Pupils in P5 at St John’s Primary, South Ayrshire, recently challenged Radio Lingua Schools to support them in a project on the human body. The class had been learning about the parts of the human body including the functions of bones, muscles, organs and the skin, and their class teacher wanted to reinforce their learning with a project which would involve various elements of media.

The first stage was to write a song: using GarageBand loops and a midi keyboard, the children created a rhythm and melody, and started to write the words to the song, working along with Radio Lingua Schools director Mark Pentleton. The pupils then spent a few days creating sponge versions of bodily organs. The class teacher wanted the pupils to understand how the parts of the body fit together, so we came up with an idea which would combine the song with a visual element involving time-lapse photography. The pupils were delighted with the result which exemplifies a real cross-curricular project.

Sing along to the Body Song with the lyrics below:

We’ve been learning about our bodies, all about our skeleton:
Bones and organs, flesh and muscles, let’s all sing our body song.

When you’re walking around or running a race
Your bones help you move all over the place.
You’d be very floppy all of the time
If you didn’t have a strong, straight spine.
Your ankle helps you walk, your wrist helps you write;
Your patella helps you kneel and your jaw helps you bite.
So without your bones you couldn’t do much,
And that’s all you need to know.

Every day of your life you are kept alive:
Without your organs you just couldn’t survive.
It’s complicated, so let us explain:
Your eyes send pictures to your brain.
Your heart pumps your blood, which makes you feel good.
Your intestines help you digest all of your food.
So without your organs you couldn’t do much,
And that’s all you need to know.

If you stretch or you jump, or even dance with your friend,
Your muscles help you move, they help you to bend.
You have 600 muscles in your body machine:
to smile you need to use seventeen.
Last but not least comes your skin,
Protecting everything and keeping everything in!
So your body’s made up of all these things,
And that’s all you need to know.

Earlier this year, the pupils of Castlepark Primary in North Ayrshire spent five week learning Mandarin Chinese through the One Minute Mandarin series from Radio Lingua. They then tested their learning by producing a short animation in a one day workshop with Radio Lingua Schools.

In November 2009, Radio Lingua Schools supported Projet Citoyen, an East Dunbartonshire initiative which aimed to raise awareness about European citizenship. With the help of a grant from the European Parliament, a group of sixth year students spent six days in Strasbourg finding out about the work of the Parliament. Radio Lingua Schools’ role was to support the project both in terms of language input on the visit, and by helping the students to document their experiences through a blog which was maintained throughout the trip to Strasbourg.

A key feature of Projet Citoyen was that the students had to disseminate their learning to other students in their own schools, and on a wider basis. They designed a web-based video quiz aimed at younger learners (11-13 year olds), asking questions about Europe and the European Union. The The quiz was developed in conjunction with the History and Modern Studies departments in their schools, and all students contributed by providing questions. During the visit to Strasbourg, the top ten questions were chosen and three students volunteered to present the quiz, working with Radio Lingua Schools director Mark Pentleton to film the questions in various locations around Strasbourg.

The quiz is now being released on the Projet Citoyen website, and it is hoped that schools throughout the UK and further afield will find it a useful resource to help younger pupils learn about Europe. Take the quiz yourself and let us know what you think of the resource!

This video was part of a pilot project involving children from St Mark’s Primary in Irvine who worked together to produce a news report featuring highlights from one month in school.

The pupils planned their work and wrote scripts using Pages. Pages was also used in full screen mode as an autocue, and all editing was done using iMovie 09.