Circus English • Pictures - Show the children a picture of a circus scene on the IWB and get them to discuss what they can see. Get them to think about what they might hear and what they might smell too. If you can, get a sound clip from the circus and get them to imagine they are actually at the circus. They could also pretend they are peering through the fence of a circus and describe what they can see and hear. • Posters - Design a poster to advertise the circus coming to town or to advertise one of the circus acts. • Non-fiction writing - Show the children a PowerPoint on clowns and the different types of clowns. In talk partners get them to discuss the differences they can see. Get them to write a non- fiction book based on clowns. They can design the front cover, write a blurb for the back cover, use the internet to find clown pictures and write simple sentences informing the reader about clowns. • Instructions - Get the children to come up with a new act for the circus and have them write instructions on how to perform the act. They can use this writing frame to write out their instructions. • Circus acts - Look at other circus acts within the circus, this word mat might help children, but also introduce them to new acts. In addition to the instructions for the circus act, get them to draw the new act, label it and write simple sentences to describe it. • Fiction writing - Write a story based in a circus where one of the animals escapes! Use this planning sheet to help the children structure their ideas. They could also design a poster to warn people an animal has escaped with the help of these two writing frames. • Positional language - Use these circus based posters to teach the children about how to use positional language. Science • Forces - Look at different circus performers and discuss what movements they do. Find a video to show the class of circus performers and show them examples of pushes and pulls. Get the children to sort different circus acts into pushes and pulls and try and explain how to speed up or slow down the process. Look at a tightrope walker and investigate whether or not the pole they hold needs the same weight at each end of the pole to balance. Look at balanced forces. This can easily be done with wooden sticks balanced on a wall and putting unequal and equal weights on the ends of the sticks. Or it could be done by putting weights on a see-saw and getting it to balance. Jugglers use balls in the circus so conduct this investigation on different surfaces and look at the effect it has on how far the ball rolls. Then get them to write it up with the help of this worksheet. Get some inspiration or share your Circus activity ideas here! Page 1 of 2