Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

In Ancient Egypt, the Tree of Life represented events that brought everything into existence. Learn about the significance and different interpretations of the Tree of Life across various religions and cultures, including Ancient Egypt, with this wiki page.

What was the Tree of Life in Ancient Egypt?

The Tree of Life is a significant religious symbol across various religions and cultures. In each culture and religion, the Tree of Life is known by a different name and holds another significance. However, despite the differences, all interpretations of the Tree of Life view it as the source of life, whether in a spiritual or literal sense.

In Ancient Egypt, the Tree of Life represented events that brought everything into existence. Various spheres within the Tree of Life portray the process of creation. The first two of these spheres symbolize the earth and are believed to have derived from the acacia tree of Iusaaset, which the Ancient Egyptians believed to be the Tree of Life.

The symbolism of the Tree of Life in Ancient Egypt

In Ancient Egypt, as with many other ancient religions, trees were of notable religious significance and associated with different gods. Horus was one of several Egyptian deities that were associated with specific trees. Horus was a god in the form of a falcon with several other functions, but primarily represented power, kingship, and the sky. He was heavily associated with the acacia tree. Moreover, Osiris, the god of the underworld, was associated with the willow tree, and Ra, the king of the deities and the father of all creation, was linked to the sycamore tree.

In Ancient Egyptian mythology, female deities were most heavily associated with trees. The three goddesses, Hathor, Nut, and Isis, were named the ‘Lady of the Sycamore.’ The sycamore tree was essential in Ancient Egyptian religion. Trees were not super common in Ancient Egypt, given its hot, dry climate, and the sycamore tree was the sole indigenous tree of generous size and sturdiness in the region. The sycamore tree also grew primarily at the edge of the desert near the necropolises, which were the resting places for the dead. It would have given it a particular significance in Egyptian religion. From the sycamore tree grows the sycamore fig, which produces a milky substance that can sustain life. In Egyptian mythology, this substance was fed to the dead in the afterlife as sustenance.

Furthermore, the goddess Nut, or Nu, is closely linked to the Tree of Life. She is depicted as the provider of life, which she would give in the form of milk, fruit, and sap from her body. As a result of her representation as the giver of life, she became known as the world mother and the eye of Ra. Over time, the goddess of fertility, Isis, also became the symbol of maternal wisdom, motherhood, magic, death, healing, and rebirth. As such, she is often represented throughout various paintings and illustrations as a sycamore tree.

Significance of the Tree of Life in different religions

The Tree of Life is highly significant in Ancient Egyptian mythology, beliefs, and cultures. Each of these religions and cultures interprets the symbol differently. Let’s have a look at the significance of the Tree of Life in different religions:

• Christianity

The Christian account of creation is detailed within the Book of Genesis in the Bible. In this book, it is written that the Tree of Life is located in the middle of the Garden of Eden and to be near it and eat from it is to be near God Himself. Eating fruit from the Tree of Life consumes God’s life power and presence. The first humans, Adam and Eve, are never told that they cannot eat from this tree, but they are expelled from the garden before they have a chance. They are, however, said that they cannot eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they disobey God and eat from it anyway. The result of this is ‘the fall,’ which is the human descent into sin and darkness. Adam and Eve are forced to leave the Garden of Eden and live in the outside world without directly connecting with God.

In Christianity, the Tree of Life symbolizes Divinity.

• Hinduism

In Hinduism, the Tree of Life is depicted as the eternal Banyan tree. During the cyclic destruction of creation, Hindus believe that waters enveloped the whole earth, but the infinite Banyan tree was untouched. Lord Krishna is also said to have rested on the leaves of the Tree of Life as a baby. What’s more, Buddha is believed to meditate eternally in the location of the eternal Banyan tree.

In Hinduism, the Tree of Life symbolizes the part of human beings that remains pure throughout hardship as long as they are rooted in spirituality.

• Islam

In Islam, the representation of the Tree of Life is very similar to Christianity. However, in Islam, it is known as the Tree of Immortality. The Quran tells us that Adam and Eve were forbidden by Allah from eating from the Tree of Immortality but disobeyed his command. As a result, they were tempted to eat from the tree by the evil serpent and were banished from having a direct connection with Allah.

Facts about the Tree of Life in Ancient Egypt

Do you want to know more about the Tree of Life in Ancient Egypt? Then, check out these fun facts!

• In Egyptian mythology, the Tree of Life is said to have been kept in an open courtyard on full display in the Sun temple of Ra in Heliopolis. It is believed to have been held with the Ben-Ben Stone, a capstone in the shape of a pyramid that sat atop a sacred Obelisk.
• The Excellent Cat was a personification of the deity Ra, which is believed to have guarded the Tree of Life.
• In Egyptian mythology, the secretary of the sun god Ra and scribe of the underworld, Thoth, inscribed Ra’s name and the length of his reign on the leaves and fruit of the Tree of Life. The purpose of this was to protect Ra and preserve his name.
• Ancient Egyptians believed that eating the fruit of the sacred Ished Tree of Life that the gods had offered was a guarantee of eternal life.
• In Egyptian mythology, the Tree of Life was thought to have held the Knowledge of the Divine Plan. It was essentially a plan or timeline of all creation, starting at the very starting of time.
• The Tree of Life in Ancient Egypt was home to the Phoenix, also known as the Bennu Bird. As such, it held strong links with resurrection and represented the rising sun.
• Egyptian mythology details instances in which the Sun god, Ra, would split the Ished Tree of Life in the morning after victory over his enemies.
• The Tree of Life plays an essential role in the creation story in Ancient Egyptian mythology. The myth goes that the Tree of Life rose from the Sacred Mound. Once it had risen, the tree’s branches reached up and out into the sky, supporting the various stars and planets. However, its branches also reached down into the watery abyss of the underworld.
• The trunk of the Tree of Life is also of individual significance. The trunk is believed to have represented the World Pillar around which the heavens would revolve. The World Pillar was the center of the entire universe.
• At the foot of the Tree of Life were four river sources. The sources of these rivers would provide water to the world. The orientation of these four rivers was essential, as they all correlated with a cardinal point of the compass. Each point of the compass, and its corresponding river, was associated with a specific element. For example, water was associated with the North Point, the fire was related to the South Point, the air was associated with the East Point, and the earth was related to the West Point.

A phrasal verb is an idiomatic phrase that consists of a verb and another particle (such as a preposition or an adverb) that combine to form a complete semantic unit – i.e., a complete verb. For example, break up or come out.

What is a Phrasal Verb?

In English grammar, a phrasal verb combines a verb and a particle (such as an adverb or preposition) to form a single phrase. The particle often changes the meaning of the verb. For example:

She is looking at the baby.

She is looking after the baby.

Adding the preposition ‘after’ changes the meaning of the verb ‘to look,’ so now it’s a phrasal verb ‘to look after’ that means to care for or watch over.

They’re common in English, often in more informal, conversational contexts. They tend to be used in everyday speech.

Types of Phrasal Verbs

There are two types of phrasal verbs: separable and inseparable.

Separable

The verb and particle can be placed together or apart in these phrasal verbs.

They looked the word up in the dictionary.

They looked up the word in the dictionary.

The phrasal verb becomes separated if you use a pronoun instead of the subject.

They looked it up in the dictionary.

Inseparable

Some phrasal verbs can’t be separated when you use them in a sentence.

We should catch up later.

This phrasal verb would no longer make sense if you separated the verb and the particle, so they must remain together in the sentence.

Phrasal Verbs with Two Particles

Phrasal verbs, which have two particles, are always inseparable. Therefore, pronouns are always placed after the particles.

I didn’t feel up to it yesterday.

I’ll have to watch out for that.

Do they still not get on with their brother?

The Meaning of Phrasal Verbs

Sometimes it can be challenging to determine the meaning of phrasal verbs. Some have a literal sense and can be easily understood. Others are idiomatic, meaning their meaning is figurative, so it can be tough to know when you’re learning them.

Literal Meanings

She was walking across the street.

In this phrasal verb, she is walking across to the other side of the street. It suggests she is crossing the road. The meaning is literal and easy to understand.

Idiomatic Meanings

I didn’t mean to come across that way.

While this phrasal verb also uses ‘across,’ it’s not literal. The person in the sentence didn’t move anywhere. ‘Come across’ means to appear a certain way or to give a particular impression.

How do you identify Phrasal Verbs?

To identify phrasal verbs, you have to look at the whole sentence.

If the words can be taken literally and you can understand the meaning straight away, then chances are that it’s a regular verb and a preposition. (However, there can be exceptions to this, such as the ‘walking across’ example).

If the words have to be understood alongside a meaning that has little or nothing to do with the original verbs, then it’s most likely a phrasal verb.

How many phrasal verbs are there in English?

There are over 10,000 phrasal verbs in the English language! That means it’s impossible to list them all, let alone memorize them all.

The best way to approach phrasal verbs is to learn the meanings of the most common ones and then learn the definitions of others when you encounter them.

Otherwise, you could spend ages learning phrasal verbs alone. And there’s plenty more in the English language to know other than these verbs.

What are the most common Phrasal Verbs?

• Calm down -relax after being angry. ‘He calmed down after we explained the situation.’
• Give up – stop trying, quit, or sacrifice something. For example, ‘I’m going to give up chocolate for Lent.’
• Pass out – faint or lose consciousness. ‘It was so hot I thought I would pass out.’
• Throw away – put something in the rubbish. For example, ‘I should throw away my old shoes.’
• Turn up – appear suddenly. ‘She thought it was lost forever, but it turned up suddenly.’
• Wake up – awaken from sleeping. For example, ‘I must wake up at 7 am.’
• Work out – be successful. ‘It should work out in the end.’

More Examples of Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verb	Meaning	Separable or Inseparable	Example Sentence
ask around	ask lots of people the same question	inseparable	I asked around, but nobody knew where to find her.
broke down	stop working/functioning	inseparable	The car broke down on the motorway.
break-in	force entry into a building	inseparable	There was a break-in down the street last night.
bring up	raise a subject in conversation	separable	I didn’t want to bring up the situation. / I didn’t want to bring it up.
call off	cancel	separable	We had to call off the party. / We called the party off.
check-in	arrive and register at a hotel or airport	inseparable	We have to check in when we get to the airport.
check out	leave a hotel	inseparable	We have to check out before noon.
check out	investigate, look at something carefully	separable	Do you want to check out the new shop in town? / Let’s check it out.
cheer up	become happier	inseparable	She’ll cheer up when she hears the news.
cheer up	make happier	separable	She cheered her up by buying her a gift.
clean up	tidy, clean	separable	Can you clean up before you go? / You must clean the mess up.
chip in	contribute, help	inseparable	We all chipped in to solve the problem.
come across	find something, often unexpectedly	inseparable	I came across some old photos in the attic.
come across	appear to be	inseparable	I didn’t want to come across that way.
come apart	break apart, separate	inseparable	It came apart in my hands.
come down with something	fall sick	inseparable	She’s not coming to school today because she’s come down with something.
come forward	volunteer to do something or with information	inseparable	They came forward and told the truth about last night.
come from	originate from	inseparable	Tea comes from China.
count on	rely on	inseparable	I’m counting on him to bring the supplies later.
cross out	draw a line through	separable	I crossed out the wrong answer / I crossed it out.
cut back on	consume less	inseparable	I’m cutting back on sugar this month.
do away with	throw away, discard	inseparable	It’s time I do away with all this junk.
dress up	wear nice clothes	inseparable	I’m excited to go to the party tonight and dress up.
drop in/by/over	come by without an appointment	inseparable	I might drop by her house later.
drop off	take somebody or something somewhere	separable	I’m dropping off my little brother. / I’m dropping my little brother off.
eat out	eat at a restaurant / not at home	inseparable	Let’s celebrate and eat out at that nice restaurant.
end up	eventually, reach/do/decide	inseparable	We ended up going home after that.
fall apart	break into pieces	inseparable	The book fell apart because it was so old.
figure out	find a solution	separable	We’ll figure it out. / We’ll figure out how to do it.
fill in	write information in the blanks	separable	You must fill in the form. / You must fill it in.
get along/on	like each other	inseparable.	They get along well.
get round to	have time for something	inseparable	I can finally get around to writing that book.
give away	reveal something	separable	He gave away the secret. / He gave the secret away.
go after	follow somebody	inseparable	It would help if you went after them.
get over	overcome problem	inseparable	He can’t get over losing the championship.
get together	meet up socially	inseparable	Let’s get together this weekend.
get up	get out of bed	inseparable	I got up late this morning.
get up	stand up	inseparable	You should get up and offer your seat.
give in	reluctantly stop	inseparable	After a few hours of arguing, they gave in.
give out	give to people, usually for free	separable	They were giving out free samples. / They were giving them out.
go against	compete	inseparable	We’re going against a tough team tonight.
go ahead	start	inseparable	Go ahead and eat.
go out	leave the house to go to an event	inseparable	We’re going out tonight.
go over	review, look over	inseparable	Let’s go over your essay.
go over	visit someone	inseparable	I’m going to go over to my friend’s later.
go without	suffer because of a lack of something	inseparable	I don’t want to go without my best friend.
grow apart	stop being friends over time	inseparable	We started to grow apart eventually.
grow back	regrow	separable	My hair grows back fast. / I cut my hair, but I want to grow it back.
grow out of	get too big, physically or mentally	inseparable	She grew out of her old clothes. / She grew out of her old habits.
hand down	give something used	separable	I handed down my old toys to my little sister. / I handed it down to my little sister.
hand out	distribute things to people	separable	I’ll hand out the drinks. / I’ll hand them out.
hang up	end a phone call	inseparable	He hung up the phone when the doorbell rang.
hold back	prevent from doing/going	separable	I held my dog back when he saw a squirrel. / I held back my dog when he saw a squirrel.
hold on	wait a short time	inseparable	Hold on; I must grab my coat.
hold up	made late	inseparable	Traff held her upic this morning.
keep on	continue to do something	inseparable	Keep on practicing, and you’ll get better.
keep out	stop from entering	separable	I keep my dog out of the living room.
keep up	continue at the same rate	separable	Keep it up, and you’ll be a winner. /Keep up with that, and you’ll be a winner.
let down	disappoint, fail to help	separable	They let me down on the big day. / It was a letdown.
let in	allow to enter	separable	Let me in, please.
log out/off	sign out of an account online	inseparable	You should always log out when you finish online.
look down on	think less of	inseparable	They look down on people who aren’t like them.
look for	search for, try to find	inseparable	I’m looking for my glasses.
look forward to	excited about something in the future	inseparable	I’m looking forward to going on holiday.
look into	investigate	inseparable	I’ll look into it.
lookout	be careful	inseparable	Look out for scams online.
pick out	choose	separable	I’ve picked out my dress for the wedding. / I’ve picked it out.
point out	indicate	separable	I’ll point her out when we see her.
put down	place something you’re holding onto a surface	separable	I put down my coffee mug. / I put my coffee mug down.
put off	postpone, procrastinate	separable	I put off doing my homework. I put my homework off.

 

Over the past few years, there have been some fascinating joint interests across the internet: sourdough, banana bread, zoom quizzes, Tiger King, but it feels like none have taken the culture en masse by storm like Wordle. Its core gameplay was a classic, you have to guess a five-letter word, and if you get a letter in the right place, it shows up green; the correct letter but in the wrong place, it shows up yellow, the wrong letter entirely, and it is grey.

The thing that separated Wordle was its daily gimmick. By limiting gameplay to once a day, it became perfect to fit into the daily routine without becoming an overwhelming part of the day, and also, it was very sharable and shared it you did. As of 25th February 2022, over 5.4m people had shared their Wordle results on social media; that’s over 367,000 of you per day!

These daily games are an excellent way to start the day and get the brain whirring by igniting your problem-solving skills and engaging other essential information resources such as Wordle, word construction, and vocabulary. And the popularity of Wordle has led to several other daily games on various topics. So we want to bring you our top picks for Wordle-style games you can play with your kids before school:

Multiple Word Games (Dordle, Squabble, Xordle, Hello Wordl)

Did you like the simplicity of Wordle? Well, what if you had to solve two different Wordles at once? Or even two using the same letters and grid but with more guesses. Or even four, eight, 16 (Yes, someone made Sedecordle. Though I will add, it’s a bit much). For this, there are Dordle and Xordle. Or maybe you want to see how many Wordles you can solve against other players online in real-time (don’t worry, there’s no chat element, so there are no safety issues); for that, there’s Squabble. Finally, maybe you want to choose how long the words you’re trying to guess are; for that, there’s Hello Wordl.

The simplicity of the setup has allowed imagination and invention to run wild. Possibly even seeing the variety here will spark some idea of how to make their spin on the format in your child. These sorts of word games do an excellent first project if you think they might be interested in exploring the world of coding. And with it joining the syllabus, there’s never been a better time to look into this skill of the future.

Crosswordle

Crosswordle goes one step beyond many word games and asks you to solve a three-by-five grid of words as quickly as possible. It gives you yellow and green hints but also asks you to use all the letters you find on each line. Or at least, that’s how I think I played it.

I felt Crosswordle deserves its separate section because of how complex the actual solutions are; it’s much harder to guess your way through than work out the patterns and solutions. But as a result, it also makes achieving a solution feel much more satisfying. Plus, who doesn’t love to start the morning with a fresh cup of coffee and a good crossword?

Maths Games (Nerdle, Primel)

Nerdle takes the Wordle premise and applies it to guessing a simple mathematical sum, whereas Primel asks you to imagine a daily random prime number. But, then, much like Wordle gets you thinking about vocabulary in a small but complicated way, Nerdle takes this and gives it an arithmetic spin (in fact, between those two, you can have a mini-episode of Countdown at home every day).

But playing with children can be a fantastic way to reinforce basic concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Of course, any games here are a fun diversion, but Nerdle can be an absolute game changer, especially in helping build mathematical confidence.

Redactle

Possibly the most challenging game on this list, Redacted gives you a random Wikipedia article, but to start with, you only have the connectives; everything else is redacted. This one is complex, even for adults, so it may not be suitable for younger children, but certainly, teenagers may enjoy this massive brain teaser. It also introduces new, unexpected concepts; as they slowly discover the article, they will find new and surprising facts.

Though I cannot provide enough warning, this cannot be easy.

Geography Games (Worldle, Globle)

Worldle and Globle ask you to identify random countries, one by giving you an interactive globe that shows you how close or far away you are and the other by giving you stats like distance and direction. While geography isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, for those who want to test their knowledge of the world (and land borders. They become essential), these are a perfect way to engage the brain.

Also, while playing, I learned about five new countries I’d never heard of or realized where they are, which says the world is much larger than I thought; I really should have paid more attention to Geography or both.

Heardle

Heardle’s premise is you hear a second of a song; you try to guess what it is. If you’re wrong, you then hear two seconds of the song, and so on, up to 16 seconds. The songs they use aren’t always, or often, very recent so this one might be an education in music made years before they were born. However, it’s still an excellent way to introduce music theory to kids by showing a song introduction is crafted. Beyond that, you could find their new favorite song one second at a time.

Film Games (Framed, Hollywoodle, Actorle, Box Office Game)

There’s an excellent range of options for the next generation of budding cinephiles. For example, with Framed, you have to try and guess films from just six frames of it; with Hollywoodle you have to try and connect two actors in a maximum of six degrees of separation, Actorle asks you to guess an actor based on their top films, but you’re only given the number of letters, Genre and year of release.

But the piece de resistánce here is perhaps the Box Office Game wherein you try and guess films based on weekend box office data (and other facts if you’re willing to ‘buy’ them with in-game points). Admittedly, it’s an intense niche game at times (and very focused on the American film release cycle). Still, like many experiences, the dopamine rush is something to experience when you get a high score.

Like many games, the reward is not necessarily in achieving something you can tell everyone about but in discovering you can do it. And that can be a joy you share with your children every morning.

On April 27, 2011, the UN declared July 30 as the official International Friendship Day. It is celebrated all over the world, and it includes many activities which are aimed at bringing those from different backgrounds together. In addition, many schools now focus that day’s education on friendship to foster good relationships between classmates and those with different cultural backgrounds.

Helping Students Learn About Friendships in Schools

Teachers must act as role models for young children. International Friendship Day is an excellent opportunity to provide students with lessons and advice on fostering friendships and explaining their importance. For example, teachers may wish to deliver lectures on the following topics:

• Identifying characteristics of a good friend
• Practicing skills and language makes people friends.
• Read books with honest discussions about friendships.

Fostering good friendships impacts children’s and adults’ well-being. They help children develop a moral compass and teach them to interact acceptably in social situations. Of course, this is an essential part of interaction in the classroom, but International Friendship Day is the ideal opportunity to focus on that learning.

International Friendship Day Activities in Schools

You can do many activities in school or at home to promote international Friendship Day. From worksheets to role-playing and discussions, you can use many activities. Here are some ideas.

• Start by setting the scene. Display bunting is ideal for getting your children prepared and focused on friendship activities.
• Ask children to write a lovely poem for their friends and what it means to be a good one.
• Use picture prompts to get your children thinking about friendships from different backgrounds and cultures.

A warm-up is a short activity or exercise undertaken before a more intensive training or activity. A warm-up prepares the body for movement, including exercise, sport, dance, and stretching.

Why are warm-ups essential for kids?

The main benefits of warm-ups for kids are improved performance and reduced risk of injury. Warming up is essential before any vigorous activity, including sports, exercise, dance, and games. It’s also crucial before stretching and activities such as yoga or gymnastics. So a thorough warm-up should be an integral part of every PE lesson.

Warm-ups are designed to prepare the body for movement. An introduction allows the body to gradually increase its heart rate, breathing, and body temperature, which increases blood flow to the muscles. Preparing the body in this way reduces muscle soreness and the risk of injury. Warm-ups also help prepare the heart and cardiovascular system for increased exercise demands.

The best warm-ups for kids are fun and engaging. You can always use a slower, less intense version of the sport or activity children are about to do. For example, kids can warm up for a swimming session by doing slower lengths in the pool. A warm-up for running might include jogging or a group game.

Ten fun warm-ups for kids

Look at these engaging warm-ups for kids that can be used in a PE lesson, at home, or in the park. Here you can find a selection of 10 warm-ups, but we have created many more! You can find these by clicking on the images and links below.

1. Video game

Have children walk around the space freely and follow the instructions that you call out:

• Fast-forward means run
• Rewind means moving backward
• Pause means stop
• Record means children have to pull a silly face
• Slow-motion means walking at half speed

2. Shuttle run

Children run slowly in a single file line. Whoever is at the back of the line has to run to the front and become the leader.

3. A 5-Minute Move video with Joe Wicks
4. Traffic lights

Kids follow the instructions that you call out:

• Red = stop
• Yellow = jog on the spot
• Green = jogging
• 1st gear = walk
• 2nd gear = jog
• 3rd gear = sprint

5. Jump the river

Place two skipping ropes to mark out the banks of the river. Lay out the ropes, so they are closer together at one end and further away from each other at the other end. Children must jump across the river, starting at the narrow end and progressing towards the wider end.

6. Collect the treasure

Split children into groups. Pile balls or similar objects into the middle of the hall – this is the treasure. Each team sends one child at a time to bring back some treasure. The team with the most treasure wins when all the objects are gone.

7. Clap and catch

For this exciting warm-up, you’ll need a ball. Have kids stand in a circle. Throw a ball around the circle randomly. Everyone has to clap before they catch the ball. If someone doesn’t clap or catch the ball, they’re out.

8. Popcorn

Kids jump around the space in any direction. When they hear the word ‘Popcorn!’ followed by a number, they must quickly get into groups of that number.

9. Caveman dash

Create an area in your hall that will be the cave. All the children have to do cave people dance actions and movements to music. When the music stops, they all have to run to the shelter. The last one that makes it to the cave is out.

10. Making shapes

Children should jog around the space at a steady speed. Then you can call out various shapes. When kids hear the shape, they have to jog around the space in that shape. For example, they must jog around on a triangular path if’ triangle’ is called out. At the same time, children must be careful not to bump into each other.

Seven simple dance warm-ups for children

No matter what kind of dance your child is performing or practicing, you must ensure they complete a full dance warm-up and get their bodies ready to move! So before your dance lessons, let’s look at some dance warm-up moves you can achieve with children.

1. Jumping jacks

They’re simple and effective at getting children’s heart rates and muscles ready for dancing. See how many of your children can perform in 30 seconds, let them have a rest, then go again!

2. Leg swings

It is an isolation exercise, which means you are only working one part of your body at a time. Including leg swings in your dance warm-up helps children increase their flexibility and range of motion.

To perform this movement, stand with one leg facing forward. Then, lift the other leg and bend it just a little as you swing it toward the front and the back of the room. Children must hold onto a chair or a wall to keep their balance.

3. Lunges

Lunges are another exercise that requires a good balance. This move uses lots of the muscles in the lower body and can be held for different lengths of time to differentiate for children easily.

Children should stand upright with their feet shoulder-width apart to do a lunge stretch. Then, they can slide one foot behind them so that their front knee is bent (directly above your front foot) and their back leg is as straight as possible.

4. Heel raises

Heel raises combine a hamstring stretch and calf stretch, making dancers more limber. To do a heel raise, children should stand with their feet together, facing forward, then lift their heels off the ground, so they’re standing on their toes! Next, they should lower themselves to the starting position in a controlled way.

5. Hip swings

Many dances require lots of hip action! To warm up hip joints, ask children to stand upright with their feet shoulder-width apart. They should then alternate moving their hips from left to right.

6. Neck turns

If children don’t complete a dance warm-up, they’re in danger of pulling muscles. One set of muscles that is very easy to pull but often forgotten in an introduction is the muscles in your neck. Children should perform isolation exercises for the neck by alternating looking left, right, up, then down in a slow and controlled way.

7. Shoulder rolls

Shoulder rolls help lower the risk of neck and back injuries to children during dance lessons. This warm-up exercise will stretch the tendons and muscles in the shoulder area. Children should stand upright with their heads facing forward. Then, they should lift their shoulders toward the ceiling and lower them again. It would help if you allowed them to perform this at least ten times.

A diagnostic assessment evaluates a child’s knowledge and skill level of a specific topic. These assessments are done at the start of the topic to understand how much students already know about the subject.

Why should you use diagnostic assessments?

What is a diagnostic assessment, and why are they helpful? First, they are excellent to use at the start of a topic to understand what students already know about it. It is particularly beneficial if this is done at the beginning of the school year if you have never taught these students before. It gives you a clear understanding of what they do and don’t know and allows you to plan lessons around them.

You can’t assume that everybody already knows about your teaching topic. Doing diagnostic assessments helps you to get a better understanding of how much knowledge your class has. It could show that they know more or less than you initially thought; allowing

It helps you set individual targets for every student. You may select an unrealistic target if you don’t do a diagnostic assessment before setting targets. Students who can’t meet their targets may lack motivation and disengage. On the other hand, having achievable targets helps students to focus and gives them a reason to learn.

Diagnostic assessments help to identify areas that need extra attention. It could be something the whole class struggles with as whole or individual students who struggle with one particular area.

Expanded form is breaking down or partitioning numbers into their correct place value. It’s often used for doing large sums without a calculator. It can also help us better understand the difference between thousands, hundredths, tens, single units, and decimal places.

Now it’s time to look at some examples of Expanded Forms:

79 is

70 and 9

188 is

100, 80 and 8

1568 is

1000 500 50 and 8

1.75 is

1 7/10 and 5/100

Expanded Form in Maths is not to be confused with Expanded Notation. Instead, it takes the numbers a step further. Once separated into digits, they are multiplied by their place value and added together.

For example, 668 could be written as (6 x 100) + (6 x 10) + (8 x 1)

The benefits of learning Expanded Form in Maths lessons:

Expanded Form can break large numbers into smaller separate digits. As such, it enables complex problem-solving in an easier way to understand.

Expanded Form can help us understand place value within the context of ordinary numbers.

As a valuable tool for doing mental arithmetic, this can also help us with common Maths problems in everyday life without having to rely on a calculator. For example, we could use Expanded Form to work out the sum of pupils in several classes or the quantities of ingredients for a recipe.

Within the broader subject of Maths learning, this also provides substantial mental discipline and gives logical reasoning to common problems. In addition, these qualities can benefit pupils in other issues, such as Science and musical notation.

“A time connective, ” tells the reader when an action is happening. They can be dedicated, like first, next, and last, or constructed phrases that refer to a specific period, like in December or on 15th January.?

Time Connectives Examples:

Time connectives (sometimes called temporal connectives or time conjunctions) can be very specific or merely suggestive.

Below is a list of some good time connectives examples :

• First
• Next
• Later
• After
• Then
• Soon
• Finally
• Suddenly
• Before
• While
• When
• At last
• Lastly
• Just then
• Meanwhile

Placing Time Connectives

Time connectives can be placed at the start or the middle of a sentence. For example, this sentence uses the time connectives at the beginning.

 

After dinner, you must do your homework. Then you can read your book.

Here, eventually, is the time connective and is used in the middle of the sentence.

The bike ride was hard, but eventually, John finished.

Ordering with Time Connectives

Time connectives make it easy for us to understand the order of when something happened. Often, time connectives are used in conjunction in long sentences to explain a series of events, for example:

Yesterday, I woke up at 8 o’clock, brushed my teeth, got dressed, went to school, and then played football with my friends. Finally, I had a bath and went to bed.

Time connectives are also used in this way in instructions to help us know in what order something needs to be done. In this example, time connectives head each step-by-step instruction for how to brush your teeth:

• 1. Wet your toothbrush
  2. Next, put a pea-sized amount of toothpaste onto your toothbrush
  3. After this, brush your teeth for at least two minutes
  4. Finally, spit the toothpaste out and put your toothbrush away

A trigraph is where three letters are used to represent one sound (or ‘phoneme’). Trigraphs can consist of all consonants, a mixture of consonants and vowels, and, in some cases, all vowels. Some examples of trigraphs include ‘eau,’ ‘tch,’ ‘igh,’ and ‘air.’

‘Tri’ is a prefix used when talking about three of something. So, as their name suggests, a trigraph is a single sound depicted by three letters. They can be made up of three consonants or a combination of both vowels and consonants, but there are some cases (such as with the trigraph ‘eau’) where they can consist of all vowels.

For example, the word ‘hatch’ includes a group of three letters, ‘tch,’ at the end, making only one sound. It is what we would call a consonant trigraph. Other examples of consonant trigraphs include ‘sch,’ ‘shr,’ and ‘thr.’

What are some Trigraph Examples?

By now, the question of ‘what is a trigraph?’ won’t be a mystery to us anymore. But just like any topic, examples can help improve our understanding. Here are a few common trigraph examples:

• ore as in bore
• ear as in beard
• are as in dare
• igh as in sigh
• air as in fairy
• tch as in catch

As we mentioned before, we know these trigraph examples are trigraphs because the three letters form one sound when we say them out loud. Take the ‘igh’ trigraph in the word ‘sigh,’ for example. When we say the word aloud, the letters ‘I,’ ‘g,’ and ‘h’ come together to form a sound similar to the long /i/ sound.

Some trigraphs form a single word all on their own:

• awe (meaning a feeling of wonder or respect)
• aye (an informal way of saying ‘yes’ in some dialects)
• ewe (which means a female sheep)
• eye (which also means the organs we use for seeing)
• owe (which means to be in debt to someone)

Using our handy list of trigraph examples, you’ll be able to show some examples of trigraphs and trigraph words to your pupils. These trigraph examples will help pupils see how these three-letter graphemes appear in our everyday language.

Better yet, you might like to challenge your pupils to see how many new words they can create using this trigraphs list. Then, separate pupils into teams to create an exciting element of healthy competition. The couple who can add the most words to this trigraphs list will be the trigraphs champions of the day!

Consonant Trigraphs vs. Adjacent Consonants

By now, we’ve discovered the answer to ‘what is a trigraph?’, learned a thing or two about them, and seen some trigraph examples. But before we go any further, let’s explore the difference between consonant trigraphs and adjacent consonants.

Consonant trigraphs can sometimes be confused with adjacent consonants. Adjacent consonants are groups of two or three consonant letters pronounced individually in quick succession. However, as we’ve learned, trigraphs are where the letters form one sound.

Let’s take the word’ script’ to give us an example of adjacent consonants. It contains two sets of adjacent consonants: s-c-r and p-t.

Script

Scr – i – pt

Even though the sounds blend quickly, the first set of adjacent consonants is not a trigraph and the second set is not a digraph because each letter is pronounced individually as s-c-r-i-p-t.

Let’s take a look at a few adjacent consonants and trigraph examples:

Night

N –igh– t

Smile

Sm– i – le

In the word ‘night,’ the ‘igh’ is a trigraph. We know this because when we sound the word out, the letters ‘I,’ ‘g,’ and ‘h’ come together in a single sound, which you might like to think of as a long ‘i’ sound. On the other hand, the word ‘smile’ contains the adjacent consonants ‘s’ and ‘m’. So as you say the word ‘smile’ out loud, you’ll notice how both the ‘s’ and the ‘m’ retain their sounds.

Mnemonics, also known as mnemonic devices, are a technique that can be used to help us remember specific topics and ideas. There are many different types of mnemonics, and they can exist as songs, acronyms, rhymes, and many other forms. They can also help kids learn essential facts and information.

What is a mnemonic device?

A mnemonic device, also known as a helpful, is a learning technique that helps learners of all ages to retain or retrieve information. In other words, they’re a handy and effective way to boost your memory and help you store essential details that would otherwise be hard to remember.

Where does the term mnemonic come from?

The word mnemonic originally comes from ‘mnēmonikos,’ an Ancient Greek word that refers to memory. The Ancient Greeks also worshipped Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. Even today, the term ‘mnemonic’ is frequently used when talking about memory and studying memory!

Why do mnemonics help with memory?

We’ve defined mnemonic devices, but why are they so effective?

Well, much of it has to do with how our brains store information. While the human brain can be an incredible storage device, it’s less suited to keeping loads of meaningless details. Instead, we’re much better at building connections between new information and previous knowledge and remembering images and phrases.

Mnemonic devices are effective because they tap into how our brains store information. Using mnemonics, we can encode data into a rhyme, sequence, or even an easy-to-remember piece of imagery. Plus, this makes it much easier for us to retrieve it in the future.

What are the different types of mnemonic devices?

One of the best things about mnemonics is that they can exist in various forms. These include:

• imagery
• acronyms
• rhymes
• chunking

To name but a few! The mnemonic type your learners choose might depend on their learning style. For instance, children who learn visually might use a metaphor or a mental image to remember essential information. On the other hand, a kinaesthetic learner might remember something using a particular gesture.

In this next bit, we’ll go into more detail about some of the different kinds of mnemonic devices:

Acronyms and acrostics

An acronym is a word or phrase formed using the first letter(s) of the items you want to remember. They can make great mnemonic devices because they allow us to condense multiple things into one easy-to-remember phrase!

For example, to recall the rainbow’s colors, you could use the acronym ROYGBIV – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Plus, by using the same example of the colors of the rainbow, we can create an acrostic:

Richard of York gave battle in vain.

This acronym is perfect because we can use it to remember history and colors. That’s because it’s also talking about the unfortunate English king Richard III, who took part in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Notice how it condenses the essential facts about what happened at the battle into one easy-to-remember acronym.

Rhyme

Rhymes are excellent as mnemonic devices. They use rhythm and ‘acoustic encoding’ to make remembering concepts easier. It means that phrases that roll off the tongue are easier to remember because they appeal to our brains.

Here is a rhyming mnemonic you might know:

I before e, except after c,

And when sounding like a

As in neighbor and weight.

This mnemonic is particularly helpful when trying to remember the position and pronunciation of the letter ‘e’ in a word. By referring back to this mnemonic, we’ll figure out that ‘ei’ is often used after the letter ‘c’ in words like ‘deceive’ and ‘ceiling.’

Chunking

As the name suggests, chunking is a tool that lets us store information by breaking it down into small, easy-to-recall ‘chunks.’ Since our brains can only process so much information at one time, these devices are excellent for helping us to simplify complex information.

A good example, and one that we use every day without realizing it, is phone numbers. Even though they form one long number, you’ll often see them written down in two or three more manageable chunks.

When might we use mnemonics?

While mnemonics are helpful for everyone, they can be convenient for pupils at school. In this next section, you’ll find some common and popular examples that children will likely use in school to remember essential information. But, of course, there’s a good chance that you will have used some of them yourself!

For spellings

One of the most common uses of mnemonics in teaching is to teach children how to spell words. The first letter of each word in the sentence spells out the word children are learning to spell. For instance, kids might learn to spell the words ‘because’ and ‘rhyme’ using this mnemonic:

Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move

They can also be fantastic for memorizing spelling rules. For example, the mnemonic device reminds children of the commonly-confused homophones ‘hear’ and ‘here.’

We hear with our ears.

For the order of a list

Instead of simply memorizing a list, you can devise an inventive way of remembering it. If the mnemonic device is humorous, then there’s a better chance you’ll be able to recall it. For example, take a look at this helpful for remembering the distance of the planets in our solar system from the sun:

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

For remembering rules

How many days are there in September again? Luckily, there’s a mnemonic for that!

To remember whether a day has 30, 31, or even 28 days, we can use this rhyme:

Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Save February, with twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine each leap year