Inclusive Science Lesson!

Here is a science lesson from our newest book in the 101 Inclusive & SEN lessons!

Round and Round the Playground

Learning Objective

Pupils can demonstrate the simple properties of sound and movement.

Additional Skills

Kinaesthetic: moving fast and slow

Gross motor: using and operating playground equipment

Auditory: listening for changes in sound and speed of heart rate

Resources

Stethoscopes

A4 laminated stop and go, fast and slow symbols

Smaller laminated fast and slow symbols

A4 recording sheet titled ‘Experiment’ with 3 columns labelled ‘before’, ‘after’ and ‘results’ and rows for ‘running fast’, ‘climbing fast’, ‘walking slow’.

Access to playground (or if necessary PE) equipment

Whiteboards and pens

Main

·      Adult supports the children to sit in a semi-circle in the playground.

·      Adult explains that today we are going to listen to our heartbeats to see if they are going ‘fast’ or ‘slow’.  We will then do some exercise and listen to our heartbeats again to see if they are ‘fast’ or ‘slow’

·      Ask the children “Do you think your heartbeat is fast or slow?”

·      Support the children to add a fast or slow symbol to the ‘Guess’ recording sheet in the ‘before’ column.

·      Support the children to work in pairs to use the stethoscope to listen to their heartbeats.  If possible use a whiteboard and pen to tally the beats as they hear them.

·      Ask the children to guess if their heartbeats will be fast or slow after running fast by placing a laminated fast or slow symbol on the ‘guess’ recording sheet in the ‘after’ column.

·      Next adult uses the large ‘fast symbol’ to ask the children to run fast around the playground.  After a short time e.g. 1 minute of running, adult counts down “5,4,3,2,1 running finished”.  Support the children to sit back down in the semi-circle and listen to their heartbeats again. 

·      Adult asks, “Are your hearts beating fast or slow after running?”.  Support the children to choose a smaller laminated fast or slow symbol and then place it in the ‘results’ column in the row ‘running fast’.

·      Repeat this process for ‘climbing fast’ and ‘walking slow’.

Plenary

Support the children to sit back in the semi-circle and look at the recording sheet together.  Look at how many times guesses were right or wrong, comment on when heartbeat was fastest or slowest.

Consolidation Activities

When the activity is repeated extend the guessing and recording aspect by accessing different PE equipment at different speeds or in different ways e.g. guess a fast or slow heartbeat before sitting on the roundabout, listen afterwards and record.  Guess a fast or slow heartbeat before pushing the roundabout, listen afterwards and record.  Begin to look at results across different equipment and different activities to make more informed predictions.

For more inclusive science and computing lessons check out our new book '101 Inclusive & SEN Science and Computing Lessons' to support developing a creative and inclusive classroom!