#7 The World Cup should be celebrated in the classroom.

It's June 1990. I am emerging from the newsagent with my pack of World Cup '90 stickers. The sun is beating down on this glorious June morning as I walk the short distance to school. I open the pack carefully. Could this be the one? Toto Schillaci. Got. Tomas Skuhravy. Got. Baggio. Got. Matthaus. Got. Tony Dorigo. Got. But there's one left, and it's a foil sticker...a shiny. It's Cameroon! A need! One need, five swaps, another 20 pence spent. Another pack tomorrow...

The Panini World Cup sticker album fills many people of my age with nostalgia, so much so that their target audience is probably men in their mid-thirties as well as children. Not that teachers are too happy about it. One school has banned the stickers after fights broke out in the playground. Not me. We have our class copy of the World Cup sticker album, and the entire class are buying stickers and exchanging swaps. We hope to fill the album...but we still need the Cameroon shiny.

Italia '90 was the World Cup I fell in love with. It was Gazza and his tears that did it for me. He showed that it was OK for a grown man to cry on the sports field. In that moment that Gazza became aware of what he's lost, a nation had a new footballing hero. I often wonder how strange it must seem to others, that a hero was made as a result of tears. We played football after school every day for that entire month.

Mexico '86 is also in my memory. The grainy pictures on TV. David Coleman's commentary. The hand of God. Maradona...best footballer in the world? Or a villain who should never have been allowed on a football pitch?

We've been looking at heroes and villains from the World Cup as part our Guided Reading. Pele...Bobby Moore...Joe Gaetjens (the American who scored against England in 1950). The children enjoyed deciding who were the good and bad guys, and for players like Maradona and Zidane, there was a great deal of debate. We've also been looking at the chances of the major nations in the World Cup with the reading resource. It's helped to get the whole class enthused about the month of football ahead!

To see my World Cup Guided Reading resources, click here.

But it's in maths where I may have created a monster. My fantasy football game is taking the school by storm! Children have to pick five England players with a budget of £40 million, and see how they score in the World Cup. As well as testing mental arithmetic, we will use the scores as part our data handling topic.

So the World Cup can be used successfully and justifiably in the classroom. And as for wet playtimes, there's always penny football. If you want the rules for that one, you'll have to message me...

Check out the resources mentioned above on my store. 

Enjoy!