We began our topic lesson today with some Liquorice Allsorts on our desks. Why, we hear you ask?
The children were asked to work as a group to sort the sweets according to clear characteristics that can split the specimens into two new groups.
They had to think of some questions that may help them to sort and split the sweets. The children thought about the following characteristics or features:
• structure (layered, encased in a shell)
• shape
• size
• colour
Using the idea of a flow chart, we began to group the sweets. The children tried to make their questions interesting and ensured that they always needed a ‘yes’/‘no’ answer, for example, ‘Is the sweet a primary colour?’
Next, our aim was to recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways.
Using the same idea as before, the children had to generate questions that only had a yes/no answer, such as:
- Can the animal fly?
- Does it lay eggs?
- Does it have feathers?
- Is it a mammal?
- Does it breathe air?
- Does it live in water?
- Does it live on land?
The class were able to create their own animal flow charts to group the various creatures.