We finished reading ‘Emlyn’s Moon’ by Jenny Nimmo

Today in school we finished reading

a really great book.

It was called Emlyn’s Moon and is by

the wonderful writer Jenny Nimmo.

This book is the 2nd in a trilogy

(three book series).

We already read the first book in the series.

It was called ‘The Snow Spider’.

Both were challenging reads for 2nd class

but we really enjoyed them.

moon without bird
Photo Credit: Luz Adriana Villa via Compfight

Isabella thought that the book

had really good twists.

Clara said that she enjoyed the mystery.

Shauna loved the magic.  

Alice thought it was magical too,

and she always wanted to find out

what happened next.

Nicole said that this book would inspire her

to write better stories.

She could see a pattern in the plot

of happy parts, scary parts and twists.

 

If any of the boys and girls would like to watch

‘The Snow Spider’

or ‘Emlyn’s Moon

over the summer, just click on the title of the book above

for the ITV serialization on You Tube. A word to the wise;

Please monitor your child’s use of the internet. It is a

portal to an unedited outside world.

 

There are very useful summaries of these book

on these links; 

Click here for ‘The Snow Spider’

and here for ‘Emlyn’s Moon’

 

The themes in the third book in the series;

the excellent ‘The Chestnut Soldier’

are more suitable to an older child. (10+)

 

 

 

Art; Board Games based on ‘Emlyn’s Moon’ and ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

We made board games based on books we read by Jenny Nimmo.

‘Emlyn’s Moon’ by Jenny Nimmo; A Collage Like Nia’s (Art; Fabric&Fibre)

When we read ‘Emlyn’s Moon’ by Jenny Nimmo,

one of the characters, Nia made a collage.

We thought this was a good idea

and we are going to make one too.

This is the work  2nd Class did last year.

We are looking forward to making our collages too.

A Collage Like Nia’s

This one is Aoibhin’s from last year.

To see the other works of art click on the link above.

 

You can read more about ….

 

 

if you click on THIS link.

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’.

Moon
Creative Commons License 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.

Active Learning: The Jigsaw Method – Topic: The Author, Jenny Nimmo

Active Learning – The Jigsaw Method
Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept
Photo Credit: Scott Maxwell via Compfight
Jigsaw.org is an excellent website,
which explains this method in detail.
 
Phase One – Research Groups

1. Class divided into groups of six.
Each group will be assigned an aspect of research e.g.

What was the author’s childhood like?

Why are they famous?

Why the author does, what they do?

What is life like for them now as grown ups?

2. The groups are asked to research the answer a question(s)

They read, discuss, and record their findings.

 

Phase Two – Project Groups

New groups formed with one student

from each of the groups.

Each student in the new group

shares the information they have learned.

These new groups will create a poster

to share with the class that sums up their learning.

GREEN GROUP

Tell me about Jenny Nimmo’s childhood?

 Jenny Nimmo’s Childhood

 Jenny Nimmo was born on 15th January 1944.

There was just her and her mother at home,

so she went to live on her uncle’s free-range chicken farm.

Jenny was sent away to boarding school when she was only six.

She found this hard.

She was happier after the age of 11,

when she went to a secondary school

where her talents as an actress were encouraged.

At school, Jenny was quiet but she loved to make people laugh.

 

WHITE GROUP

Why is Jenny Nimmo famous?

Jenny Nimmo is an author who has written many books for children.

Many of her books are about ‘magic’ in real life situations.

Books she has written include

‘The Owl Tree’,

‘The Stone Mouse’

and ‘The Dog Star’

but she has written many, many more e.g.

The Snow Spider

The Chestnut Soldier

Delilah and the Dishwasher Dogs

Jupiter Boots

The Bread Witch

Granny Grimm’s Gruesome Glasses

The Witch’s Tears

Alien on the 99th Floor

The Night of the Unicorn

The Starlight Cloak

BLACK GROUP 

Why did she do what she does?

Jenny Nimmo is a writer of children’s books.

She has always loved reading and writing.

She read all the books in the junior school library

by the time she was nine

so she had to ask to join the senior school library then.

She enjoyed reading books as a child.

When she became a grown up she decided

she would write books for children.

 BLUE GROUP 

Tell me about her life now

as a writer and grown up?

Jenny now lives in an old water mill in the countryside in Wales

with her husband, who is an artist. She has three grown up children.

First she feeds all the chickens, rabbits and cats, then she writes.

She uses a soft, 3B pencil and redrafts and edits as she goes along.

When she’s sure she has made all the changes,

she lets her husband read the story

and then types it up for her publisher.

  

LIST OF BOOKS WRITTEN BY JENNY NIMMO

The Owl Tree

The Stone Mouse

The Dog Star

The Snow Spider

The Chestnut Soldier

Delilah and the Dishwasher Dogs

Jupiter Boots

The Bread Witch

Granny Grimm’s Gruesome Glasses

The Witch’s Tears

Alien on the 99th Floor

The Night of the Unicorn

The Starlight Cloak

 

We LOVE reading books by Jenny Nimmo

A book we really enjoyed was

‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

jewels of spider
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: takuya miyamoto via Compfight

We also loved her book ‘Emlyn’s Moon’.

The bird and the moon II
Photo Credit: Luz Adriana Villa via Compfight

 

Other books by this author

that we have read include

‘Tom and the Pterosaur’

22062010 - 027 Southbank Royal Festival Hall - Pterosaurs
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: B via Compfight

‘The Owl Tree’,

Solid Standing
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: @notnixon via Compfight

‘The Stone Mouse’

Stones
Photo Credit: Rachel Kramer via Compfight

 

and ‘The Dog Star’

Orion and Jupiter over the Forest
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Luis Argerich via Compfight

but Jenny Nimmo has written many, many more.

 

It is interesting to know more about

the author of a book that you enjoy.

 

What makes them the person they are today.

Why may they write about certain things

and in a certain way.

 

Jenny was born on 15th January 1944.

She was an only child.

Her father died when she was five

so there was just her and her mother at home.

So she grew up on her uncle’s free-range chicken farm.

the race is on!
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: fixlr via Compfight

Jenny was sent away to boarding school when she was only six.

She didn’t like this,  when she went to a secondary school.

Happily her talents as an actress were encouraged.

A family friend was the famous ballerina,

Dame Ninette de Valois,

De Notenkraker
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Maurice via Compfight

so she was taken to the ballet a lot too.

 

At school, Jenny was quiet

but she loved to make people laugh.

Jenny loved reading and writing.

She read all the books in the junior school library

so when she was just nine,

she had to get permission to join the senior school library.

Tome Reader
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: QQ Li via Compfight

She  now lives in the country side in Wales

with her husband, who is an artist.

Her children are grown up.

 

Everyday she feeds all the chickens, rabbits and cats,

and then she starts writing.

She writes in pencil

Bookworm
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Nawal Al-Mashouq via Compfight

and redrafts and edits as she goes along.

When she’s sure she has made all the changes,

she lets her husband read the story

and then types it up for her publisher.

 

Many of her books are about ‘magic’

in real life situations and we LOVE reading them.

君は my long lost friend
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Alberto Benavides via Compfight

Shane’s turn to read from Jenny Nimmo’s ‘The Snow Spider’

The Web We Weave
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Jason Samfield via Compfight

Today we were also treated to Shane reading.

Matthew reads from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

How to Catch Light in a Web
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Evan Leeson via Compfight

Thanks to Matthew,

who today read to us

from the page of

‘The Snow Spider’

that he had prepared:

We also enjoyed Anne Fine’s ‘The Angel of Nitshill Road’

The main characters in ‘The Angel of Nitshill Road’ were

Celeste the new girl,

My Little Angel
Photo Credit: K.Hurley via Compfight

Barry Hunter, who was the bully

Wayne and Steven who helped him.

Lisa, who is a sensible girl.

Mark, Penny and Marigold who were being bullied.

Mr. Fairway, the teacher.

 

In this book Celeste solves

a bullying situation at Nitshill Road School

and turns it into a happier and fairer school.

 

Nicole explains:

Celeste finds three unhappy kids in Nitshill Road

and she makes life better for them.

 Bully Free Zone
Photo Credit: Eddie~S via Compfight

Nicole thought that this book was great.

She liked the way she always wanted to know

what was going to happen next.

What she really liked about the book

is that there are different ‘moods’ in it,

depending on what is happening in the plot.

Nicole also thinks that the author Jenny Nimmo

makes good use of words.

 

Julia thought that Celeste acted very strangely

She liked the part where Celeste first came to the school.

 

Niamh said that this was one of the best books

that she has ever read.

Her favourite part was when

Celeste called Penny chubby

because she meant no harm by it

and was actually trying to be helpful.

Niamh thought that it was

a super book.

 

Tadhg said that he really really liked the book.

His favourite part was when Barry Hunter

was taught a lesson.

He was left alone

because he was bullying the other children.

Tadhg said he learned that it is important

to make a good start at a new school.

 

Max said that he liked the book.

His favourite part was when Celeste

bit Barry Hunter on the leg,

because sometimes it is funny to read about

something bold another child might do,

even though you might not do it yourself.

 

Amy said that she loved the book

She learnt that it is not a good idea

to bite anyone on the leg.

 

Nicole said that she learned that

there is always a solution to a problem

 

Rebecca thought  

Celeste was very cheeky to her teacher Mr Fairway,

but perhaps this was important because

Mr Fairway was not looking after the children in his class.

He was letting the bullies get away with being mean.

 

Fiona favourite part was when Celeste

let everyone use her special golden pen

even the bully, Barry Hunter.

 

Senan on the other hand

would not recommend this book

because he says

when you think about it

Celeste does not put a stop to the bullying properly.

Senan says: ‘Do not try this at school or at home kids!

It would have been better to tell the teacher

instead of taking the law into your own hands.

 

Zac agrees he said that the solution

made no sense for making things better.

 

We found it interesting to ‘make connections’ between

this book and ‘The Dog Star’ by Jenny Nimmo

as we had questions about Celeste and who she was, really.

The author drops hints that show

there may be more to Celeste

than we think when we meet her first.

We also wondered about

who the ‘Dog Star’ really was too.

Zac reads from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Spiderweb reflecting light
Photo Credit: Thomas Leth-Olsen via Compfight

Today we were also treated to Zac reading from ‘The Snow Spider’.

As you will hear, Zac did this very competently

and like Senan earlier in the day

showed every sign of practicing this thoroughly at home.

Senan reads from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

wintermorgen
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: westpark via Compfight

Sit back and relax and listen to Senan

reading another excerpt from

Jenny Nimmo’s ‘The Snow Spider’.

Well done Senan.

You read very well indeed and with excellent expression.

Isabella reads from ‘The Snow Spider’

Well done to Isabella who read for us in class today.

She had prepared this page well for homework.

Teacher particularly liked

the expression Isabella put in her voice

when she was pretending to be Gywn’s Mum.

When Isabella finished reading this in class,

the class gave her a round of applause,

which was well deserved.

Jake reads from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Today Jake read to us from ‘The Snow Spider’.


He prepared thoroughly at home.
A short coaching session from Adam 
who is a visiting TY student on Work Experience,
improved Jake’s confidence further.
Well done Jake.
I think you read this beautifully.
NA TEIA DA ARANHA- In The Net of Spider- FRONT PAGE
Photo Credit: Jônatas Cunha via Compfight

Lewis reads a description of the inside of Nain’s cottage from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Fiona reads about Nain gardening at midnight from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Today Fiona read to us about Gywn’s Granny gardening

in the dark on a Winter’s night!
We think you will agree,

that Fiona did a REALLY GOOD job.

She read SO well

and used very effective expression.

Fiona told us she read it twice for her Granny

and three times for her Mum last night,

Then this morning she read it twice again.

All in all she practiced reading it aloud seven times

and all this preparation really paid off.

 

Well done Fiona.

You are an independent reader now.

Tek Sen / Only You
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Kuzeytac (will be back soon) via Compfight

Using ‘Seasaws’ – Art Activity for Digital Art Week 2013

We are participating in Digital Art Week

To start the week we made seaside collages online.

 

When you use:

‘Seasaws’ – online art activity from National Gallery of Art (Washington)

you can make pictures of the sea and shore.

 

We like this because we live beside the sea.

Rebecca reads from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Starburst and Beach Grass On Turquoise free creative commons
Photo Credit: D. Sharon Pruitt via Compfight

Today Rebecca read to us from

‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo.

Rebecca read very clearly with good pronunciation

of all those tricky words and showed that she had

prepared this reading very well.

We heard how Gywn read by the light

from the glowing ‘Snow Spider’

Alice reads a page from ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Nicole reads from ‘The Snow Spider’.

Today it was Nicole’s turn to prepare

a page of reading from ‘The Snow Spider’.

As you will hear Nicole read very well.

In what she read to us,

we learned a little more about a mystery;

How Gywn’s older sister Bethan had disappeared

in the middle of a storm one night.

Clara reads an excerpt from our class novel ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo

Today Clara read a 2nd excerpt

from our class novel ‘The Snow Spider’.

She prepared it at home, as part of her homework.

We think you will agree that she did a SUPER job.

JC’s visualization of Nain’s birthday gifts for Gywn.

Visualizing the main characters in Jenny Nimmo’s ‘The Snow Spider’.

Podcast: Julia reads the first page of Jenny Nimmo’s ‘The Snow Spider’

We have started reading ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo.

It is a challenging read, but a great story.

Last night we were asked to practice reading the very first page,

with expression.

Julia volunteered  to read it out loud on Audioboo.

Here is the podcast:

 

We think the talented Julia has the potential

be a famous actress.

 

We have many other volunteers to read so

during the term, we will be posting more podcasts

of excerpts from this exciting and magical book.

 

Some of the children have started watching 

The Snow Spider – Part One ITV (1988)

and they tell me that this is helping

their understanding

and enjoyment of the book.

Visualizing Nain’s gifts for Gywn’s birthday. 

Jenny Nimmo’s ‘The Dog Star’ – A Big Hit with 2nd Class Room 6

From ‘The Daily Reader’ newspaper:

“It was confirmed today that of all the Jenny Nimmo books that 2nd Class Room 6 have read that ‘The Dog Star’ is their very favourite. A poll was held in class and these were the results. ‘The Owl Tree’ and ‘Tom and the Pterosaur’ both got one vote each. ‘The Stone Mouse’ received six. But ‘The Dog Star’ was the runaway success with twenty two votes.

Some people felt that perhaps the last book read by the class is always going to do best because it is more recent and clearer in their minds, but supporters of ‘The Dog Star’ said, that though they enjoyed all the Jenny Nimmo books we have read so far, ‘The Dog Star’ was simply the best.

Later in the year, 2nd Class Room 6 are going to read ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo. This is a challenging read and it will be interesting to see, if ‘The Dog Star’ will be knocked off top position”.

 

So why was ‘The Dog Star’ so popular?

 

We agreed that it was about something

a lot of children dream about:

a dog of their own.

 

But the story is not that straight forward.

There are a lot of difficulties

in the story for Marty

who is the main character.

 

Her older sister Clare puts her in a very difficult

situation and she doesn’t know whether to

make her sister happy by being mean to

Miss Theresa Tree or make her Dad happy

by being friendly to her.

 

We found the story

serious,

mysterious

and magical.

We prefer serious books.

For example we preferred the serious

‘Owl Tree’ by Jenny Nimmo

to the ‘Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

by Jill Tomlinson, even though it made us laugh.

 

We ‘made the connection’ between the eight and a half years,

that it takes the light from the Dog Star to reach earth,

and the fact that Marty is eight and a half years old

and that Marty’s Mum went home to God

eight and a half years ago.

 

Having already read ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

we knew about Orion and his belt,

and what the Dog Star was, didn’t need to be explained to us.

 

Even at the end of the book,

we were left wondering about

‘The Dog Star’.

 

What was it really?

Where did it come from?

 

We would give this book ten out of ten

and would recommend it to children

between the ages seven and nine.

 

If you would like to comment, 

please double click the title at the top of a post

or the ‘Continue Reading’ box at the bottom 

and a comment box will appear.

We would LOVE to hear from you.

 

 

Making Connections: Data & English: Our Favourite Class Novels

This week we have been talking about the class novels we have read:

 

Jill Tomlinson’s

‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

‘The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’

and Jenny Nimmo’s

‘The Owl Tree’

and ‘The Stone Mouse’

 

We talked about the ones we preferred

and why we preferred them better.

 

First we collected data from the class

to see which book by Jill Tomlinson

2nd Class Room 6 preferred:

‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

or ‘The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’?

 

 

Then we made a bar graph.

Some children were absent

and Teacher got to vote as well.

You can see from the graph that

‘The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’

was our favourite book, by a score of 16 to 12.

 

Then we collected data to see which

class novel about owls, the class preferred:

Jill Tomlinson’s ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

or Jenny Nimmo’s ‘Owl Tree’?

 

We made a bar graph to show the results.

‘The Owl Tree’ was the winner there.

Once again the score was 16 to 12.

 

The next day we took a vote,

to collect data for this bar graph

to find out which story by Jenny Nimmo

the class preferred:

‘The Owl Tree’ or

‘The Stone Mouse’?

 

Teacher got to vote again and

there were less children absent,

so there were 30 in our survey.

‘The Stone Mouse’ was the winner here

by a very close score of 16 to 14.

 

 

Niamh said ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

was a very funny book that made her ‘laugh out loud’.

So why did the students in 2nd Class Room 6

prefer ‘The Aardvark who wasn’t sure’?

 

The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’

The children said this was a funny book too

and that they learned lots of new things

about animals who live in the African ‘veldt’.

 

‘The Owl Tree’

‘The Owl Tree’ was the book children preferred

of the two about owls. 2nd Class Room 6 felt it was

an unusual and serious book and that it was more grown up.

 

They liked the way Jenny Nimmo

worked a little bit of magic into every day life.

 

Cian said it gave him ‘mixed feelings’ because predicting

what was going to happen to the tree worried him.

 

John Paul said he liked the description of the food

that Granny Diamond brought out to her ‘trick or treat’ visitors.

 

Isabella said that it was interesting

to try and imagine what Mr. Rock looked like.

 

Fiona said that it was a good book to help

some one understand a disability or someone who looked different.

 

However good ‘The Owl Tree’ was the children thought that

‘The Stone Mouse’ was even better.

 

‘The Stone Mouse’

There were so many problems for Ellie

and ‘The Stone Mouse’ to overcome.

 

Isabella said she was interested

in finding out why Ted did what he did.

 

Alice was fascinated by the connection

between Ellie and ‘The Stone Mouse’,

where they both seemed to be worrying

at the same time.

 

Alice thought that it was interesting

that Ted is the short for Teddy

and that usually Teddies are soft and cuddly

but that Ted in the story was not.

 

Our next class novel is ‘The Dog Star’ by Jenny Nimmo.

Teacher says that there is magic and a mystery in it

and we are looking forward to it.