Working with Children’s Interests to Motivate Learning

I have written in the past about using children’s interests to motivate their learning. A few years ago D was *really* into the footballer Sergio Aguero, and we made a whole project based around him. D learned about where he was from, where he had played and all manner of information and facts and figures in between. The project was one of the first self-directed pieces of work that D really got into and loved doing. It was something he worked really hard on and I think the project book he made is still up in his bedroom now, a few years on.

H is following in his father’s footsteps of being utterly and totally obsessed with football, but has, somewhat randomly, taken a really interest in Tottenham Hotspur! I think this love for Spurs has been based, initially, on Harry Kane; a player that H of course shares a name with. But it’s now grown into a huge fascination. I am keen to use this fascination to create a project for H to work on whilst his siblings are doing some of their work. Here are ways that I plan to use football as a springboard into a wide range of topic areas.

Maths & English

H has been a bit grumbly with writing in recent weeks but last week he sat and wrote out the league table unprompted! I don’t know why he felt compelled to write out the table but he did! It was also a great way to get some sneaky reading in too as he worked out what the team names were that he was writing out.

For older children, you could get them to have a go at writing a match report for a game they have seen, or perhaps writing the latest sports news for their chosen club? This time of year there is plenty going on with the various cup games and the transfer window.

Maths is an easy one to sneak in as you can add points, count up goals and even practice telling the time with the various kick-off times for games. H enjoys working out what position Spurs might move to if they win a game. although he hasn’t quite got the hang of cup games not giving points! You could also measure the distance the teams are traveling to each game and work out which are their closest or furthest games.

Geography and History

As well as looking at the geography of where your team plays you can also look at the nationalities of the team members. H also loves Son Heung Min so looking at where he is from and the teams he has played for and plotting the different players on a map really helps children to see just how diverse the teams are! World Cups and continental tournaments are great for learning more about the countries that are taking part and it’s also a good way to experiment with cooking and try some different national dishes from a favourite player’s home country.

Why not look at the history of your team, or the history of the game itself. Learning about people like Lily Parr can be a useful comparison to how much the women’s game has changed in recent years.

Science

Finally, the science of football is great –  take a look at how the body works and how footballers fuel their bodies well. Older children could research how things have changed over the last 10-20 years in terms of sport science. You could also look at how football balls and boots have changed and have a go at designing your own kit and boots to aid players.

You could also look at the engineering and designs behind the stadia that we see in the Premier League – There are some astounding stadiums. H has built his own from Lego in the past and made his own Subbuteo-style flick football game to play just before Christmas.