YEAR 6: KENSUKE'S KINGDOM

Last year!! Year 6!!
For this year, one idea for a book could be "Kensuke's kingdom". This book is a very big jump from the book of year 5 and it would be really great if your students of year 6 could read it. 
The book is about a kid called Michael that was saling with his family and after a storm in the sea he appeared in a lonely island. There he met Kensuke and they had some adventures together.
Although is a heavy book and has some difficult language, the topic is nice and I'm sure the students will love it. 

HANDS ON!!
To help the children understand the events in the book and work with them, we can do many different activities. 
One of them could be making a map including all the places Michael visited. We can also include some pictures of the cities and search information. With this activity we work English and also Geography.
This is an example map I made: Michael's trip log

We can also work an historical event related to this book: The atomic bombings in Nagasaki.
With the app for the computed called Inspiration we can make a map to analyze what happend, who was involved, where did it happen, what were the causes... 
This is an example map we can do with the children.

After doing the map, we can pass into sentence level and write some sentences for each section of the map. This will the students us to clarify the ideas in order to write then a final text.

Finally, using the sentences they have already written, the children should write a whole text retelling the event. They will have to give an structure to the text and add some conectors for the text to make sense.

Hope you liked it! 😉

YEAR 5: THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS

Have you read the story of the three little pigs? Of course you have! But that story only tells the side of the three pigs... What about the wolf? Doesn't he have something to say?

"The true story of the three little pigs" is the book for year 5. You will love it! 
This book is where the wolf tells his version of the story and it may change your mind about the three little pigs and the wolf... The students will love the story too because it's very funny.

HANDS ON!!
This story has something new, it is told in first person. All the other books we have read were written in third person. 
With the children we can analyze the point of view of the story and go deep in it. Why the author chose this point of view? What did he want?
To make this analysis with the students, we can use Nearpod. Here I post the Nearpod lesson I made: Nearpod: Analyzing point of view


As we already know the two sides of the story we can try and contrast the two sides with our students. The first step would be making a venn diagram writing the characteristics of the characters in the right place. 
This will allow us to see more clearly the differences and similarities of the characters.

After making this diagram, we can pass to sentence level and write some sentences about the characteristics. They have to use structures to contrast the two sides.

Finally, we are ready to write a text to contrats the two sides of the story. This will be very challenging for the children because it is a different structure than the ones they have worked with before. We have to give the children much help.

Hope you liked it! 😉

YEAR 4: THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK

Do you like owls? I hope so!! Because the story for year 4 is "The owl who was afraid of the dark".

This story is about a little owl who is afraid of the dark. He decided to go and ask different persons in the forest for their opinion about the dark. 
This book has longer sentences and it's more complex than the year 3 book. But it is really interesting and the students will love this little owl!!

Sometimes children like that someone read them stories aloud, so we can try and do it the best way we can. If not, we have plenty of videos on the internet like this one: The owl who was afraid of the dark.

HANDS ON!!
After reading the book, we can do plenty of activities with the students in order to revise the content of the book.
I decided to make a Nearpod lesson. Nearpod is a web where you can create activities, questions, games... You give the students the password for your lesson and once they enter, you control their screens and you know what they're doing all the time.
Here I leave you my Nearpod lesson so you can see it and get some ideas of activities. Nearpod: The owl who was afraid of the dark

YEAR 3: LAZY JACK

Heeeeey!! We have already reached level 3!!

For this level I propose the book "Lazy Jack". The book is about a lazy boy that goes out looking for a job. He doesn't do anything right and his mum gets angry all the time.

I find this book really funny and I think children will love it!!

HANDS ON!!
After reading the book we can do plenty of activities. One idea could be making a diagram talking about the first time we did something, e.g. The first time I went to Florence.

Here we develop the children's skills of analysing different aspects of an event: who, when, what, where and why. And as they are talking about an event that was theirs, they will feel confident.

After making the diagram, we can go into sentence level and write a simple sentence about each aspect.

Finally the children will be ready to join the simple sentences and write a short text about their event.

Hope you liked it! 😉

YEAR 2: MY CAT LIKES TO HIDE IN BOXES

Yeaaaaar 2, here we go!!

For this year 2 I recomend the book "My cat likes to hide in boxes"  in this book appear a lot of cats from different countries. It is also written with rhyme and this make more attractive the book for the children. 

With this book I propose you a handicraft activity. We can divide the class into different groups. Each group will have to draw one of the cats and write the sentece that rhymes. Finally, we join all together and we make our own book.
It will be entertaining and I'm sure the students will love it!.


Hope you like it! 😉

YEAR 1: FAT CAT ON A MAT

Hi again!! 

In this section of the blog I'm going to post some ideas of books that you can use for each year of Primary. 

It is important that children know how to read properly in English, how the intonation is, where do they have to stop... For this reason I will post some books that are insteresting for children and also some activities you can do after reading them.

Year 1!! 
For this year I recomend the book "Fat cat on a mat". In this book a cat finds some eggs and she looks after them until they are born. In the book appear a lot of animals and it will be attractive to the students. It doesn't have too much sentences so it fits perfectly in the year.

HANDS ON!!
After reading the book the first time, we can think of some questions in each page for the second reading. This will allow us to talk with the children and elicit from them some ideas from the book

What else can we do?? We can make a character analysis. Using the app "Kidspiration" we can make a map like this one:

In this map we analyse the feelings of Fat cat in each action from the book. It helps us to make a summary and also to go more deep into the book and make children anylise the faces and sentences that tell us what is Fat cat feeling each time.

Finally, if we want to go further, we can make a life cycle using the egg. We have to be clear with the children about the steps of the cycle so they understand it clearly. We can also use a video of the life cycle from the internet, for example this video of a chicken embryo development


Hope you liked it! 😉