What happens when we learn? Every time we learn something a brain cell (neuron) connects up to another brain cell 100,000,000,000 brain cells waiting to be used

How do we get information into the brain? Seeing Hearing Doing Tasting Smelling Via our 5 senses

The Learning Brain Neo Cortex - learning engine, thinking area of brain Limbic System (mid-brain) - emotions, memory, self esteem, RAS Reptilian brain - survival and basic instincts The Triune brain

Reptilian brain needs... to feel safe to have its own space to drink water to have breakfast to have sleep to have oxygen to have no worries to get rid of stress/ baggage to be RELAXED

Limbic system needs... to believe in ‘I can’ to use emotions as much as possible in learning to be curious to want to learn to get RAS switched on to find Wiifm to have goals and targets to be ALERT MOTIVATED POSITIVE

The environment can make the children feel RAMPant... music plants in classrooms mobiles, windchimes, spinners lava lamps water features positive messages/images in classrooms rituals, routines, roles and rules special places/people

Children need to know their neo-cortex learns best when... it works in short bursts it understands why the learning is important and relevant to what has gone before it is told how well its doing now it does new and novel things it uses all its senses as much as possible it is curious and challenged

Learning Strategies. For example, GUM Grab it Understand and use it by making it relevant, finding Wiifm Memorise it

The best learners ask the best questions! I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I know) Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who

Children need to know that there are two halves to the brain and that each side has a different function At about KS2, children can find out their preference words, reading language numbers logical, organised plan well like facts safe parts to whole sequencing creative need big picture take risks music, rhyme and rhythm, movement art react through feelings imagine, fantasize role play

Children need to... be aware of their own dominant side know that the best learning takes place when both sides are being used know that brain gym improves connections between both sides and use this for breaks when learning EH am br

Visual, auditory or kinesthetic? If children are made aware of their preferred learning style they will absorb new information more effectively They need to be given strategies to help them learn and remember in a way that suits them Children need to be made aware that there are different learning styles EH senses Children also need to know that if they use all three learning styles, they will remember most effectively

Children need to be aware of the many ways in which they are smart and recognise and celebrate all their gifts and talents there are 10 ways to be smart everyone is on the gifted and talented register everyone is different everyone is equally important, needed and valued we cannot be geniuses at everything we can develop a range of our intelligences given opportunity and encouragement

Children can.. find out about the ways in which they are smart be given time to talk about themselves, eachother and what they do well in create displays on each intelligence be part of a “smart wheel” make a children’s board in their classroom showing themselves doing things they do well celebrate their intelligences through assemblies EH mi

Developing thinking skills at Key Stage 1 Nfer have produced a pack called ‘Let’s Think’ which provides user-friendly activities for developing thinking skills in young children. The pack focuses on the rules and models we use to understand and make sense of the world (what Piaget would call schemata) Seriation, classification, time sequence, spatial perception, causality, rules of a game are all used to promote children’s ability to process information for all their future learning.

The pack lists 5 ‘pillars’ (foundations) around which the activities of the pack revolve. 1. Concrete preparation - Introduction to the activity, explaining language and materials to be used to consolidate previous learning and prepare for the task 2. Cognitive conflict - The setting of challenges where children are encouraged to think more carefully and discover for themselves. Children are asked to draw their own conclusions. Guidance may be given if needed. 3. Social construction - Children explain to others why they think what they think. They listen to and respect eachother’s views.

4. Metacognition - The stage when children are questioned about their thinking, ie think about why/how they did that. They are encouraged to reflect upon their thinking processes. 5. Bridging - How to use the thinking from tasks in other activities and areas. Some suggestions are given in the book *Children can learn a lot if teachers model their thinking processes out loud in a range of activities.

Mindmapping Children can be taught to use mindmapping for organising ideas and aiding memory. They need to ‘begin with the end in mind’ and be clear about what they are trying to learn. They need to understand that the process is a smart way to remember as it uses the whole brain. The more humour they can get into their mindmap, the better they will remember it.

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Long and Short term memory Children need to know that there are two types of memory - short and long term. They can play games to develop their memory skills The key is to get things in to long term memory and be sure they can get them out again

Memory Strategies Children need to be taught and use memory techniques for recall and retention They need to know that there are many different ways to memorise information. mnenomics, mindmapping, memory pegboard, episodic memory, rhyme, chants The key is to do what works for you

What is thinking and how can children develop it? …no one has perfect information and knows everything...we need to think to solve problems, make things and do things...thinking is when we use what we have learned in another situation...we use different types of thinking for different tasks...thinking is a skill and we can improve it

What will promote good thinking? using a thinking wheel clear guidelines from the teacher as to the type of thinking needed for the task making interactive displays open ended questioning and tasks time to think doing the real thing as much as possible knowing that it is great to make mistakes being positive and saying ‘I can do this’ time to daydream, be creative and work from imagination, feelings and hunches MYHMYH

Perception We need children to understand that we can all be looking at the same thing, yet be seeing something very different. If children can appreciate that although we may all be looking at the same thing, we can see very different things, they will have a better understanding of perception. We all wire up our brains in very different ways depending on our environment and children cn be made aware of this. Optical illusions are a useful way to illustrate this.

What do you see in this picture?

Thinking activities For the start of the day etc What if you had eyes on the ends of your thumbs... If the answer is apple, what could the question be... How many uses can you think of for a bucket… Lost consonants