Procedure – Instructions and Explanations
Minecraft Maze
Overview
This lesson allows your children to work on writing and following instructions. The children will be building a maze using the Minecraft app.
Other Teaching Ideas:
1. Allow children to create different animal homes and habitats.
2. Allow children to create settings and descriptions.
3. Allow children to write a recount - 'The day of a miner'.
Instructions and Coding
Download our Coding Pack to allow your children to develop coding skills in a practical way using our coding blocks, activity example and resources.
Explanations
Allow your class to explore the impact trees have on their lives.
Your class must give simple explanations for the different uses of trees and explain why they are important for our lives.
You could also link this to the app Explain Everything and create simple narrated animations using the draw and record features.
Write this quote on the board to introduce the lesson. “Blow a kiss to a tree to give it Carbon Dioxide. In return, you will get a fresh breath of Oxygen.”
Here are a few reasons why Trees are important…
Trees clean the air
Trees clean the air by trapping dangerous gases in their leaves and bark.
Trees provide oxygen
An acre of mature trees can provide enough oxygen for 18 people for one year. Blow a kiss to a tree and you will give it carbon dioxide. In return it will blow you a kiss of oxygen.
Trees give us shade
Trees cool the city by shading our homes and streets. They also help keep us and animals safe in the hot sun.
Trees provide food
Different fruits grow on trees and people pick them off and we buy them in a shop.
Trees show us the seasons
In winter the trees will be bare. In spring the trees begin to grow leaves. In summer the trees will be bushy and green. In autumn the leaves will be brown, orange, yellow and red, and will start to fall off trees.
Trees and animals
Many animals build their homes inside and on trees. Can you think of any?
Trees provide wood
People can make many things using wood. Tables, chairs, toys, pencils, picture frames, boats and paper.
Build a Table
Many instructions involve putting things together, for example, a recipe has ingredients and a model has lots of parts. It’s useful to list all the things the reader will need or require, including any tools, at the start of the instructions. One of the most important things is to put instructions in the right order.
The steps should be numbered so the reader knows what order to do things in.
1. unpack content
2. turn table top upside down
3. use brackets, screws and screwdriver to attach all four legs to the bottom of the table
4. turn the table over and stand it on its legs
Making a Pizza
When teaching instructions, a very simple and interesting topic for early KS1 children, is letting them make their own pizza. The children get to be creative and choose many different toppings whilst creating simple instructions. The video clip is a great way to introduce the writing and you can even let the children create the pizzas using real food or pictures (of the toppings etc). The children will then write the instructions on how to create a pizza. You could also give the children the written instructions to order. To download the cooking verb word bank Click Here.
Pizza
This is a great lesson that allows your children to create a pizza to help them write instructions.
Giving children practical experiences is crucial and it proves very effective when it comes to helping them write instructions for making a pizza.
Simply give the children a plate to use as the base, red paint for the sauce, shredded yellow paper for the cheese, red circles for pepperoni, yellow beads for sweetcorn and other junk materials to let them use their imagination.
This activity coupled with the video clip above inspires the KS1 children to create fantastic writing.
Teaching Procedure - Instructions
On his first day as a postman, Larry has difficulty remembering the directions. He repeats the instructions and still can’t remember where to go. His friend draws pictures to help him work out where to go. The wind blows the pictures out of his hand and he can’t remember what order they should be in. He recognises the places when he comes to them, even without the pictures. Encourage the children to create the journey (remembering the instructions ) in order from the beginning to the end.
Instructions - What could go wrong?
What happens when you don’t listen carefully to instructions in the kitchen?
This is a great question for your class to discuss before watching the video clip.
Changes in Spring
When is Spring?
In the United Kingdom the first day of spring is on 20th March. On the first day of spring the number of hours of daylight and night are the same, so there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
Spring Weather
The weather in spring can be mixed. The end of March is often windy and April is known for its showery weather followed by sunshine.
Right up to the end of May or into June spring nights can be frosty and cold. Days can be sunny and warm.
Click here to download the worksheet.
How Honey is Made
Explore how honey is made with your children and allow them to create a simple explanation text.
Click here visit our page dedicated to bees.
Click the image for the worksheet.
Imperative 'bossy' Verbs
Click the image to download a variety of imperative verb and time connective activities. These are crucial components when teaching your class to write instructions.
Imperative verbs are also known as ‘bossy verbs’- they tell people what to do! e.g. close the door; empty the bin; eat your dinner!
Bossy Verbs Worksheet
Mr. Chatterbox has made all Little Miss Bossy’s sentences too long! They don’t sound bossy anymore! Can you help Little Miss Bossy cut out words to turn them into sentences with bossy verbs? Remember! Bossy verbs and sentences sound like commands and instructions.
