Times tables on a keyring, the water cycle and the pumpkin, star of autumn

We opened the week by giving each second-grader a times-table keyring, to make learning it easier and mathematics more appealing. The keyring has a well-considered purpose: at this age, multiplication tables are fixed through frequent short encounters, not through long sessions of repetition. A child who has the answer to hand checks it dozens of times a day and, without meaning to, remembers it.

And since autumn has arrived and the rains are not slow in coming, we learned about the water cycle in nature, about how rain forms and about the types of cloud. We ran an experiment too, and the children were delighted. The water cycle is a hard diagram to believe when you only see it drawn — water climbs into the sky by itself? An experiment in which steam rises and then gathers into droplets on a cold surface settles in a minute what an arrow on a chart cannot. And when it rains, colourful wellies must not be missing, ready to take the little ones out to splash in the puddles.

We then learned about the pumpkin, the star of autumn: its parts, what the fruit is used for and what the seeds are used for.

We closed the week with a display of creativity — the children brought shapes to life through their drawings — and we did not miss the chance to turn the pumpkin into a delicious pie, which everybody thoroughly enjoyed.

At PlusKids we build age-appropriate skills through a set of educational projects designed to be interesting and appealing at the same time.

About the after-school programme: https://pluskids.ro/en/after-school