Y4 Yorkshire, East Midlands and the North East
Welcome to the 2018-19 Reading Gladiators challenges. Let the reading begin!
There are schools in this group:
- Just Imagine
- Thorpepark Academy
- Academy 360
- St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, Derby
- Griffydam Primary School
- St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Buxton
- Park Grove Primary Academy
- Tockwith Primary Academy
- Brotherton and Byram Primary Academy
- Sproatley Endowed CE Academy
- Edenthorpe Hall Academy
- Overdale CP School
- Montrose Primary School
- Glenbrook Primary School
Updates
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Using puppets to retell the story
Our Gladiators created this amazing scene in order to reenact the Song from Somewhere Else. Can you spot all of the characters? The children have left the scene in our corridor so that the rest of the school can play with it too..it has inspired our children to ask so many questions about the story!
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Blogging about our new book
The Reading Gladiators have been using a blogging app to generate discussion about ‘The Song from Somewhere Else’. We hope it will encourage their classmates to find out about the book too!
Comments
30th Apr 2019, 11:19am
What a brilliant way to spread the word. We'd love to see your blog posts!6th May 2019, 6:09pm
Sounds great, Griffydam Gladiators. -
Creating our Aurora Borealis Pictures
Our Gladiators spent time looking at the wonder of the Aurora Borealis this week and how it is represented in SkySong. We thought that they looked mysterious and magical.
Comments
22nd Mar 2019, 11:24am These look stunning. Isn't it amazing how writers can paint pictures with words! -
Submission by Glenbrook Primary School
Glenbrook’s Lost Magic Mini Challenge
We have enjoyed spending this half term reading Brain Mose's Lost Magic.
The children have loved reading a poetry book because it allows them to dip in and out of the reading with ease. Moving away from what we are so use to. Reading a book from start to finish. The book was filled with poems that have brought us laughter, knowledge and a love of poetry.
Role play and visualisation have been two of the creative ways we have explored the poems in depth as a group.
For our mini challenge we wanted to use the element of drawing to help bring our favorite poems to life.
The poems we have chosen represents us as a school and we think helps to make sure our anthology has content that speaks to all types of readers.We look forward to the next book and the next mini challenge!!
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Submission by Griffydam Primary School
A Trip Down Memory Lane for the Griffydam Gladiators
The Reading Gladiators wanted their anthology to reflect their journey into Brian Moses' poetry. They've included the poems that really meant something to them and those that they were able to share with their friends across the school- including the Reception class children.
Comments
12th Feb 2019, 11:53am
What a lovely way to present your anthology Griffydam. Such a valuable exercise: to consolidate and reflect. Thank you. -
Munching with my Cauliflower
Our Gladiators loved ‘Walking with My Iguana’ and so created our own version…using our favourite vegetable!! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed creating and performing it together!
Comments
26th Jan 2019, 1:08am Ha Ha. You brightened a cold and grey January afternoon. Thank you for bringing some sunshine to the Reading Gladiators office. -
Submission by St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Buxton
Darkness
Here is our representation of darkness. We blacked out the room and thought about how darkness makes us feel and react. We listened to the noise of a mine and imagined how the boys father felt each day in the mine.
Comments
11th Jan 2019, 10:08am Brilliant that you replicated the experience of darkness for the children and they came up with some super words - I particularly like 'disorientated'. -
Submission by Griffydam Primary School
Dark
Our Gladiators decided to focus on words that reminded them of the dark. Some words related to feeling that dark was a bit scary (did you spot the ghost down on the left hand side), while others related to the darkness of space.
Comments
11th Jan 2019, 10:01am A variety of dark-related vocabulary on display here! Hopefully you'll see some of these super words popping up in Gladiators' writing in the future. -
Submission by Montrose Primary School
Wed Wabbit poem by Montrose Primary
This is the Montrose Gladiators poem about Wed Wabbit!
Comments
14th Dec 2018, 3:59pm Thank you Montrose. We love the way you have used the different Wimbley colours to present your verse. -
Submission by Griffydam Primary School
Wed Wabbit Story Map
This is our Reading Gladiators' story map and retelling of the Wed Wabbit Story. They decided to present their story as a map, with the poem flowing from place to place. We hope you enjoy it!
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It goes like this….
Our Gladiators used the patterned language within ‘Town is by the Sea’ to accompany storyboards of a day in their life. If you look carefully, you might see that one or two have even added in their Reading Gladiators session!
Comments
6th Dec 2018, 5:14pm How clever! and I love that Reading Gladiators slots into their daily routine. -
completing our challenge
We had lots of laughs thinking of rhymes for our mini challenge submission. We have loved this book which made us laugh (a lot!) and cry! It has made us want to try more books by Lissa and we have been recommending it to everyone!
Comments
6th Dec 2018, 6:20am It's great how a book can make you laugh and cry isn't it? Enjoy exploring more of Lissa's work. We love Small Change For Stuart and think you will too.6th Dec 2018, 7:18am I second that recommendation and if you like it (which I'm sure you will) there is a sequel aptly entitled 'Big Change for Stuart'!10th Dec 2018, 8:41amBrilliant - thanks for the recommendation - we will look forward to trying those! -
Our ‘darkness’ inspired pictures
We sat in a very dark classroom and listened to the mining sounds. Many of us have grandparents who worked in the local mines so guessed that the sounds were deep within the mineshaft. Our pictures are dark and we found different textures, as we would have to use our sense of touch to find our way.
Comments
9th Dec 2018, 5:28pm What atmospheric images, you have certainly captured the mood of the book. It's interesting to hear about yur grandparents stories. we wondered if you would ike to record some of their stories and include them in our podcast?14th Dec 2018, 4:12pm I am delighted this story has connected your gladiators with the real life experiences of their relatives. -
Charades
Great fun tonight playing Wimbley charades and thinking of new words to describe the different coloured Wimbleys! We are loving this book and very excited to read on to the end now! Can you guess which colour this one is?
Comments
27th Nov 2018, 3:15pm Mmm. Definitely not Yellow or Grey. I don't think it's Purple or Pink. I'm going for BLUE for the strong arms? -
Story Mapping Wed Wabbit
Our Gladiators designed a story map to help them with their challenge. They were able to remember so many details from the story, all of which help them to understand the characters a little better.
Comments
21st Nov 2018, 4:18pm Hello Griffydam Gladiators. Understanding characters is key to any story, after all there would be no story without the characters. So it's great to hear that storymapping is helping you to get a clearer understanding. And it's lovely to see you working so well together too. -
Angelic Wed Wabbit
Comments
17th Nov 2018, 9:58pm Cute and totally angelic! -
Wed Wabbit’s shadow
We compared the images of Wed Wabbit on the front cover then pretended to be both the angelic looking Wed Wabbit and the scary shadow!
Comments
17th Nov 2018, 9:56pm Very scary! -
Angelino Brown
We were a bit late to the party but we have just finished Angelino Brown and thoroughly enjoyed thinking deeply about characters and change – some great discussion! Ready to start out next book so we can have a go at the mini challenge next time!
Comments
9th Nov 2018, 5:51pm Hello Montrose Gladiators! We are delighted to see you here. It certainly looks as though there is some intense reading going on and a lively discussion as well. We look forward to hear what you think about Wed Wabbit. In the meantime, a big wave from the Reading Gladiators team. -
Summoning Angelino…
Our Park Grove Reading Gladiators recreated the scene where the children are trying to locate Angelino, can you guess who is who?
Comments
6th Nov 2018, 10:50amHello Park Grove ... I think I can spot Jack Fox in his football shirt, Alice Obi reading the experiment from her book and Nancy! Am I right? -
Submission by St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Buxton
The true sign of intelligence is no knowledge but imagination- Albert Einstein
This is our imagination tree. I simply said to he children just imagine- think about your dreams, your future, imaginary animals and people...
This is what they produced- all the leaves on the tree are mere fragments of their imagination which will continue to grow and change as they do.Comments
6th Nov 2018, 11:55am Just Imagine comment: You have picked one of our favourite quotations and you have even used our name in your picture. We thought the tree was a really good strong image on which to display your ideas. This is a good example of how individual works of art can be brought together to create one installation. -
Submission by Edenthorpe Hall Academy
Aspirations, Happiness and Torment
Our Reading Gladiators at Edenthorpe Hall have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. Please find our finished artwork attached. Mrs Oldfield.
Comments
6th Nov 2018, 1:38pm Just Imagine comment: Hello Edenthorpe Hall. Thank you for sharing your artwork. We like the bold design, separated into three clear areas, which are unified by your colour palette. A question for you to think about: how would it affect your emotions if you started with torment on the left and ended up with aspiration on the right? Do you think it would change the overall emotion or would it be the same? -
Freeze frame
We created a freeze frame from the part of the story where Angelino meets Basher Malone. Can you guess who each person represents?
Comments
16th Oct 2018, 3:57pm Is that Nancy and Jack I can spot getting rightly cross with Basher as he attempts to intimidate Angelino, while K hides under the chair - showing his true colours? -
Angels?
We thought about what angels may look like and designed our own!
Comments
12th Oct 2018, 10:17pm Thank you for sharing our Angel wih us. Do you think Angelino Brown is a typical angel? We look forward to hearing what you think. -
Introducing Angelino Brown
We had fun getting comfy on our cushions and getting to know Angelino Brown! We made lots of predictions about what may happen to him!
Comments
12th Oct 2018, 10:16pm Hello St Anne's. You do look engrossed in your comfy reading corner. we look forward to hearing what you think about your new books this year. -
Imagination Trees
We thought about what might be in our imagination, after reading the scene in the art classroom. We used trees, as we liked the thought of our imagination growing. Each tree has a story, can you tell what it is?
Comments
1st Oct 2018, 4:17pm These are gorgeous! Did you know Just Imagine has a tree for its logo - another Imagination Tree. I wonder if any of the other schools will be able to work out the stories?10th Oct 2018, 5:44pmThese are great. What a lovely idea! -
Let the challenge begin!
Hello to all Year 4 Reading Gladiators in Yorkshire, East Midlands and the North-east. We are looking forward to hearing what you think about this year’s books. Be sure to post an update and tell us how you are getting on.
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