Burn 2 Learn

At Westwood, we aim to consistently provide a culture of creativity and inspiration for our children. We are always looking for different strategies to raise children's attainment and attitudes as well as their physical health and emotional well being. That's why this year all our staff are adopting BURN2LEARN as a way to enthuse, excite and engage children in the classroom! This physically active learning approach is delivered across all subjects and strives to get the children off their seats, not only as a way to raise attainment but improve children's health, communication and leadership skills. Children can often be seen running outside and through the school completing cross - curricular orienteering activities, throwing and catching balls in the classroom to improve their times table knowledge or even taking part in figurative language relays!

During each BURN2LEARN lesson or activity, children aspire to meet certain outcomes which helps them to evaluate their own learning and contribution to the task. They are displayed in every classroom ensuring consistency throughout the school. These outcomes are:

I have the ability to give it a go
I have the ability to listen to and respect others
I have the ability to motivate others
I have the ability to give praise to others
I have the ability to work as part of a team
I have the ability to be a BURN2LEARN leader
I have the ability to win and lose gracefully
I have the ability to challenge myself
I have the ability to follow instructions
I have the ability to stay focused

Here are a few of the Burn 2 Learns we have used in 5/6W so far:

Sentence Scramble

Man on the Moon Matchup

As part of our adventure, A Journey Through The Decades, we had to learn many facts about the Moon Landing. To help with this, we took part in a Burn2Learn where the children had to hunt out 17 facts hidden around the room and match them to the correct question. While one person from each group - sent by the Burn2Learn leader - hunted out the fact, the rest had to be doing exercises or matching the questions to the answers.

Italian Investigation

The first part of our new adventure, Pompeii Palaver, involved finding out all about the country of Italy. Rather than just find the facts in a book, we had to hunt around school - inside and out - to find envelopes containing the facts and match them to the subheading when we got them back to class.

Tectonic Terminology

Before writing an explanation about earthquakes, we had to learn some of the terminology so, using a burn 2 learn, we created a glossary by matching the terms to their meanings. During this task though, we were interrupted by the song we are learning this half term - Pompeii by Bastille - at which point we had to stop matching and start moving around the classroom.

Pompeii Patrol

Before writing a setting description of Pompeii for our adventure, we took part in a gallery walk around the classroom: first adding an expanded noun phrase to each picture then reading other children's ideas.

Word Catagory Warmup

In preparation for SATs, we have been revising hard! When recapping everything we have covered in SPAG, we used a Burn2Learn to revise Word categories. When the music played we have to do exercises: jogging on the spot, sit-ups, press-ups and even squats. When the music stopped though, we had to match the word types to their meanings.

Synonym and Antonym Search

In SPAG, we have started learning about synonyms, words that are similar in meaning, and antonyms, words that have the opposite meaning.

For this Burn2Learn, every member of the class was given a slip of paper with a word on it and had to move around the classroom in order to find the person with the matching word: first the antonym then the synonym.

Rock Around The Clock

In Maths, we have started to learn about Time. As part of the lesson, our task was to match a clock face with labels showing what time was 'Five to', 'Ten to', 'Twenty Past' etc. However, whenever the Countdown music began to play we had to stop what we were doing and do star jumps until the music subsided.

Physical Fizz Buzz

As a Burn 2 Learn, we took the classic classroom game Fizz Buzz and made it Physical. On this occasion, we used our 3 and 4 times tables with a different action for each times table.

Jigsaw Jig

In our adventure, A whole New World, we have just arrived in Australia. Australia, we discovered, is made up of several different states. As part of a Burn 2 Learn, we had to assemble Australia like a jigsaw from the separate states, however whenever the music played, we had to stop the task and do the conga around the classroom!

Definition Dash

In Reading, we read an extract about the Great Wall of China but it contained several words we were unsure of the meaning of. Each group was given a list of the words but the definitions were on the other side of the room. Taking it in turns, we had to race across the room, find a definition and bring it back to our table.

Once back to the table, we had to match the word to its definition.

Favela Gallery Walk

As part of our adventure, Rio vs the Rainforest, we met a young Brazilian boy called Ricardo who wanted to show us his home. Before he did though we had to take part in a gallery walk to look at the six clues he had given us.

At each clue, we had to write what we thought it was and what it might mean on a postit and stick it beside the picture. After visiting each clue, we had to work out which part of Rio we thought Ricardo lived in.

Hyphen Hunt

As part of our SPAG lesson, while learning about hyphens, we went on a hunt around school for 12 hidden envelopes which held half of a hyphenated word. Once we had collected all 12, we had to bring them back to class and match them up with the correct ending.To make it harder, some of the beginning words matched with more than one end word...

Sing and Sort

In our adventure, A Whole New World, we are visiting a well known mountain range. To help us remember the facts about the Himalayas, we used a Burn 2 Learn. Each group was given a jumbled up fact and had so sort the words back into the correct order. The task was made more challenging by having to stop whenever the music played and sing along to the song we have been learning this half term: A Whole New World from Aladdin.

Buddhism Burn

When we landed in Nepal as part of our adventure, A Whole New World, we began with a Burn 2 Learn to help us learn about Buddhism. The story of the Buddha was cut into sections and hidden around school near a picture of one of the Buddhist temples. We had to find the snippet of story and organize back into the right order - all in under 5 minutes!

Helping Barnaby

When Barnaby Miles and his hot air balloon crashed onto the school playground as part of our adventure, A Whole New World, many of his most precious possessions were scattered around the school. In order to help the documentary maker, we had to find the items and use them to guess at his job.

March and Match

Marching, moving and dancing around our tables, whenever the music stopped we had to try to match up some tricky vocabulary with their definitions but we had to be quick. We didn't have long before the music started up again and we had to be back moving!

Scavenging for Rations

This Burn2Learn was part of our adventure, A Wartime Tale, Using cryptic picture clues, we had to search school for anagrams of items that were rationed during World War 2 and, upon finding them, unscramble them to find the answers.

FDP Orienteering

Using clues, we had to find a number of fraction, decimal and percentage questions hidden around school. Once we had found the questions we had to answer them to earn points (5, 10 or 15) depending on how hard the question was and how hard they were to find. To make it even more of a challenge we only had 10 minutes!

Preposition Hunt

A scavenger hunt around the school and the grounds to find the appropriate prepositions indicating where things were in relation to each other.

Musical Punctuation

Similar to musical chairs, each group had to correctly punctuate a paragraph but whenever the Mayan music from our adventure, Mysterious Mayan Mission, played they had to stop what they were doing and do star jumps, squats, sit-ups or even press-ups until the music finished.

Spelling Tennis

Working in pairs, the children had to use their spelling knowledge to 'hit' letters back and forth to spell out words.

Language Relay

Working in groups, the children had to match up figurative language (such as similies, metaphors and personification) with an explanation and an example but only one person from each team could get up to go and find the appropriate piece of paper.

Language Throw

As we passed a beanbag to each other, we had to give an example of a piece of language. We played using verbs, adverbs and adjectives.

Org-ercise

We also use Burn 2 Learns in reading lessons. This time we had a text which had been cut up and we had to work out what order the paragraphs came in but whenever the music started we had to stop and exercise!