CLIL for Pre- Primary and Primary children

Scaffolding the science zone
I went to a Macmillan seminar on CLIL and I grabbed a few good ideas coming from an English teacher called Louise Connolly that are useful and motivating for primary students, it could work aswell for 4-5 year old children.

First of all: A possible model to structure our teaching
1. Establish what children know
2. Explore the topic
3. Experiment
4. Explain and summarise
5. Extend and apply (ex. food vocabulary- healthy eating)

Topic 1: The senses
Following our teaching structure, for the topic of the "Senses" we can:

1. Establish what they know
- Play "What is it"?
- Mime the concept

2. Explore the topic
- Flashcards round the room
- "With my eyes I can see..."/With my tongue I can taste/ With my nouse I can smell/ and so on
- Song (optional)

3. Experiment
The senses
These "investigation" activities are designed to develop pupils experience of a selection of different senses by setting up a series of mini-experiments which would be completed over a number of lessons.

Play the sound game
Play a selection of different sounds and ask pupuls to guess what they might be by identifying a corresponding picture. You can also turn this game into "Sound bingo" if you wish. (www.findsounds.com)

Play match the sounds
Prepare a selection of plastic cups and fill pairs of cups with identical items. Cover the top of the cups with coloured paper using an elastic band. Ask pupils to pick up the pots and identify matching pairs.

Identify what's in the pot
Have pots filled with items that have strong smells (coffee, chocolate, a strong herb, cheese or perfume for example...) and ask pupils to identify the smells. We use an eyeband and the student smells and guesses.

Identify what's in the bag?
Put a collection of familiar objects inside a "feely bag" and ask your pupils to identify what the different objects are.  Ex. How does it feel? soft? rough?

Identify the taste
With permission from the children's parents, bring a selection of food and drink to school for the children to categorise into salty/sweet/sour/bitter (Be careful, sometimes they don't know the difference in their own language).
Alternatively use pictures and their knowledge of food to group different food types into the correct area on a large picture of the tongue.

Focus on colour
We can't touch/taste/hear/smell colur; we can only see it. What colours can the children see in the classroom? What colurs would they see in a park? What is their favourite colour? why? How can colours help us? (this may have specific relevance to your classroom context). Which colours warn us about danger? i.e. on the beach, red flag- dangerous to swim; yellow- be careful; green- ok

4. Explain and summarise
Draw what you do with your senses: children draw the different things they can do with their senses in different boxes. Children write and draw the different things they can do with their senses in different boxes

(a hand )    ( a nose)  (an eye)  (an ear)  ( a tongue)

(Macmillan Natural and Social Science 1, Joanne Ramsden 2010)

Make a poster
Children can make a sense poster, where the relevant body part is drawn on a piece of paper and filled with pictures they've drawn or cut out of magazines.

Give an oral summary
Children give short oral presentations about their posters i.e. each child stands up and says a sentence about thir poster in English.

5.Extend and apply

Make musical isntruments: use plastic cups, cardboard and plastic tubes, etc. to experiment with sound and make musical instruments for the class.

Set up a sense corner: create a "senses corner" in the classroom, where the games and experiments that children complete in class are displayed for them to interact with.

The senses song
With my eyes I can see...I can see a rainbow
With my ears I can hear...I can hear a bird
With my tongue I can taste ...I can taste an apple
With my nose I can smell...I can smell a flower
With my hands I can touch...I can touch a cat

Topic 2 Materials

1. Establish what they know
- I spy with my little eye
- Categorise the materials
2. Explore the topic
-What do you know about water?
-What's it made of...?
-Start a KWL chart

K What I know        

A paper clip is made of metal.
A pencil is made of wood

W What I want to know

Which materials float and which materials sink?

L What I learnt

A paperclip sinks
A pencil floats

3. Experiment
Bring to the class a bucket with water and experiment with the objects