Special Earthlearningidea Fairytale

To celebrate this holiday season, we have published a special ELI geological fairytale, 'Once upon a time, long, long ago . . . '

This is 'a once a pun a time geological tale' and pupils can groan loudly at every 'joke'. You only need a very strange imagination to write a similar story. Please send them to us to publish.
And the moral of the story? - geologists should not mess with prose.
We apologise to all our translators; we don't think this will work in any other language!

Sensory treasure hunt

Another ELI Early years is published today. This activity is great fun, especially if all the objects chosen have a holiday theme.
'Sensory treasure hunt; using senses to match objects with similar properties' 

This activity has endless potential and can be used in many ways. It is best carried out outside where there is plenty of space but can equally well be enjoyed in the classroom or home. Children can work at their own pace with the faster and more able investigating uses and other properties such as the object’s ability or not to change shape. The words fulfil many literacy requirements and children can try to apply them to other objects.
Lots of other ELI Early years ideas can be found on our website.

Bringing a fossil 'back to life'

An activity that is great fun for the end of term:-
'Running the fossilisation film backwards; bringing a fossil ‘back to life’'

Your pupils will have great fun pretending to be fossils which gradually come back to life. Ask the pupils to imagine a film being taken of an animal as it dies and sinks to the ground before being fossilised. They then ‘run the film backwards', imagining in reverse how the animal actually did sink to the ground and how it lived before that fatal moment.
Perhaps they can take some video clips of their actions; we will publish the best of these so please send them to us!

Pirates and buried treasure - new ELI Early years

New for ELI Early years is 'Pirates and buried treasure; grouping and sorting a variety of objects'.

This activity involves identifying, describing and grouping a selection of objects, including Earth-related objects, into various categories. The activity can fit into any teaching scheme where grouping of objects is required but it can also be included in literacy and numeracy programmes.
This is one of a growing number of Earthlearningideas suitable for young children; all can be seen on our website.