Our Model Village- a work in progress...

For the last few weeks we have been planning and creating our model village. It is starting to come together now and we hope to have it finished next week.

Take a look at the photos of our village so far:

Our Stone Creatures

This week we finished reading 'The Stone Mouse'. Next week we will be writing some stories of our own, so today we used clay to make some stone creatures of our own. Our stories will feature the creatures we created today.

Click through the slides to see the photos of our creatures:

Our stone creatures from sarahb1036

QR Codes

Today we found out what QR codes are and what they are used for.

QR stands for Quick Response. They are odd-looking patterns that you see everywhere now; on adverts, in newspapers, on the back of cereal packets...

If you have a smart phone, you can download a free QR Code Reader app. Then you just need to point your phone's camera at the code and it should open up the website, video or picture that it links to.

Remember not to scan any codes, or open any links, without the permission of an adult.

Today we experimented with making our own QR codes. We used a QR code generator called unitaglive.com to make our codes, which all link to our blog. We will be putting them up around the school, to encourage people to visit our blog. We experimented with different patterns, shapes and colours.

Here are some super examples:

 By Agatha

 By Antonio

 

 By Cassea

 

 By St. George's Class

 

 By Abel

 

 By Ella F.

 

By Nathan

Calum's Great Drawing!

Take a look at this wonderful illustration by Calum. He drew this great picture to accompany the postcard that he wrote from Ted, a character in the book we are reading; Stone Mouse.

Great work Calum!

The Eagle

I gave the children this jumbled up 'Wordle' version of The Eagle by Lord Alfred Tennyson. I didn't show them the original poem, instead I asked them to write their own poem called 'The Eagle' using the words in the wordle cloud. Some children added a few extra words of their own, but many managed to write a poem using only Tennyson's words.

Here are some of the wonderful poems written by St. George's Class:

The Eagle

 

He watches the azure sea from a crooked crag,

Like a thunderbolt,

He clasps the mountain with his wrinkled hands,

He watches the world as the sun falls beneath the lands,

He is lonely and wrinkled,

He watches the walls of the sea,

And closes his eyes.

 

By Ella F.

 

 

The Eagle

 

He glides over the azure sea,

He kills a fish like a thunderbolt,

He crawls up a mountain from the sea,

He lands on the crooked mountain,

He is lonely on the mountain,

He lands on the tree and stands up tall,

He flies as high as the sun,

 

What is he?

 

By Antonio

 

 

The Eagle

 

He crawls lonely on the lands,

The bright yellow crooked beak,

He watches the sun fall,

The azure sea crashes on the mountain,

A thunderbolt crashes close to the world,

Beneath him is a mountain,

He is lonely as he watches the bright sun,

He flies over the azure sea.

 

By Nathan

Here is the original poem:

The Eagle

 

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

 

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

 

By Lord Alfred Tennyson

First Holy Communion

 

We would all like to congratulate the children in

St. George's Class who are making their

 First Holy Communion this May.

 

We wish them all a happy and holy day.

 

Congratulations to:

 

Cordelia

Eliska

Ella F.

Sonny

Rhiannon

Rosa

Giulia

Pearl

Cassea

Jacob

Calum

Ella W.

Amelie

Abel

Sofia

Limericks

This week we listened to Michael Rosen's 'Three Limericks' poem. We were inspired to read lots of other limericks and then to write some of our own. Listen to our podcast and see what you think- some are funny, some are clever and some are just bizarre! Can you find any other limericks?

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/2105201St-Georges-Class.xml

Click on the link for 'Limericks'.

Stone Mouse Readers' Theatre

Source: Jenny Nimmo, Walker Books Ltd.

This half term we have been reading 'Stone Mouse' by Jenny Nimmo. This week we tried out a new activity called Readers' Theatre. We took a section of the story and worked in groups to turn it into a script, adding to or removing the original words wherever we thought it would help the performance.

We performed the readings and recorded them to make this podcast. Lots of the children took turns to control the microphone and record other groups. Well done!

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/2105201St-Georges-Class.xml

Click on the link for 'Ted's Anger'.

Southwark Poetry Festival- ADISA

On Thursday we were lucky enough to visit Dulwich Picture Gallery for a session with performance poet ADISA, as part of the Southwark Poetry Festival.

Source: bbc.co.uk

We had a fantastic time and enjoyed asking a real-life poet lots of questions! Adisa wanted the children from the three schools to ask lots of questions and he answered them in funny and entertaining ways and performed many of his poems for us.

On our walk back to school through a sunny Dulwich Park, some of the children were telling me that they would like to be professional poets, just like Adisa.

The Midnight Sea

Yesterday, we read chapters 3 and 4 of Stone Mouse by Jenny Nimmo- we have enjoyed this book so far. In these chapters there were lots of great descriptive words and phrases about the sea. We collected these adjectives and wrote some phrases of our own onto strips of paper.

We tried to include different senses and we worked together to edit and improve the lines, adding alternative words or word orders.

We worked together to write 12 lines, then blutacked them to the board and moved them around (a lot!) until we found an order that we liked. The class decided that the sea should start calm, get stormy, then be calm again the next morning. Then, we discussed splitting the poem into verses.

Eventually, after lots of discussion, one of the lines 'The gloomy sea,' didn't seem to fit anywhere, so we decided to leave it out. We discussed how poets edit their writing and that sometimes even the best ideas don't belong in one particular poem.

Next, we chose a title from a number of suggestions. We decided that 'The Midnight Sea' was the best choice. We then went through and added the capital letters and punctuation that we thought was necessary.

Here is our poem:

The Midnight Sea

 

The silent midnight water,

Gleaming moon reflecting on the azure sea,

Shining and glittering,

The whispering ocean.

 

Swishy swashy waves,

Frills of bubbles,

Waves tipped with pure white foam.

 

The roaring waves,

Smack the stony sea shore,

The salty smell of darkness choking in your fizzy mouth.

 

Calm and peaceful water.

 

 

 

By St. George's Class

Miss Benn's Poetry Adventure!

As you all know, I was on a course today with Michael Rosen. I have discovered lots of exciting new poems and poetry games for us to try out in St. George's Class.

I heard lots of interesting ideas from the other teachers on the course and they were very impressed with all the wonderful poems you have written this year.

Here's a picture with the man himself, Michael Rosen, holding your book of 'Gold Poems for King Midas':

 

Michael Rosen liked your poems so much that he even signed the book for you- and left you a special message!

 

 

I hope you all have a lovely sunny long weekend- and come back next week ready for lots of new poems and poetry games- I can't wait!