This fun activity is so simple to do and you won't believe me when I tell you that it begins with you scribbling all over your paper like this! I know, ridiculous, right? The next step is to colour in the blocks left behind by the scribble. Choose two or more colours from the colour wheel below to colour your blocks in. We recommend that you choose colours that are opposite one another on the colour wheel, as these will really stand out. Here is our example. As you will see, no coloured block should touch another coloured block of the same colour. Why not have a go with 1 colour, then 2, 3, and 4? Or see if you can make a picture out of your scribble blocks? Why not make a rainbow pattern or use shades of the same colour? Go crazy! Enjoy it! For other fantastic arty ideas, head over to The Magical Lair of the Craft Pixies!
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The past, the present and the future all got into a brawl. It was tense. Hopefully this activity will be better than my jokes...
Today we will learn about writing in the present tense. Naturally, I think we learn to write stories in the past tense “he said”, “she said”, “they did” etc... but writing in the present tense can be quite effective too. Read the following story to see what I mean: Crisis Aboard The 42 By Jack Green A man and a woman are sitting on the top deck of a bus. It is the last bus home and is crammed with people, some wild and animated, some not. The couple are in their early 20s. She is gesticulating widely as she talks to him. He doesn’t respond but merely traces a shape on the misty window next to him. She is carrying a bag of shopping, he has a rolled up newspaper in his hand but he does not read it. The bus departs, slowly at first as it meanders its way out of the bus stop, and then it gathers pace. It dodges and it weaves in and out of the traffic, sliding between other vehicles like a snake. The woman looks distressed now. He isn’t talking to her and she is nervous and doesn’t like being around other people. She looks around, and quickly turns back. There was someone looking at her, she could feel their eyes on her. The man beside her looks like he simply doesn’t care. As the bus swerves around another corner, the woman clings on to the metal rail in front of her with all her might. She is clawing to it, like people claw to the bar on a roller coaster, not wishing to let go in case the worse happens. The man remains unmoved, quite content to continue tracing his shape on the window. She looks at him. He doesn’t look back. She nudges him slightly with her elbow. Still nothing. She clears her throat suggestively, trying to spark off a conversation. Still unmoved. She starts to become aware that there are people around her again. To the woman’s displeasure, the bus seems to stop at every stop along the way; rarely letting people off, and more often than not letting more people on than the capacity allows. She tries to take her mind off her phobia by looking in the bag with her shopping, presents for Christmas. She has to be careful though, as his present is in there too - not that he’s paid her a blind bit of notice so far on this journey. She’s bought him a pair of gold cufflinks and a watch. He likes cufflinks; she always says he almost looks sophisticated wearing them. She begins to debate in her head why she bothered to buy them for him. He’s been really ignorant today, and even more so on the bus. What was it she actually likes about him anyway? He doesn’t seem to ever smile, so it can’t be that. He doesn’t have a job; she was the main money earner. So what does she like about him? As she racks her brains trying to think, they come to the penultimate stop before theirs. She neatly puts everything back in her bag and waits. She carries on waiting. The bus was at a halt. The bus was emptying, although to the woman it seems as full as before. All she knows is that there are lots of people aboard. People scare her. She’s heard rumours that late night busses can be dangerous. At least she has him to protect her. But would he? Can she trust him to step in if anything happened? She doesn’t know. That thought makes her cling on to the rail even harder, almost welding her hand to the metal. She wills the bus forward. Eventually, after what seems like hours of waiting, it carries on. She is about to nudge him to get his things together when she realises all he has is that scruffy newspaper. She presses the bell as the bus pulls into the stop. She trembles as she gets up and then looks at him furiously. “DO YOU EVEN LOVE ME?” She shouted. That is when she sees the heart etched into the mist on the window, with her name in the centre. She looks him in the eyes and they both smile. -- You task is to write the story of your day yesterday, but in the present tense (as if it is happening now). Remember, it won’t be “I got up” it will be “I get up”. It won’t be “ate” it will be “eat”. If you catch yourself reverting to the past tense, go back over your words and change them to the present. Enjoy! Sometimes in maths, we use letters to represent numbers. Look at the code below.
Using the code, try and answer the following questions.
Do you notice anything? Now have a go at working out the following multiplications. You will notice that I have removed the x sign. So C x Y is written as cy =. That’s because when you use letters you don’t need the multiplication symbol.
How did you find that? You may not have realised it, but you have just taken your first step into the world of algebra, a way of working out problems by substituting numbers for letters.
My friend Toby is a good dog. His tail is constantly wagging, which shows he is always in a good mood. He likes nothing more than to go walking to the playing fields and play fetch with his favourite tennis ball. Would you like to learn how to draw him? If so, head on over to The Magical Lair of the Craft Pixies now!
Sometimes, when you want to tell a story it is hard to get started. It's hard to think up your characters out of nothing. It's hard to think up the plot. Well, with this activity, you can draw characters, plots and settings at random, leaving your brain to do the truly creative bit and come up with the story! Choose two character cards, one plot card and one setting card. These will make up the bare bones of your story. Take a look at the story valley below to remind yourself how stories are structured. Why not write down your story or act it out? Create a book cover and a blurb. Write an Amazon review of it! Have fun with it! To make your story card, print the PDF file below. Cut the two horizontal lines first, fold along the dashed line in the centre, cut out the vertical lines, and stick the front of each card to the back of each card.
This is a very addictive game. To play, you will need two dice (it will work with one, you will just have to roll twice each turn) and a piece of paper. Draw a ladder with six spaces like this. Roll your two dice. What numbers did you roll? The two numbers you rolled have become two digits of a number. I rolled a 2 and a 6. So my number can either be 26 or 62. Now, place your number in the spaces on the ladder. Bigger numbers go towards the top of the ladder, smaller numbers go towards the bottom of the ladder. You cannot place a bigger number below a smaller number or a smaller number above a bigger number. The completed ladder should be in order from largest at the top to smallest at the bottom. Here is where I decided to place my number. I chose to make it 62 so I placed it near the top. I anticipated that I might roll another 6 at some point, so I left space for another number in the 60s bigger than 62. When the ladder starts to fill up, it may be impossible to place a number. If that’s the case, roll again. Keep track of how many goes you’ve had by doing a tally chart. How many goes did it take you to fill up the ladder? This is your score. Can you beat it? Greater Depth: What numbers between 0 and 70 is it impossible to roll with two normal six sided dice? Pixie Rae has outdone herself this time! These Pom Pom Aliens are amazing! And they are so easy to make.
All you need is: a pair of scissors, a couple of toilet roll tubes, a ball of colourful wool and a fork. Your house might seem perfectly ordinary to you. You sleep in your bed, wash in your bath and watch cartoons on your telly. But today, I want you to imagine that you are an alien who has landed on Earth for the first time. They come to your house and have a snoop around. What would an alien think of normal, everyday objects? How would they describe them? This technique is called "De-Familiarisation".
Here is part of an old poem of mine called “Mundane Madness” which is about what an alien might think of a human having their breakfast: (An Extract From) Mundane Madness By Jack Green The upright monkey opened the chilly prison and meandered its way towards the four-legged base; its back level and proud. With its body in the monkey’s grip, it brutally removed its head. It bled white, clear and pale over the golden crisp flakes where it was destined to rest in peace. Why don’t you have a go? Print the town plan using the PDF below or copy it very carefully by drawing a 10x10 grid and filling in the spaces that are already there. If you are drawing, remember to copy the "key" as well and follow the instructions given to you below (otherwise the aliens won't be pleased!) The aliens have landed in Little Villagehampton. But they come in peace. They want to build and become part of the village, and have no intention of knocking anything down or building on top of anything that is already there, including water and parkland. That would be against everything they stand for. There is also an alien law which states that no alien building can touch another alien building. Alien buildings can be rotated to fit in a space, but the dimensions of the building must remain correct. They need to build a garage for their space ship. It must be 2x2 and painted yellow. It must be next to a water source, as their spaceships run on water. They need to build a gym. Lots of aliens use the gym, so it is quite large. It must be 2x3 with at least part of it touching park land (these aliens enjoy tennis). Make the gym yellow too. The alien nursery is a very odd shape, but it has to be this way. It looks like this. The alien university is also an odd shape. It must look like this. And the aliens need places to live. They will build six 1x2 blocks of flats. Please find a PDF of the town plan and instructions below, as well as a PDF of the answers.
Our sister website, The Magical Lair of the Craft Pixies, posted this wonderful idea that not only gets children arty, it gets them active too!
Yesterday, Mr and Mrs Green went for a lovely walk in the woods. Don't worry, we didn't see a big, bad wolf! We did see plenty of leaves, sticks, berries and petals, though, so we decided to take them home with us. Mrs Green arranged them all and used them to make a nature collage. She spotted that one of the shapes looked like the gnashing jaws of a flying dinosaur, so she made the rest of the dinosaur using the other bits and pieces we had picked up. She also made a beautiful summer's dress out of flowers and leaves, with a matching petal hat! Why don't you have a go too! |
Greenhouse LearningEnglish, Maths and Creative lessons for Primary School aged children (including EYFS). Archives
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