Year 4 2021
Welcome to the 2021 Reading Gladiators™ challenges. Let the reading begin!
There are schools in this group:
- Becket Primary
- Edward Heneage Primary Academy
- St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, Derby
- New Pasture Lane Primary School
- Edenthorpe Hall Academy
- Gleadless Primary School
- Wyndham Primary Academy
- East Hunsbury Primary School
- Medlock Primary School
- Chapel Street Primary School
- Ribble Drive Primary School
- Windy Arbor Primary School
- St Matthew’s C of E Primary, Birmingham
- Henley Green Primary School
- Montgomery Primary
- Percy Shurmer Academy
- Oaklands Primary School
- Kingshurst Primary School
- Alston Primary School
- Muswell Hill Primary School
- Dallow Primary School
- Hallsville Primary School
- Keir Hardie Primary School
- Brampton Primary School – Newham
- Leedon Lower School
- Heathrow Primary School
- Danbury Park Community Primary School
- Snodland CEP
- All Saints’ CEVA Primary School
- Wentworth Primary School
- Stock C of E Primary School
- Arthur Bugler Primary School
- Priory Junior School
- The Albert Pye Community Primary School
- Rodings Primary School
- Bridge Learning Campus
- Wansdyke Primary School
- St Frideswide C E Primary School
- The Willows Primary School
- Iver Village Junior School
- The Priory School – Edgbaston
- The Dolphin School
- Colmers Farm Primary School
- Just Imagine
- Gwenfo CW Primary School
- Sidemoor First School
- Edinburgh Primary School
- St Louis Catholic Academy
- Knockhall Primary School
- Northumberland Heath Primary School
- Willow Bank Primary School
- Peareswood Primary School
- Platt Church of England Primary School
Updates
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Submission by Heathrow Primary School
Heathrow Primary School Gladiators
Heathrow Primary School Gladiators created maps to plot Pip's journey from the Umbrella Shop in London to Normandy, where she meets the Noah's Ark animals. The children recorded pivotal moments along Pip's journey showing how she is shaped into a strong and resilient character through her adventures.
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Submission by Edenthorpe Hall Academy
The Umbrella Mouse map Edenthorpe Hall
Comments
6th Jun 2021, 6:16pm
What a super map! Excellent geographical detail in addition to key places and Pip's feelings at different points throughout her journey. Great work Gladiators! -
Submission by East Hunsbury Primary School
East Hunsbury Primary School Yr4
We loved reading about Pips journey. The children mapped out her quest showing her journey throughout the book, we also talked about her feelings and emotions at each milestone.
Comments
6th Jun 2021, 6:09pm An excellent use of Sam Usher's brilliant illustrations to map Pip's journey. A well put together entry. Well done Gladiators! -
Submission by Iver Village Junior School
Pip: One small mouse, one big journey!
Reading Gladiators from Iver Village Junior School, Buckinghamshire, thoroughly enjoyed plotting the start of Pip’s journey, from The Umbrella Shop until The Hollow in France. We started by finding key locations from the book and paired these with quotes from each chapter. After everyone had selected a location, we got started on planning our map and drawing. You can see how we used the quotes to influence our pictures. This helped up to imagine what Pip was feeling at each point in her journey. We also used the way that Pip travelled from place to place to help us plot the map. We are so happy with the way our map turned out!
Comments
6th Jun 2021, 5:52pm What an epic journey you have portrayed here! Such artistry and some super quotation selections too. Well done. You should indeed be very proud of the eye-catching end results. We hope this display will encourage others to pick up this wonderful war story. -
Submission by Wentworth Primary School
Wentworth’s Map of Pip’s Journey
The children worked in their bubbles to create different parts of the map - England and France.
Comments
6th Jun 2021, 4:57pm Great idea to work on separate sections in their bubbles and then bring it together to make one collaborative piece. The umbrella bobbing along the Thames is a nice addition and the inclusion of the very important code phrase too. We can imagine Pip saying it over and over to remember it on her long journey. Well done! -
Camera, Lights, Action!
Heathrow Primary School Gladiators enjoyed dramatising a scene from ‘The Umbrella Mouse’. The children had to think about using their body language, gestures and expression to bring this scene to life. They had great fun in performing this!
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Week 3: The Umbrella Mouse
The children continued to read about Pip’s quest and in the session, we discussed more about Pip as a character. We wrote adjectives to describe her personality within a circle map and included examples from the story so far around it. We also explored more about the incredible rescue dogs and brave carrier pigeons who served during the Second World War and were later awarded with the Dickin Medal.
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Week 2: The Umbrella Mouse
As part of their weekly challenge, the children looked at different pictures of the actual umbrella shop in London, James Smiths and Sons, along with an online video showing a tour of the place. Using these resources, they had a go at writing descriptions about the shop. One child wrote his description so vividly it was as if he had actually been there himself. During the session, we started to read about the Dickin Medal and its recipients, including GI Joe, who is featured in our book.
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Week 1: The Umbrella Mouse
Before reading their next book, the Year 4 Reading Gladiators created fact files about the Second World War as part of their weekly challenge. This helped the children to understand the setting of their book and the events that took place during this hard, dark time.
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Themes in ‘The Umbrella Mouse’ 2
Comments
24th May 2021, 11:26pm Brilliant comparisons with other texts. You will be theme detectives now...spotting all sorts of connections between the books you read. -
Themes in ‘The Umbrella Mouse’
We also examined major themes from the novel and had philosophical discussions about what they meant. It was brilliant to see the children making text to text links by finding similarities between ‘The Umbrella Mouse’ and ‘The Runaway Robot’, as well as linking their learning to our class text – Macbeth. Have a read of what the themes meant to them.
Comments
24th May 2021, 11:28pm Madame Fourcade and Pip are inspirational characters. It looks like they have taught you a lot about life. -
Who to Trust 4
Comments
24th May 2021, 11:17pm These annotated illustrations show a brilliant understanding of the story so far. I can spot characterisation in the speech bubbles and some excellent observations about trust in a wider context. Well done Gladiators! -
Who to Trust 3
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Who to Trust 2
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Who to trust?
The children encountered a few animals in ‘The Umbrella Mouse’ and had to think about who Pip could trust and why, and what we can learn from her experiences. They did this using a combination of illustrations and dialogue from the text, thinking carefully about where Pip’s trust was misplaced.
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‘The Runaway Robot’ – Week 5
We have finished this wonderful story and thoroughly enjoyed it! Today, we made comparisons between ‘The Iron Man’ & ‘The Runaway Robot’ (which we did very well because we studied Ted Hughes’ book in Year 3). After that, we analysed the illustrations and decoded what impression they give of Alfie & Eric’s relationship. We also played Simon Says, which was a lot of fun! We chose to end our session with a choral read and a little bit of acting – recreating the frantic car journey of Dr Shilling & Alfie. We are really excited to find out what our next book will be after half term.
Comments
20th May 2021, 9:33am It looks like you had a lot of fun with this title and developed your deeper reading skills along the way too! Great work Gladiators...keep it up. -
The Umbrella Mouse
This term, the Year 4 children at Heathrow Primary are reading ‘The Umbrella Mouse’. This spellbinding tale of courage is about a mouse called Pip Hanway, who gets caught in the conflict of WW2. Residing in an umbrella shop, James Smith &Sons, her world is suddenly shattered when a bomb destroys everything that she holds dear. Now, Pip must venture forth bravely in search of a new home. The story explores the harshness of war through the eyes of a mouse, and the beautiful illustrations truly brings the story to life. In keeping with Sam Usher’s style of illustrations, Heathrow Primary Gladiators designed an umbrella to help the Secret Army fight against the Axis Powers. Have a look at the hidden mechanisms in our umbrellas and let us know what you think!
Comments
13th May 2021, 5:23pm Super work Gladiators! What a brilliant collection of multi-functional umbrellas - all worthy of a place in the Gignese Museum! I expect to see the ingeniously named 'Protectella' on sale in shops before long too. -
‘The Runaway Robot’ – Week 4
We began our session with a collaborative read of Steps 21-25. Every week, our expression when reading and use of the punctuation to guide us is improving more and more. After sharing the steps together, we used the definitions to identify the different characters in the book. We then had a great debate inspired by the statements about robots and humans. We have learnt that we have some very different opinions within our group! Our favourite part of the session was doing our walk acting – first we walked like a character from the story and the rest of the group had to guess who we were being. Then, we walked like we were in a certain mood and they had to guess how we were feeling. It was great fun! We are so close to the end of the book now and can’t wait to find out how it ends.
Comments
13th May 2021, 3:55pm I am so glad you are enjoying The Runaway Robot. We are so lucky to have talented writers such as Frank Cottrell-Boyce to give us stories that inspire debate and fun in equal measure. I hope your Gladiators like the ending. The Author's note makes for very interesting reading too. -
Week 4: Chalk Eagle
At Knockhall Primary School, the Year 4 Reading Gladiators have been exploring ‘Chalk Eagle’. In response to the mini challenge, the children have been writing their own retellings of the story before parts of their work were stringed together to form a group narration. We created an audio performance of our narration for the challenge.
Here’s hoping that you and the RG team enjoy our take on such a beautiful tale.
Knockhall Reading Gladiators retelling of Chalk Eagle
Chalk Eagle Retelling Y4 RG
Comments
7th May 2021, 10:13am This is just brilliant. The narration, the vocabulary, the emotion - all superb. You have a wonderful cast of voice artists and such professional production too. I am so glad you connected with this book so well. -
Week 3: Chalk Eagle
In the lead up to the session, I read through the different versions of ‘Chalk Eagle’ and chose elements from each one to create a group retelling of the story. Then, during the session itself, the children created a special audio performance of the story to share with the school. Here, you will see the first half of our story, along with more beautiful chalk eagles that were created by the children during the second part of our session.
Comments
7th May 2021, 11:32am Brilliant art work Gladiators! Chalk is such an expressive medium - ideal for translating images in your imagination to the page. -
Week 2: Chalk Eagle
During the Easter holidays, we each wrote our own retelling of this mesmerising picture book. When we came back to school, some of the children read their stories to the group. It was delightful to hear them bring their tales to life. Some of the children continued to work on their stories during the session whilst others had a go at creating their own chalk eagles, creating beautiful pieces of art.
Comments
7th May 2021, 10:19am A wordless text brings so much creativity. Brilliant work Gladiators. -
‘Runaway Robot’ – Week 3
We began our session by sharing chapters 14 and 15 reading together. After that, we added to our ‘Role on the Wall’ diagram of Alfie – it’s interesting to see how Alfie’s character evolves throughout the story. Our favourite activity of this week was ‘Readers’ Theatre’ though. We really got into character (especially ERIC) and even got to perform our scene on our playground stage! It made us feel like real actors.
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‘The Runaway Robot’ – Weeks One & Two
Our Yr 4 RG have really got stuck into reading ‘The Runaway Robot’ over the last two weeks. They had some great ideas in the first session about what ERIC might be like and why Alfie had a metal hand. After reading to the end of Step 8 at home, we reconvened today and had a hugely effervescent second session. They are all so excited about the book and loved re-reading part of Step 3 together. After that, we looked at the word ‘lost’ and analysed its origin, as well as thinking about what we would all like to learn about robots. They were extremely excited by the History of Robots presentation, especially the YouTube clips and were intrigued by the old black & white video footage of the original ERIC. We cannot wait to meet next week and discuss the next section of the story!
Comments
7th May 2021, 11:00am I am glad you are making full use of the resources provided. The history of robots really is fascinating and gives so much more meaning to the story. -
Submission by Bridge Learning Campus
Chalk Eagle
https://www.loom.com/share/127afcdbccb748d1ae802515332a1e2e
(The link will direct you to the video)
Year 4 really enjoyed the book.
Freedom, protection, childhood innocence were some of the themes discussed within the sessions.
Year 4 especially loved being creative to write their own narrative to the story. Seeing the children explore the depths of emotion and vulnerability in their writing was a very proud teaching experience.Thank you for Chalk Eagle, it was much loved
Comments
6th Apr 2021, 10:14am This put a HUGE smile on my face. What fantastic work! A heart warming interpretation of this wordless text. It was delivered so well and I felt such a connection - hearing the individual voices of your group. -
Submission by Heathrow Primary School
Runaway Robot Heathrow Primary
This half term, Heathrow Primary Gladiators have enjoyed the buzz of their first book, 'The Runaway Robot' by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. The story is about a boy called Alfie who goes to the Airport Lost Property, where he finds a 100 year old robot, Eric. Eric has lost his leg and Alfie has lost his artificial hand. They form a strong friendship and help to put each other back together. Along the way, they meet lots of robots and other children trying to adapt to losing a limb.
This story is full of heart, humour, acceptance, difference and bravery. The Gladiators have also thoroughly enjoyed learning about the evolution of robots over the decade, and we look forward to exploring other heavy weight titles in the Summer term. Stay tuned for more!
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Submission by Heathrow Primary School
Heathrow Primary School – Runaway Robot Project
The children have had a blast researching robots through the decades. The Runaway Robot was an inspirational and heartwarming read, which has motivated the children to explore similar titles. We look forward to 'The Umbrella Mouse' next half term!
Comments
6th Apr 2021, 9:59am A very striking display with a lot of information to pique the interest of passers by. I hope more children will want to read Runaway Robot after seeing your display.6th Apr 2021, 8:17pmThank you:) -
Submission by Knockhall Primary School
Knockhall Primary Runaway Robot
Comments
6th Apr 2021, 9:47am It looks like Runaway Robot has given your Gladiators a keen interest in robots! Well done for working independently on this book during Lockdown! -
Submission by St Frideswide C E Primary School
Chalk Eagle/ Robot Boy
We have been enjoying these books online and in school.
Comments
6th Apr 2021, 9:37am Thank you for sharing your work with us. Some thoughtful responses and it is great to see the recommended reading titles featuring in your display too. I hope you have inspired other children to pick up these books. -
Week 1: Chalk Eagle
Illustrations on their own can be powerful in telling a story. The Year 4 team explored this concept before looking at ‘Chalk Eagle’. They were given pictures from Tom Percival’s book ‘The Sea Saw’ and retold the story in their own words. They weren’t even given a title or a list of the characters’ names. So what you see here is their own tale, which they came up from looking at the Illustrations alone. I was amazed by their team effort as well as their choice of vocabulary. I hope this session has helped them with coming up with their retelling of ‘Chalk Eagle’, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with 🙂
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Week 5: Runaway Robot
For the mini challenge, the Year 4 children each chose a robot to research and created fact files about them at home, following in Alfie’s footsteps. They were surprised to find that there was an actual robot called Eric, possibly the inspiration for our book. These fact files will later form a display about robots for everyone in the school to see. During our last session of ‘Runaway Robot’, the children wrote short stories using an illustration by Chris Riddell as a prompt. The Year 4 team have worked really hard this term and to see their enthusiasm for this great book blossom has been wonderful.
Comments