Circus - primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com · Circus English • Pictures - Show the...
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Circus English • Pictures - Show the children a picture of a circus scene on the IWB and get them to discuss what they can see. Get them to think about what they might hear and what they might smell too. If you can, get a sound clip from the circus and get them to imagine they are actually at the circus. They could also pretend they are peering through the fence of a circus and describe what they can see and hear. • Posters - Design a poster to advertise the circus coming to town or to advertise one of the circus acts. • Non-fiction writing - Show the children a PowerPoint on clowns and the different types of clowns. In talk partners get them to discuss the differences they can see. Get them to write a non- fiction book based on clowns. They can design the front cover, write a blurb for the back cover, use the internet to find clown pictures and write simple sentences informing the reader about clowns. • Instructions - Get the children to come up with a new act for the circus and have them write instructions on how to perform the act. They can use this writing frame to write out their instructions. • Circus acts - Look at other circus acts within the circus, this word mat might help children, but also introduce them to new acts. In addition to the instructions for the circus act, get them to draw the new act, label it and write simple sentences to describe it. • Fiction writing - Write a story based in a circus where one of the animals escapes! Use this planning sheet to help the children structure their ideas. They could also design a poster to warn people an animal has escaped with the help of these two writing frames. • Positional language - Use these circus based posters to teach the children about how to use positional language. Science • Forces - Look at different circus performers and discuss what movements they do. Find a video to show the class of circus performers and show them examples of pushes and pulls. Get the children to sort different circus acts into pushes and pulls and try and explain how to speed up or slow down the process. Look at a tightrope walker and investigate whether or not the pole they hold needs the same weight at each end of the pole to balance. Look at balanced forces. This can easily be done with wooden sticks balanced on a wall and putting unequal and equal weights on the ends of the sticks. Or it could be done by putting weights on a see-saw and getting it to balance. Jugglers use balls in the circus so conduct this investigation on different surfaces and look at the effect it has on how far the ball rolls. Then get them to write it up with the help of this worksheet. Get some inspiration or share your Circus activity ideas here! Page 1 of 2
Transcript of Circus - primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com · Circus English • Pictures - Show the...
CircusEnglish• Pictures - Show the children a picture of a circus scene on the IWB and get them to discuss what
they can see. Get them to think about what they might hear and what they might smell too. If you can, get a sound clip from the circus and get them to imagine they are actually at the circus. They could also pretend they are peering through the fence of a circus and describe what they can see and hear.
• Posters - Design a poster to advertise the circus coming to town or to advertise one of the circus acts.
• Non-fiction writing - Show the children a PowerPoint on clowns and the different types of clowns. In talk partners get them to discuss the differences they can see. Get them to write a non-fiction book based on clowns. They can design the front cover, write a blurb for the back cover, use the internet to find clown pictures and write simple sentences informing the reader about clowns.
• Instructions - Get the children to come up with a new act for the circus and have them write instructions on how to perform the act. They can use this writing frame to write out their instructions.
• Circus acts - Look at other circus acts within the circus, this word mat might help children, but also introduce them to new acts. In addition to the instructions for the circus act, get them to draw the new act, label it and write simple sentences to describe it.
• Fiction writing - Write a story based in a circus where one of the animals escapes! Use this planning sheet to help the children structure their ideas. They could also design a poster to warn people an animal has escaped with the help of these two writing frames.
• Positional language - Use these circus based posters to teach the children about how to use positional language.
Science• Forces - Look at different circus performers and discuss what movements they do. Find a video
to show the class of circus performers and show them examples of pushes and pulls. Get the children to sort different circus acts into pushes and pulls and try and explain how to speed up or slow down the process. Look at a tightrope walker and investigate whether or not the pole they hold needs the same weight at each end of the pole to balance. Look at balanced forces. This can easily be done with wooden sticks balanced on a wall and putting unequal and equal weights on the ends of the sticks. Or it could be done by putting weights on a see-saw and getting it to balance. Jugglers use balls in the circus so conduct this investigation on different surfaces and look at the effect it has on how far the ball rolls. Then get them to write it up with the help of this worksheet.
Get some inspiration or share your Circus activity ideas here!
Page 1 of 2
CircusMathematics• Patterns - Use different coloured balloons to create patterns and
get the children to carry on the patterns. Then get them to design some bunting with a repeating pattern, ideally on the circus theme. You could also use rubber stamps or potato stamps to create repeating patterns.Moving on to more complex patterns, use jugglers and their three juggling balls. Look at how many different patterns you can make with one set of juggling balls.
• Classifying and sorting objects - Introduce Venn diagrams and through using different clown faces get the children to separate them into different categories. For your higher ability children you could allow them to categorize the clowns faces themselves. You could do it as a whole class and use large hula-hoops to categorize the clowns.
• Counting in 10’s - Use circus themed dot-to-dot going up in ten’s to practise counting in ten’s.
• Ordinal numbers - Colour in a selection of balloons, each in a different colour and then write what position each balloon is in.
PSHE• Some circuses use performing animals in their acts. Discuss whether
or not it is right for animals to be part of a circus. Is it any different from being part of a zoo?
• Teamwork - In a circus everyone needs to work as a team for it all to work well. Discuss the importance of working as a team. Do some team building games such as ‘crossing the swamp’ which involves the team getting from one side of the room to the other with only certain equipment but the equipment is not allowed to be dropped or any team member to touch the floor/swamp.
Art and Design• Design and build large circus big tops using boxes and other materials.
Evaluate the finished circuses.• Paint an egg with a clown face or paint each other’s faces as clowns.• Create performers to go in their circus.
PE• Teach the children some circus skills in PE including gymnastics,
juggling and ball skills.
Get some inspiration or share your Circus activity ideas here!
Geography• Look at an aerial shot of a circus and look at
what you can see. Is it just the big top or are there other things on the site?
• Get the children to create a circus in a box with the information they have collected from the aerial shot. In teams, get them to plan their circus on a large piece of paper.
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