Primary Two Topic – Farmer George’s Farm

Overview

Jennifer Neill is a teacher at Alexander Peden Primary School in North Lanarkshire. This year Jennifer’s remit has been to share a Primary Two class with a probationer teacher and support the other teachers in the school with the roll out of Glow. Jennifer achieves this by discussing with the teachers what interdisciplinary work they are planning for the pupils and helps them find ways in which Glow can compliment and support this. At present all pupils in the school have Glow log ons and are actively using Glow.

Context

Jennifer used the Primary Six pupils who were already confident in using Glow, to help the Primary Two pupils log onto Glow.  Then she gave the pupils some time to explore Glow Games. Once the pupils were confident with this, Jennifer began to build the Primary Two Glow Group. She has used this Glow Group in a number of ways but mainly to support Topic work that the pupils have been covering. For example, Jennifer had a tab for the class’ RME topic of Moses and is also using it for their new Science topic of Energy. In this cookbook we are going to look at how Jennifer has used Glow to support the interdisciplinary topic of Farmer George’s Farm.

Click on the video to see how Jennifer introduced the P2 pupils to Glow. (0.51)

How was the Farmer George’s Farm Page used by Primary Two?

There are a number of areas within this page:

Learning Outcomes

A Text Editor web part was used to list the learning outcomes for the topic.

Our Animal Factfiles

This activity was completed through co-operative learning; each group had a different farm animal to make a factfile about. Jennifer took a photo of the groups fact file and uploaded it in a Picture Library web part. Using a Discussion  Board, the pupils then had to list two facts that they had learnt about their animal that they would like to share with the class.

Animals

During Art the pupils made farm animals, Jennifer took photos of these animals and uploaded them into a Picture Library. Jennifer taught the pupils how to go in and edit their picture by clicking on the photo and clicking on edit properties. Each pupil had to find their animal, and then leave a description to explain what their animal was and how they made it, then they clicked on save and close to save their work.

The Story of Milk

Jennifer took photos of the story of milk and uploaded them into a Picture Library. The pupils were put in pairs, and each pair had a different photo to describe. The pupils wrote their descriptions in a Discussion Board.

This topic has covered many First Level Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes:

SOC 1-09a Having explored the variety of foods produced in Scotland, I can discuss the importance of different types of agriculture in the production of these foods. 

SOC 1-13a Having explored the landscape of my local area, I can describe the various ways in which land has been used.

EXA 1-03a I can create and present work using the visual elements of line, shape, form, colour, tone, pattern and texture.

HWB 1-01a I am aware of and able to express my feelings and am developing the ability to talk about them. 

 LIT 1-02a When I engage with others, I know when and how to listen, when to talk, how much to say, when to ask questions and how to respond with respect.

Ingredients

What did Jennifer  need to set up the Farmer George’s Farm Page?

1. Class Glow Group
2. New page
3. Text Editor web Part
4. Multiple Picture Libraries
5. Multiple Discussion Boards

Recipe

In the following videos, we will take a look at the P2 Farmer George’s Farm Page and  find out how to replicate some of its structure and content.

What does the P2 Farmer George’s Farm Page look like? (1.56)

How to add a new page in your Glow Group (0.35)

How to add a Text Editor web part and some text (3.02)

How to add a Picture Library web part (1.24)

How to edit the display of a Picture Library (1.01)

How to add a picture to a Picture Library web part (0.59)

How to add a Discussion Board (1.24)

 Impact

Jennifer feels that the main impact on the pupils of using Glow for their work has been that they are more interested in their learning. They are motivated to learn by the fact that Glow is a new resource to support their learning. As pupils have to work with a partner before uploading work, or posting onto discussion boards on Glow, it has encouraged the pupils to reflect on what they have been learning . This has also helped their social skills, as they work with different partners each time, depending on what the task is. It has also improved the pupils typing skills and their ability to navigate around Glow.

Listen to Jennifer explain how she can use this page in her Glow Group as an evidence bank. (0.23)

Listen to Jennifer describe the impact of sharing pupils’ work on Glow. (0.47)

Other related cookbooks:

Creating a Picture Book

Debating in Primary Seven

Primary Two Topic – Farmer George’s Farm4.958