Did you know that there are lots of activities all about national treasure Sir David Attenborough in the Famous People section of Activity Village? Shelly and her kids learn more about him in this guest post.
Learning With David Attenborough
By Shelly
My kids love watching the different David Attenborough series and they recognise his voice. In fact if I put something on that he is narrating and my son is in the other room he will quickly walk in to see what “the animal man” is talking about. And they both found it interesting when they heard him talk about how, when filming the early documentaries, they used to collect animals and bring them back – something which David Attenborough now says should not happen. It is an amazing life lesson when the kids get to hear a role model talk about how even he made mistakes, but then realised his errors and changed.
So I was thrilled when I remembered that David Attenborough is included in the Famous People section of the site.
We started off by reading the David Attenborough factsheet and then the kids had a go at thinking of interview questions for him.
David Attenborough interview questions
When we look at famous people we normally always do the comprehension but this time we decided to leave it and try some “extra pages” instead.
I must admit we don’t often try the interview question pages but I actually think they are an excellent idea as the kids really had to think about what they would ask if they ever came face to face with him.
Son's interview questions for David Attenborough
While he was writing out his questions my son actually said he wishes he had done an interview page before he meet his other role model – Nigel Marvin. My son meet him a few years ago and just ran up to him and hugged him because he did not know what to say. Luckily Nigel Marvin gave him a massive hug back and just started chatting.
After the interview questions the kids opted for different pages. My daughter worked on the timeline page. She suggests that you turn the page around so it is in a portrait view and write your comments like that so they don’t all get mixed up.
Working on a David Attenborough timeline
My son tried the endangered animal word search and the animal alphabet challenge. Both of these pages are not included under the David Attenborough section but you really can include almost any nature themed pages when you are learning about him.
Working on the endangered animal word search
Having a go at the Animal Alphabet Challenge
I like both the word search and the animal alphabet challenge as they help my son practise some spelling words.
There is also a page called I Can Help Wildlife which could be a very nice addition to any David Attenborough topic.
Finally, just because we have not practised our drawing for a while, we thought it would be good to have a go at the Learn to Draw David Attenborough page. It is a slightly more challenging Learn to Draw page but the kids had a good go and ended up with some realistic results.
Learn to draw David Attenborough in progress...
Our completed picture - not bad!
If you do try some of the David Attenborough pages have a good look at the different animal pages on the site – there really are a lot and they can all fit in with a David Attenborough theme.
This is a guest post from Shelly. Shelly is a home educating parent of two children aged 10 and 12. She blogs at ofamily learning together where she shares ideas on the different learning activities that they do including lots of hand-on maths, arts and crafts and anything else that is part of their home educating lifestyle.
You can find more guest posts by Shelly, and a list of all our guest posts, here.
