Cover the curriculum and save time

History teachers and Heads of History everywhere! We have found a way you can save precious time to use however you like. Roy Huggins, History specialist and former Head of eBacc, has worked with us to create some curriculum-based resources that can be used time and time again.

Roy is an extremely popular TES creator, with at the time of posting, 13,414 downloads to his name. There are various types of tasks he develops but one that really stood out to us was his card sorts. As we’ve explored before though, despite the numerous, excellent benefits of this type of activity, they can be quite time consuming to print off, cut out and sort for a class of 30! Despite this, they are a VERY popular classroom resource, which shows how much they are valued and the benefits of them. To name a few; deeper understanding of content, collaboration and ease-of-use.

Why was it difficult maintaining law and order in the American West?

We’ve worked with Roy to transform some of his card sort tasks into iPad versions. They look fantastic on the iPad! Rather than students sorting out cards into nondescript piles on desks, many activities have bright, colourful and descriptive backgrounds which means when looking back on their work, students immediately know how they sorted the cards.

Roy explained, “I was really surprised by how easy the Thinking Kit software was to use. It was very intuitive and it didn't take me long to start making some stunning resources.”

Push and pull factors of Westward Expansion

All resources come with a detailed and thorough list of ‘aims and objectives’ and a ‘WILF (What am I Looking For?)’ section. Plus the process of downloading each task is so simple and guided that you can be using them in minutes!

To name a few of the benefits of this transition:

• TIME SAVING
  Instead of having to print off and cut out 30 pages of cards/pieces of paper, just give your students a code for them to download the tasks onto their iPads.
• RECORDING OF PROGRESS
  Students can download/print a PDF report of their card sort session (e.g. what was on the cards, their final layout and anything in between) OR simply take a screenshot of their on-screen work ready to print off to put in books or keep in a progress file.
• REFLECTION ENCOURAGED
  If desired, you can get students thinking about the process of how they got to their answer rather than just the end result (there’s a dedicated Reflection Stage/interactive playback of the session). This is excellent for critical thinking and problem solving.

We are delighted to say that the activities of Roy’s that have been transformed first are his ever-popular ‘American West’ selection. You can even get a massive 33% discount if you buy them in a bundle. Please see Roy’s TES profile for more details. If you’d like to have a go at creating your own iPad card sorts, please visit www.thinking-kit.com/freeTrial

Exploring the explorers

Although many around the world have already started the summer holidays and some will soon be going back after their winter break, for most schools in England, this week is the final week of term!

To celebrate this, we've made a lot of our iPad apps either half-price or completely free, temporarily.

An example of one of our apps is an exciting history mystery about a Spanish explorer who set off to the New World. It is now £0.79 in the UK, $0.99 in the US and $1.29 in Australia. It's aimed at 11-14 year olds.

In pairs (small groups or alone are options too), students work through this topic together to discuss the motivations behind Pablo's venture.

They are given lots of illustrated slips/cards of information and asked to sort through them. To do this, they go through different stages (a structure based on Moseley et al.'s (2005) integrated model for understanding thinking and learning. Firstly, they gather information and read the slips, then they move towards building understanding by classifying the informaion and identifying relations. In the sequencing stage, they then focus on reasoning and understanding.

To download 'Digital Mysteries: Spanish Exploration and Conquest', half-price until 21st July, click here.

If you would like more information on Digital Mysteries, please go to www.reflectivethinking.com/digitalmysteries-ipad.

A screenshot of the grouping stage

How can today’s solar eclipse engage KS2 in the ‘Everyday effects of light’?

Depending on where you are, you may or may not have seen the solar eclipse today (Friday 20th March). Even if you didn’t though, you will more than likely have heard a lot about it, pictures shared on social media and experts giving advice on the best and safest ways of viewing it. It will also have captured the minds of many students too.

What better day for our new mystery to come out? It is called Jenny’s Shadow and is targeted directly at the national science curriculum of England, but also touches on the English curriculum too.

It’s a perfect way to introduce students to the curriculum topics of ‘Everyday effects of light’ and ‘periodic changes’. This is in two ways:

1. the relevance, due to this morning’s exciting and nationwide event – there’s even one slip specifically about the solar eclipse
2. the story, which involves a young girl called Jenny, who runs an experiment on shadows with her friends

Students are asked to solve the mystery of why Jenny has lost her shadow. To do this, they work in pairs to read slips of illustrated information, group them, then lay them out on the screen. They not only develop understanding through the facts provided, but also are given the ideal setting for collaboration, discussion and problem-solving skills.

If you want to try this task, there are three ways:

• iPad: Search 'Digital Mysteries Science' on the App Store now or click here
• Windows: If you don’t have iPads, try our free trial for PCs and laptops – it works for 28 days and there is no obligation after that - click here
• Paper task: Email natalie@reflectivethinking.com with subject ‘Jenny Shadow paper’ and I’ll send you a PDF to try out

We also have a free app for History, Maths and PSHE: Digital Mysteries KS2.

Natalie Taylor
@refthinking