The children can also develop their literacy skills by composing and performing short plays to entertain the rest of the class at the picnic. Working in PE, the children can devise games for the class to play after all of the food has been eaten at the picnic. The class could also create lyrics with a summer theme to replace the wording in popular songs that the children could then sing as part of the picnic celebration.

Picnic Sandwiches
The class can develop skills in working with and preparing food for the class picnic by designing fillings for different sandwiches. It is important to check with the children’s parents and guardians about any food allergies before allowing the class to work with and taste any foods. Teach the children how to prepare vegetables and other foods to fill a sandwich such as slicing, dicing and shredding. The class can test different combinations of fillings to evaluate the best combination for the picnic. On the morning of the picnic, the children can work in small groups with a teaching assistant to prepare sandwiches for the forthcoming celebration.

Cup Cakes
The class can develop geometry skills in Maths by using marzipan to cut shapes to decorate the top of cup cakes to be shared during the class picnic. You can purchase some plain cup cakes which the children can then decorate by combining shapes to make a picture with a summer theme such as using a circle and triangles to make the shape of the sun. Get the class to identify and describe the properties of shapes that have been used to decorate the top of a cup cake.

Fruit Cocktails
The children can also create some drinks to share with each other at the class picnic.It is important to check with the children’s parents and guardians about any food allergies before allowing the class to work with and taste any foods. The class can test and evaluate different combinations of fruit juices to make a range of drinks for the picnic celebration such as mixing pear and orange juice. This activity can also help the children develop their measurement skills in Maths as they measure and mix different quantities of fruit juice.

Picnic Plays
Working in English, the children can devise short plays to perform to the class during the picnic. Split the class into small groups and get them to compose and rehearse a play script with a summer theme such as a scene from a Punch and Judy show or finding hidden treasure on the beach. Teach the children how to format and structure a play script ready for the performance. The class can also develop their art and design skills by creating models and backdrops to use as part of their performance.

Picnic Games
The children can also devise some games for the rest of the class to play during the picnic celebration. They could create some obstacle courses for the class to try and complete in as fast a time as possible. The children could also select a series of challenges for the class to practise such as bouncing a tennis ball on a racket whilst walking around a shape marked out by cones or trying to skip whilst balancing a football on top of their head. Help the children identify skills for different games and sports that can be tested and measured during the games section of the picnic.

Picnic Songs
You can get the children to devise some songs for the class to sing during the picnic celebration. Choose a popular song with a consistent rhythm pattern. Split the class into small groups and get them to practise replacing the lyrics in the chosen song with vocabulary on a summer theme such as a family holiday to the seaside. Each group can perform their song to the class during the picnic getting all of the children to join in with any repeated phrases and lyric patterns.

New Teaching Resources

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  Christmas World
  Explore how different countries around the world celebrate Christmas by following a range of special customs and traditions that reflect religious and secular stories
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  Festival of Santa Lucia
  Plan and hold a school procession to explore how Christmas is celebrated in Sweden

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  Family Christmas
  Practise using mental calculations and informal written calculations to add and subtract pairs of two digit numbers when identifying different things that families might need to celebrate Christmas
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  Christmas Market
  Calculate numbers of items sold at a Christmas market by subtracting ones from different two digit numbers