Alpha Plus Group's Falcons School for Girls is West London's Most Creative Preparatory School!

The Falcons School for Girls is West London's most creative preparatory school. Up until now, I've been restricted to what I could share on the blog; from today, I have written permission to post videos and photographs taken in the school. This means it will be easier to share our brilliant kinaesthetic, visual and musical learning with the world!

Thanks to Miss Spurling for creating this brilliant video of our Falcon Time activities.

Alpha Plus Education Group Sister School: Cliff School

Year 5 at our sister school in Yorkshire, Cliff School, are now keeping a blog. Click here to visit! Why not leave a comment and say hello?

Year Six Comprehension: Oliver Twist North London Girls' Schools' Consortium-Style Comprehension Paper

Bald Worm has a treat for you! I've created a comprehension in the style of the new North London Girls' Schools' Consortium paper. Download a copy from here.

Task: Please complete the 'Oliver Twist' comprehension
Due: Wednesday.

(Image by Smabs Sputzer; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Year 5 Comprehension: P-E with Jane Blonde

We've begun our spy project!

Homework: Complete the 'Jane Blonde' comprehension. Stuck on a question? Visit Bald Worm's comprehension blog: http://bit.ly/comprehension
.

Click here to visit the fantastic 'Jane Blonde' site!">

We have been learning about P-E-Eing all over the page!

P.S. Spelling Test on Tuesday! Revise the words ending in u here.

Due: Wednesday

Bald Worm's Book Club: The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Scatterhorn

I'm going to read 'The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Scatterhorn: The Museum's Secret.' Why not read this with Mum and Dad, and discuss it at dinner? Or you could ask someone at home to read it to you as a treat before you go to bed!

Order a copy of the book here.

Read an interview with the author, Henry Chancellor, here.

Watch an interview with the author here.

Falcons Girls love reading!

Year Six Fiction: Redrafting the 'Christmas Pudding'

Please redraft the 'Christmas Pudding' story you wrote during our timed writing session.

Missed school today? Download a copy of the task here.

Focus on including lots of shown feelings and meeting the target on your target card.

Due: Monday.

Have a great weekend! Don't forget the Dickens reading list at our pupil wiki.

(Image by Matio; used under Creative Commons agreement)

Year 6 Dickens: Distinctive Voices

In class we've been looking at Dickens' technique of using distinctive voices. Listen to our first-draft audiboo of some of the conversations between a Cab Man and Mr Pickwick:


Task: Please redraft your Cab Man & Pickwick conversation, making sure you use all of our characterisation techniques.

P.S. Don't forget the reading list and useful links at our pupil wiki.

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 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

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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 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)