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Primary education: listening and observing
Primary education: listening and observing

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2 Creative homework

In Section 1, you heard headteacher Mark Millinson say that interesting homework can be ‘tasks’ and ‘investigations’ that children do over several weeks, and this can get parents involved and enthusiastic about homework.

Activity 2 What are they learning?

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

In this video, you’ll meet children who can choose what kind of homework they do. As you watch, jot down their choices and their reactions, and also the reactions of their families. See if you can link their homework activities to a curriculum subject like mathematics or science.

The video is on the following page of the Newsround website [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . It is the fifth video on the webpage and is called ‘Homework but not as you know it’.

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Discussion

The girl who bakes cookies at home is learning maths (measuring, weighing, timing), science (combining ingredients and changing their properties from liquid to solid) and literacy (reading the recipe). Other homework the children talked about covered some of these curriculum subjects:

  • Design a board game: maths and art.
  • Nature walk: science, geography and sustainability.
  • Fit body through piece of A4 paper: design and technology.

The homework to make a board game and fit your body through a piece of A4 paper also develops problem-solving skills and creative thinking. The homework to do a nature walk develops appreciation of the environment and observational skills.

This kind of homework also seems to increase children’s enjoyment of learning and of school. The children in the video seem to take a lot of interest and pride in their homework tasks. This kind of homework can be fun for parents, too, because they can have interesting conversations with children as they help.