Volcanoes
Not an activity devised for the now not so current volcanic eruption in Iceland,
but something from our paper archive devised by Susan Hart in 1981 when at
Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich. Susan has kept her collaborative principles and
is now researcher and author of the Learning Without Limits project at the
University of Cambridge:
http://learningwithoutlimits.educ.cam.ac.uk/
We have only tweaked it slightly at this stage, but we also have a lot of extra
material produced after the Mount St Helens eruption to add to this if there is
demand. It satisfies the principles of collaborative work: builds on prior knowledge
and gets children working together with a common purpose. Please send us more
up to date versions of science talk and newpaper reporter speak!
Notes: children work in pairs, but if they can cross check with other pairs this
works well. The cards are printed in two sets but you need to print them in the
same colour and mix them up before giving them out. The cloze activity takes
out every seventh word which is a much better conversation producer than cloze
where all the nouns are removed.
Webaddress:
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf
Last update 27th June 2012
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING PROJECT
Project Director: Stuart Scott
We support a network of teaching professionals to develop and disseminate accessible talk-for-learning activities in all subject areas and for all ages.
17, Barford Street, Islington, London N1 0QB UK Phone: 0044 (0)20 7226 8885
Website: http://www.collaborativelearning.org
BRIEF SUMMARY OF BASIC PRINCIPLES BEHIND OUR TEACHING ACTIVITIES:
The project is a teacher network, and a non-profit making educational trust. Our main aim is to develop and disseminate classroom tested examples of effective group strategies that promote talk
across all phases and subjects. We hope they will inspire you to develop and use similar strategies in other topics and curriculum areas. We want to encourage you to change them and adapt them
to your classroom and students. We run teacher workshops, swapshops and conferences throughout the European Union. The project posts online many activities in all subject areas. An online
newsletter is also updated regularly.
*These activities are influenced by current thinking about the role of language in learning. They are designed to help children learn through talk and active learning in small groups. They work
best in non selective classes where children in need of language or learning support are integrated. They are well suited for the development of oracy. They provide teachers opportunities for
assessment of talk.
*They support differentiation by placing a high value on what children can offer to each other on a particular topic, and also give children the chance to respect each other’s views and formulate
shared opinions which they can disseminate to peers. By helping them to take ideas and abstract concepts, discuss, paraphrase and move them about physically, they help to develop thinking skills.
*They give children the opportunity to participate in their own words and language in their own time without pressure. Many activities can be tried out in pupils’ first languages and afterwards in
English. A growing number of activities are available in more than one language, not translated, but mixed, so that you may need more than one language to complete the activity.
*They encourage study skills in context, and should therefore be used with a range of appropriate information books which are preferably within reach in the classroom.
*They are generally adaptable over a wide age range because children can bring their own knowledge to an activity and refer to books at an appropriate level. The activities work like catalysts.
*All project activities were planned and developed by teachers working together, and the main reason they are disseminated is to encourage teachers to work more effectively with each other
inside and outside the classroom. They have made it possible for mainstream and language and learning support teachers to share an equal role in curriculum delivery. They should be adapted to
local conditions. In order to help us keep pace with curriculum changes, please send any new or revised activities back to the project, so that we can add them to our lists of materials.
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf
Volcanoes
What do you already know about volcanoes? Discuss the questions and write down
brief answers.
What would you see/hear during a volcanic
eruption?
How is it different from an earthquake?
What causes earthquakes and volcanoes?
Anything else you know about volcanoes?
Read your set of cards carefully and divide them
into two piles:
What a scientist
might say when
talking about a
volcano
What an eyewitness
or newspaper
reporter might say
about a volcano
Draw a picture of a volcano based on what you have
read on the cards.
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf
Volcanoes - eye witness cards
There was a deafening roar
like a giant explosion. A
cloud of steam rose up from
the top of the volcano.
People were suffocated. They
could not breathe because
of the tremendous heat and
poisonous gases.
The sky grew pitch black.
Then suddenly it was a blaze
of fire. It was like a massive
firework display.
Houses and building toppled
and fell. Others were
buried in the burning rock
and ashes.
Crowds of people, screaming
and crying, surged through
the streets in panic trying to
escape.
A sheaf of flame, like a
hurricane of fire, poured
down the mountainside.
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf
The sea boiled and sent up
clouds of steam. Huge waves
battered the shore, rising
higher and higher.
Cinders and ashes rained on
down on nearby villages.
Volcanoes - scientist cards
The inside of the earth is
very hot. The hot rock is
called magma.
All the land on the surface
of the earth was once joined
together. Heat from inside
the earth cracked it into
huge pieces. These pieces,
called continents, began to
drift.
Volcanoes usually happen in
the places where the
continents have cracked.
These cracks are called
faults.
There is evidence that
without volcanoes the earth’s
crust would become arid and
infertile.
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf
Eventually a crack opens up
and a volcano erupts. Hot
rock and hot gases spurt
through the vent.
The molten rock is called lava.
It is so hot it sets fire to
trees and bushes instantly.
Great heat and pressure
build up in the rock under
the earth’s moving crust.
There are 485 active
volcanoes in the world.
Volcanoes of the World
Do this work in pairs. You each need a copy of an atlas.
- one person finds a map of all the countries of the world.
- the other person finds map show volcanoes in the world.
Tick whether volcanoes are likely to happen in these countries
Country
Yes No
Country
United States of America
United Kingdom
Mexico
Italy
Colombia
Greece
Peru
Russian Federation
Chile
Turkey
Brazil
China
Argentina
India
Morocco
Japan
South Africa
Sweden
Egypt
Australia
Yes
No
Write here the names of other countries where volcanoes might
happen:
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf
Our Amazing World
Write out the passage. Think of words that make sense to go in
each of the blank ? spaces. Compare your version with others.
The greatest volcanic eruption in
recent
?
was at Krakatoa in
1883, where
?
entire island blew
itself up. The
?
of the explosion
was heard four
?
later, 4,775
kilometres away. Rock was
?
50
kilometres in the air, and ?
great
cloud of dust circled the
?
for
three years
http://www.collaborativelearning.org/volcanoes.pdf