Jewish New Year

The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”), begins tomorrow. The celebrations to mark the start of Jewish Year 5770 will begin at sunset on September 18 and continue until nightfall on September 20. 

During the two day festival, no work is permitted and much of the time is spent in the synagogue. It is a time for judgement, when Jews believe that God reflects on a person’s behaviour over the past year, and decides what the next year will be like for them. 

One of the customs is the blowing of a shofar made from a ram’s horn. A hundred notes are sounded in a special rhythm – you can hear a demonstration here. 

Special food is also eaten, with an emphasis on sweetness, which Jews hope will characterise the year that lies ahead. Meals often include apples, honey and carrots. You can find all kinds of recipes here if you would like try to make something yourself!

I am hopeless at cooking so will be playing safe and sending e-cards  You can find a wide selection here.

When looking at Judaism in the classroom, you might also find the sample video below useful, from the Key Stage 1 Religious Education  module of the gallery.

L’shanah tovah (“for a good year”) everyone!

Title of clip	Learning Hebrew
Curriculum location	Primary Module A  > Religious Education  >  Key stage 1  >  Unit 2A: What is the Torah and why is it important to Jewish people?  >  Section 1: What is the Torah?  >  Learning Objective: to learn about the way the Torah is treated and what this shows about Jewish beliefs
Description	Report on a Jewish boy preparing for his Bar Mitzvah: he is being tutored by a Rabbi to read in Hebrew correctly from the Torah; he tells of the stories in the Torah and the difficulty of writing Hebrew; he uses a yad to mark the place whilst reading from the scroll; a passage is recited about the use of a Tzittzit and how it helps to remind Jews to follow God’s commandments.
Duration	1 minute 44 seconds

 

Welcome back – 999!

Welcome back to the new term everybody! Hope you enjoyed the summer break and feel refreshed, ready to start a new year.

In case you haven’t noticed already, today’s date is 09/09/09! If you are reading this before your first class of the day, you might even be able to look out for 09:09:09 on the clock as well.

The date could be used as an opportunity to ask the children what the number nine means to them. It is lucky in Chinese as it is a homophone of the word for longevity: jiu. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and nine is revered in Hinduism as it is thought to be a complete and perfected number because it represents the end of a cycle in the decimal system. A human pregnancy usually lasts nine months, and before 2006 (when Pluto was designated as a non-planet) there were nine planets in the solar system. Cats, of course, are also said to have nine lives!

This clip from the Key Stage 1 Citizenship module of the gallery explains how to make a 999 call. The children could make a small postcard to remind themselves how to contact the emergency services. Discuss with them which service to ask for in different situations, and the various stages to go through when confronted with an emergency and placing a call (stay calm, phone 999, explain details, give name and address).

Hopefully it won’t be necessary to use this, however, and you will all have a lucky and happy 09/09/09!

Title of clip	Contacting Emergency Services
Curriculum location	Primary Module A > Citizenship > Key stage 1 & 2 > Unit 4: People who help us – the local police > Section 2: Key stage 1 – How can we help to keep our locality and ourselves safe?
Description	Child phoning emergency services, and the fire brigade being called out.
Duration	34 seconds

 

Independence Day – the Fourth of July

by James

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Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23323418@N03/

To celebrate American Independence Day tomorrow, here are a couple of sample clips from the Key Stage 2 History module of HVG. Both would be useful for work on QCA Unit 19: ‘What were the effects of Tudor exploration?’

The first clip shows the earliest map to include the continent of America. Drawn in 1507 by the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, this map named the new continent in honour of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Title of clip	The Naming of America
Curriculum location	Primary Module A  >  History  >  Key stage 2  >  Unit 19: What were the effects of Tudor exploration?  >  Section 1: How did knowledge of the world change during the Tudor period?  >  Learning Objective: to compare the knowledge of the world that people had in Tudor times with what is known today
Description	The first representation of America on a map is examined.
Duration	36 seconds

 

The second clip tells the story of the English settlers on Roanoke Island a few decades later. It includes readings from the diary of Thomas Harris and images from sketches made by John White. White went back to England for supplies and when he eventually returned to Roanoke he found the settlement deserted. To this day the fate of the colonists has never been ascertained…

Title of clip	Roanoke Island Mystery
Curriculum location	Primary Module A  >  History  >  Key stage 2  >  Unit 19: What were the effects of Tudor exploration?  >  Section 5: Why did the Roanoke settlement fail?
Description	Documentary detailing the experiences of English settlers on Roanoke Island, USA: the expedition was documented by Thomas Harris and sketched by John White; a reading on the difficulties of finding the mainland coast due to the treacherous shallows and numerous small islands; initially the settlers were enthusiastic once landed, the Indians were friendly and the weather fair, the settlers depended on the Indians for food as their own seeds had been lost or had rotted; the Indians began to resent this persistent demand from the settlers and tensions rose between them, leading to violence; Drake took this group of failed settlers off Roanoke and brought them back home to England; in July 1587, 157 people returned to Roanoke and set up in the original settlement, they made contact again with the Indian tribes, the relationship was friendly but unpredictable; after a while the settlers began to run out of stores, John White was persuaded to return to England for further supplies; after he left Roanoke the settlers were never seen again; White returned to find the settlement deserted, he wanted to continue the search as his daughter was with the settlers but the weather was bad and the ship’s crew wanted to get to the Caribbean, so he turned back.
Duration	2 minutes 34 seconds

 

65th anniversary of D-Day

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/ - the view from inside a landing craft approaching Normandy on 6 June, 1944

Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Operation Overlord saw 160,000 Allied troops landing on the beaches of France during June 6, 1944. With the youngest veterans of the operation now being in their early eighties, this weekend’s events are an important opportunity to hear their stories, and to mark the day and remember those who gave so much.

I was in Berlin a few weeks ago and seeing the bullet ridden masonry that still lines the banks of the Rhine as I took a river cruise with my friends, and sipped beer on a sunny day, made me think about how lucky I am to live at this time, and how much we owe the brave people who fought for our freedom sixty-five years ago.

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/ - soldiers and vehicles move ashore during D-Day

D-Day was a major turning point in the war, and although there was still much fighting to be done, many historians see the invasion as marking the beginning of the end for Hitler and Nazi Germany. Things couldn’t have been more different just a few years before, when Germany had a firm grasp on much of Europe, and stood on the brink of launching an invasion of Britain. This sample video from Key Stage 2 History QCA Unit 9 (‘What was it like for children in the Second World War?’) explains the German plan for conquering Britain.

Fortunately failure in the Battle of Britain meant that the Germans never got past the first phase, and the largest single-day amphibious invasion of the war (and indeed, of all time) was in the other direction across the Channel a few years later. Nevertheless, this video is a stark reminder of how it all could have been so different…

Title of clip	Conquest Britain
Curriculum location	Primary Module A  >  History  >  Key stage 2  >  Unit 9: What was it like for children in the Second World War?  >  Section 1: What was the Second World War? When and where did it take place?
Description	World War II: Adolf Hitler backdropped against the Eiffel Tower, German troops march through Paris’ streets, declaration of successful invasion of Britain, six weeks to create a three phase invasion plan, phase one, aircraft to bomb military sites, blitz communication and transport lines, take command of the air, phase two, dive-bomb the English coastline, parachute troops to take over airfields, phase three, Panzer divisions cross channel to invade, divide and destroy armed opposition.
Duration	2 minutes 4 seconds

 

500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne

by James

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Tomorrow is the 500th anniversary of the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of England. He was later crowned King on June 24th 1509 and turned 18 just a few days afterwards. Although famed for his six wives, the Reformation and end of Roman Catholicism in England, war-mongering, and huge appetite and obesity in later life, it seems as if there are many aspects to Henry’s life and personality that go far beyond the things that usually spring to mind when we hear his name.Here are a few suggestions for web resources that you might find useful when looking at the famous king in the classroom. As you might expect of such a well-known historical figure, there are many different accounts and resources of Henry available:

• The BBC is always a good place to start and this slideshow provides a great introduction for students to view themselves. There is also an interactive activity where the children are asked to help put Henry’s armour on, but should be careful not to make him angry! For a more detailed biography from the BBC see here.
• This is perhaps the most detailed biography that I came across. Alternatively, the Woodlands Junior School homework help page is another that students could use themselves.
• This Brims page is a great website for KS2 students, and has a range of resources and information on Henry and all of the Tudors. Some interesting facts from the page:  Henry VIII had over 78,000 people executed while he was King (that equals about 5 people every day for 38 years!), and at one time had a gambling bill for £3242, when the average weekly wage was about 5p!
• By the end of his reign, Henry had accumulated 55 palaces – you can see images of them, and the things that Henry liked to fill them with, here.
• According to many accounts, Henry was intelligent and extremely well-read. You can read some of his works here, and also listen to poems and songs that he composed.
• The National Archives website has a range of original documents from Henry’s reign, and a special tool that can be used to hover over and magnify them.
• Henry’s favourite warship was the Mary Rose. The website of the ship’s museum has several interactive resources and a movie for KS2 students to explore the warship and what life on board was like.
• This article gives an insight into Henry’s diet (‘he may have eaten up to 13 dishes a day … and he may have drunk 10 pints of ale a day as well as wine … a 28 stone man-mountain’), and suggests that it was possibly a jousting accident that turned the king into the tyrant often portrayed in historical accounts.

There are several whole units (QCA History Units 7, 8 and 19) of Henry VIII and Tudor-related clips in the gallery, which you can see for free by taking out a 30-day trial. They cover the great Tudor explorers and their discoveries, Tudor kings and queens, and Tudor houses, clothes, and leisure activities. Here are two examples:

Title of clip	The Tudor Kings and Queens
Curriculum location	Primary Module A  >  History  >  Key stage 2  >  Unit 7: Why did Henry VIII marry six times?  >  Section 1: How many times did Henry VIII marry?  >  Learning Objective: to locate the Tudors within the context of the history of Britain
Description	An animated timeline showing the Tudor Kings and Queens: King Henry VII 1485-1509, King Henry VIII 1509-1547, King Edward VI 1547-1553, Queen Mary I 1553-1558, Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603.
Duration	40 seconds

 

Title of clip	Life on board the Mary Rose
Curriculum location	Primary Module A  >  History  >  Key stage 2  >  Unit 19: What were the effects of Tudor exploration?  >  Section 3: How did people explore the world in Tudor times?  >  Learning Objective: to collect information from a range of sources and draw conclusions about life at sea
Description	The story of the Tudor warship the Mary Rose, complete with re-enactments of what conditions were like on board, plus information about the historical finds yielded after its sunken remains were excavated and raised: almost half of the many finds excavated have now been either restored or conserved; it is a true example of a time capsule as many of the artefacts would not have survived anywhere else; a number of dice and coins were found indicating that gambling was a popular pastime for the crew; the longbows recovered are probably the only surviving examples of the weaponry used to such devastating effect against the French in many of the battles of the time; animal bones excavated from the wreck suggest the food consumed by the crew – beef, pork, fish and venison were all eaten; a gallon of watered-down beer per day was given to each crew member; the officers had music as an extra with their meals.
Duration	4 minutes 38 seconds

 

Please note that these are example clips provided through our YouTube channel and do not reflect the actual quality of clips in the gallery

Happy Easter

by James

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Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22863752@N06/

Hopefully you’ve all had a great term and are now making the most of the holiday and warmer weather – it’s bright sunshine here in Oxford!

We’ve had a busy term again on the HVG blog and so I thought that I would summarise what we have covered, and highlight once more some of the great example clips that we have posted over the last few months. You can also see them all together on our YouTube channel.

The good weather this morning is quite a contrast to the cold and snow that we were experiencing at the beginning of January when we made our first post of the New Year. It included a clip from the primary literacy section of the gallery about how cold weather affects people, wildlife and landscapes around the world.

The first KS3 Geography clip that we posted looked at how volcanoes form, and has been our most popular example video of the year so far.

We celebrated Chinese New Year at the end of January, looking at the superstitions and traditions behind the festival. Hopefully the Year of the Ox is proving to be fruitful and prosperous for everyone, although I’m not sure if Chinese astrology takes credit crunches into account

It was the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns next. We posted another literacy example clip telling the story of Tam O’Shanter, one of Burns’ most popular poems, and which also explains how the Cutty Sark got its name from a petticoat!

In February, one of my favourite clips from the gallery (‘The Mystery of Little Red Riding Hood’s Ice-cream‘!) featured in a post about insulators and keeping things cool. We also posted a KS3 Geography clip about the effects of oil spills as a huge slick off the Irish coast made the headlines, thought to be from a Russian aircraft carrier.

March 1st was St David’s Day. Our post featured an example clip showing the natural beauty of Wales, and suggested plenty of resources to mark the day in the classroom. We included two primary science example clips in the next post about the Earth, Sun and Moon – very useful if you are trying to explain how the planetary bodies interact with one another as part of Unit 5E of the QCA Science Scheme of Work.

We marked St Patrick’s Day on March 17th by exploring who St Patrick was and the legends that exist around him, along with resource ideas and another KS3 Geography clip showing the fantastic landscape and scenery of Ireland. This was followed by an artistic example clip about the four seasons and discussion of when Spring starts, and we wrapped the term up last week with a post to mark April Fools’ Day – did we manage to catch any of you out?!

Have a good break and see you again in the new term, when we’ll have news of new primary and secondary modules. In the meantime, here is a taster (excuse the pun!) of one of our new primary maths problem solving clips. Try to concentrate on the questions!

Title of clip	Question of chocolate
Curriculum location	Primary Module C  >  Maths problem solving  >  Block E  >  Year 4  >  Section: Tables practice  >  Derive and recall multiplication facts up to 10 × 10, the corresponding division facts and multiples of numbers to 10 up to the tenth multiple
Description	A series of five chocolate based arithmetic problems that require either multiplication and division operations to answer: chocolate eggs travel along conveyer belt in factory; chocolate eggs halves in row upon row of moulds; green sweets covered by liquid chocolate on wire rack and then decorated with pistachio nuts when solid; chocolate blocks travel along factory conveyer belt; foil-wrapped chocolates coins dropping off conveyor belt.
Duration	1 minute 57 seconds

 

Please note that these are example clips provided through our YouTube channel and do not reflect the actual quality of clips in the gallery

When does spring start?

by James

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Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshmcmillan/

Tomorrow is traditionally seen as the first day of spring. Tonight is the vernal equinox which means that night time is the same length as day time. From tomorrow, the days will become longer and the nights will get shorter, leading up to the longest day on June 21, the Summer Solstice.

In 2006 MPs questioned the Government why the Met Office had unilaterally declared that spring starts on March 1, seemingly going against tradition and the astrological cycles. The answer was probably to do with keeping things simple and having the four seasons divided up neatly across the twelve months. I must admit that this is always how I have thought of them being roughly organised.

Other events that might be considered as heralding the start of spring confuse the question even further. A BBC Springwatch (or here for the CBeebies version) and Woodland Trust survey found that possible indicators in nature are occurring increasingly early, including frog spawn being spotted in October! The weather is currently mild and very spring-like, but that can’t be relied on either, with parts of the UK experiencing snowfall in March during recent years.

It is next weekend that the clocks ’spring’ forward one hour, but then again that is the start of British Summer Time! Perhaps we should forget about trying to define when spring actually starts and just make the most of the good weather whilst it continues…

Typing ’spring’ into the HVG search engine brings up a range of clips. There are videos in the Primary Science module as part of QCA Unit 6E: Forces in action, that look at the different ways that we use springs and the forces that are involved in them. The KS3 Geography module also has a number of clips examining thermal springs, but it is the type of spring mentioned at the start of this post that this week’s example clip includes: 

Title of clip	A tree through the seasons
Curriculum location	Primary Module B  >  Literacy  >  Year 1  >  Non-fiction  >  Unit 1: Labels, lists and captions  >  Section 1: Speaking  >  Experiment with and build new stores of words to communicate in different contexts
Description	An animation of a tree through winter, spring, summer and autumn: from bare branches to green leaves, daffodils and spring rain, then summer sun and birds flying. The leaves start to go red, then orange, then yellow and then brown and fall from the tree. Winter comes and the tree is bare again, it gets darker and snow falls.
Duration	1 minute 54 seconds

 

Please note that these are example clips provided through our YouTube channel and do not reflect the actual quality of clips in the gallery

Earth, Sun and Moon

by Stephen

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Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
Carl Sagan

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?
Richard P. Feynman

My son is in Year 5, and at school he is currently learning about the Earth, Sun and Moon, which is Unit 5E of the QCA Science Scheme of Work. For me this was always one of the most exciting science topics (and I have to declare a personal interest here, as I went on to study astronomy later in life).

I believe it’s an area of science that is intrinsically fascinating, and although light pollution is a growing problem for many of us, the night-sky is a (free) natural resource that can provide a jumping-off point for many useful science discussions. An hour’s star-gazing can lead quickly to some of the most fundamental questions that science tries to answer: How big is the universe? How old is it? What is our place in it? One of my earliest scientific discussions was debating (aged 6) whether the sun was a star or not (luckily I was on the right side of that argument!).

As with many branches of science there are lots of misconceptions (many of which are seem perfectly reasonable on the surface). Here is a list of many such misconceptions (note that all of the statements in the list are false). Some key ones that used to trip me up:

• We experience seasons because of the Earth’s changing distance from the Sun
• The far side of the Moon is always in darkness

One of the things about the Earth, Sun and Moon topic is the difficulty of explaining and imagining the complex interplay of the star, planet and satellite – how they rotate and orbit; what leads to the rising and setting, and the phases.

Here are some Earth, Sun and Moon resources from the BBC website, including a Flash activity. Here is a link to one of the NASA education sites, with a lot of resources and lesson plans that also relate to this topic.

Below are two videos from Heinemann Video Gallery that include animations and graphics of the solar system, and hopefully help to illustrate the way the planetary bodies interact.

Title of clip	The relative sizes of the sun, Earth and moon
Curriculum location	Primary Module B > Science > Year 5 > Unit 5E: Earth, Sun and Moon > Section 3: Size and distance
Description	Images to illustrate the proportions and structure of the solar system, with voiceover: the moon in the night sky; a satellite shot of Earth from space; the burning surface of the sun; a computer graphic showing the solar system, with each planet’s orbit around the sun drawn in a different colour; all of the planets of the solar system in order of their distance from the sun and showing their relative sizes.
Duration	54 seconds

 

Title of clip	The Earth’s orbit around the sun
Curriculum location	Primary Module B > Science > Year 5 > Unit 5E: Earth, Sun and Moon > Section 7: The Earth’s orbit
Description	The earth orbiting the sun, with voiceover asking questions about the Earth’s orbit and revolution on its axis: animation of a sun-centred solar system with planets following their elliptical orbits, each planet orbiting at a different rate around the sun; the animation focuses on planet Earth as it revolves around the sun, also showing a comet’s trajectory; time-lapse satellite image of the Earth rotating on its axis; satellite imagery of the Red Sea and African desert, with shadows highlighting mountain ranges; the Earth slowly rotates, the sun reflecting off an ocean; the Earth as seen from the surface of the moon, showing half of the Earth lit up and the rest in darkness.
Duration	1 minute 5 seconds

 

Please note that these are example clips provided through our YouTube channel and do not reflect the actual quality of clips in the gallery

St David’s Day

by James

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Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus! (Happy St David’s Day!)

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/

This Sunday, March 1st, is St David’s Day in Wales. St David, or Dewi Sant as he is called in Welsh, is the patron saint of Wales. St David lived in the sixth century and travelled widely on pilgrimages, including to Jerusalem where he was made an archbishop. He eventually settled at Glyn Rhosyn (St David’s) and established a  religious community which became influential throughout Wales and the Christian world. He is alleged to have performed several miracles, one of the most famous being when he caused the ground to rise up whilst preaching so that he could be heard by a greater number of people!

The Welsh rugby team could mark the national festival by winning their Six Nations match  against France on Friday evening, and equalling the record currently held by only France and England of nine Six Nations matches without defeat. Of course, in the interests of maintaining sporting impartiality on this blog, we must also wish England good luck for their match against Ireland on Saturday

In the meantime, here is a video and a few resource suggestions that you might find useful if you are planning to do anything on St David’s Day in the classroom. The video is from the KS3 Geography Unit 1: Making connections section of the gallery, and is designed to assist students with describing the geographical context of an area. It is easy to see why Wales is renowned for its beauty, with magical castles and fantastic coastal and mountain landscapes.

Elsewhere on the web, and primarily for Key Stage 1&2 pupils, Activity Village has a range of printable resources, including colouring pages, craft ideas, and puzzles. If you want to give your students a challenge they could also attempt to do the electronic St David’s Day-related jigsaw puzzles!

For an overview of the life of St David and the background to the national day I would recommend the National Museum of Wales page, or that of Woodlands Junior School for the children to look at themselves directly.

Finally, try Newsround’s St David’s Day Quiz – after doing a bit of research for this post I was able to get 5 out of 6 correct, but slipped up on whether St David was a vegetarian or not?!

Title of clip	The Beauty of Wales
Curriculum location	Geography (secondary)  >  QCA  >  Key stage 3  >  Unit 1: Making connections  >  Section 2: How is our place connected to other places?  >  Learning Objective: to describe the geographical context of the local area
Description	A series of images to give a broad perspective of the landscapes and scenery of Wales: clouds billow over silhouetted peaks of Snowdon; clouds shadows traverse rocky outcrops on Mount Snowdon; Green Bridge of Wales (natural archway formed by coastal erosion), Pembroke Peninsula; Skokholm Lighthouse perched high over coastal cliffs; ruins of Cardiff Castle surrounded by moat, the Welsh flag flies from the tower; flock of sheep grazing in meadow; government and other buildings on Cardiff’s waterfront; Severn Bridge spanning between England and Wales.
Duration	1 minute 56 seconds

 

Please note that this is an example clip provided through our YouTube channel and does not reflect the actual quality of clips in the gallery

Insulators – keeping cold things cold and warm things warm

When we created the ‘Meet the team’ page of the blog each of us chose a favourite  clip from the gallery to upload. Although it was incredibly difficult to choose just one, I decided to post a clip called ‘The mystery of Little Red Riding Hood’s ice-cream’. In case you haven’t seen the clip already I thought I would mention it again here on the main page.

Aside from being a really fun clip, this cartoon is a great way to summarise and review KS1/2 Science Unit 4C: Keeping Warm. You could show the clip and then discuss with the children how the cool box works – how does it fit in with the results of their investigations into keeping things cold and keeping things warm. Can the children say which materials are best to use as insulators?

The example of the cool box could also be used to illustrate that the same type of materials help to keep cold objects cold and warm objects warm. If Little Red Riding Hood put a takeaway meal in her cool box to deliver to grandma (I’ve heard that her favourite is curry and ‘nan’ bread ) would it help to keep the food warm on the way?

Title of clip	The mystery of Little Red Riding Hood’s ice cream
Curriculum location	Primary Module B  >  Science  >  Year 4  >  Unit 4C: Keeping warm  >  Section 6: Insulation
Description	A cartoon about keeping food chilled with an insulated cool box, using a story about Little Red Riding Hood carrying ice-cream through the forest to her grandma.
Duration	1 minute 37 seconds

 

Please note that this is an example clip provided through our YouTube channel and does not reflect the actual quality of clips in the gallery