Hi everyone,
I haven’t written a blog post in ages! School is just so busy since we came back after the holidays.We have our confirmation next month and as other 6th class teachers know, it is very time consuming! So it’s all go at the moment. I will admit though that with the longer evenings I am just out all the time with Sonny and I haven’t been as diligent as I should be.
We are working on World War Two this month. I hope to spend the next two weeks on it. It is a fascinating topic, though one which is tricky to teach as it was just so, so dreadful, so I skate over some of the more terrible parts of it. I am delighted so far with the comparisons my class are drawing between world war one (covered in November) and world war two. They are so good, it’s not easy to remember all those facts!
This is my first proper theme since 1916 so I am really excited about it and DELIGHTED to be moving on to a brand new topic.
Here’s a quick overview of my integration plans:
English: We will read excerpts from Anne Frank’s diary. We will write letters from the front line, letters from women working at home, letters from children who were evacuated, creative writing based on life in the trenches, poetry- world war two poets, writing postcards home, persuasive writing- writing to world leaders asking for help to stop the war. We will also explore communications during the war, which forms of communication were used, and how propaganda was supported via radio, posters etc.
Maths: Data: bar charts and line graphs of the casualties and numbers of people lost in the war.
History: We will be doing group projects on the following: Countries involved in the War, the Holocaust, Children during the War, Women during the War, Hitler, the Blitz, and Pearl Harbour.
Geography: We will learn a number of facts about each country involved and the role they played in the war, and how they were affected/suffered in the aftermath of the war.
Art: The children will examine propaganda posters and create their own.
Drama: Re-enact the scene where Anne Frank and her family were discovered. Role play, interviewing leaders, soldiers and civilians.
Music: ‘Run Rabbit Run’- we will listen to this song and explore the lyrics and how they relate to the war.
SPHE won’t link as we are exploring citizenship and the census next week.
Science won’t link either as our science for the next week or two will be based on Living Things, Plant Life. We are trying to make a class garden! So far so good. We have a corner of the grass area in school. We have received loads of tyres from a parent to use as flower beds. Each child will have their own tyre/flower bed to paint and plant flowers in. We are exploring plants and how they grow. We have thus far planted cress (who hasn’t- good old reliable!), sunflower seeds, basil, radishes, thyme, lettuce, various flowers and potatoes. So far the cress, sunflowers and basil have started to grow, so fingers crossed it continues. The interest in the garden is great, I would recommend even a little window sill garden for any classroom. Every morning my class go straight to their plants to see have they grown. (I check them every morning first and it is SO exciting to see them grow!)
So it’ll be a busy few weeks with confirmation too. We have text books to complete also which is so time consuming for what they get out of it. I really feel bad making them do book work but we have to get them finished.
In other news, my book is still in the publishers, so I am hoping for a June launch now. I hope to do a seminar in May too so I will keep you posted!