Year 5 Composition: Bring in Your Spy Base & Create Poster of Suspense Techniques

Your homework comes in two parts:
(1) Try to bring in your Spy base tomorrow. If it isn't finished, bring it in on Monday.

(2) Please create a neat, colourful poster showing all of our suspense techniques. You can use coloured pencils, textures, pictures from a magazine...but no felt tips, please. This is an example of visual learning.

You can find the full list here, at baldworm.co.uk

The poster is due tomorrow (Thursday).

Year 5 Prose Style: Dialogue

Prose StylePlease write a conversation (not a story) between two girls on a Residential Camp. One is telling a scary story; the other wants her to be quiet so she can go to sleep.

You could begin like this:

"Please be quiet," whimpered Sally.

Note: Please don't use the names of girls in the class!

Feeling clever
Break up the speech like this:

"Oh!" said Sally. "I didn't think of that!"

(Image by Stevecadman; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Due: Wednesday

Spellings
Please learn the 'words ending with u' spellings. Don't forget to play some Spelling City words to help you learn

Test: Next Tuesday

Year Six Prose Style: The Dreaded Apostrophe

Can you spot the mistakes in the image above?

Visit the Apostrophe Protection Society.

Task: Please complete the apostrophe worksheets.
Due: Wednesday

Spellings
Please learn the 'en' and 'ify' words for a test next Tuesday. Revise at Spelling City.

(Image by libsk; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Year 5 Comprehension: H.I.V.E. P-E-E

We have started learning about P-E-E-ing all over the page. Use the P-E-E approach in our comprehension.


(P.S. The Web 2.0 tool above is a Voicethread. We'll be using these in class soon!)

Task: Please complete the H.I.V.E. comprehension
Due: Wednesday

(Image by bdjsb7; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Year Six: Charles Dickens Comprehension

Want to learn more about Charles Dickens? Enjoy this brilliant animation of the life of Dickens and here to play the 'Surviving Charles Dickens' London' game.

Task: Please complete the Dickens comprehension in your book.
Due: Wednesday

P.S. Want to take part in my MixedInk experiment? Click here and add a sentence that includes a nonsense word.

(Photo by Simon Harryiott; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Bald Worm Shares a Poem a Week: Autumn Leaves

]

We love poetry at Falcons Girls! Year Six are beginning their Charles Dickens unit, so let's enjoy this Autumn poem by the great man himself!

Enjoy the Year Three Play Videos!

Year Three have been writing playscripts. Enjoy their plays at FalconsTube or via the Year 3 page on the Falcons Girls wiki. Well done, Year 3!

Want to write a playscript of your own? Watch this video mini-guide.

Learn More about Our School & Alpha Plus Education

Want to learn more about your school? Visit the Alpha Plus Education website - and look carefully at the pictures, as you may just see some familiar faces!

Year Five Composition: Build a Spy Base!

We are going to write suspense scenes set in your secret spy base. Learn more about suspense here.



Novelists often use models to help them 'picture' a location in their imagination (a bit like playing in a doll house!); I would like you to design and build a secret hq for a bad guy.





Build a model of a secret hq. Here are some of the things you could include:

* Banks of computer screens
* A giant map of the world
* Secret doors or compartments
* Torture chamber (yuck!)
* Sharks!
* Henchmen/goons
* Evil pets
* Rockets
* Dwarf servant
* Desk
* Armchair with buttons

How you build the model is up to you! Here are some of the materials you might choose to use:
* Cardboard boxes painted over
* Sticky-back plastic
* Wood
* Paper mashed and glued
* Washing up bottles
* Model Paint

This video will give you some ideas (don't make Tracy Island, though! Just use the same techniques!)



Hint: Design the hq on paper before you start to construct it!

Be as imaginative as you can! Bring your model into class next Thursday! We are going to base a series of stories in this location, so do a great job! There will be a small prize for the best model!

We'll photograph the models and stick them on the pupil wiki for the world to enjoy, and then write scenes and stories set in this location!

Due: Try to bring in next Wednesday, but if you need until a week on Monday that will be fine.

Here is one of the bases from last year.

P.S. Learn all about our suspense techniques:

Year Six Homework: Thursday & Friday

I'm away on Thursday and Friday, but don't worry, here is the homework for the rest of the week:

Thursday
Write the first fifteen lines of 'The Theft of the Masterpiece Painting'

Due: Friday (you'll need your book for Friday)

Friday
Redraft your timed writing story - we'll record it as a special 'Detective' podcast next week. Focus on (i) meeting the target identified on your target card and (ii) the first 15 lines of your story.

Feeling clever? Think about using varied sentence openings (we looked at this in our prose lesson)



Due: Monday

Enjoy your writing, and I look forward to reading your stories on Monday.

P.S. Next week we'll be studying the writing of Charles Dickens - videos, reading list and useful links here.

Year Six Prose Style: Sentence Openings

We have been looking at varying our sentence openings in our quest for 'elegant prose'.

Task: Please write a paragraph - 10 sentence long - about an detective. The challenge? Every sentence should open in a different manner, e.g.

Slowly, the Great Detective rose to his feet. Moving like a cat, he made his way towards the kitchen. The Detective, who was still feeling sore from the gunshot wound, made himself a cup of tea. He winced.

Due: Wednesday

**Spellings**
Please learn the 'trans' spellings - click here for the Spelling City page - for our dictation test next Tuesday.

Bald Worm Shares a Poem a Week: O Captain! Oh, Captain!

Falcons Girls love poetry! Enjoy this sad poem by the great American poet Walt Whitman.

Year Six Comprehension: Clare on the Bus

In comprehension feedback we took a good look at the 'simile' questions in the 'Eurostar to Paris' comprehension. Here is our 'Questions about Similes' prezi:

Task: Please complete the 'Clare on the Bus' comprehension.
Due: Wednesday.

(Image by Gene Hunt; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Year Six Weekend Homework: Reasoning & Learning Your Lines

Do you like the new banner at the top of the blog? Pretty cool, eh? Thanks to Juvenile for the design.

We have our Autumn term assembly on Monday. Please make sure that:
1. You learn the script 'by heart'
2. You get in by 8.30 on Monday so we can have a quick run through

I also want you to attempt all the questions in the verbal reasoning pack. Check your answers; we'll go through any tricky bits on Monday.

Have a great weekend! Why not drag Mum to the library and borrow a Holmes story?

P.S. Prepare for our lesson next week by watching my 'First 15 lines of a Short Story':

Year Five Weekend Homework: Enjoy Flatford Mill

Enjoy Flatford Mill! Have a great time - and we'll be learning about Spy Stories when you get back!

Year Six: Finish the Red-Headed League

In class we've begun to study Sherlock's deductive method.

Task: Please complete the 'Red-Headed League'

Just for fun...Sherlock Holmes in the future!

Year Five Planning: Planning for Conflict

This is a 'prezi' - a new kind of PowerPoint. Click the 'play' button to navigate around my 'Planning a Short Story' prezi:


Task: Create a neat - very neat! - hand plan from one of the hand plans you've created in class. Colour the palm in using pencil crayons - use 'flesh tones'. Write in blue ink cartridge pen. Don't forget to include the brainstorm. We'll be photographing this work for display on the pupil wiki, so make sure it really is super neat!

Year 6: Holmes!

Over the next two weeks we are going to secure our knowledge of how to structure the first 15 lines of a short story whilst studying Sherlock Holmes. Just click on 'play', wait for it to load, and click through the presentation:

Click on the Sherlock Holmes prezi to learn more about the great detective:

Year 6 Prose Style: Writing Elegant Prose

Your prose should be like Audrey Hepburn: elegant.

Task: Write an eight line of a description of a hansom cab - Sherlock Holmes' method for getting around Victorian London. Use this video, recorded in 1903, to help you:

Tick off the following as you include it in your description:
* Fragment sentence
* Impact sentence
* Compound sentence ( a sentence using the joining comma, and the word 'and', 'but' or 'or')
* Complex sentence (a sentence using the bracketing comma)

Please annotate your 'finished' work, showing me where you've used the different sentence structures.

Feeling clever? Try to include the following:
* Brackets
* A dash

Don't forget to complete the self-assessment when you've finished your work.

Feeling clever? Try to end your paragraph with an impact sentence.

Due: Wednesday

Spellings
Please learn the 'para' spellings at Spelling City. Dictation test next Tuesday.

Year 5 Spelling and Prose: Words ending in '-a'

Spelling: Your test next week is on words ending in 'a'. Learn the words at Spelling City

Prose: You're going to revise the layout of direct speech by writing a dialogue - write a conversation between an angry, tired parent and their little boy, who is refusing to go to bed. Write 1/2 side - and focus on your use of the comma in direct speech.

(Image by Uqbar is back; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Bald Worm Shares a Poem a Day: To Autumn

Falcons Girls love poetry! Autumn is coming - so what better time to enjoy Keats' To Autumn!

Good Advice!

Year 6: Skimming

In class we learnt all about how we can skim a paragraph to gather information quickly.

Task: Please complete the example 11+ comprehension
Due: Wednesday

I made this MindMap with My Thoughts, an Apple Mind Mapping programme. Click on the microphones to listen to my comprehension programmes. Click on the image to expand:

Year 5 Comprehension: Underline the Key Words

You have been revising the importance of underlining key words in the questions when attempting a comprehension.

This MindMap should help you remember what we've learnt over the last two weeks:

Task: Please complete the 'James Bond in the Market' comprehension
Due: Wednesday.

P.S. Don't forget it is our -sion and -tion word spelling test tomorrow!

(Image by *Mickey; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Bald Worm Shares a Poem a Day: Herbert Has a Hotdog

Falcons Girls love poetry! Today's poem is by the brilliant Kenn Nesbitt.

Year Five Fiction: Planning a Story Based on a Picture

Year Five have had a brilliant week! You've been learning about the 'fab four golden rules' for planning a story how to create hand plans; and how to plan from a picture.

Task: Please complete two hand plans based on two of the images in the homework pack.
Don't forget to complete the self-assessment sheet!

('Six-Gun Gorilla image pinched from the brilliant Jess Nevins - the world expert in Victorian pulp fiction)

Year Six Fiction: Redrafting Your Timed Writing

What a week! In the first five days of term you've already learnt about the nine parts of speech, escalating tension plans and how planning a story set in a confined environment - like a prison cell (see the video above!), a cave or trapped lift - can add tension to your writing - especially if you add something dangerous into the environment, like a snake, bank robber or a ticking bomb! We've also enjoyed reading Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror. Why not try to get hold of a copy this weekend?

Weekend homework: Please complete a full redraft of your Timed Writing story. Don't forget to fill in the self- assessment sheet. Learn more about redrafting - the process of improving your story - here.

Have a great weekend. Next week? Sherlock Holmes!

Year Six Fiction: Escalating Tension

Have you visited our pupil wiki page for the 'brainstorming' unit? You can also learn more about our History topic, the Victorians, at the Year Six History wiki area

Task: Please write 'escalating tension' plans based on the titles 'The Un-door' & 'Winter Pruning'

Hint: An un-door might be something that looks like a door, or is pretending to be a door...but isn't!

'Pruning' is when you cut off, or cut back, part of a flower, like this:



...but the character in your story doesn't have to be pruning flowers, does she...

Don't forget you can revise the fab four rules for planning a short story by watching this Bald Worm mini-guide:


P.S. How does Derren Brown do this? What is your theory?

Bald Worm Shares a Poem a Day: You'll love this!

Falcons girls love this Roger McGough poem! Enjoy!

Bald Worm Shares a Poem a Day: We've going on a Bear Hunt!

Falcons Girls love poetry! Bald Worm will be sharing a poem every week here on the blog - and to kick off the new year we've got a brilliant poem by Michael Rosen. Visit his site to see more brilliant poems!

I love this painting!

Do you have a favourite painting? I saw this painting in the Art Institute of Chicago a few weeks ago. I love it! If I could own any painting in the world, I think I'd choose this one.

Which painting would you have on your living room wall? Leave a comment and tell the world!

Year 5 Homework: The Fab Four Golden Rules

Task: Click here and read all about the 'fab four golden rules for planning a short story'.

P.S. Watch the latest Bald Worm mini-guide - Bald Worm on how to write a script for a play:

Tuesday 8th September: Year Five & Six Homework

Year Five
1. Please complete the 'sion' and 'tion' suffix ending worksheets and learn your spellings for our test next week, using Spelling City.

2. Don't forget that your 'Daydreamer' comprehension is due in tomorrow.

3. Your composition unit for the first couple of weeks is about planning a story. Learn more at this special page on the pupil wiki.

Year Six
1. Please complete the 'Willie and the Bone' comprehension; bring this in tomorrow

2. Please learn the 'Nine Parts of Speech' poem. You can learn this in different ways, depending on your preferred learning style:
* Copy out the poem;
* Turn the poem into a clapping rhyme;
* Record the poem and play it back through your earphones.

Listen to this pupil Eduboo to get some more ideas:


Do you know your preferred learning style?

3. Year Six will be revising brainstorming techniques. Learn more here.

(Image by TheGiantVermin; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Welcome Back, Falcons Girls!

Welcome back, girls! Did you enjoy meeting our new friends W.l.L.F. and W.A.L.T.? And what do you think of the new Falcons rules and the Falcons Palace? Are you looking forward to 'Falcons Time' on Friday?

Year Six Homework
Please complete the 'Willie and the Bone' comprehension. Don't forget to fill in the success criteria tick box, showing me that you've thought about your learning!

Please complete the 'Willie and the Bone' comprehension. Give yourself 45 minutes. Due: Wednesday. Don't forget to pay particular attention to the questions worth three or more marks.

You can read ahead about our 'planning' unit by visiting this page on the pupil wiki.

Year Five Homework
1. Please listen to my 'Reading the Paper' comprehension podcast.

2. Please complete the 'Daydreamer' reading with a pencil comprehension. Lost your copy? Download another from here. Don't forget to fill in the success criteria tick box, showing me that you've thought about your learning!

Want to learn more about 11+ comprehensions? Then visit Bald Worm's comprehension site, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Comprehension!

Due: Wednesday.

('Smiley' image by Marcus Vegas; used under Creative Commons agreement)