The Photon Robot – Santa's helpers

These classes are meant to be conducted during the pre-Xmas / holiday break period. Treat this class as a consolidation of knowledge about winter and the festive season.

1. Introduction

Read aloud the letter from Santa to the children. When you take the letter out of the envelope, tell children that you are a little bit worried about the letter's contents, that you are concerned about Christmas this year, etc. Let the children listen to Santa's message carefully and with concern :)

2. Get ready for the task (be serious – after all, you may not get any gifts this year either).

• Let the kids sit around the educational mat.
• Spread the flashcards with riddles across the mat - the image of the Photon Robot face up.
• Place the robot on the field depicting the crash landing site (crashed rocket) – as usual, this is the robot's starting field. Put the tablet next to it (or ask children to pass it around from one to another to control/program the robot).
• When a child gets hold of the tablet, it should choose a field with the riddle card, then program the robot to reach this field. Turn over the card with the riddle. 
• The key concept here (at least in this version) is that every child gets a chance to program the robot, pick up the card, and bring it over to you to read the riddle/question. Everyone should feel part of such a critical rescue mission.
• It is entirely up to you how the children will answer the questions – whether one by one or as a group (I would suggest solving riddles together - some children might not know the answers and cause them distress).
• Once you have answered all the questions, the important thing to do is that you give yourselves a huge round of applause – after all, it is you who have saved Christmas and made Santa's reindeer healthy again!

Class wrap-up activity

• Please hand out worksheets (the DIY Xmas card) to the children at the end of the class. Stimulating creativity and freedom of choice when it comes to this Christmas card preparation with the Photon Robot will soothe the stress related to the important task the children have just completed.
• Children are free to take their cards home to complete/show the card to their parents.

We wish you a successful Christmas rescue mission ;)

Hint!

When printing Christmas riddle-cards with the Photon Robot, use the double-sided print option: on one side, there is an image of the robot; on the other side, there are riddles/questions. On the last page you can find empty cards - use the templete to create your own cards and adapt them to your own lesson scenario.