clothing - Teaching On Ice

K: Keeping warm

Here's a primary enrichment activity from John Senior.

As winter approaches and the clocks are changed it is time to find scarves, gloves, hats and warm socks and all the other clothing associated with difficult weather. Specialist clothing for use in very cold areas such as the Arctic and Antarctica or when deep water sailing are often light to wear, water- and wind-proof, brightly coloured and made of strong material. 

Some questions for your pupils to consider and discuss

When designing clothing for explorers to wear we have to consider all the basic things. When designing clothing for everyday use we consider other things as well such as colours, ease of cleaning and care.

How would you make clothing more interesting and useful?

Look at the table below to see some suggestions and when you have had some time to think complete the blank table with your ideas.

 

Going further

It would be such fun to make a sample of one of the designs and see what other children thought about the ideas involved. An exhibition of all the ideas would be a great fashion show.

Click here to try a related game on the BBC website

National Curriculum KS1: Design and Technology.

Breadth of study: During the key stage, pupils should be taught knowledge, skills and understanding through: investigating and evaluating a range of familiar products [for example, talking about how they work, and whether they do what they are supposed to do]; focused practical tasks that develop a range of techniques, skills, processes and knowledge; design and make assignments using a range of materials, including food, items that can be put together to make products, and textiles.

Learning and Teaching Scotland: Curriculum for excellence

There should be opportunities for children to develop their full capacity for different types of thinking and learning. As they progress, they should develop and apply increasing intellectual rigour, drawing different strands of learning together, and exploring and achieving more advanced levels of understanding.

International Baccalaureate

Primary Years Programme. How the world works.

H: Hypothermia

Early in their training, Phil and the team learnt about hypothermia and how to keep themselves warm in Antarctic conditions. Unfortunately their first attempt at practising survival didn't go too well, as Phil wrote:

"Considering I died on Monday I’m not feeling too bad. The cause of my death was hypothermia – a slow way to go, but relatively painless. My brain slowly cooled causing me to become passive and disorientated. Finally I drifted into unconsciousness and death.

But although the method of my death wasn’t too bad, the reason for my death was really annoying. We (my team and I) forgot our stoves, which meant we couldn’t melt snow, which meant we couldn’t cook food and, as we’re in Antarctica, that very quickly led to us expiring."

A few months later, and the team were busy trying on their special clothing which will play an important part in preventing hypothermia. Phil wrote an activity for secondary students using clothing sort cards.

Keeping with the temperature theme, primary pupils will enjoy these numeracy games: thermometer and hot cup of tea.

We finally have our kit, but rather than tell you how it will keep me warm, see if your KS 3 or 4 students can work it out for you!

1. Print the attached clothing layers sort cards and make some copies

2. They will need to do a bit of research to be able to match the items with the correct descriptions

3. Here are the answers.