A festival of light
BUILD Humanities · Autumn 1 · Week 8 · 40 minutes
Today at a Glance
◆ Supported
Point to the lights. Say one thing they might be for. An adult can read the card to you.
▲ Standard
Write a prediction. Then check the card and say what changed.
★ Stretch
Write a prediction, check it, and say why light matters most at a dark time of year.
Teacher Print Tools — Week 8
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Arrival Task – What we know about light
In winter it gets dark early. In summer it stays light late.
People use light to see. People also use light to show something.
A candle on a cake is not there to help you see. It is there to mark a day.
Lots of festivals in the world use light at the darkest time of year.
A festival happens at the same time each year. That is part of what makes it one.
You do not have to be part of a festival to learn what its lights are for.
Arrival decision: Pick a picture card from the table. You do not have to say why you picked it. You can change your mind later.
On your table there are six picture cards. Each one shows lights at a festival. Small oil lamps in a row. Candles in a window. Lanterns on a string. A fire in a field. Everyone in this room can work with these cards from start to end.
Look at one card now. Where are the lights? Point to them. That is all you need to do to begin.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Starter: A guess and a checked guess
Here are two answers about the same picture of small lamps.
Answer A: “The lamps are there so people can see.”
Answer B: “The lamps are there so people can see. I checked the card. It says they mark light winning over dark.”
Answer B is stronger than Answer A, and not because it is longer. Answer A is a guess. Answer B is a guess that has been checked.
The need for this lesson is the checking. A guess is a good place to start. It only becomes an answer once you have looked.
Try it in your head: look at the lantern card. What do you think the lanterns are for? Hold that thought. Do not look at the card underneath yet.
A prediction you got wrong is still useful. It tells you exactly what to look for when you check.
Nobody in this room loses anything by predicting wrong. Writing it down before you look is the brave part.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: Predict, then check
The picture has three steps. First you predict, in writing, before you look. Then you check by turning the source card over. Then you say what changed.
The last step is the one people skip. Without it, a check is just reading. With it, you know what you learned.
You do not have to be wrong for the third box to be worth writing. Nothing changed is a real answer too.
Watch me do it: I look at the row of small lamps. I predict: they are for seeing in the dark. I write it down. Now I turn the card. The card says the lamps mark light winning over dark. I say what changed: I thought they were for seeing, and they are really for marking.
Now watch one where nothing changes: the candles in the window. I predict they show that somebody is home and welcome. I turn the card. The card says the same. So I write: nothing changed, and now I know why.
Both of those are finished pieces of work. One changed. One did not. Both went through all three boxes.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Predict what the lights are for. Then check.
Card 1: lanterns on a string above a street. What are they for?
Card 2: a fire lit in a field at night. What is it for?
Card 3: a row of small oil lamps by a door. What are they for?
Predict first: write your prediction and hold it. Nobody turns a source card yet. Everyone commits at the same time, and then we hold up the predictions together before you check.
Evidence check
We will have different predictions for the same card. Good. When you check, you are not looking for who was right. You are looking for what the card actually says.
After the check, one person from each table says what changed. If nothing changed for them, they say that instead. Both count as a full answer.
Changing your mind after you read the card is the whole point. Cross out and write the new one underneath, so we can see both.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: Why light matters at that time of year
The picture has two circles. The left one is the dark time of year. The right one is what people do about it.
The arrow in the middle is the reason. When the nights come early, a light is worth more. So people gather and mark it.
That is why so many festivals of light land in the same part of the year. It is not a coincidence. It is the dark.
Saying the reason together: the nights are long, so a light stands out, so people put lights up and come together. Three steps, one sentence.
Your record will end with that reason in your own words.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Predict the reason, then check the card
◆ Supported
Point to the circle that shows why. An adult can read the reason.
▲ Standard
Predict the reason, then check the last source card.
★ Stretch
Predict the reason and say what a festival gives people that a lamp on its own does not.
We predict one reason together first. Nobody turns the last card yet. Everyone writes a reason on a whiteboard, then we hold up the boards at the same time.
The card for this one is the winter one. Your job is the reason. Why put lights up when it is already dark?
When we hold up, we will keep every reason that mentions the dark or the people. Reasons about the lamp itself we move to one side. They are not wrong, but they are about the object.
Then we turn the last card and check the whole reason together.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Independent Work — Your record: predict, check, say
Make one record. Use the picture cards and the source cards. You never have to write about your own home.
◆ Supported
One card. Say your prediction, then check it. An adult may scribe both, and the words stay yours.
▲ Standard
Two cards. For each one write the prediction, what the card said, and what changed.
★ Stretch
Two cards, plus one sentence saying why light matters at a dark time of year.
Check yourself: did you write your prediction before you turned the card?
Check yourself: did you write what the card actually said, not what you hoped?
Check yourself: did you say what changed, even if nothing did?
Check yourself: is your reason about the dark and the people, not about the lamp?
Finished early? Take one card. Write what you would ask the people in the picture if you could. A good question is evidence too.
If you are stuck on the third box, read your prediction and the card one after the other, out loud. The difference between them is what changed.
Nobody will ask you which festivals you know from home. The cards are a full answer.
Your record is done when every prediction has a check next to it. Read one out loud to yourself.
⏸ Pens down — quick partner check!
Half way through: stop, swap with a partner, and check one thing on the list above together. Then carry on.
WAGOLL — what a good one looks like
Here is a finished one: lanterns on a string. I predicted they were for a party. The card said they guide people to where everybody meets. What changed: they are for finding the place, not just for looking nice.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Lundy Loop — Your Voice in This Lesson
🚪 SPACE
Space means you get room to join in.
SPACE stays available.
📣 VOICE
Voice means you get to say it.
VOICE is received.
👥 AUDIENCE
Audience means someone really listens.
AUDIENCE names back exactly.
⭐ INFLUENCE
Influence means something changes because of what you said.
INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Exit Ticket — Audience receives; influence changes something
Read one prediction and check to a partner or an adult. The listener says back what changed, in their own words.
Did the listener miss what changed? Then change one word in yours. That change is your influence. It belongs to you, not to them.
Did the listener get it first time? Write that down too. A record that already works is worth noting.
That is the last of these eight weeks. Keep your record; it goes in your folder with the others.
Nothing goes outside this room unless you say so. You decide if your work goes on the wall.
✅ Complete
Hand in your record and tick the learner confirmation on your sheet. That is the lesson done.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.