Teacher Lab: teaching resources

A downloadable teaching resource with creative activities to support pupils’ understanding of the primary science curriculum, accompanied by how-to films. Includes exercises for all primary year groups including Early Years Foundation Stage.

Photo by Mark Senior

Photo by Mark Senior

On this page you'll find a teaching resource, activities and short films designed to support teachers to find creative ways to help pupils understand the primary science curriculum, with a focus on push and pull forces.  

The activities, which were devised as part of our Teacher Lab project, have been created to meet the ability and learning needs of each primary year group, working alongside the National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

An Introduction to Teacher Lab

Our Teacher Lab project promotes creative practice in the classroom by supporting cross-curricular teacher and artist exchanges, giving teachers direct access to artists in order to re-imagine the curriculum and develop a bank of practical tools for learning through the arts.  

Greenleaf Primary School were the first to take part in our Teacher Lab pilot project in 2019/20. After consultation with Greenleaf to identify a relevant need in the curriculum, the school was matched with actor and mathematician Victoria Gould. Victoria worked with Year 2 teacher Christina Paul to find creative ways to help pupils understand the current science curriculum, creating and co-designing activities and training across two weeks; one at the school, and one at the Barbican.

Through the artist and teacher exchanges a ‘tool-box’ was created, consisting of a teaching resource which gives an overview of the creative exercises, a series of how-to films, and CPD sessions with teachers at Greenleaf Primary School.

Exercises and films from the ‘tool-box’ can be found on this page and are divided according to year group. For Early Years, activities include exploring the effects of push and pull using pieces of string, whilst the Year 6 activities find creative ways to identify the function of forces within the cardiovascular system.

Photo: Mark Senior

Photo: Mark Senior

Teacher Resource

The short films on this page are designed to be used alongside the exercises in the teacher resource.

Reception

The videos below demonstrate the activities on page 7 of the teacher resource (Reception: Communication and Language).

Year 1

The videos below demonstrate the activities on page 8 of the teacher resource (Year 1: Animals including Humans).

Year 2

The videos below demonstrate the activities on page 9 of the teacher resource (Year 2: Everyday Materials).

Year 3

The videos below demonstrate the activities on page 10 of the teacher resource (Year 3: Forces and Magnets).

Year 4

The video below demonstrates the activities on page 11 of the teacher resource (Year 4: Electricity).

Year 5

The videos below demonstrate the activities on pages 13-14 of the teacher resource (Year 5: Properties of Materials).

Year 6

The video below demonstrates the activities on page 15 of the teacher resource (Year 6: Animals including Humans).

Acknowledgements

  • Lead Teacher – Christina Paul, Greenleaf Primary School
  • Lead Artist – Victoria Gould
  • Learning Resource – Design and Illustration by Aleesha Nandhra
  • Films – Whalebone Films
  • With thanks to – Greenleaf Primary School, Emma Clark, Franca Haesler, Jack Clearwater, Kieron Rennie, Malachi Lewis-Paul, Marcus Bazley, Simon Lyshon

About Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning

Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning is a creative alliance pioneering new models for cultural learning across the art forms. Our mission is Creative Skills for Life and every year we deliver more than 40 programmes and events alongside 150 partners to over 22,000 participants.