Spring is in the air and with Easter fast approaching, we at the Primary Planning Tool have created an Easter theme for fifth and sixth class and integrated it across all eleven curriculum subject areas. We have also added links to some useful websites where you will find helpful ideas and resources.
The Primary Planning Tool facilitates the effortless integration of topics related to Easter into your curriculum planning. This theme should provide you with plenty of curriculum planning inspiration whether you are using the Primary Planning Tool, NCCA Planning Tool or your own template.
With the Primary Planning Tool you can:
• generate a theme around Easter;
• ensure your activities are aligned with the NCCA curriculum;
• generate cross-curricular links to strands, strand units and content objectives across a range of subjects;
• apply your theme to one or more short-term plans;
• embed live links to websites and to online resources in your plans.
Create Your Easter Theme With The Primary Planning Tool
For example:
1. Create a theme called “Easter”. (Fifth & Sixth Class)
2. Edit your theme to link it with some of the following curriculum areas:
| Subject | Stand | Stand Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Science | Materials | Properties and Characteristics of Materials - Bouncing Eggs and Rubber Chicken Bones Experiment - The Shrinking Egg Experiment |
| Living Things | Plant and Animal Life: Processes of Life - Investigate and record the budding/flowering of local trees, shrubs and wild flowers. - Green Wave Project |
|
| Living Things | Plant and Animal Life: Variety and Characteristics of Living Things - Listen to and identify bird songs |
|
| Maths | Shape & Space | 2D Shapes - Birds from an Egg (Tangrams) |
| Number | Operations - Easter Egg Maths Quizzes (Requires registration with Teachable) |
|
| Data | Representing and Interpreting Data - Keep a weather chart. |
|
| Geography | Human Environments | People and Other Lands - German Easter Traditions |
| Natural Environments | Weather, Climate and Atmosphere: Weather Observations - Record daily weather conditions and keep a weather chart. |
|
| History | Life, Society, Work and Culture in the Past | Life in the 18th Century Life in the 19th Century - Easter Traditions (Egg Rolling) - Easter Traditions in America |
| Politics, Conflict & Society | 1916 and the Foundation of the State - 1916 Rising - 1916 Easter Rising Learning Path (Scoilnet) |
|
| English | Competence & Confidence in using Language | Oral Language: Developing competence and confidence in using oral language - Discuss: This Easter, Irish people will eat about 18 million Easter eggs; costing €38 million; containing over 2,000 tonnes of chocolate and generating 20,000 tonnes of packaging waste. - Create a blog for Easter with pictures of local and school events |
| Reading: Reading for pleasure and information | ||
| Writing: Developing competence, confidence and the ability to write independently - Keep an Easter journal. |
||
| Gaelige | Labhairt | Ag úsáid teanga - Dánta: An tEarrach, Blátha - An Cháisc: Luaschártaí (Scoilnet) |
| Scríbhneoireacht | Ag úsáid teanga - Laethanta saoire na Cásca: - tuairiscí / aistí gearra a scríobh nó a chríochnú - creatlacha réamhcheaptha d’alt nó d’aiste ghearr a iomlánú |
|
| Éisteacht | Ag tuiscint teanga - Plean: An Cháisc (Foinse) |
|
| SPHE | Myself & the Wider World | Environmental Care - See English: Oral Language discussion above |
| Living in the Local Community - Discuss local Easter traditions and customs. - Share and discuss of children from other cultures who are now part of our community. |
||
| PE | Outdoor and Adventure Activities | Orienteering - Easter egg hunt with grid map and directional clues |
| Music | Listening & Responding | Listening and responding to music - Vivaldi Four Seasons: Spring |
| Visual Arts | Construction | Making Constructions - Easter Egg Nature Collage - 3-D Paper Eggs - Easter Bunny Bottles |
| Drawing | Making Drawings - Easter Art Ideas (Scoilnet) |
|
| Paint & Colour | Painting - Decorate Easter Egg Template (Disney) |
|
| Drama | Drama to Explore Feelings, Knowledge and Ideas Leading to Understanding | Co-operating and Communicating in Making Drama - Incorporate some of the curriculum themes in the other subject areas into drama activities such as - String Tension - Park Bench |
3. Create blank short-term plans for the required period(s).
4. Apply your Easter theme to your short-term plan(s).
5. Add web links to your online resources using the annotations option.
You can use the ‘annotations’ feature to add URLs to the relevant content objectives or to your Teaching Notes for the relevant subject. In Teaching Notes, you also have the option to create hyperlinks.
6. Embed links to your own online resources.
If you have created your own resources e.g. worksheets, tests, etc. and uploaded them to the cloud (e.g. OneDrive, Google Docs, Dropbox, etc.) you can embed the links to your online resources using the ‘annotations’ feature or in the Teaching Notes, where you can also create hyperlinks.
7. Your plan is now a working document (which you can edit at any time), with active links to your resources.
8. In Preview mode you can filter your short-term plan to view it one subject at a time and so use it throughout the fortnight as you teach.
9. You’re good to go!
Download the Primary Planning Tool Easter Theme .
Learn how to create your very own themes with the Primary Planning Tool. Click HERE to book your free online demo.