Literacy
Children’s Writing; ‘Scarlet’s Book’ – What happened next?
Nicole wrote the beginning to a story. She called it ‘Scarlet’s Book’.
Photo Credit: Stefano Maffei via Compfight
‘It was just a normal night. Dark sky. Stars. Everything was just right … until this very night. A little girl, called Scarlet was fast asleep. Suddenly Scarlet woke right up. She saw a flash of golden light. She leapt out of bed and then crept slowly, following the golden path she could see in front of her. She let herself out through the front door and went along the path, through a deep forest.
Now everyone knows a child should not go somewhere, in the middle of the night, by themselves. Well Scarlet BROKE that RULE. Then the golden light was gone. The path was gone.
‘Why would you take me here?’, she wondered.
Then the golden light reappeared. It led her to a place in the middle of the forest, where there was a book. Then a light whisper in her ear came to her. It said;
‘Bring back the spirits’. Scarlet wasn’t quite sure what to do. Maybe the answer was in the book. She would get the book and see what ‘Bring back the spirits’ could mean. So she reached out for the book…’
This is what Niamh thought might happen next;
BUT when she tried to pick it up, her hand passed right through it! Scarlet gasped. She threw pebble at it and it said ‘Ouch’, but the pebble didn’t fall through the book. Then suddenly the book disappeared. The next day, she went back into the forest and back to the same place she had seen the book. There was no trace of it. For the rest of the day, all Scarlet could think about was the book. When she was about to get into bed that night, she saw the light again and she crept outside. This time the light was even closer to her house, but this time the light was red. Scarlet knew this meant danger…
Photo Credit: Tony Hammond via Compfight
This is what JC wrote;
The book hissed,‘Don’t touch me.’ The book went flying down the path and followed the golden light, but then when Scarlet came out the door, the golden light was not there anymore. She tried to follow the path where she last saw the golden light. Then she came to a dead end. There was no way in or out. She tried and tried but she couldn’t find a way out. Then she remembered what the book said. Then she called to the spirits and she was free.
Photo Credit: Behrooz Nobakht via Compfight
Rebecca thought this is what happened next;
Scarlet felt herself being pulled. Scarlet screamed. A deep voice said; ‘How did you get here? Come into the light.’ Scarlet saw a funny little goblin. ‘Come into my house,’ said the goblin. Scarlet followed the goblin through a little door into a little mushroom, but it was so big inside with a big sitting room. ‘The kitchen is this way,’ said the goblin. ‘Wow’, thought Scarlet.
Photo Credit: Iva Wilcox via Compfight
Clara wrote;
Scarlet reached into the book and then the book shouted, ‘Take your hands off me !’ Then the book trapped Scarlet’s hands between its pages and pulled her into the book. She was dragged into an ancient land. The voice in the book shouted, ‘You will stay here for a hundred years. There was a castle… Here it is. Scarlet had a plan. She would be troublesome and then they’d have to send her home.
Photo Credit: Claudio.Ar via Compfight
Max predicted;
Scarlet took the book in her hand and the book pulled out of her hand and floated away. Scarlet chased the book and then suddenly she crashed into a tree. Suddenly she woke up and found herself in a goblin jail in a goblin tree. She banged on the window with anger and suddenly the window broke and she crept out of the prison in the goblin tree.
Photo Credit: Nina Matthews via Compfight
Amy thought that this might happen next;
But when Scarlet touched the book, it floated up and lit up her face like golden stars and the book had a face on it and said; ‘He’s coming!’ Then it faded away and a gleaming shadow appeared. It was a WIZARD. The wizard said, ‘Get our of my forest or else’. ‘Or else what?’ said Scarlet. ‘He will come’ answered the wizard. ‘Who?’ asked Scarlet. ‘Barnabus’, said the Wizard.
Photo Credit: jenny downing via Compfight
Matthew
Scarlet kept following the book. It eventually stopped. There was no sound. Scarlet was scared. She stepped forward and she fell into a hole that suddenly appeared in the ground. Down, down down, She was screaming at the very top of her voice. She found herself in an underground cave. She couldn’t see anything as it was as dark as the black night sky. Suddenly the moon seemed to appear from behind a cloud and Scarlet could see by its light. She started to float…to float towards the light. But it was then she realised that this moving planet was not the moon.
Photo Credit: niko si via Compfight
Cian thought this is what happened next;
The next morning Scarlet went to school, she brought the book with her. She opened it. A voice in her ear whispered ‘Pick a page’. Scarlet picked the page with the castle on it. She reached out and touched the picture. The book closed on her hand. It sucked her in. She was forbidden to return to Earth.
To be continued …
Dun, dun, dun-dun DUN!
Photo Credit: Images by John ‘K’ via Compfight
This was Shauna’s idea;
But when Scarlet went to pick up the book it floated. Scarlet put her hand under the book. As soon as that happened the book came down on her hand. Then it opened on the index page and Scarlet looked up ‘spirits’. Scarlet found the answer was right in front of her, and she soon had done what she was told.
Photo Credit: hugovk via Compfight
Cian wrote;
Scarlet took the book tightly in her hand and went home but that voice had not done talking. It said ‘Keep the book safe..VERY VERY SAFE because the spirits are in the book’. But she was too late, the golden path went and it was dark and wet and she could not get home. She was scared. In the morning, it was light and she managed to find her way home. As soon as she got in the door, her Mum and Dad said ‘Where were you?’ She did not answer. Scarlet ran up the stairs to her room.
Photo Credit: Walt Stoneburner via Compfight
Julia thought;
Her hand went right through the book. Scarlet gasped. The wizard was right beside her. ‘What are you doing with that?’‘I was just looking … ”You should not be here,’ bellowed the wizard. ‘Now you will pay’. Suddenly the wizard magicked up some angry elves. They had swords. But suddenly, by magic another sword was in Scarlet’s hand, but she was scared anyway. Scarlet ran and ran home as fast as she could.
Photo Credit: Diego da Silva via Compfight
Lewis said;
Scarlet read the page in front of her. It said a long time ago, there was a spirit. The spirit was around for one thousand years. The spirit lies in the forest. Scarlet flung the book onto the ground. Scarlet went out to find the spirit. A storm came upon Scarlet. Scarlet searched for ages and she found the golden light on a mountain. Woosh, woosh, the wind blew. Scarlet got blown back. She tripped over a rock. She fell down the mountain. She was unconcious. When she woke up, she was lost. She called out. No one heard her. She got up and ran…
Photo Credit: Rennett Stowe via Compfight
Well done everyone. I enjoyed reading your work.
Children’s Writing; ‘Scarlet’s Book’ by Nicole
Teacher was tidying up the classroom at the end of the day.
The children had all gone home.
She found a story that Nicole had started.
She thought it was very good.
Here it is;
It was just a normal night.
Dark sky.
Photo Credit: Matt Reinbold via Compfight
Stars.
Photo Credit: spodzone via Compfight
Everything was just right …
until this very night.
A little girl,
called Scarlet was fast asleep.
Photo Credit: thejbird via Compfight
Suddenly Scarlet woke right up.
She saw a flash of golden light.
She leapt out of bed
and then
crept slowly,
following the golden path
she could see
in front of her.
She let herself out
through the front door
and went along the path,
through a deep forest.
Photo Credit: frontriver via Compfight
Now everyone knows
a child should not go
somewhere,
in the middle of the night,
by themselves.
Well Scarlet BROKE that RULE.
Then the golden light was gone.
The path was gone.
‘Why would you take me here?’,
she wondered.
Then the golden light reappeared.
It led her to a place
in the middle of the forest,
where there was a book.
Photo Credit: Ferd Frederix via Compfight
Then a light whisper in her ear
came to her.
It said;
‘Bring back the spirits’.
Scarlet wasn’t quite sure what to do.
Maybe the answer was in the book.
She would get the book
and see what ‘Bring back the spirits’
could mean.
So she reached out for the book…
Photo Credit: Lazurite via Compfight
Teacher asked the class what they think happens next.
Children’s Writing; ‘An Unusual Pet’ by Rebecca
There is a pet.
I see it everywhere I go.
It is BIG
and green
with blue spots
and purple prickles.
Photo Credit: Joe Penniston via Compfight
It creeps up every night
and then …
BOO!
I tell my Mum
but she does not believe me.
I show my friend,
but she does not see it.
She said;
‘What are you talking about?
I can’t see anything!’
‘But it’s right there,’ I say.
‘You are light in the head.
Go home to your Mum,’
she said.
After that I tried
to show my Dad.
He said
‘There is nothing there.
Time for bed.
Sweet dreams’
Photo Credit: Patrick via Compfight
BUT …
I still see it,
when I close my eyes!
Photo Credit: Brian Gurrola via Compfight
Children’s Writing; ‘I wish I had Superpowers’ by Julia
I wish I had superpowers.
I wish I was invisible.
Then no one could see me.
No one could find me.
I would love that.
Photo Credit: Alejandro Peters via Compfight
It’s not just the power
of being invisible,
I also wish I was SUPER WOMAN,
saving people.
Photo Credit: disfraz via Compfight
I would be famous.
I would be in the Hall of Fame.
But I am just me.
Well I do not need powers really.
I am happy.
God created me
and gave me talents.
I can sing
and I can act.
That is the way God created me.
I would love to pretend
to be a Superhero.
I wish it was really happening now.
Do you know what it is like to be a hero?
Children’s Writing; ‘Going back in time’ by Nicole
I would love to go back in time.
Photo Credit: Tau Zero via Compfight
This is how I think it would happen:
Well here we go
going back in time
So where to first
I want to see how kids worked
in Victorian times.
Right we are here.
Wow, look at the children.
I am happy my life is not like that.
OK where to next
How about the rich children
in Victorian times 1,2,3
We are here.
So come with me
to see their lives.
That looks a bit better.
Photo Credit: Sean via Compfight
Oh look, they have toys
and they went to school.
I feel sorry for the poor children
Oh no here comes the kids
I better hide.
I have to hurry
before I am trapped in this time.
Well we better go 1,2,3
Wow I had a really good time.
It felt like I was really there.
Well goodbye
I really want to travel back in time now.
I hope you enjoyed reading my story.
Children’s Writing; ‘A Friend’ by Alice
A friend to me, is a very special person.
Photo Credit: Pankaj Kaushal via Compfight
Sometimes if a friend is mean,
you always give your friend
a 2nd chance.
One way your friend
can be mean to you
is not letting your other friends play
and leaving them out.
Nicole is my BFF
and we’ve never ever
in the whole of our lives
been mean to each other.
We are always very kind.
One very good thing
to always remember is
NEVER disagree
or if you do
talk it through
and sort it out quickly.
or else you might not be friends
anymore.
Children’s Writing; ‘If I had an imaginary pet’, by Max
Photo Credit: Guy H via Compfight
If I had an imaginary pet,
it would be blue grey.
It would have long arms
and shiny white teeth.
When it jumps it falls
straight back down
on its feet.
When it flips
you can see
two wings
spread out
two metres
in length.
I could sneak it
into my room at night.
It could sleep
under my bed.
It would be very noisy
because it snores
when it sleeps.
I would call it Bouncy One Eyed Jim.
Children’s Writing; ‘If I could change a school rule’ by Shane
If I could change a school rule
it would be the one about
no running.
Photo Credit: duncan c via Compfight
I know it’s hard to tell a child
not to run.
To be honest,
I run in the yard,
even though
I am not supposed to.
Also nearly all the good games
have running in them,
like Catch or Build Up.
All my friends play
those games with me.
Some times we slip past the teachers
so they don’t see us.
I know we shouldn’t.
It’s just too hard to stop running
and I’m trying to get faster
for the Wicklow Races
for 3rd Class.
Maybe
I’ll never stop running.
I am a boy
and that is just me.
Photo Credit: Phil Hilfiker via Compfight
Children’s writing; ‘What is a friend?’ by Kila
A Friend
This is what a friend means to me.
A friend is a person,
that can be with you
all your life
and be with you
when you need help.
A friend is helpful
and kind
and always
looks out for you.
Photo Credit: Hartwig HKD via Compfight
Children’s writing; ‘If I was an animal’ by JC
If I turned into an animal for even a single day,
I would love to be
a Great White Shark
Photo Credit: gaftels via Compfight
because I would be at the top of the food chain.
During that time,
I would eat
seals,
fish
and almost everything else,
except garlic.
I would go world wide.
I would feel like Neptune,
Photo Credit: Cornelia Kopp via Compfight
God of the deep, blue ocean.
I would feel that I was
invincible.
The other sea animals would be
so, so, so
terrified of me
and even my shadow
would make them shake
in their big shoes!!!
That’s how things might be
if I were a Great White Shark
but all in all
I am just happy
being me.
Children’s writing: ‘What I want to be when I grow up’ by Fiona
Mumbling Bees by Daphne Lister
Photo Credit: David Reece via Compfight
Mumbling Bees
by Daphne Lister
All around the garden flowers
Big velvet bees are bumbling,
They hover low and as they go
They’re mumbling, mumbling, mumbling.
To lavender and snapdragons
The busy bees keep coming,
And all the busy afternoon
They’re humming, humming, humming.
Inside each bell-shaped flower and rose
They busily go stumbling,
Collecting pollen all day long
bumbling, bumbling, bumbling.
Can you spot the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs?
We have begun reading ‘Emlyn’s Moon’ by Jenny Nimmo
We finished reading ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo.
Certainly it was challenging for 2nd class to read as a class novel.
But we were drawn into Jenny Nimmo’s magical world.
So much so, we are continuing with the next book in the trilogy;
‘Emlyn’s Moon’.
Photo Credit: Ron Lute via Compfight
We can see how it was adapted for ITV.
Click here to see ‘Emlyn’s Moon’ Part One
I would remind parents not to let
their children watch You Tube unsupervised.
The internet is a wonderful gift,
but it has the potential to be Pandora’s Box.
She is the Colour of Bronze… (Thoughts for Mother’s Day)
We wrote these poems in groups in class for Mother’s Day
she would be a tiger lily
She is the colour of bronze
because she is strong and beautiful
She would be like soft bread
She is a lioness
because she protects her young
She is summer all year round
My Mum
If my mother was a sound
she would be snow falling
because she is quiet and pretty.
She is the colour of the summer sky
She is strawberries and cream
because that is my favourite
She would be a snow leopard
because she is protective of her cubs
She is Christmas all year round
For Mother’s Day
She is the sound of the dishwasher closing
She is the colour white,
the same colour as the washing machine.
she would be a comfy armchair
She is ice cream
because she is cool when things go bad
She is a tiger because she protects me
She is a golden daffodil, standing tall
She is birthdays all year round
The Best Mum
She is an electric blanket
She is the colour purple
She is hot chocolate
because she is warm and comforting
She is an owl
because she is beautiful at night
She is Bora Bora weather
She is February
because she is romantic
An Irish Greeting based on a Mihi from New Zealand
On this Link to Class Blog for Y7/8 Room 5, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand
we read how
‘A Mihi
is a Maori introduction or greeting,
which contains information about yourself”.
We saw the students introducing themselves.
It was very interesting.
They talk about the name of their canoe,
the nearest mountain to them,
the closest river,
their meeting place,
their tribe,
their chief
and last of all their names. .
We decided to make our introductions
to these students from
Room 5 Melville Intermediate School,
because we are working with them at the moment.
They are teaching us about New Zealand
and they are learning about Ireland.
This is our podcast:
‘Dia Dhaoibh (May God be with you)
to our new friends in Room 5,
Melville Intermediate School
in Hamilton
New Zealand
We liked your greeting,
your Mihi.
So we decided to send you one back
In Irish we say
This means
‘A hundred thousand welcomes’
We come from Ireland
We live close to the
Little Sugar Loaf Mountain.
The Three Trout River is our nearest river
The name of our county is Wicklow
This means ‘Viking Meadow’.
The Vikings were
fierce warriors
who came to Ireland
from countries to the North
from 795 AD
We meet in our local town Greystones
In the 1800s the sailors who had passed
our local beach would call it
‘The Grey Stones’.
They would say
‘There was a storm at the Greystones’,
or
‘There was good fishing at The Greystones’.
This is how our town got it’s name.
The name of our school is Saint Brigid’s.
She was born over fifteen hundred years ago!
But people remember her because
she was good to the poor, the sick and the old.
February 1st is her Feast Day
so we will have No Homework 😀 to celebrate.
Bye for now.
Click here for the earlier post on sharing learning with Room 5, Melville School
A Visualization based on ‘Winter Song’ by by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
Today we listened to a beautiful song:
‘Winter Song’ by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
‘Winter Song’ was familiar to many of the students
because it is currently being used in an often repeated
advertisement on the television.
We studied the lyrics.
We used our imagination
and we sketched some pictures
that the lyrics put into our heads.
Then we took a look at a
wonderful animation on Vimeo
to inspire us even further.
‘Winter Song’ by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
Initially we used white chalk
on black sugar paper.
Then we added colour.
This is what we did:
These are the results:
Winter Pictures in Chalk on PhotoPeach
We would love to hear what you think of our artwork.
Do leave a comment.
We would love to hear from you.
If you would like to comment,
please double click
‘Continue Reading’ below
and a comment box will appear.
A Word to the Wise:
Please don’t leave your child to explore Vimeo or Photopeach unattended
The internet is a portal to the world outside. Children should be supervised.
Encouraging Boys To Read
The difference between what boys like to read and girls was also discussed at many Parent Teacher meetings.
Research shows whereas girls prefer fiction that many boys have a preference for non fiction.
Though girls might like these too, boys like graphic novels, information books, adventure, humour/joke books.
The Guinness Book Of Records and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not are popular.
Roddy Doyle ‘The Giggler Treatment’ and ‘Captain Underpants’ though not ‘politically correct’ do encourage some boys to read.
The ‘Beast Quest’ series by Adam Blade is popular with independent readers.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE BEAST QUEST SERIES HERE
Then there is Irish author Kieran Fanning’s Code Crackers series.
These books are not read from beginning to end.
Children reading these books have to solve clues, codes, problems and other puzzles to continue with the story.
SEE HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE CODE CRACKERS SERIES
The staff in bookshops and your local librarian can also be very helpful
if you ask them about books that are popular with boys or girls of this age.
A lively horse, by Jake
Book Review: It was a Dark and Stormy Night’ by Allan Ahlberg
Teacher read ‘It Was A Dark And Stormy Night’
to the children in 2nd Class, Room 6.
‘It was A Dark And Stormy Night’ by Allan Ahlberg
It was a big hit.
It is a ‘laugh out loud’ book with plenty of scope
for dramatisation and funny voices.
Great fun to read aloud in class!
It was impossible to predict what was going to happen next in the story.
But guessing was fun too.
Book Review by Jack S
Antonio is the hero.
He is eight, the same age as me.
.
Antonio is captured by brigands.
The Chief of the Brigands is bored.
He tells Antonio to tell a story to pass the time.
Antonio’s story is about
pirates
and sharks,
crocodiles
and killer parrots.
There is a castle in his story with a ‘Thingy’ in the moat.
Antonio uses the story telling
to distract the brigands
so he can escape,
and get back to to his own family.
I would recommend this book to children my age. It made me laugh.
Finally we made a podcast of what we thought was best about this book.
If you would like to comment,
please double click
‘Continue Reading’ below
and a comment box will appear.
2nd Class, Room 6 – Let Us Introduce Ourselves
Hi there! We are 2nd Class, Room 6
There are 29 children in 2nd Class, Room 6.
There are 17 boys and 12 girls.
We are an interesting class.
Our families come from
Brazil,
France,
Ireland,
Italy,
The Phillippines
The UK
and USA,
South Africa,
St.Kitt’s in the Carribean
and Ireland
John Paul is new to our class.
He comes from The Dominican Republic.
Welcome John Paul.
You won’t be long making lots of new friends.
We love singing.
We also love lunch time,
Katie Taylor,
football
and rugby.
Today was our first day back in school
We are excited to have a classroom blog.
Senan called it our
‘digital diary’.
A Collection of Wonderful Websites: Everything but the kitchen sink!
Literacy
I hope to get a lot of use out of this magical,
inspirational and innovative website next year.
These are other useful websites for literacy
and contain online books to listen to and to read.
Picture books:
A number of stories about a dinosaur
Short stories on Learn English Kids British Council
CBeebies: Picture Stories for Infant Classes
Animated books (no reading involved!
Would be good for oral comprehension
perhaps to end of First Class) @ We do listen
Comprehension will be a focus of this school year.
Inference is a useful skill.
Here are fifteen riddles that require the student to infer:
http://www.philtulga.com/Riddles.html
Prediction is another skill which assists comprehension.
This visual puzzle gives students the opportunity to predict.
http://www.philtulga.com/Prediction.html
You will see that the excellent website
from which these two activities come from
has all sorts of other original ideas for
the teaching of reading, maths, science and music.
Maths
This is a good site for literacy and maths:
Sumdog comes highly recommended for learning maths.
One has to register to join.
One has to register to get the best from this site too.
The content is cross curricular but this is a maths index for children aged 7-9
These are the strategies we are learning
to speed up our understanding of this computation.
Strategies for Learning Tables
The following is a site where the children can practice
computation, which tracks individual progress
Problem Solving
Recently in school we talked very briefly about this problem.
Perhaps the children would like to experiment with solutions at home:
Pokemon
For fans of Pokemon:
This activity involves reading, comprehension and decision making:
A Pokemon Adventure from Woodlands Junior Kent
The Arts
Here are some useful suggestions for integrating art and drama:
Games that integrate art and drama
These ideas are from a great art blog that I discovered recently
The author is a specialist art teacher, teaching at primary level in the US.
The standard she is reaching with the children is exceptional.
Reading quickly through her philosophy it appears that she would prefer
five fully finished masterpieces from a child over a year
rather than a weekly unfinished one.
Included in this blog are a series of short videos (on Vimeo)
for use in class.
‘White Spot Inspector’ is an inventive approach
to getting the children not to leave spaces in the picture unfinished.
Other videos include advice about
sketching lightly with a pencil instead of digging down onto the page,
being kind to paintbrushes and glue pots,
concentrating,
being neat,
avoiding careless brushwork
and using black marker to tidy up untidy paintwork.
There is also one on craftmanship i.e. touching up your work, ‘redrafting’ etc.
Index of Instructional Art Videos
There is also a link to an extensive archive of artwork.
I would be doing this wonderful blogger a disservice
if I didn’t mention that she also uses a lot of IT in her work.
This is presently beyond me, but it is something to be inspired by and to aspire to.
25th August 2012:
I have been adding to this post all summer.
As a result it seems to contain everything but the kitchen sink.
Here are some more!
They are classroom tools for timing/counting down and picking names:
Fruit Machine Word or Name Picker
The Stories of Jill Tomlinson: Similarities and Differences.
Books by Jill Tomlinson
The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark
The Cat Who Wanted To Go Home
The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure
The Otter Who Wanted To Know
Penguin’s Progress
How are these books the same?
They all have a main character, who is a young animal.
They are all asking questions
of their grown ups
and their friends
and they are all learning.
They all have adventures.
They have a beginning
a middle,
and an end
and they all have a happy ending.
How are they different?
They are different because the main character is a different bird or mammal.
Some are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
Some of the questions they ask are the same,
but some are different.
They come from different habitats all over the world.
They have to watch out for different predators.
Their diet is different.