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More teaching ideas
Braille
- Write a warning sign in Braille applicable for a person who is vision impaired; e.g., high step, steep incline, etc.
International marine signal flags
- Sort flags according to their properties; e.g., symmetry, halves, quarters, etc.
- What smaller shapes can you find inside the flags? What shapes make up each flag?
- Why don’t they use colours other than red, yellow, blue, white and black?
Dancing men cipher
- Integration – make up own version using symbols relevant to the topic/theme being studied; e.g., space.
The Overland Telegraph line
- In the ‘olden days’, Morse code was only used in urgent situations, otherwise letters were written. Write down 3 urgent messages that could have been sent via Morse code.
- Write a story about a camping adventure that goes wrong. Make sure the solution to the problem in the story is written in Morse code.
Pigpen
- Write spelling list of the week in pigpen cipher.
- Write a letter to a friend in code.
Rail fence cipher
- Decipher a rail fence cipher
- Write a list of instructions for an activity in rail fence cipher; children will need to break the code to work out how or what to do in activity.
Semaphore
- Additional uses of flags; e.g., show jumping.
- Play a simple game of Chinese whispers to show how a message has more chance of being messed up the more people you have involved. Play Chinese whispers using the flags.
Sign language
- Read a repetitive book as a whole class. Each time one of the common words comes up, sign it instead of saying it.
- Learn some of the more common nursery rhymes in sign language.
- Play any floor/whole class game and instead of saying the person’s name, sign it. “Hey _____. Can you hear my name?” etc.
More investigation ideas
- Look at systems for identifying animals on farms/stations; e.g., pig breeding uses an ear marking system where triangles are cut into pigs ears for particular numbers.
- Investigate tattoo symbols on dogs ears, or symbols/brands on horses.
