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What is a Brain Awareness Week? It is a week dedicated to increasing our understanding of the human brain - how it thinks, learns and remembers. The pupils in your Primary School are the first generation of children who will get to write a manual for their brain. They will discover how to use their brains to learn and achieve in the classroom and in their lives. The DCSF increasingly recognise the importance of building learning power and developing emotional intelligence. The Every Child Matters and Children’s Plan agendas aim to ensure that every child gets to see and realise their potential. A Brain Awareness Week gives your school the opportunity for pupils, staff and parents to participate in a range of exciting activities to learn about the amazing human brain. Trevor Hawes and Debbie Belsher from Optimal Learning have put together two brain boxes full of activities for you to use throughout the primary classroom with your children.

What’s in the box? There are two brain boxes, one for 4 to 6 year old children and one 7 to 11 year olds. Each box contains: A wealth of easy to use photo-copiable materials for all ages, put into 5 books, one for each area of learning about the brain. Animated PowerPoint presentations & photographs to support the activities. Materials to run staff twilight and parent training sessions. Two packs of full colour posters to teach children about their brains. A ‘Planning the week’ booklet which provides details of the resources required and information about what needs to be done in school in advance of the week to ensure its success. It may be useful for all members of staff to have a copy of this booklet.

What will the week look like? If your school is choosing to run a full Brain Awareness Week, over the five days you would set aside either 2 to 3 hours - morning or afternoon - or the whole day, for children throughout the school to participate in activities to teach them about their amazing brains and how they work. We suggest a week that has a different theme each day. For example: Monday: Understanding brain cells and mapping out the brain Tuesday: Learning styles and how your brain learns best Wednesday: Multiple intelligences - we are all gifted and talented Thursday: Thinking about thinking and problem solving Friday: A Day to Remember - strategies for memory and recall. It is also suggested that the week culminates in a whole school assembly to celebrate the week today.

Or you may choose to use the materials in other ways… In all areas of the National Curriculum During PSHE sessions In topic work As stand alone tasks To support SEAL areas of study As whole school activities In assemblies As part of the IPC (International Primary curriculum) At the beginning of the new academic year (this is a popular time to run a BAW week).

Day 1 - Understanding brain cells and mapping the brain For 4 to 6 year old children, the sessions today focus on the learning stars in their brains and what they can be doing to HELP their brains to learn. The older children will find out about their brain cells and what actually happens to them when they learn and what they can be doing to get themselves in the right frame of mind for learning.

Day 2 - How your brain learns best Today, the youngest children will explore how they learn with both sides of the brain working together and find out about the importance of learning with all of their senses. The older children will look further into their learning styles and have opportunities to carry out quizzes to find out their hemisphere dominance and which is their preferred sense to learn with.

Day 3 - We are all gifted and talented Today, in Foundation and Key Stage 1 children will discover the parts of their brains that work well for them and that everyone is smart. The Key Stage 2 activities deepen children’s understanding of multiple intelligences. They will find their “hot spots” and be in no doubt that everyone has gifts and talents and that all areas of the brain can be developed with the right opportunities and experiences.

Day 4 - Thinking about thinking and problem solving Activities today for all the children focus on thinking skills. Children will understand that there are many different ways to think and that we do not use all parts of our brains at the same time. They will carry out a range of fun, stimulating thinking tasks through discussion, by using concept maps and through quiet independent thinking.

Day 5 - A day to remember Today’s activities focus on developing memory skills and sharing memory strategies. There are games for the children to play which develop their memory and recall. They will explore how to use a range of memory strategies to enable them to remember facts and information. Two memory games are provided on the CD. It is also suggested that the week culminates in a whole school celebration assembly today to which parents are invited. Use concept maps Use all of your senses Use mnemonics

Additional materials There are PowerPoint presentations and notes provided for you to run: A staff twilight training session on memory and recall strategies. A parent session to explain to parents about the week and how they can help their children to learn, plus marketing material for the event. Plus: 2 sets of full colour posters for the children to support the activities (more may be ordered if required at heavily discounted prices – see the planning booklet for details). Certificates to be awarded at the end of individual days or the week to celebrate achievements (to be copied from a publisher document).

And finally… The emphasis is always to make learning fun for children and teachers, so we hope you enjoy the activities together and have a fantastic Brain Awareness Week! Trevor Hawes and Debbie Belsher