TR&W Issue 20

www.teachwire.net | 25 C L AS SROOM AC T I V I T I E S Loved this? Try these... v Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers (KS1) v A Way to the Stars by David Almond (KS1) v Skellig by David Almond (KS2) v The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow (KS2) v The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival (KS2) v The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Rauf (KS2) some larger boxes depending on what is being shown in each one. For example, a leaf falling might need three small boxes, followed by a larger box showing it landing on someone’s head. Remind children they can use movement lines and words such as ‘BANG!’ if they want to. Give children A4 paper to work on; for younger children, you can provide a framework with four boxes pre-drawn. GET INTO NATURE For a fun activity that’s great for encouraging imagination and creativity, why not take your class out to a nearby park, field or woodland – anywhere you can find some natural resources. Ask children to collect interesting plant materials – seed pods, grasses, sections of bark, acorns, pinecones and twigs. Ask pupils to create their own puppet collage using a suitable flat surface in the environment you are in – a pathway, a flat grassy area etc., with children continuing to search for good materials to use as their artwork takes shape. As artwork can’t be saved, take photos of finished collages to print out later, making these into a class book of puppet art, or for use as part of a book topic display. Karen Hart is an independent drama teacher, author and freelance writer. Looking at alliteration I’ve found this activity to be really good as a vocabulary builder – it’s also a handy one to use when you have a spare ten minutes to fill. It works better than a general ‘looking for describing words’ exercise, in that it encourages children to think about words, mulling them over to find the ones with the right sound. If children can have their own alliteration/ vocabulary notebooks, this is really useful, as they will then have a good source of vocabulary to dip into when working on descriptive writing, poetry, etc. Start by talking about alliteration and what it means. A simple definition could be: Alliteration means words starting with the same sound next to each other, for example, • Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. • Sidney, the sneaky, slippery, slimy snake. • Fiona, the fancy, fluttery, floaty fairy. We use alliteration to draw attention to something we want to show our readers, or to create rhythm – especially in poetry – and to create a nice sound with words. Next, ask children to think of some examples of alliteration that could be used with the word ‘puppet’. Some examples could be: purple, painted, pretty, perfect, polished, peachy, polite, puzzled. Make a note of these on the board, with children writing the words in their workbooks. Making an acrostic Using their alliterative words as a jumping off point, ask children to create an acrostic poem using the title word ‘puppet’– explaining what the term acrostic means: a poem or other piece of writing in which the first Next, talk about an adventure a puppet could be involved in. Provide a simple framework to get children started if needed, such as: Puppet left the house for his morning walk, feeling cheerful. Puppet was so busy watching a butterfly fluttering in the sky, he didn’t see the big, deep puddle and fell in right up to his waist! He... Puppet was so happy to be safe and dry again, he danced all the way home and... With everyone collaborating, create a whole-class story. Write the story up on the board for everyone to copy into their workbooks. Try to get some form of contribution from everyone in the class, even if it’s just the colour of Puppet’s clothes. Encourage children to change the story as they write it up to include their own ideas, and to be as imaginative as they can. Alternatively, older and more able children can write their own story without the use of a framework; children who need a bit more help perhaps changing just one or two words. letter of each new line spells out a word. Give children an example of an acrostic poem, such as this one using the word ghost: G rey and transparent, H armless but spooky, O wls his only friends. S ilently floating through forests and woodlands, T hrough the river’s bend. Explain that their poem doesn’t need to rhyme, and they already have a good bank of ‘P’ words they can use. It might be a good idea to write some words beginning with the letters ‘U’ ‘E’ and ‘T’ on the board for children to use if they get stuck, especially for younger age groups. Children can draw a design to accompany their acrostic poem if time allows. @Karen.Journalist