The Scottish Play!

In English lessons last week, the children in Year 5 enjoyed learning all about Shakespeare's Macbeth. They completed lots of drama activities, allowing them to explore character feeling and motivation and also the impact of stage directions within a playscript.  Armed with this knowledge, the children re-wrote a scene from the play, using modern language. Here is Hadi’s re-write: 

Macbeth Scene 3

Cast List: Servant, Macbeth, Assassins 1-3, Lady Macbeth, Banquo’s ghost, Lennox, Ross.

Narrator: Macbeth has invited lords, family and friends to a banquet.  Banquo died because assassins had killed him… At the banquet…

Servant: Welcome Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. (servant departs)

Macbeth: (Walks in slowly) Thank you for coming.

Narrator: After a while, the servant came back.

Servant: Erm… the two men have arrived and wish to see you (walks away slowly and whispers, trying not to draw attention).

Macbeth: (Walks to the assassins and whispers) Have you killed Banquo?

Assassin 1: Yes.

Macbeth: And his son? 

Assassin 2: Well… he escaped, he was too fast.

Macbeth: What? The boy I can deal with later. Go!

Lady Macbeth: Come and rejoin the feast!

Macbeth: But the table is full.

Lennox: Here’s a seat my king.

Narrator: As Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost, he starts to swing his sword in mid-air.

Macbeth: Leave this place at once! (Still waving the sword).

Lady Macbeth: (Trying to stay calm). The king isn’t well. Please stay seated.

Banquo’s ghost: Time to get revenge!

Narrator: All of the visitors left

Lady Macbeth: What were you doing? 

Macbeth: I saw Banquo.  I think I'm…

Lady Macbeth: What?

Macbeth: Cursed…

Spooky Stories!

Over the last two weeks, Year 5 have worked hard on exploring the features of and writing their own spooky short stories.  The have thought carefully about how to build tension within their writing and attempted to use a range of different sentence types for effect.  They have also been working hard to include more exciting and interesting vocabulary within their independent work. Here are some of the finished products: 

In Bed By Lily

One night, I was in my living room with my mum.  She said to me that it was bedtime, but I didn’t want to go to my old, dusty, spider webbed bedroom because there were ghosts in it.  And I know that. After we bought this house it was known in the news for being notorious. I said to my mum, “I’m not going to my ro0om because last night I had a terrible nightmare.”

So I went to my room after all that and I heard noises from outside.  It wasn’t lightning because we never got lightening, so I looked outside but nothing was there.  But then I closed the blinds and the lights in my bedroom were flickering on and off.  

I jumped under my covers and stayed there for five minutes and I heard a shouting noise.  It sounded like my mum but I was sure it wasn’t. I heard someone getting closer and closer to me. Then I heard a shout.  I didn’t know what to do so I was brave and shouted, “GO AWAY!” All I heard back was a whisper. I thought it was an ambush.

I needed to go down stairs and no one was around at all.  There was blood everywhere. Something touched me on the shoulder and I was dead…  

But I woke up again and I wasn’t at home.  I was somewhere where dead people were. I didn’t know what to do but I couldn’t escape.  I turned around and…

Camp-tastrophe By Shreya

It was the most ordinary of days and Emma and her best friend Jennifer were camping.  The were smack, bam in the middle of the forest that was dark isolated and gloomy. They were finishing off their noodles then Jennifer sleepily lumbered off to get some dented, old firewood.  Her eyes were bloodshot red and Emma was worried. Would she be ok? 

But she had disappeared into the pitch black darkness.  Emma snuggled into her cosy sleeping bag and her eyes shut.

It wqs 12.00.  Emma had awoken.  She was notorious for waking up late every morning.  A large, blurred silhouette was hanging over the tent.  Emma froze. She felt for Jennifer. “Jenny?” she whispered, almost mutely.  She was not there. Suddenly, the shadow turned, very slowly to face Emma. It was holding a body.  It was Jennifer. The shadow whipped away.

It was a few days after the incident and Emma and Jenny’s parents were waiting eagerly for the girls to come home.  It was 1:00... 2:00...3:00. They were anxious. They drove as fast as lightning to the forest. All they found was a blood drenched camp set and knife...no footprints…

Brilliant Bodies Workshop

The children in Prep enjoyed the Brilliant Bodies workshop today! They found out all about the functions of different parts of the body and even got to make their own snot (slime)!

Entry Point - Being Human

In our entry point for our first unit of IPC, children took their heart rate before and after completing vigorous exercise... can you guess what happened to their heart rates? Ask year 5 and 6 what happened and why!