Year 5: Can you feel the force?
Year 5 went on a virtual trip to a theme park to start their new science topic all about forces this afternoon. They experienced gravity, friction, and air-resistance all from the safety of their classroom.
It’s A No Money Day by Kate Milner
As today is Children In Need, I’m sharing this thought-provoking picture book suitable for everyone in school.
Mum works really hard, but today there is no money left and no food in the cupboards. Forced to visit the local foodbank, Mum feels ashamed that they have to rely on the kindness of others. Maybe one day things will be different but for now together they brighten up even the darkest of days.
It’s A No Money Day is a gentle exploration of the poverty in our country. and how it can affect anybody – a brilliant conversation starter!
Tom Gates Doodle Competition
Your doodled cover could be printed in the next Tom Gates book!
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tom Gates we are asking fans to draw their own Tom Gates cover!
All winners will win a signed book, signed print, limited edition badge AND a bag of goodies. The overall winner will also receive a Skype visit from Liz Pichon to their school!
Author & illustrator Liz Pichon will pick her favourites to appear in the endpapers of Tom Gates: Ten Tremendous Tales.
Doodled entries need to:
· Have the words TOM GATES on them
· Include characters from the books (Tom, Delia, Marcus, etc).
· Be black & white!
· Be postcard size! (Portrait or landscape is fine)
· The deadline to get entries to Miss Cleveland is 16th November.
The Winter Mini Reading Challenge
This year, the Reading Agency are partnering with Knights Of children’s publishers for the
Challenge – the award-winning inclusive publisher focuses on ensuring the most diverse team
possible, from across backgrounds and communities, work on every book.
The theme for this year’s Challenge is Everyone Is A Hero. We want to champion a diversity of
perspectives across children’s books and encourage everyone to nominate their own personal
reading heroes – whether it’s a librarian, a teacher, a family member, a carer or a friend! You
can read more about nominating your Reading Hero below.
The Winter Mini Challenge encourages children to keep reading through the winter holidays by
rewarding them for reading and reviewing books.
To take part in the Winter Mini Challenge online,
children simply read any books (including eBooks and
audiobooks) of their choice (we recommend reading at least three), then rate and review them at
www.wintermini.org.uk
Books added to the website during the six-week Mini
Challenge period will count towards unlocking special
rewards including a certificate and a virtual badge. The website will also feature activities, recommendations for great winter reads, and competitions. And, just like the Summer Reading Challenge, the website will also feature the Book Sorter – a unique database which has over 1.3 million peer-to-peer recommendations.
Get Involved – Nominate Your Reading Hero
As part of the Winter Mini Challenge, we want to invite people across the country to nominate
their Reading Heroes on social media. You can post a picture, share a story about them, or even
record a video about them! Just make sure to get their permission first!
When you post, please remember to tag us in the post and use the hashtags #WMC2020 and
#ReadingHero so we can find the posts. At the end of the Challenge, we will compile a list of all
the entries and enter them into a prize draw – and the winning hero will receive the Winter
Mini Challenge booklist bundle!
Your reading hero can be an individual or a group – whether that’s a teacher, a library, a
reading group, a friend, a carer or a family member. It’s up to you! We just want to hear about
how people have supported each other with reading this year – whether that’s by helping you
to improve your literacy, encouraging you to enjoy reading or recommending you some great
books!
The Mini Challenge begins on Tuesday 1 December 2020!
Children can rate and review their books, collect rewards, and take part in Winter Mini Challenge activities through our website www.wintermini.org.uk
The Mini Challenge will end online on Friday 15 January 2021. Make sure you get yourselves signed up!
Armistice Runner by Tom Palmer
This week’s book recommendation links to Remembrance Sunday, and is suitable for children in Year 4 up…
Lily is a fell runner and is training for the first big race of the season in the Lake District village where her grandparents live. She discovers from her grandmother (who has Alzheimer’s disease) that her great-great grandfather was a trench runner during the last few days of World War I. Given a box of his things, Lily becomes enthralled with his trench running logs which contain far more information than times and distances – it’s a diary of his time in France.
Full of family, endurance, determination and heart, this is a well researched reminder of the lives of the men in the trenches that we remember this Sunday, and how we can honour their memory through our actions today. Kindness and empathy echo throughout the story that you are sure to be as determined to finish as Lily was to read Ernest’s diary entries.
The Phoenix Comic Crashes The Summer Reading Challenge
The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge 2020 has joined forces with The Phoenix comic to bring more ‘silly’ fun to the nation’s most popular reading challenge.
A special take-over issue of the comic featuring activities, information and illustrations from Jamie Smart, Adam Stower and official Summer Reading Challenge illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson will be on sale from Friday 17th July with a FREE digital edition made available on the Summer Reading Challenge website from today (Wednesday 15th July 2020) until the end of September 2020.
Emma Braithwaite, Programme Manager, Children’s Reading, The Reading Agency says:
“We’ve always been big fans of The Phoenix at The Reading Agency, so we’re incredibly excited to team up with them for this special edition to celebrate the Summer Reading Challenge. Comics are a fantastic way to engage children with reading – with their smart, funny stories and amazing illustrations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. We want to say a huge thank you to The Phoenix for generously allowing us to host the special edition on our website, so that children taking part in the Challenge can read it for free this summer.”
Tom Fickling, Managing Director, The Phoenix says:
“We are absolutely delighted to partner with The Reading Agency to help spread the word about the Summer Reading Challenge. Getting kids of all ages reading is at the absolute heart of everything The Phoenix does. At a time when the pandemic has affected physical access to schools and libraries, schemes like The Summer Reading Challenge are more important than ever. So, get to the website and get reading!”
The Summer Reading Challenge is the biggest children’s reading for pleasure programme in the UK. Last year over 700,000 children and their families took part. Please encourage your children to read anything that makes them happy – whether it be a comic, joke book, poetry, fiction or non-fiction, in digital or print format, from e-book lending through the public library service or from what they already have at home, with the Summer Reading Challenge official book collection as a guide.
summerreadingchallenge.org.uk #SillySquad2020 www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk
Join The Silly Squad for this Year’s Summer Reading Challenge
With the disruption caused by COVID-19 and the impact of social distancing on schools and public libraries,
The Reading Agency’s annual Summer Reading Challenge has gone digital for 2020.
The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children aged 4-11 to read during the long summer holiday with
research showing that children’s reading can ‘dip’ severely during the summer if they do not have regular access
to books. This year’s theme will also encourage children to read anything that makes them happy – whether it
be a comic, joke book, poetry, fiction or non-fiction, in digital or print format, from e-book lending through the
public library service or from what they already have at home, with the Summer Reading Challenge official book
collection as a guide.
research showing that children’s reading can ‘dip’ severely during the summer if they do not have regular access
to books. This year’s theme will also encourage children to read anything that makes them happy – whether it
be a comic, joke book, poetry, fiction or non-fiction, in digital or print format, from e-book lending through the
public library service or from what they already have at home, with the Summer Reading Challenge official book
collection as a guide.
The new digital Challenge launches today with a whole host of virtual (super silly) events
with guest celebrities and authors. The website is free to access, featuring games, quizzes and
downloadable activities to encourage children and their families to take part in the Challenge at
home. Although library buildings are closed, libraries will also continue to deliver the Challenge through virtual
services and e-lending platforms. You can sign up and get started here.
with guest celebrities and authors. The website is free to access, featuring games, quizzes and
downloadable activities to encourage children and their families to take part in the Challenge at
home. Although library buildings are closed, libraries will also continue to deliver the Challenge through virtual
services and e-lending platforms. You can sign up and get started here.
We’d love you to get involved this summer and join the #SillySquad2020. Head over to the Summer Reading Challenge Facebook page for the virtual launch party from 4pm today, hosted by Sam & Mark from CBBC.
Empathy Day Activity Pack
Next Tuesday is Empathy Day, where the focus is on how reading can help children (and adults) to build empathy.
Empathy has been described as a human superpower. It’s our ability to understand and share someone else’s feelings. Empathy is made up of three main elements:
- feeling,
- thinking
- acting.
This video shows the difference between sympathy and empathy.
In the run up to Empathy Day, Empathy Lab have created a lovely activity pack of things you can do to build an understanding of what empathy is and encourage it at home.
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Open in new tab Rain Before Rainbows by Smriti Halls and David Litchfield
Walker Books has released Rain Before Rainbows by Smriti Halls and illustrated by David Litchfield as a free eBook to raise awareness for Save the Children’s Save with Stories campaign which is helping children most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The rainbow has become an incredible symbol of hope and optimism during this time and we hope that this uplifting story can be a source of comfort and light to children and families, and that it inspires anyone who is able to do so, to donate to the Save with Stories campaign.
You can download this beautiful free book from here.
Cannon Park Poetry Week
“You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what’s in your heart.”
Carol Ann Duffy
From nursery rhymes to Norse myths and picture books to pop songs, poetry has always been used to tell stories. Poems are a lovely way of thinking carefully about the words you choose to describe something, someone or somewhere, or to tell a story. This week is poetry week and each day, we’ll be challenging you to create a specific type of poem.
There is also a challenge that may take you a little longer to complete than the daily challenges, should you wish to take it on! Performance poetry is a real skill to perfect but is hugely entertaining to do and for others to watch. There is even a building society using performance poetry in their adverts on TV!
We’d like you to pick a poem, (it could be one you’ve written or one you love by someone else) rehearse it and then perform it for your family. If you could share it with us in your Google Classroom on Friday this week, that would be brilliant too. Remember not to include other family members in your recording though!
Someone who is really rather good at performance poetry is Michael Rosen, so I’m going to let him give you some hints and tips on how to do it really well.
All of the class stories this week will be links to poets, so they will give you ideas of how other poets perform too.
We look forward to seeing all of your poetry over the course of the week,