Y2 Essex
There are schools in this group:
- Just Imagine
- Layer de la Haye Primary
- Woodham Walter Primary School
- Stock C of E Primary School
- Saint Andrews C of E Halstead
- Brightside Primary School
- Burnham on Crouch Primary School
- John Ray Infant School
- Kings Ford Infant School
- South Green Infant School
- Westlands Primary School, Chelmsford
- Great Easton Primary School
Updates
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How to Like Snakes
The Reading Gladiators all enjoyed the book and some even changed their opinion about snakes. We have had a very busy few weeks putting on our Christmas play but they did manage to plan and make a poster today. They all could say what they liked about snakes. They found it challenging to all plan and make a poster together but it is a learning curve!!
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5 Maps of Izambard
Greenways Reading Gladiators only just started reading The Secret Railway this week! We decided to create our maps using Page 59 as inspiration which describes Izzambard as it used to be before the Queen was gone. See if you can see our unicorns, golden birds, fairies and flickering fish with crystal-topped wings!
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Submission by Burnham on Crouch Primary School
Our Ossiri musical word pattern
The children were very intrigued by the glossary of traveller words and wanted to use them in our submission. We looked at Richard O'Neill's other book, Yokki and the Parno Gry, which also had a glossary so we had even more to choose from. The children chose a word and an instrument to accompany it. Some children wanted a partner because they felt a bit shy. We had a lot of fun doing this and it made us think about syllables too!
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Kings Ford’s Dragon
At Kings Ford Infants the children designed ice dragons, fire dragons and even a sock dragon. Some of them wrote lovely stories alongside their projects. I am so proud of their efforts and engaged responses to being a reading gladiator.
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Ice Dragon
They made a dragon together in class and used pale blue paint with darker blue and silver scales. The children decided that they wanted to make an ice dragon. They thought that as the King was very selfish he would still want to own an ice dragon. The King thought if he had an ice dragon he would be able to freeze everything in the world and would be able to be rule the world.
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We made rules for characters
Burnham Gladiators really enjoyed discussing rules and boundaries. We talked about rules that keep you safe, and rules that are a bit silly! Chloe didn’t like following rules her sister set because she was bossy! But Archie replied that his family had rules because they loved him and wanted him to be ok.
With this in mind, we looked at all the characters in the book and thought up sensible rules for each of them. Serenading thought the cyclists should wear helmets, and Chloe thought the family should all keep close together. Edward didn’t want the pregnant mummy to drink alcohol. Bradan worried that Igor would fall because his sunglasses were so dark.
We had a great discussion about rules and boundaries.
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Submission by Great Easton Primary School
Reading Gladiators picnic party!
Our final collage is inspired by the last page of Each Peach Pear Plum - all our favourite characters from our Reading Gladiator books have come together for a picnic party to celebrate reading and books. Gladiator Iris had the great idea of putting the children's heads on their favourite characters, so they are in the picture too. The patchwork picnic rug is laid in a flowery meadow in the shade of beautiful trees. Leo and Ella (Gus and Iris) are arriving by train. The General (Victoria) is his usual grumpy self, exclaiming "Who wants to go to a silly Reading Gladiators party anyway?" and the little rabbit says "Me!" The elephant (Billy) is of course tronking happily, with Oliver Drew (Aaron) and Erica (William) nearby. Ossiri (Louisa) has brought her tattin django to play at the party. Alina (Ellie) is looking a little mournful, but if she looks behind her she'll see the moon dragons are flying in to join the party - which will soon cheer her up! We were lucky to have three mummies and a big sister to help us create our collage in a very busy and fun afternoon that was the perfect end to our Reading Gladiators journey.
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Submission by Burnham on Crouch Primary School
The Autumn Dragon
We made an Autumn Dragon in our forest schools area, using leaves, twigs, bark, acorns and stones. We wrote a story together about him coming to school but it is our poem that we want to share with you. We each wrote a line of the poem on a leaf shape. When we scatter the leaves and pick them up, the poem changes. It can be read in any order.
He is crunchy like a crisp.
He is gold like a coin.
He is fast like the wind.
He is sleepy like an old mean dog.
He is scrunchy like leaves.
He is as smooth as an acorn.
He is shiny like a diamond.
He is bumpy like a rock.We think the King would definitely like to own our dragon, because he is so rare, so we are keeping him hidden in the forest!
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Reader’s Theatre
We enjoyed our reader’s theatre activity today. It helped us get to know the characters better. We have chosen another section at the end of chapter three to turn into reader’s theatre too.
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John Ray Gladiators – Snaking about!
The Gladiators are really enjoying the ‘hybrid’ style fiction/non-fiction book…although initial impressions for a few were not very positive after looking at the front picture of a girl in a frock with a bow in her hair! It shows that you can’t always judge the contents of a book by its front cover!
Interestingly, for some the photos of snakes induced quite strong emotions of “Urghhhhh” accompanied by an appropriate shudder, whereas a couple were so logical “because it is a photo and not real”.
We had great fun working in pairs and trying to slither like a snake whilst the other partner instructed. Those with long hair found this particularly challenging…a good reason why snakes do not have hair!
Comments
22nd Jun 2018, 12:56pm
I wonder if you will like snakes more at the end of the book? -
John Ray Gladiators are back with a vengeance, and also snakes!
John Ray Gladiators are very pleased to have restarted after their SATs interlude. Although somewhat behind in books, we are nonetheless carrying on with the next book ‘I don’t like snakes’.
So far it has received an interesting reaction, tapping into some children’s fears contrasted to others overriding curiosity.
You may have also noticed that we now have a ‘Gladiator Gossip’ corner in our library for anything that our gladiators feel the other children might find interesting.Comments
14th Jun 2018, 12:41pm
We love the Gladiators gossip idea. One to pass on to the other Gladiator schools. -
Our role on the wall work
We really enjoyed thinking about what the General thinks, feels, says and does. The role in the wall activity was great! We also shared our technique with year 1, who used it to discuss Wilbur and Charlotte after seeing a production of Charlotte’s Web.
Comments
24th May 2018, 6:33am A great strategy to use to explore characters Burnham. I think you have captured the General brilliantly. 'Burning with anger' describes his feelings so well. I like to imagine him going home at the end of the day and complaining about what has happened to his long suffering wife! -
Our map of Izzambard
We’ve had a busy term with snow days and science week so we’re a week late finishing The Secret Railway and too late to enter the mini challenge but we had a go anyway just for fun! The gladiators worked really well together to include everything they loved best from the story, and even the Crystal Caves, which they are all eager to read about in the next book in the series. This book has been loved by us all and has prompted some of our best discussions yet, about the mysterious Grizelda (more scary because never seen, only heard), and the moral ambivalence of Barty (he’s clearly a “good guy” but he was very naughty to hide the key).
Comments
29th Mar 2018, 3:26pm
Yes the snow did have an impact so well done for showing some gladiator spirit and carrying on regardless. It sounds like you have had some brilliant discussions and peeled away the layers of some more complex characters. Your map looks super. Well done Great Easton and thank you for sharing. -
John Ray Gladiators – Grey Island Red Boat (finished!)
We have come to the end of reading Grey Island Red Boat, and our gladiators thoroughly enjoyed the story. Each group made predictions as to whether it would end in an either ‘doom and gloom’ scenario or ‘happily ever after’. Surprisingly some REALLY wanted it to be doom and gloom!!
Obviously we won’t be sharing any ‘spoilers’ here, however the gladiators also wrote book reviews of the two books that we have read so far to share them with the school in our school library.
We look forward to starting our new book after Easter.Comments
21st Apr 2018, 7:38am Haha! I like doom and gloom endings too! I wonder if that would feel right for this story? -
Westlands’ Reading Gladiators
Our children are very proud to be Reading Gladiators and like to show off the lovely work that they have produced.
Comments
24th Mar 2018, 1:11pm What a fabulous display. I'm sure you'll have a lot of people looking at this and admiring your wonderful responses to the books. Well done Westlands. -
Prizes!
Our Reading Gladiators were delighted to be runners up for their composed music and win two lovely books which are signed by the author and illustrator. These now have pride of place in our reading area along with the poster.
Comments
24th Mar 2018, 1:10pm A well deserved prize Westlands - happy reading! -
Secret Railway
Children explored what they might find if they jumped through the oak table top.
Comments
14th Mar 2018, 8:29pm How interesting to think of this! It would be easy to see why you might be worried about being surrounded. I wonder if you would become friends? -
Secret Railway
Children explored what they might find if they jumped through the oak table top.
Comments
14th Mar 2018, 8:30pm Wow - I'm intrigued by the 'eerie looking rabbits'! How imaginative. -
Secret Railway
Children explored what they might find if they jumped through the oak table top.
Comments
14th Mar 2018, 8:31pm This reminds me of Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole! I wonder what it would feel like to be a rabbit? -
Enjoying The Secret Railway
When discussing why Ella decided to face her fear of the dark (when she went into the Great Grand Library), one gladiator said “she may like her red hat so much because it actually has special powers which she doesn’t really know about yet”. They loved reading Petunia’s funny words.
Comments
14th Mar 2018, 8:24pm What a clever thought! I wonder what the special powers could be? Petunia does use some interesting words!It's so lovely to see your smiling faces - you look like you are enjoying being Gladiators to me. -
Secret Railway
Children explored what they might find if they jumped through the oak table top.
Comments
14th Mar 2018, 8:33pm Such an imaginative response! I love the idea of going down a slide and ending up in the ocean - what fun! -
The Secret Railway
Here are our initial questions after reading the blurb.
Comments
14th Mar 2018, 11:20am Excellent questions Burnham! How clever of Chloe to make a connection with her book at home. I love Open Very Carefully and you're right about the book talking to you. I hope you enjoy reading The Secret Railway as much as I did. -
Poem Review
A poem review from the book Message from the Moon and other poems
Comments
28th Feb 2018, 9:09am It is unusual to read a poem about when the dragon is still inside the egg and this makes the poem very interesting.28th Feb 2018, 11:27amI love this idea! I might magpie the format if that's ok!14th Mar 2018, 8:20pmGo for it! -
Poem Review
A poem review from the book Message from the Moon and other poems
Comments
28th Feb 2018, 9:10am I'm glad this was fun to listen to. Poems should always be heard I think. -
Poem Review
A poem review from the book Message from the Moon and other poems
Comments
28th Feb 2018, 9:11am I wonder what a snail would think of the zoo? It might be a dangerous place to visit! -
Poem Review
A poem review from the book Message from the Moon and other poems
Comments
28th Feb 2018, 9:05am I loved sharing this poem - it's such fun to read! -
Poem Review
A poem review from the book Message from the Moon and other poems
Comments
28th Feb 2018, 9:06am I loved the layout of this poem too and the way that the story of Hansel and Gretel is told. -
John Ray Gladiators – Island of Ashes update
We all tried our hand at making silhouettes, and as our gladiator’s facilitator I gave myself the same homework, it wasn’t easy! However, let me introduce our Gladiators to you in silhouette!
In this week’s sessions we discussed whether this new fangled gift of “colour” was a curse or a blessing. They concluded that everyone else bar the king saw it as a blessing, though we weren’t too sure about Wendell’s feelings (the gladiators learned the new phrase “on the fence”!). Some of the Tuesday Gladiators felt that because he was king, the King could like or dislike whatever he wanted, that was that, he needn’t be swayed by a petition as it was his job to rule. Interestingly two gladiators compared the King from the Island of Ashes to the King in The Moon Dragons story…neither were painted in a particularly pleasant light.
Comments
27th Feb 2018, 3:03pm Wow! They look amazing. Glad to hear your Gladiators are making links between the characters they have met so far. I wonder what the next King they meet in a story will be like?28th Feb 2018, 12:15pmMy Gladiators were fully behind Wendell in preferring colour. They really enjoyed the intrigue in this book.13th Mar 2018, 2:53pmThe Gladiators loved the suspense building; it crept slowly up on them, so the last two chapters were a real treat! We too preferred colour, and couldn't begin to imagine living in a grey world, something akin to Black and White television, which some of us recall!! -
Creating our own unique instrument
The children at King’s Ford Infants have been designing and thinking of names for their instruments,just like Ossiri’s Tattin Django. Chinese Drumbar, Angel Guitar and a Drumboo!
Comments
29th Jan 2018, 10:43am What a lot of thought you have put into designing your instruments. I wonder what sounds they would make? Would they twang, tinkle, boom or ping? -
We love reading (about snakes!)
Our intrepid gladiators loved this book so much that we spent an extra week on it and wrote a group poem (photo to follow!). We always have a ‘comfy read’ somewhere in our weekly session together so the children wanted to share their joy.
Comments
26th Jan 2018, 9:46am How wonderful to love a book so much. We look forward to reading your poem.28th Feb 2018, 12:11pmMy class enjoyed reading about snakes too. They particularly liked the way the book changed from fiction and non-fiction.
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