A school teacher in Bury has been praised after delivering an ‘absolutely brilliant’ maths lesson with a twist during the hot weather.
Simon Hunt, a Year 4 teacher at Tottington Primary School, has gone viral online after sharing a clip of a ‘timetables with a twist’ lesson outside in the Bury school’s playground. The lesson saw pupils of his mixed year 3 and 4 class take on a round of rapid-fire maths questions with those getting the answer right given the chance to splash their teacher with a water balloon.
In the video, the pupils were seen sitting around Mr Hunt as he sat on a chair awaiting his water balloon fate. The teacher said the creative lesson came about as a way of getting the pupils outside in the hot weather whilst still studying.
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“The Year 4 pupils have to do a timetables test check where they have to answer 25 questions, each within six seconds,” Mr Hunt told the M.E.N. “We did the test a couple of weeks ago and you’ve got to find a way to keep that momentum going.
“I had a few spare water balloons left over after having a water fight with my kids over the weekend so I thought why not incorporate it into the lesson.
“We went outside into the playground and I told them they’d have to answer times table questions and whoever got them right was allowed to throw a water balloon at me. Of course, everyone was super excited to get a question right.”
Mr Hunt, who also works as an education consultant delivering CPD sessions, said the lesson was good fun and helped the children focus on their maths.
“It’s just a bit of fun - it was just for a few minutes and then we went back to class and carried on with lessons,” he explained. “I like to call it camouflage learning because they’re learning without really realising it.
“And it was nice to be outside. It was actually warmer in the classroom than it was outside yesterday, so I wanted them to hit me with the water balloons as much as they wanted to because it was absolutely boiling.”
Since sharing the video online, Mr Hunt, who regularly shares lesson ideas on his Facebook page, says he has been amazed by the reaction - with many people around the world commenting on it.
One person said: “Absolutely brilliant! I’m going to let my son do this in the garden with me. He’s 7 and struggles with x tables. I’ll just be slower at getting the answer so he beats me and gets to throw! Fab idea!”
Another said: “What a brilliant teacher, the children will never forget this lesson. Well done for creating memories for your pupils.”
Amongst the comments were also teachers who praised the lesson and said they would be trying it themselves. One teacher posted: "I'm 100% down for this if it makes them want to practise their times tables to participate."
“It’s nice to see so many comments from people saying that their children struggle with maths and they’re going to try it themselves,” Mr Hunt, who has been at the Tottington primary school for six years now, added.
“I’ve had messages from teachers in Australia and America who said they’re going to try it in their lessons. It’s just nice to see that a little thing like this can ping across the world like that.
“I’ve had a few comments from people asking why they were sitting outside in the heat, but it was only for ten minutes and they all had sun cream and a water bottle.
“I like to try and try lots of creative things - in the past, we’ve played times table games where they have to answer the question quicker than Siri. It’s still learning but it twists things a little bit where the kids become more engaged.
“You see how they work really hard for it because they know they can do something a bit differently if they do. I’m lucky to be in a school that allows us to do things differently and we’re lucky we have the opportunities to think outside the box as we can see just how it benefits everyone.”
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