Epic Citadel Directions

This half term we have been using Epic Citadel to inspire our writing! We have explored the empty town and written government reports about what happened to the people, written persuasive letters, created diary entries and descriptions and written stories set in the citadel.

Last week, we wrote directions for a partner to follow. We had to pick a location in the game to begin, then write a set of instructions to guide our partner to an end point. Then we swapped iPads and tried following our partner's instructions!

Saving Fred

One beautiful summer afternoon, Fred was out on the lake in his boat, enjoying the sunshine. Suddenly, the sky darkened as a huge storm struck; the winds whipped around him and the rain poured. The torrential rain and frightening winds surrounded poor Fred and soon his boat was turned over. Poor Fred, a worm, cannot swim. As the storm blew past and the air settled, Fred was stranded on top of his boat and his lifesaving rubber ring was trapped underneath his boat.

On Thursday, the children in St. George's Class had to work in teams to save poor Fred, the worm! They had to get Fred into his life ring to save him from drowning.

There were a few things that made their mission more complicated:

• Fred can't swim, so he couldn't fall into the water (touch the table).
• The children could only use paper clips to touch Fred, the boat or the life ring.
• They could not injure Fred in any way.

 
It was a difficult challenge, but eventually all of the teams worked together to save Fred. Here's how they got on:

Once they had completed their mission, each group had to work together to explain how they saved Fred. They had to give a step-by-step explanation of what they did and use diagrams to show clearly how he was saved:

Well done everyone! What was the most difficult part of this challenge?

A Lesson in German with Miss Jordis!

Source: HMH Books for Young Readers

Last week, we started our new book 'La Mariposa'. We heard the story of Francisco, who moved with his family from Mexico to California. He struggled to settle into school, because he didn't speak any English and his teacher, Miss Scalapino, stopped him from speaking any Spanish. He felt lost and confused.

To get an idea of how Francisco felt in his lessons, we decided to try it for ourselves! Miss Jordis taught us a whole lesson in German and we were banned from speaking any English at all. It was very tricky!

 Miss Jordis gave us instructions to make and decorate a paper aeroplane- the colours and shapes were difficult to work out, but we all made a plane by the end of the lesson. Thank you Miss Jordis!

Following the lesson, we discussed (in English!) what made the lesson easier for us. We decided that some words were easier to guess if they sounded similar to the English words and that Miss Jordis' gestures and looking to see what the other children were doing were helpful tactics.

The lesson was lots of fun and gave us a taste of what the experience might have been like for Francisco. This week, we're going to write letters to Miss Scalapino to give her some advice on how she might help Francisco to settle in to school in a new country where he doesn't understand the language being spoken.

Thank you for a fun and fascinating lesson Miss Jordis!

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By; Jonathan, Chelsea, Thalia, Nathan, Caitlin and Rhiannon