Play
Home Safety Test
Age Range: 7 to 10 year olds
Materials: Set up a kitchen (or other room) with dangers for the players to observe and write down.
1 piece of paper and 1 pencil per player.
Directions: Send the players into the kitchen in teams, one group at a time.
Give them one or two minutes to look around, and then call them out to write down the dangers they saw.
Send the next team in, while the others are writing down their answers.
The team with the most correct answers wins the game.
Dangers to set up could be such things as:
- Saucepan handle pointing out from the hotplate.
- Iron resting face down on the ironing board.
- Electric heater or toaster near overhanging towels.
- Electric jug cord hanging over the edge of the bench top for a toddler to pull on.
- Frayed electric cord on an appliance.
- Pills open on the bench.
- Poisons in an open or unlocked cupboard.
- Matches left to play with.
- Sharp knives handy to toddlers.
- Coffeepot on the edge of a table.
- Too many plugs in a power outlet.
- Sharp lid from an opened can left on the table.
Write
Logbook Entry: Imagine that you are an aeroplane pilot who has just had a near collision in mid-air. Write down details in your flight logbook of what happened and why.
Opinion: The Arts give people enjoyment and entertainment, but the Sciences help to give us safer, more comfortable, more convenient, and better lives. Therefore, the Sciences are more important than the Arts.
Do you agree or disagree with this view? Why or why not?
Think
General Knowledge Quiz #16
See if you know the answers to these questions. If you don’t, find out from an encyclopaedia.
Science
- What is the difference between a dyke and a sill?
- What is a tectonic plate?
English
- Correct the mistake in this sentence and explain the fault: It looks like it’s going to rain.
- Correct the mistakes in this sentence: Its a real nice affect when a rainbow spreads it’s colours across the sky.
Art
- Which famous Dutch graphic artist specialised in drawing optical illusions?
Finished? Click to check your answers.
Science
- A dyke is an igneous intrusion that cuts across rock layers, whereas a sill is an igneous intrusion that runs between two different rock layers.
- An area of land which floats around on a slowly moving current of magma.
English
- It looks as though it’s going to rain. “Like” mustn’t be used as a conjunction. It is a preposition.
- It’s a really nice effect when a rainbow spreads its colours across the sky. [Note that “colours” is the correct spelling in British and Australian English; in American English, it should be “colors”.]
Art
- M. C. Escher
Play
Photo Relay
Age Range: All age groups
Materials: Photos of the local area, taken by a Leader and mounted onto poster paper, with a number next to each photo for identification.
1 sheet of paper per team, with photo identification numbers down the left hand side for the answers, plus 1 pencil per team.
Directions: Stand the players in their teams, in relay lines, with an answer sheet and pencil.
Stick the photos on the wall at the other end of the hall.
On “Go”, the players take it in turns to run down and look at one photo that they can identify. They must also remember the number of the photo, so that when they run back, they can record the photo number and its identity.
When this is done, the next players in each team run down to the photos to do the same.
The first team home and seated, with the most answers correct, are the winners.
Write
Design: Design a ‘Car of the Future’, draw it and label its parts. Then write a paragraph about its special features.
Poster: Design a poster for a country fair that is coming to your town soon.
Think
General Knowledge Quiz #15
See if you know the answers to these questions. If you don’t, find out from an encyclopaedia or atlas.
Geography
- What is the name of the little country between France and Spain?
- What do Sicily, Corsica, Crete, Malta, the Balearic Islands and Sardinia all have in common?
- Name the rivers which run through these cities: London, Paris, Vienna, Bonn.
History
- Who was Guy Fawkes?
- Which English king was beheaded by his people?
Maths
- Without using a calculator, what is the volume of a cylinder with a radius of 2 feet and a height of two yards?
- How much is infinity minus ten?
- How much is the speed of light plus one thousand kilometres per second?
Finished? Click to check your answers.
Geography
- Andorra
- All islands in the Mediterranean Sea
- The Thames, The Seine, The Danube, The Rhine
History
- A member of a Catholic gang who tried to blow up the English Parliament and kill King James 1 in 1605.
- Charles 1
Maths
- 75.36 cubic feet
- Infinity
- The speed of light (~300,000 km./sec.)
Play
Clever Clogs
Teach the older children the grammatical concepts of mood, voice, noun, adjectival and adverbial phrases and clauses, plus simple, compound and complex sentences.
Once they are confident with these structures, give them each a sheet of paper and tell them that when you call out one of the concepts, they should construct their own example of such a sentence.
For example:
- Active Voice: I went to the park.
- Subjunctive Mood: I wish I were able to fly.
- Noun Phrase: Playing sport keeps you fit.
- Complex Sentence: I went to sleep because I was so tired.
- Adjectival Clause: Mr. Brown, who turned one hundred yesterday, is very kind.
Write
Comparison: Compare a Crocodile with an Alligator.
Advertisement: Write an advertisement for a “Magic, Flying Carpet”.
Think
General Knowledge Quiz #14
See if you know the answers to these questions. If you don’t, find out from an encyclopaedia.
Science
- What is the difference between stratus and cumulus clouds?
- What is lichen?
English
- What is a sonnet?
- What is an ode?
- What is an elegy?
Music
- What is a concerto?
- Name the four members of the Beatles.
Finished? Click to check your answers.
Science
- Stratus is a layer of cloud covering a large area, whereas cumulus is the white, “fluffy” variety.
- A combination of a fungus and an alga, living symbiotically (helping each other to live).
English
- A poem with fourteen regular lines.
- A poem dedicated to, or in praise of, a person or thing.
- A poem that mourns the loss death of a person.
Music
- A musical composition, usually in three movements, for one or more principal solo instruments and orchestra.
- Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey).