easy to detach ourselves from what we are saying, but if you can replace “my body” with “I am” and the sentiment is the same, it may be time to reflect on the relationship.

Once you have acknowledged this, it’s time to be present. When we are in a bad relationship, it can be easy to reminisce about when times were better, making it even harder to see the truth. However, it can be much easier to make the right decision by forcing yourself to be present.

Online Relationships:

Social media has grown in popularity, and more and more young people are using them regularly, leading to an increase in online relationships. Social media can help us connect to people with similar interests, leading to new acquaintances, friendships, and even romantic relationships.

There are different benefits and risks when forming online relationships and interacting with people we do not know. This means knowing what boundaries you want to keep in place is essential.

The relationships we form with people we meet online can be as meaningful and fulfilling as those we have with people we know in real life. Unfortunately, however, some people lie about who they are online, which can be deceitful and harmful.

A personal pronoun is a pronoun that replaces a person, place, or thing. We call them a subclass of nouns because they can sometimes replace a noun in a sentence. For example, I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, and them. Personal pronouns are like the stunt doubles of grammar; they stand in for the people who star in our sentences.

Noun	Pronoun
Mary got a new car	~She got a new job
The children love school	~They love school

Personal pronouns help avoid the repetition of the same word used to refer to someone in a sentence. If the noun is plural, then the pronoun replacing it is also plural. For example:

Sarah gave John a lift to work because John had missed the bus. John was slow getting ready, and Sarah and John were late.

Their names are repeated every time, making reading frustrating and repetitive.

Sarah gave John a lift to work because he had missed the bus. He was slow getting ready, and they were late.

Replacing the repeated names with pronouns is much easier to read and still holds the same meaning.

You can only use personal pronouns if you have previously referred to the person or people you’re talking about and if the pronouns match up with who you’re referring to. This makes the person (noun) being referred to and the personal pronoun referring to them co-referential.

It is also included in the group of personal pronouns, even though this pronoun does not usually refer to a person. In total, there are three personal pronouns, and each has a singular and a plural form. The three personal pronouns are as follows:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	I	we
2nd	you	you
3rd	he/she/it	they

How many personal pronouns are there?

There are 12 personal pronouns for a person or group, and they are:

I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, and them.

There are three personal pronouns for things: they, them, and it.

What is the difference between an indefinite pronoun and a personal pronoun?

A personal pronoun is a pronoun (a word that functions as and acts as a substitute for a noun or noun) that represents a grammatical person within a sentence. While personal pronouns often indicate an actual person, they can also refer to animals, inanimate objects, or even intangible concepts.

Each of the pronouns in English ( I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, and them) comprises a set that shows person, gender, number, and case contrasts.

An indefinite pronoun is used in place of a noun without specifying a particular person or thing being represented.

Both people and things can be identified in a sentence by an indefinite pronoun. Many pronouns are used only to refer to people or things; many can be used for either. Some examples include:

• another
• one (quantifier)
• each
• either
• other

What are the three cases of personal pronouns?

Pronouns have three cases, which is what indicates how that pronoun is related to the words that it’s used with. The three cases are nominative, possessive, and objective case.

The nominative case is used when the pronoun is the sentence’s subject. For example, the nominative form pronouns are I, you, they, it, we/they.

• She was quiet as she entered the room.

In this sentence, the subject or thing being named by the use of a pronoun is “She, ” so this would use the nominative case pronoun.

A pronoun in the possessive case is used to show ownership or possession of something. The possessive case is also known as the genitive case. The possessive form pronouns are My, mine, our(s), their (s), their, its, and yours.

• My car wouldn’t start because I left the headlights on.

In this sentence, “my” shows whose car is being discussed, and the “I,” being the subject of the sentence, is in the nominative pronoun.

A pronoun in the objective case is used as the direct object, indirect object, or the object of the preposition. The objective case is also known as the accusative case. The correct form pronouns are Me, you, him, her, it, and them. For example:

• I was so thrilled that I gave her a big hug.

In this sentence, she is the object receiving the action in the sentence, and so is a pronoun in the objective case. I would be in the nominative case, as the purpose of the sentence is to demonstrate something about the subject of the sentence.

It is important to note that case and number distinctions do not apply to all pronoun types. They only apply to personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, and reflexive pronouns. It is only in these types, too, that gender differences are shown (private he/she, possessive his/hers, reflexive himself/herself).

What is the difference between personal pronouns and nouns?

The main difference between personal pronouns and nouns is that personal pronouns do not take the or a/an before them. For example, if we look at one of our examples previously: The children love school, when the noun the children is substituted for a personal pronoun, the is omitted, so we get They love school.

Furthermore, pronouns do not take adjectives before them, except in very restricted constructions with indefinite pronouns (a little something, a certain someone).

Pitch in music refers to how high or low a sound is.

How clefs affect pitch in music

Musical notes are how we write down the pitch in music – they tell musicians what pitch to play, when to play it, and for how long.

In written music, we can only work out what pitch a note on the stave is if there is a clef.

Register

Most instruments have one register, high or low, so their music is written on one stave and in one clef.

Music for the flute is written in the treble clef.

Music for the cello is written in the bass clef.

Sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and tenors sing music written in the treble clef;

and basses sing music written in the bass clef!

Piano music is written in the treble and bass clefs because the piano has many pitches.

There are other registers, too – the alto and tenor clefs. But at primary school, children only need to learn about the treble and bass clefs.

The open-ended play has no strict rules to follow and no ‘correct’ solutions or fixed outcomes at the end. For example, a child playing with Small World figures or dolls can make the characters do and say whatever they want. This play is open-ended; the possibilities and storylines they can come up with are endless. This openness and freedom let children be creative and imaginative for hours. No final end-point or win/lose moment signals they need to stop playing.

Open-ended play vs. close-ended play: What’s better?

On the other hand, the close-ended play has a clear end point or solution. This might be a super satisfying moment, like putting the last puzzle piece into a jigsaw or sticking the final character into a sticker book. On the other hand, the end point could be a ‘win,’ like a color sorting or shape-matching game. The child wins and stops playing when all the colors and shapes have been sorted into the correct place.

Both types of play are beneficial. Close-ended games, like puzzles, are great for building attention spans and developing problem-solving and logic skills. However, children often quickly move onto another activity after finishing a close-ended puzzle or game. In addition, if they enjoyed it, they Because of these limitations, close-ended toys and games can become repetitive and less beneficial for a child’s development if overused.

With open-ended play, children can play for as long as possible, as there are infinite possibilities. Even if they return to the same game many times, they’ll find different outcomes. Because of this, open-ended play is more beneficial when it comes to developing creativity, independence, and self-confidence.

What are the benefits of open-ended play?

The open-ended play has many benefits for children’s learning and development. Here are some examples of areas that open-ended play improves:

• Creativity: Creativity and imagination are the main driving forces behind the open-ended play. This leads to cognitive growth as children ignite the creative pathways in their brains. Expressing themselves creatively also helps children release steam and lower their stress levels, especially in learning settings.
• Independence and self-confidence: Open-ended play is excellent for building independence and self-confidence as children take charge and see their ideas come to life. This is why adults must allow children to initiate and lead play episodes.
• Social skills: Children can negotiate and share ideas during open-ended play. There are no right or wrong answers, so they’ll need to debate with each other on what should be done and how it should be achieved in the game. This is great for expanding their communication skills and learning how to manage their emotions and reactions around others.
• Critical thinking: As there’s no particular course of action in open-ended play, necessary thinking skills are essential. Children will deepen their understanding of different concepts and situations by exploring problems and solutions from different angles.

Picture comprehension is an activity where children look at pictures, find interesting details and then answer simple questions about the image. These questions are usually based on who, what, where, when, and why. For example, some questions you might find in a picture comprehension are “what is the park’s name in the photo?” or “how many people with ice creams can you see?”

Why are picture comprehensions useful?

Using picture comprehension can help get children ready for reading comprehension. If you use a clear image, children can easily decipher meaning from a picture where they might not be able to with text. They can use simple sentences to describe what is present or happening in the photo and start to understand how to take their reading further.

You can use one of these comprehensions to introduce budding readers to the skills they need to complete comprehension. For example, picture comprehensions allow children to practice describing what is in an image and choose a sentence that best matches the picture. It’s a great starting point for decoding and understanding stories.

Using this teaching tool to develop skills

The skills to understand and write about a text are often something that younger children struggle with. Older children with reading difficulties also tend to become fixated on literary techniques, complicated language, and text features, taking them away from the meaning. This can even mean that they miss the purpose altogether, which defeats the point of comprehension.

Reading comprehension is all about understanding and retaining information and being able to tell people what they’ve learned from it. The skills they will learn from practicing with pictures set them up to be able to do this more effectively. Using clear images and getting children to use simple sentences is the most efficient way of using these comprehensions.

It helps children understand what the author believes is essential, visualize the test’s context, and learn the specific vocabulary. Finally, it gets them ready for more advanced texts and literary questions.

A lot of this activity is to get children to understand why something is happening or what that means about their character, the plot, or what might happen next.

How to use these comprehensions in your classroom

• You could make a PowerPoint with different pictures and get them to shout out what they see that is worth noting.
• If you have an interactive whiteboard, you could get a picture up and get them to circle everything necessary in the image.
• Using whiteboards, you could get your class to write down or draw the essential aspects of the picture shown to them.
• Host a competition in which whoever can spot the essential things in the picture wins a prize.
• Get children to work in pairs, give one child a list of the essential features in a picture and get the other to guess.
• Encourage children to draw detailed but simple pictures for one another and get them to explain what the image is about.
• Give them some sticky labels and get them to label the picture.
• Slowly reveal bits of the picture and get them to guess what the whole picture will be.
• Get children to redraw the most crucial picture parts they can see.
• Show children a picture and get them to write a short story based on it.
• Use them as homework, give the picture to children to take home with them, and then ask them what their vision was the next day.
• Do a class mind map in the picture about people’s thoughts and feelings.
• Turn it into a quiz show where you ask teams of children questions about the pictures they’ve seen.

Approximately How Much of Australia is Desert?

35% of Australia is desert, and 23%  is the Australian savanna. Travel to the Australian savanna, and you’ll be so hot you get sweat lag!

The Australian savanna is a biome in the North of Australia. Typically, it is very flat, with a landscape of small trees and shrubs that pockmark a sizeable open grassland. It has a tropical climate and sees a copious amount of rainfall in the wet season.

Where is the Australian Savanna?

The Australian savanna biome includes the northern section of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and higher parts of Queensland. It makes up 23% of Australia’s land. If you imagine Australia as a giant scoop of ice cream, the Australian savanna is the part that looks like chocolate sauce dribbled over the top.

How Big is the Australian Tropical Savanna?

Name: Carpentaria Tropical Savanna

Area: 365,042 km2 (140,944 sq mi)

Australian States: Northern Territory and Queensland

Did you know?

There are also tropical savannas in Africa, Asia, and South America. This is because they have tropical climates similar to Australia. Most of these are in the north and close to the equator, but Australia is in the south, so the seasons are switched.

What Animals Live in the Australian Savanna Biome?

Birds:

Grass Finch – There are many species of grass finch. They are colorfully patterned to attract mates and eat grass and seeds, which is convenient since that’s about all there is in the savanna.

Corellas – Corellas are a species of cockatoo. They have a solid hooked bill to procure seeds from the dry plants and can feed on the ground or in the trees.

Marsupials:

Marsupials are the dominant species in most areas of the tropical savanna. They include the Eastern Gray Kangaroo, the Whiptail Wallaby, the Koala Agile, the Echidna, Wallaroos, Possums, Gliders, the Northern Quoll, and the Golden Bandicoot.

Wallabies – Wallabies enjoy a varied menu of grass and grass. They are incredibly camouflaged against the brown earth and have a very acute hearing to pinpoint dangerous predators that may be slithering or crawling close to their dinner plates. They also can hop away at incredible speeds on their large hind feet.

Reptiles:

Reptiles are prevalent in the areas that see more water retention, including the thorny devil and the saltwater crocodile, the giant snake in the world, and can grow up to 8 meters long.

Goannas – Goannas are a large species of lizard that can run extremely fast. They can survive on very little food and water but have a keen sense of smell that helps to discover the whereabouts of their prey. Like snakes, a goanna’s sense of smell is in the tip of its lithe tongue, which it then pokes into its nose to taste the scent and determine the prey. In addition, they have sharp, pointy teeth and dangerous-looking claws.

Insects:

Grasshoppers – The humble grasshopper lives in the Australian savanna, constantly adding to the cacophony of sounds on the horizon. They eat grass and will lay their eggs in the grass, which will then hatch after a nice rainfall.

What Grows in the Australian Tropical Savanna?

Small, grass-like plants called shrubs are the only plant life that can survive in a dry area. Many species of grass have adapted to live in this extreme environment. They are adapted to stay in a specific type of soil and grow in an environment with very little rain. When the rains come, they thrive, then turn brown in dry periods.

The few plants and flora that grow here are well-equipped to take advantage of the weather and aim to increase when water is available, holding on to survival with sheer willpower for the rest of the year. With such little water, the trees growing in the Australian savanna are small, stumpy, and few and far between. One of the most common adaptable trees that can survive is the eucalyptus. There is also the baobab tree, which grows rather bulbous and sheds its leaves when the soil is too dry.

What’s the Weather Like in the Australian Savanna biome?

The Earth rotates on an axis, causing the planet’s northern regions to face the sun as close as possible, making for a beautiful summer. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in the tropics. When the sun is closer, there is more water evaporation which causes monsoonal rains and a hot and humid climate that’s enough to make a rock sweat.

In the summer, the Australian savanna sees many monsoons that drop heavily in quick bursts. This is when the areas receive the most rain. At other times of the year, there is very little rain, and the land becomes arid. Despite the change in rainfall, regardless of the time of year, it is pretty much HOT.

The desert landscape regularly reaches over 50 degrees and barely drops below 30. Essentially, the Australian savanna has only two dry and wet seasons. Forget spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The four seasons are hot, hotter, hottest, and holy moly, it’s too hot.

Bush Fires and the Risk of Fire in the Desert

Fire tends to be hot and dry, so when you have an area that tends to be extremely hot and extremely dry, you run extreme fire risks. So naturally, with each dry season come natural forest fires. When a bush fire rages through the savanna, it’s always bad news. Animals have to get out of the way as fast as possible, and there is no protection. Some can survive if they dig a deep enough burrow into the cool underground, but most must flee or be engulfed by fire.

Geographers believe that natural fire keeps the savanna healthy, however. Fortunately, the plants can bounce back from the common bush fires that erupt in these lands, and the ash helps the seeds in the soil to germinate so that plants can grow again. As a result, eucalyptus trees are pretty robust and can survive anything but the worst fires.

Farming in the Savanna

Australia has a booming agricultural industry, even in the savanna. The cattle have been bred to live in tropical conditions. The farms tend to be very large, but the areas suffer from weeds that damage the local grasses, and overgrazing is also damaging local flora by making it harder for them to mature and seed.

The Australian savanna biome is unique in many ways; the climate, vegetation, animals, and beauty are found nowhere else in the world in the same way. In addition, the atmosphere is unique d. So it’s safe to say that the planet would lose a great beauty should the Australian savanna biome be destroyed.

Each has unique personal attributes comprising different behaviors, traits, skills, and qualities. These attributes help make us who we are and influence the things we enjoy and what we are good at (and not so good) at.

The difference between skills and qualities is that one is acquired, and the other we are born with.

A skill requires learning, often acquired through specialist training and knowledge. It can be loosely defined as the ‘what’ we can do well. Quality, however, is more about ‘who’ we are.

We will talk more about the definitions of skills and qualities below.

What are your skills and qualities?

According to dictionary.com, the (singular) words ‘skill’ and ‘quality’ can be defined as follows:

‘Skill’ defined:

noun

the ability to do something well; expertise.
e.g., “difficult work, taking great skill.”

‘Quality’ defined:

noun

a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something.

e.g., “he shows strong leadership qualities.”

Who we are significant influences what we do and how we do things. Our qualities are the inherent parts of our character that naturally determine our social behaviors, working and learning styles, the things we are most interested in, and those we are good at. And because skills are learned and developed over time, our qualities will naturally impact how we build our skillset; skills and qualities are therefore inextricably linked.

What are examples of qualities?

Some examples of positive qualities are:

• kindness
• maturity
• passion
• honesty
• determination
• sensitivity
• patience
• creativity

What are examples of skills?

Skills vary considerably and can be acquired in every aspect of life – covering everything from critical skills like cooking and washing to the highly specialized skillsets of a forensic psychologist or an astronaut.

Some examples of the most commonly talked about transferable skills are:

• Communication skills

Including speaking skills and conversation skills.

• Literacy and numeracy skills
• Social skills
• Key skills
• Life skills
• Skills for learning

The skills required for learning include remembering, understanding, analyzing, evaluating, applying, and creating. The majority of children acquire these skills very early on in life.

Thinking skills can also come under this umbrella.

• Subject-based skills

Which includes skills in school subjects or areas of interest such as Art, History, or IT, as well as skills in a particular sport like Netball or Cricket or being able to play a musical instrument.

• Leadership skills

Which also includes teamwork and assertiveness skills.