Y4 Bristol and Somerset
Updates
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The Boy the Bird and the Coffin Maker
Following our art creations, each member of Year Four Reading Gladiators invented the next adventure for Tito and Alberto. Elen Caldecott taught us when inventing stories, to begin at the end, so our children decided whether it would be happy, tragic or a cliffhanger. Then they made story boards to continue the story from the moment Alberto and Tito set sail. Everyone’s ideas were different: some kept the atmosphere similar, some magpies from other known stories and some changed the mood to humour. Some told their stories and some worked in groups to act them out. Such an engaging few sessions and so much effort put in. We made videos of our storytelling.
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Ira and Zach’s Memory Scrapbook
This photo collage represents a few pages from our Scrap Book. We loved getting creative, using all sorts of collage materials, making secret letters, hiding messages within the pages and using real natural materials and even train tickets to create our Memory Scrap Book. We have also created a slide show to show all our pages. This will be blogged or emailed. We loved this book and felt great empathy for the characters.
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Memory Book
Our Y4 Gladiators have enjoyed making their memory book pages.
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Wansdyke’s Map
Cherries class enjoyed this book, especially the French and phonics links!
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Submission by St Teresa’s Catholic Primary, Bristol
Yr 4 COMING TO ENGLAND St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, Bristol
This is the Powerpoint presentation our Year 4 Gladiators have produced after reading 'Coming to England' by Floella Benjamin.
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Goldfish Boy – our questions
Ater reading The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson, we wrote these questions to put to the author
1.If the book was longer, would Old Nina find her son?
2. Will you make Goldfish Boy number 2?
3. Are you going to do more mystery books or try a different genre?
4. Will you make a goldfish boy series, or maybe a series about something else?
5. Who inspired you to be an author?
6. What makes a good mystery book?
7. What inspired you to write the goldfish boy?
8. Do you get ideas from other famous authors?
9. Are all your stories going to be in real life settings?
10. Do you think your stories will always have a ‘real’ issue like OCD, ADHD, ASD etc?Reading Gladiators from Cherries class at Wansdyke Primary
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Submission by St Teresa’s Catholic Primary, Bristol
The Wild Swans Challenge (St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School)
The Gladiators selected the key events in the story which they felt would be good to act out. We chose some simple costumes and props to help us represent different parts of the story and went outside on the school grounds to photograph the scenes. It was a cold, cloudy, windy day which helped to set the scene!
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Submission by Filton Avenue Primary School
What happens next? The Boy, The Bird and The Coffin Maker storytelling
Following our art creations, each member of Year Four Reading Gladiators invented the next adventure for Tito and Alberto. Elen Caldecott taught us when inventing stories, to begin at the end, so our children decided whether it would be happy, tragic or a cliffhanger. Then they made story boards to continue the story from the moment Alberto and Tito set sail. Everyone's ideas were different: some kept the atmosphere similar, some magpies from other known stories and some changed the mood to humour. Some told their stories and some worked in groups to act them out. Such an engaging few sessions and so much effort put in. Our videos of the story telling are on Dropbox. We hope you enjoy them. I was impressed with the language and phrases that the children invented. It proves that they are outstanding readers with a passion for narrative!
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Bristol’s Challenge Day artwork
What outstanding presentations today. All our schools should be so proud as every presentation was exceptional and the ideas were all presented in such creative ways. All our children showed such respect for each other too. Just brilliant!
Comments
22nd Jun 2018, 12:54am
Sara gave us a wonderful report about your day. We are so impressed with everything that you have done. Congratulations to all the Bristol schools. -
Designing a new cover…
Following an amazing Challenge Day, our Reading Gladiators designed a new cover and blurb for the book of their choice.
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22nd Jun 2018, 12:52am Hi Filton Avenue - I heard that you were absolutely awesome at the challenge day. Well done to all of you and thank you for sharing these wonderful book jackets.26th Jun 2018, 10:42am
You have been a joy Filton Avenue Gladiators! We have been so impressed with your consistent enthusiasm and wonderful work on the books this year. Give yourselves a cheer! -
Coming to the end!
St.Teresa’s Gladiators look contemplative as they reflect on the wonderful books we have shared this year and begin to prepare for their final challenge.
Good luck to all the Year 4 Gladiators!Comments
15th Jun 2018, 12:39am Hi St Teresa's You have been amazing Gladiators! I wonder which books you have enjoyed the most. Good luck with the final challenge! -
Camp stops play!
Cherries went on camp last week and my reading gladiators were gutted when they realised it meant we missed the Boy and the Coffin Maker submission, as this was a story we loved!
Daisy didn’t let 3 days away stop her reading though.
We all enjoyed reflecting on the magical element of the last book and we thought maybe you could only see the Island if you believed in it, a little like some of the other stories where this happened (Christmasaurus -Tom Fletcher and One Christmas Wish -Katherine Rundell).
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23rd May 2018, 1:39pm
Please email it to us still or post it as an update as we'd love to see it! You certainly had glorious weather for your camp. Isn't it lovely to be able to read outside? It's great to see you making connections with other books too. Well done. -
The boy, the bird and the coffin maker.
We used the inside cover images to discuss who the characters might be, where they have been and where they are going. Also, what they are searching for. We then imitated the images in our own artwork. We are finishing the story now and Megan’s comment was, “But that’s not the end… I need to know what happens next!” So we will be inventing our own storyboards to tell Alberto and Tito’s next adventure.
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21st Apr 2018, 7:30am Hello Filton Avenue. We are always impressed by your artwork. What a creative group you are! Please do post storyboards when have done them becuase we would like to know what happens to Alberto and Tito next as well.23rd Apr 2018, 9:58am Stunning! I think Megan speaks for all of us. It is story that really draws you in isn't it and we just don't want to leave Allora. Looking forward to reading your storyboards. -
Busy making memories!
St. Teresa’s Year 4 Gladiators are enjoying getting creative with the ‘Little Bits of Sky’ challenge.
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23rd Apr 2018, 1:24pm Those lovely smiles say it all! -
Questions for Floella…
Great home learning from Macy this week. Can’t wait to find out the answers.
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1st Mar 2018, 6:45pmWhat great questions! I'd love to know the answer to question 3. -
Coming to England ourselves!
In our Reading Gladiator group, we all have families to came to England. So our home challenge this week was to find out what it was like for them, compared to Floella Benjamin’s experience back in 1960. Macy recorded her discussion in her Reading Journal. She also thought of some questions to tweet Floella Benjamin. (apologies that photo is upside down!)
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Letter from…
Without giving away the story, in one part, Ira discovers a letter. She replies and hides the letter to be found by someone else. Our Gladiators decided to write their own letters ‘to whom it may concern’ and have hidden them in secret locations. One girl was happy to share her letter. We thought other schools might like this idea too.
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8th Feb 2018, 1:40pm What an excellent idea. I am sure others will pick this idea up. Now you've given us something to think about as well.22nd Feb 2018, 11:08amLove this idea! I will do something similar with my group here in Essex, thanks for the inspiration22nd Feb 2018, 11:59am Brilliant!28th Feb 2018, 5:12pmWe loved this idea too! Our Reading Gladiators suggested making it look old and crumpled by tea staining it.6th Mar 2018, 3:49pmThanks Ali - we often age our writing with tea! However, in this case, Summer was determined it look new as she was writing for now. We did all put our letters in envelopes and hide them though, so maybe in twenty years, they'll b discovered by another pupil at the school and by then, they really will be old! -
Memory Book Challenge
Yes I am one of those teachers who got the book order muddled so we have just finished ‘Little Bits of Sky’. The group absolutely loved collaborating on making a Memory Book as if Ira or Zach. They used lots of collage art ideas as they felt it was a very special book and deserved special effects! We look forward to submitting the finished book for the next mini challenge.
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8th Feb 2018, 1:41pm Hello Filton Avenue Gladiators. It looks as though there is some interesting collaboration going on here. We look forward to seeing the finished result. Well done everyone! -
Year 4 Reading Gladiators from St.Teresa’s
We were very lucky to spend an afternoon with David John, who came from Trinidad to be a professional rugby player. He told us all about his life in Trinidad and his move to England.
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26th Jan 2018, 7:25pm That's Amazing! You should send a tweet to Floella Benjamin, I am sure she will be interested to know where your enquiry has led you. Thank you for sharing.7th Feb 2018, 7:14pmWow this is amazing. What a brilliant opportunity. -
Mistake?
We’ve loved the description so much in this book. We were a bit shocked when Wansdyke’s beady-eyed Hayah spotted a grammatical error on page 35. Did anyone else pick it up? !
Comments
16th Jan 2018, 10:17pm First of all, well done Hayah. We think you have spotted the noun phrase 'tropical scented water'. It is conventional when two adjectives modify a noun to use a hyphen. However, even though we might learn that at school, it isn't a hard and fast rule and sometimes professional writers might choose not to do this because they want to create a particular effect in their writing. For instance, with the noun phrase 'tropical scented water', there are a number of choices. The writer could write tropical-scented water, or perhaps tropical scented-water. I am sure you can work out the different meanings of those two phrases. If you say the phrases aloud and listen carefully as you repeat them, you will probably hear that you emphasise different words when you say them. Now do the same with tropical scented water, and you can hear each word has the same weight or emphasis, and the phrase has a different meaning to the two hyphenated examples. The writer might have deliberately chosen to do that. Here's another example, do you know the group the Black Eyed Peas? They could have called themselves the Black-eyed Peas but have chosen not to hyphenate the adjectives. The Just Imagine team are impressed that you picked this up. And you are right to notice it. Of course the only way we can find out if this was a deliberate artistic choice and not an oversight is to ask the writer. And if you are learning about hyphenating adjectives in noun phrases at school, then it is important to do that while you are learning about the conventions of punctuation.17th Jan 2018, 8:11am There's an excellent children's punctuation book that I think you would like called Twenty-odd ducks by Lynne Truss. When you have read the book, you might like to make your own cartoons for the different examples that you spot!18th Jan 2018, 6:49pm Oh, I think you might have spotted the typographical error 'a instant', which should be 'an instant'. Isn't it fascinating how easy it is to read the correct words, even when they are incorrect? We'd love to know if this was the mistake that you spotted. Are you going to tell us?19th Jan 2018, 10:14pmYes it was the 'a instant' but we love the sound of the book you've recommended. This text has given us plenty to talk about but now we've even more!7th Feb 2018, 7:16pmI spotted 'a instant' too. This is a common writing error in my class so it will be a great teaching tool that we learn from mistakes and hopefully will help us all improve our work. -
Word of Mouse Display
The Year 4 Gladiators at St. Teresa’s stand proudly under their completed display.
Comments
16th Jan 2018, 1:40pm What a wonderfully bright and inviting display! I am sure that other children in your school will be encouraged to read Word of Mouse after seeing your work.16th Jan 2018, 1:54pmAnd so you should be proud!Well done Gladiators. -
Malkin’s journey begins with one paw step…
Two of our RG groups worked in collaboration to create their art showing Malkin Moonlight’s journey. They have loved the book. Now to ‘Hurricane’
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29th Nov 2017, 9:40pm Oh that's fabulous, Filton Avenue. What a brilliant idea to show the journey through paw prints.30th Nov 2017, 1:10pm Genius! What a shame you missed the deadline. Thank you for sharing though. It looks wonderful. -
What we like about Word of Mouse
Watch our video to find out why we liked Word of Mouse.
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19th Nov 2017, 4:06pm Well done Filton Avenue, another great review to encourage everyone to try Word of Mouse20th Nov 2017, 9:36am This is fantastic Filton Avenue. Thank you so much for sharing.25th Jan 2018, 8:20pmLoving this Filton Avenue! You have given St. Teresa's some ideas. Thank you!7th Feb 2018, 7:17pmThanks St Teresa's! We have enjoyed stealing ideas from you too. -
Word of Mouse review
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19th Nov 2017, 8:16am We loved this video review. It is lovely to hear your voices and your thoughts about the book. Thank you! -
Malkin Moonlight
We found our own ways to record thoughts.
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19th Nov 2017, 8:26am What a creative group of Gladiators. These thought records are brilliant! Well done. -
Marking Moonlight
4B are busy reading Malkin Moonlight. We have been discussing similarities and differences between this book and ‘Word of Mouse’ as well as a class text, Varjak Paw. Today we talked about ‘sixth sense’ .
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19th Nov 2017, 8:29am That's a very interesting comparison. Have you talked to other children in your class about Malkin Moonlight? Some of them might like to read it when you have finished.16th Jan 2018, 9:25pmWe have shared our thoughts and 4B have created a 'Reading Gladiator Recommended ' shelf in our reading area to promote the books. Some classmates have even set up their own RG club. I may have to launch another group!18th Jan 2018, 11:16pm Good to hear how the books are being shared. And I love the idea of pupil initiated Reading Gladiator groups.A big wave to everyone in 4B -
Reading Gladiators at St Teresa’s
Year 4 are really enjoying reading ‘Word of Mouse’ and are working hard on their display!
(We can’t turn our photo around!)Comments
17th Oct 2017, 4:13pm I am so glad you are enjoying Word of Mouse and I look forward to seeing your display. -
4B Reading Gladiators hard at work!
This year, our RGs are collecting their thoughts, questions and predictions for the book, in their own reading journals.
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9th Oct 2017, 10:25am Great idea! Do share some of your thoughts with us. What do you think will happen to Isaiah next?15th Nov 2017, 3:04pmWe think that Malkin Moonlight is destined to find another companion and use his skills of kindness and peace to save them. We are concerned about the swan eggs!17th Nov 2017, 12:21pm Ahh good thinking. Don't you worry about the swan eggs - with Malkin around all creatures are safe - well the kind ones anyway! -
Reading Gladiators Filton Avenue 4B
We are really enjoying this first book. Our favourite character is Hailey (and obviously Isaiah!) We simply cannot put the book down.
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9th Oct 2017, 10:23am Hailey is lovely isn't she - a real inspiration for being yourself and being kind to animals too! -
Wansdyke Cherries are off!
We’ve opened our books and learnt some amazing facts about mice. Cannot wait to read past chapter 18!!!!
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26th Sep 2017, 1:13pm You will whizz through those early chapters. Isaiah has quite a turbulent journey at the start of the story - it is too exciting to put down!
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