Literacy? Thinking skills? Explorify has got you covered!

We know literacy is one of the main priorities in the primary curriculum, but did you know that Explorify's science activities are open-ended enough to support the core skills needed for oracy and language development?

Each of our activities will get your children thinking, observing, discussing and reasoning in dynamic and exciting sessions, which children love. That’s because all the activities include open-ended discussion and questioning, with children considering the evidence, drawing on existing knowledge and making a hypothesis. This is speaking and listening that children love to do: teachers say even the quietest are joining in confidently. Teachers love them because they start at just 15 minutes and they can be slotted into to all sorts of topics and times of the day.

Here’s what teachers had to say:

Joshua, an SEN teacher: “I think Explorify has been great for developing the children’s scientific awareness and their language skills. As we use it over time they’re becoming much better at answering scientific questions, and even coming up with their own questions.”

Heather: “It’s great for building vocabulary, brilliant for listening and talking, for newcomers struggling with language”

Sarah: “writing down some of the key words or putting them up on the board as other people say actually reinforces the vocabulary that sometimes we want them to learn and acquire and that we want them to understand”

Craig says Explorify is “one of the best things I ever introduced for thinking skills in KS2.”

You can also tweak Explorify sessions to meet your specific needs, as many of the activities push children to observe and describe – the essential base for good writing. All our activities help critical thinking, but we’ve come up with some ways that you can use specific activity types to help nurture literacy skills in your children.

Odd Ones Out are a perfect springboard for vocabulary and observation. Take the literacy element even further by asking the children to write down as many words as they can to describe each image. 
Try it out: Odd One Out Topsy turvy!

Zoom In, Zoom Out activities provide a great opportunity to extend vocabulary. By asking the children to observe and describe each stage of magnification you are helping them to develop their literacy skills.
Try it out: Zoom In, Zoom Out Strange stripes

What If? activities are also brilliant for literacy. Asked What if plants could talk? “one child wondered whether they would have their own language or whether they would pick up language from their surroundings, which would mean forest trees might talk 'bird' and school playground trees might talk like children."
Try it out: What if... Plants could talk? 

Our Big Questions, such as Does colour affect how we taste things? involve the whole class in a discussion – it’s forming a plan for a science investigation, but along the way language skills are being used. Your class will work together together to create a plan of action, which you then can decide to present to the rest of the school.
Try it out: Big Question Does colour affect how we taste things?

Image credit: 

Copyright: Explorify via STEM Learning Ltd.; photographer: Sarah Hall