ICT Unit 1b - To communicate ideas by selecting and adding text
Linked to the Framework for teaching mathematics: Year 1

Integrated Task

Prepare a screen containing images of 2D or 3D shapes, and a word bank with words the children would need to describe those shapes.

Show representations of the shapes, perhaps using an interactive whiteboard or data projector. Discuss the properties of the shapes and ask the children to describe them. Draw attention to the key vocabulary featured in the word bank, eg rectangle, square, faces, corners.

Ask the children to produce a description of the shapes using the word bank, together with some words they have typed in using the keyboard, eg This is a rectangle. It has four side s. The 2D or 3D shapes could also be imported into the word banks, so that the children could select the images as well as the text to communicate their ideas.

The children could print their work, with support if necessary.

ICT Unit 2D - To develop and record sequences of instructions to control a floor turtle, and to predict test results
Linked to the Framework for teaching mathematics: Year 2

Integrated Task

Base this activity on any text the children have read which has a number of related locations, eg Katie Morag and the Two Grandmother s. Help the children to draw a large floor map (in this case, to map out Struay). Mark on the map the places mentioned in the story, and their physical and human features.

Explain to the children that they will use the techniques learnt in this unit to program the robot or turtle to visit parts of the island. The robot could become a character, eg Katie Mora g, who has post to deliver.

The children work in groups to test and amend, where necessary, a sequence of instructions which will guide the turtle to different parts of the island to deliver the post. They should use a common recording method, eg ‘F’, a red arro w, for ‘forwards’, and include the turtle units. Remind the children that a right angle is a measure of a quarter turn and that they need to use half and quarter turns. Refer to quarter turns as right-angled turns in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.

Encourage the children to talk about their sequences as a group, to predict results, and to modify the sequence of instructions as it develops. When they have completed the task, they could describe their methods to the whole class and compare their route with others, explaining why they chose a particular route and how they made their final decisions.

Learning Outcomes

• develop and record sequences of instructions for moving along a route in straight lines and round right-angled corners.

ICT Unit 2E -

• To prepare data for a database
• to use the search tool on a simple database to find out the answers to specific questions
• to present findings
  Linked to the Framework for teaching mathematics: Year 2

Integrated Task

Gather together a collection of mathematical shapes in different sizes and colours. Show them to the children, asking them to choose a shape and to think of two or three attributes to go with it, eg it has six faces, can roll, is re d.

Ask one of the children to put all the shapes in a bag, take one out and then hide it. The other children have to ask questions in order to elicit enough information to deduce what the shape is. Demonstrate a range of questions that require yes/no answers or answers that are numbers or colours, for example.

Having prepared a data file in advance, help the children enter a small amount of data about the shapes into a limited range of fields.

Prepare a list of questions that require the children to use the search tool on the database to answer specific questions, eg What colour is the triangle? How many sides does it have? Include a question for which no data is available. The children could work in pairs to retrieve the appropriate record. Encourage them to recognise that the same questions can be asked about all the shapes in the data file.

Ask the children to demonstrate to the whole class, using an interactive whiteboard or data projector, how they used the search tool to find the answer to the question.

Learning Outcomes

• collect information for a database
• use the search tool to find the answers to simple questions
• understand that questions cannot be answered if the relevant data has not been entered into the database

ICT Unit 4B To use the skills and techniques they have learnt to organise and communicate ideas to elect suitable information and prepare it for processing, using ICT
Linked to religious education unit 3B ‘How and why do Hindus celebrate Divali?’

Integrated Task

Show the children designs of colourful geometric rangoli patterns. Use both simple and detailed designs, and discuss how they make us feel. Explain the purpose of rangoli patterns and their use within the festival of Divali. Encourage the children to recognize reflective symmetry in the shapes. Point out that the patterns usually have two axes of symmetry. Tell the children they are going to make a rangoli pattern using different media.

Ask the children to apply the key skills and various techniques they have learnt in the unit to create rangoli patterns with two axes of symmetry. They could also incorporate scanned images of rangoli to make composite images. They should review work in progress and amend the designs, saving draft versions.

Print out some examples of draft and final patterns and compare them. Ask the children to talk about the changes they made to their work in progress. Compare all the patterns made using different media. Which effects were easier to produce with ICT? Which were harder to produce?

Learning Outcomes

ICT Unit 4C To use a branching database to organise, reorganise and analyse
Linked to the Framework for teaching mathematics: Year 4

Integrated Task

Demonstrate how to create a branching database. For example, make a poster showing the branching structure, so that children can see how the computer version is constructed.

Explain to the children that they are going to work in pairs to produce a branching database to identify six different 2D shapes. Remind them of the need to construct yes/no questions, and discuss the sort of questions that might be asked, eg Is it regular? Are all its angles right angles? Has it got more than three vertices? Discuss why a question such as ‘How many sides does it have?’ would not work. The discussion could be a whole-class teaching activity, using a data projector to show the shapes as children talk.

The children work in pairs to create a branching database that identifies each shape. Ask each group to test the others’ databases.

This activity could be repeated with 3D shapes, or with both types of shape in the same database, to increase the level of difficulty.