Sprint 1s

This one's from Nigel, hope it's handy.

Five Little Monkeys

water cycle

I have the activity that goes with it, if anybody wants it.

25th February 2014

See calendar

Check out the latest posts as a guide

Happy Valentine's Day to you all

A Thriller?

Alma - A chilling doll story

Alma is a little girl who ventures into town in the snow.

She is drawn to a shop window by a familiar looking doll.

She enters the shop... what will happen when she goes inside?

Teaching Ideas

Let the students listen to the soundtrack of the film, turn off IWB, can they guess what kind of film this is? Thriller etc?  What moods? There is quite a lot of suspense etc.

Students could predict what happens at certain points e.g. What will happen when she goes into the shop?

Students could ask questions at specific points e.g. Why is the town empty? Why does the doll just look like her? Where is the shopkeeper?  What does he do with the dolls?

The students could write a sequel to this film perhaps changing parts of it.

Can the students draw/describe what they think the owner of the shop looks like? Maybe produce a wanted poster.

 Here is some fabulous work create by the Year 6 class at Greenfields Primary School.

http://www.mapleclassgreenfields.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/story-writing.html?m=1

These are tremendous stories with some very sophisticated plots and sentence structures.

What you can do for the next workshop!

Can you find some video clips and create a lesson plan for them?

Have a Laugh!

Teenagers/Adults

Pigeon Impossible

 Secret Agent Walter Beckett has a problem of pigeon sized proportions.

When a pigeon gets trapped inside the spies briefcase all kinds of mayhem ensue.

Teaching Ideas:

 Create comic strips and picture boards from the story,

 Write more missions for Walter which are spoilt by the pigeon,

 Write a news report on events, interviewing key witnesses etc.

 Write a persuasive argument giving an argument for why it was not the pigeon's fault.

 Should we feed the pigeons in the street? Discuss.

Date of Workshop

Due to unforseen circumstances, the workshop has moved to Tuesday 25th February at the same time.

Thanks

Cold Mountains

Teaching Ideas

I would begin by playing the film without sound and stopping it at 53 seconds (before the humans appear)

Develop some rich description using powerful verbs and adjectives. 

Develop this through up levelling the vocabulary before creating similes and metaphors.

Share the poem with the students and allow them to read.

Discuss how the poet create mood and atmosphere through language picking out words such as chill, dreadful, haunting, etc

Discuss with the children 'who is speaking?'  Is it the mountain or is it the 'presence'  that creates the weather.

Create some personification poems based on other natural features such as: Mountains, rivers, deserts, lakes and icebergs.

Using the above as a stimulus for poetry (Thanks to @redgierob and http://www.literacyshed.com for the idea) the students will spend time just thinking about the mountain and complete the following short activities before writing their own poetry imagining themselves as the mountain.

Focus – Poetry/Descriptions  

Watch the opening to the Winter Olympic Games from the BBC (Literacyshed front page).

 During the first 53 seconds students are to write down any nouns they might include in their writing (recap on 4 types of nouns here – proper, abstract, common, collective). Mountains, icicles, snow, wind, rain, mist, clouds,

Now they have done that get the students to add an adjective circle around each noun

Following this get the students to add another layer to their noun – VERBS – action words.

What could the wind, rain, mountains etc be described as doing? This is called personification.

Next – if needed do an adverb circle too. This will add to the word bank that students will have available. An alternative to this would be to do an a-z race and have them up around the room as an aid to the students when they begin their writing.

All of this will then lead into the sentence foci which are shown below. Some are taken from Alan Peats exciting sentences books. Others just seem to be getting invented by the students!

Sentence focus

Simile beginning with a connective.

Despite being rugged, I can shine like the sun.

Although I am dangerous, many still try to climb to my head.

Adverb, noun, verb where

Silently, wind rushes through the deserted land around me.

Lazily, snow drifts around every crevice of my body.

Beginning – End

Dangerous – the frozen landscape that covers my upper body is extremely dangerous.

Incredible – the awe and wonder of this place is incredible to watch every day.

Finally, once all this is done I would expect some awesome personification poetry from the point of view of the mountain.  

Another poem:-

The Place of Dreams

Drifting across me, snow wildly tickles my jagged edges.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, clouds float past me delivering their goods.

Silently, I stand here. Millions of years old. No-one knows me.

Snowboarders, skiers, crazy stuntmen – they all terrorise me.

Wind howls throughout the day,

The sun beams brightly down but I never warm up.

Incredible – the land around me is just incredible!

Although I’m as tall as a skyscraper, I’m no man made monstrosity.

But beware – I am not to be messed with!

Lazily, rain trickles down every crevice I have making its way to the valley below.

I’m soon to be taken over by men, women and children,

because the Winter Olympics are on their way!

A Clip for the Moment

I am the dreadful menace.
The one whose will is done.
The haunting chill upon your neck.
I am the conundrum.

I will summon armies.
Of wind and rain and snow.
I made the black cloud overhead.
The ice, like glass below.

Not you, nor any other.
Can fathom what is nigh.
I will tell you when to jump.
And I’ll dictate how high.

The ones that came before you.
Stood strong and tall and brave.
But I stole their dreams away.
Those dreams could not be saved.

But now you stand before me.
Devoid of all dismay.
Could it be? Just maybe.
I’ll let you have your day.