The objective of this unit is to improve pupils' observational skills and promote enhanced recall through structuring their memory strategies.

It uses the same format as Kim's game, but it is a more challenging observational activity. Pupils are presented with colourful pictures of trogs. They have to differentiate trogs by the colour of head, eyes, horns, body, arms, legs and tail in different combinations.

This unit, together with the units 'Listen and remember' and 'Kim's game', is designed to help learners to begin to develop a number of skills that will become the building blocks for a wider, more sophisticated set of strategies for retaining information. At this level, the skills are largely mechanical, but the ability to recall facts and figures can sometimes require precisely this ability. While some types of learning require thought, analysis and discussion, other activities like learning dates and events, tables and so on require a more mechanical type of recall. There are more activities on remembering at different age levels in this series.

This unit presents pupils with a 'whodunnit' style game involving the colourful and cheeky trogs, who have been involved in various mischievous activities. Pupils have to remember various features of particular trogs, and then identify them from an identity parade where they are pictured along with a large number of other innocent trogs. A number of different scenarios are given, with a large number of culprits each time. Children who are having difficulty can backtrack to get another look at the culprits in each case, but they should still be encouraged to carry the descriptions of the trogs in their heads rather than writing them down, as they click forward again to the identity parade screens.

This activity lends itself to whole-class teaching as well as individual work. If you are working with the whole class, use prompts to draw attention to the important distinguishing features of the trog. What the trogs are up to is funny and distracting, but remind pupils that they have to concentrate to remember the culprits and be able to give an accurate description. If they are successful, ask them how they remembered. Drawing attention to how they did something can help them to use the strategy more deliberately and effectively in a different context.

Extension:

• Show the class a picture of a person, a building or place. Show and then hide the picture. Now ask the pupils what they remembered from the picture. See how much is remembered. Prompt them to recall specific features: What colour shoes was he wearing? Was it a tall building or a small one?
• Show a short video. Ask them to recall some details, the order in which things happened, an action taken by one of the characters, where someone went.