TR&W Issue 20

www.teachwire.net | 41 C L AS SROOM AC T I V I T I E S Loved this? Try these... v The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner v The Legend of Podkin One-Ear by Kieran Larwood v The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis v The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan v The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (part of the Chronicles of Prydain ) v Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston classroom like a little café. Pupils have a voting sheet to fill out as they try thinking about taste, texture, smell and description. I pose them the question “Would you betray your family for Turkish delight?” This can also lead to discussion opportunities around sugar rations at the time the book was set, as sweets were very rare and so more desirable. WARDROBE DIORAMAS Creating wardrobes that open into Narnia is so magical, and it never fails to create joy and excitement in the children. Through their art, they can create the world they visualise when reading the story together, and I love just letting them let their imaginations take over. We make the dioramas early on after reading the first few chapters, so again, the activity serves to ignite their interest and investment in the text. MANNEQUIN MAGIC AND WORLD BOOK DAY For the last few years, World Book Day has fallen around the time we’ve been reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . As a staff year group, we have dressed up as characters from the story. There’s nothing more exciting for the children than seeing how their teachers love and value the book and recreate the characters. I make my class giggle all day long by being in character as the White Witch, threatening to turn them to stone. This year I also got the children to design a dress with snowflakes for a mannequin, and transform our classroom door into the wardrobe. All of these things added to the magic, creating lasting memories of the joy the book brings. Ceridwen Eccles is a primary teacher with an interest in pedagogy and a passion for books. Rewriting a chapter from the viewpoint of a character As I mentioned at the start, one of the most powerful ways to make a child fully invest in a story is to make them really try and put themselves in the shoes of characters in the narrative. At the start, ask them to think about how they would be feeling if they were Lucy. What questions would they have? This is a useful strategy that can be used throughout the book either through discussion or more formal recorded written activities, such as writing a diary to show how Lucy might feel after her wonderful adventure in Narnia to come home to Edmund denying he had been there too. Or creating a feelings mood board, using quotes from the text to show how they would feel if they were Aslan after he came back from the dead. TP bank of descriptions using direct information from what the children have read. I then get pupils to use this to create a Booking.com-style advert to persuade people to come and stay in the Beavers’ house. I share the website with the children so they can see how the adverts are typically formulated, and then use a template I have made to support the creation of their own adverts using information from the text. The children are always excited and animated, and I love seeing what they come up with. Reader’s theatre Reader’s theatre ( tinyurl.com/ tp-ReadersTheatre ) is a strategy that I have only started using in the last few years, and it provides an excellent way for children to merge the love of playing and performing with building the skill of oral reading. The interactions between the four siblings in the book (and other characters they meet along the way) provide great opportunities for the children to practise these elements and develop a love of reading through collaboration and teamwork with peers. They are not expected to memorise the lines they read, or to use props, but reader’s theatre allows children to see the power their voice and storytelling have to bring alive a scene through how they speak and read the text. Through practising a set scene with peers, pupils perfect the speed, fluency and expression of the text. Performances of scenes to the class build confidence and resilience, and help create a positive class community. Scenes that are particularly powerful to do are: when Lucy and Edmund return from Narnia and he denies he went; the exchange between Susan, Lucy and Aslan on his walk to the stone table; the first interaction between the White Witch and Edmund. pull on modern, relatable content in a fun way whilst not detracting from the explicit teaching of knowledge and skills you wish the children to develop. In Year 4, expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials are an objective they need to secure as part of the expected standard for writing, and these can be easily revised through the exploration of this chapter. In a reading lesson, I like to dive deeper back into the chapter where the home is described (after previously reading for pleasure and story time). We create a class @Teacherglitter