Week commencing 18th May

Our Class Book!

This week, we are continuing to read more Greek Myths from our class book. We hope that you have enjoyed the stories that you have read over the last weeks – there are some more fantastic stories this week too!

Activity 1 Reading

Please spend 30 minutes reading your next book in Bug club. Please click below:

Activity 2 Reading

Please see reading below under Activity 2 English

Activity 3 Reading

Please see reading below under Activity 3 English

Activity 4 Reading

Please see reading below under Activity 4 English

Activity 5 Reading

Please end the week by going on to Newsround. Choose a story that you would like to read and then write a summary and your own headline to go with the story. Can you include alliteration or a pun in your headline as we did in class? Please follow the link below:

Activity 1 English

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been reading the story of Daedalus and Icarus. We found out that Daedalus designed the maze for King Minos. Today’s story takes place after that and involves the maze that was built! It could well be a maze like the one you designed last week!

Please watch the You Tube story telling of ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’. You might recognise Liz from drama workshops in school! Click the link below:

Activity 2 English

Today, we’re going to read pages 62a, 62b, 63a and 63b of Theseus’ story from our class book. The activity is then underneath the reading.

After you have read these pages: imagine that you are one of the seven male or female prisoners who have been chosen to be eaten by the Minotaur. You don’t yet know that you will survive and so are probably very frightened. On your journey to Crete by boat, I want you to write a letter home to your mum or dad.

Paragraph 1: Tell your mum/dad that you are on your way to Crete because you have been chosen by the King to be fed to the Minotaur. Can you give some more details? Why do you think that you were picked?

Paragraph 2: Tell your mum/dad that your only hope is Theseus as he has said that he will kill the Minotaur before he gets the chance to eat you all. What is his plan? Will it succeed? What do you know about the Minotaur?

Paragraph 3: Tell them how you are feeling about the situation. Are you scared/hopeful/both? What else do you think that you might say in this situation?

Below, are some sentence starters that you might like to use:

Dear Mum/Dad,

(P1) Today has turned into a complete nightmare because

(P2) The only person who can save us from death is

(P3) At this moment in time,

You might like to use the activity 2 sheet to help you. There are also fronted adverbial and conjunctions word mats below to help you to extend your sentences.

Activity 3 English

Today, we are going to be finishing reading the story of the Minotaur on pages 64a, 64b, 65a and 65b. The activity is underneath the reading.

Once you have read to the end of the story, I want you to think about:

1. What are the morals of the story? What lessons can we learn from the story? There are a few!
    
2. What sort of ‘hero’ was Theseus?
   Was he all good? When/how did he behave badly?
    
   In your word work yesterday, hopefully you found out that the definition of a hero/heroine is: A hero is a male main character of a narrative who has admirable qualities, and who is expected to evoke the reader's sympathy. So, a heroine is the same kind of character, except that she is female in gender.
    
   So, they have ‘admiral qualities’ which a things that you admire about them and they are likeable.
    
   Activity: Please write a job advert for a ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’
    
   Example:
   Full Time Job Vacancy for a Hero/Heroine

• Candidates must be good time-keepers as some jobs will come up quickly and the candidate will be required to rush to the incident immediately.
• Common sense is a must for all candidates as they will be required to make sensible decisions based on what they find and change tactics if necessary.
   
  Please write at least 5 qualities that your candidate should have!
   

Activity 4 English

Please start today by reading a short myth called Atalanta’s Race! Whilst you’re reading, think about if she would make a good heroine!

Moving on from the job advert yesterday, today we would like you to create your own hero/heroine for stories that we will be writing next week.

We have read lots of stories with various main characters in them. Sometimes, you might describe them as a hero/heroine. Think about the characters who we have met so far and how you would describe them: Pandora, King Midas, Daedalus, Odysseus, Theseus and Atalanta.

Activity 4 Task: We would like you to create your own hero/heroine! We are building towards writing a story next week and hopefully you will use this character (who might well be fighting the creature that you created on Friday!) in your writing. Think about their personality and key qualities carefully as well as how they look! Do they have a special quality which will help them to fight the creature you created? Or perhaps they will have a different challenge to face?

Use the activity 4 sheet below. Please also use the 3 character description mats below to help you to use a range of vocabulary. Try to write phrases not just individual words.

For example, rather than just writing ‘happy’, say in what ways your character is happy e.g. ‘always smiling and joking even in times of stress.’

Activity 5

Today, we would like you to convert your notes from yesterday about your hero/heroine into a descriptive piece.

Have a read of Roald Dahl’s description of Mr Twit below. Can you pick out some interesting fronted adverbials and adjectives used? He talks about his physical appearance but also that he is a ‘twit’! Can you see how each paragraph is about something slightly different?

Here is the start of my description about my heroine. Pick out some things that you like in my description and magpie them! Above each paragraph, I have written what the themes are to help you think about your themes.

(P1-bravery)

Patalanta was an incredibly brave young lady. She had always been brave even as a small child. When the fearsome Minotaur had accidentally been let loose in her village, she had only been around 6 or 7 years old but that didn’t stop her from helping the soldiers to recapture him.

(P2-appearance linked to family)

She had long, brown hair which always gleamed in the sun and it never seemed to get messy even after a long and arduous adventure! She was fairly tall and also very strong due to all of the weights that she lifted! She had pink, dimpled cheeks and a gently protruding chin. In fact, she looked very much like her mother, Venus, who was known for her radiant good looks. Thankfully, she looked nothing like her father Zeus though as he was no oil painting! Unfortunately, even though Patalanta longed for siblings, she did not have any!

(P3 –Good and bad character traits)

Most evenings after dinner, Patalanta would go and see her friends. She was a happy-go-lucky person and so because of this, people loved spending time with her. Don’t be mistaken though, she was no angel!! She could often be quite lazy and her time-keeping was terrible! She was often told off for being late as sometimes when her crew were ready to set sail on their next adventure, she was frequently still yawning in bed!!

Use your plan from yesterday to write your character description. You need to use interesting vocabulary, fronted adverbials and conjunctions. The mats are again below to help you. Think about your themes for each paragraph before you begin!

Words of the week:   

Word 1 – breathe

Word 2 – hero / heroine (not statutory words but you will need to know the definition for tomorrow’s English lesson!)

Word 3 – strength

Word 4 – continue

Word 5 - reign

As in previous weeks, please learn how to say the word, spell it several times, find out its definition and write 3 sentences with it in!