In this free scheme of work, former primary school teacher Emma Weatherburn shares how you can get the most out of now>press>play by embedding the Stone Age Experience across six lessons.
Lesson 1: Introduce the topic
This week you’ll be introducing a new topic to the class — the Stone Age!
Play your class sound and videos which link to the Stone Age. To enhance your pupils’ listening experience, link your device to our transmitter and give your class the now>press>play headphones.
Use our Glossary (available on the now>press>play app) to introduce new vocabulary, split into nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
At the end of the week, build excitement by telling the children that next week they’ll be going to the Stone Age!
Ask them:
- What will it be like?
- How are they feeling?
- Are they excited, nervous, worried etc?
“Imagine you wake up one day and there’s no electricity, no internet, no shops, no school – what would you do?”
Lesson 2: The Experience
Book the hall or use the playground and do the Stone Age Experience.
Straight afterwards, get the conversation going with Recap, Discuss & Quiz. Our critical thinking questions might spark a whole-class debate: “Are there any aspects of Stone Age living which are better than today?”
Lesson 3: Reading Comprehension
Do the Stone Age Reading Comprehension — individually, in groups, or as a whole class on the whiteboard. It’s a super accessible way into a SATs-style paper, even for Years 3 and 4.
Lesson 4: Grammar Practice
Try our Grammar & Punctuation resource, which follows the narrative of the story through SATs-style questions. It’s a story-based, engaging way into this technical part of literacy.
Lesson 5: A Big Write!
For many schools, writing is the culmination of now>press>play, resulting in inspired stories stimulated by their direct experience.
We provide Writing Opportunities with every one of our 100+ Experiences — and it’s easy to tailor them to the genre that you’re studying.
Begin the week by scaffolding plans – either in groups or individually – before finishing with an extended write.
During the write, you can give each child a pair of our pink headphones and play Stone Age sounds through YouTube to help with their focus.
Lesson 6: Record Your Own
Give small groups a short extract from the Script to practise and perform together, promoting speaking and listening. You could also use a mic and recording device to record their performances and listen back afterwards.
If you have a suitable app or software, layer over your own sound or even music, which you can create as a class.
Below are some other schemes of work kindly shared by teachers using now>press>play: