Friday 30 December 2016
Friday 2 December 2016
Year 6 Empathy Lab work on refugees
Over the past 18 months, Moorlands Primary Academy has been heavily involved in working with the Empathy Lab project, which uses books and reading as a starting point for children to help develop their empathy skills. It's having a noticeable impact on the way that many of our children think and act. This term, as part of our work, the Year 6 children have been focusing on the plight of refugees from different parts of the world.
We started by talking about what the class already knew about refugees, and then spent time reading and sharing a wide variety of books. Some, the pupils were already aware of (eg Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman, which they had read as a class story in Year 5), although they were looking at many of them for the first time. The books were added to a Pinterest board, which we updated as they discovered more, and put on the Empathy Lab Book Spotters website. Links to many of the books, along with some planning and resources that I've found are available on this Padlet page.
As part of our Empathy Lab ‘social action’ work, the children decided to take part in Amnesty’s ‘Write for Rights’ campaign, and write letters to some of the refugees. They wrote about how people could make refugees feel welcome in the United Kingdom and what they enjoyed about living here. Because they were writing for a real audience, and could see that there was a genuine purpose behind their work, they were highly motivated to write and produced some fantastic work.
We also had a visit from a local refugee charity, GYROS, who shared the work they were doing in the Great Yarmouth area. One of the speakers was a refugee from Armenia and the other was a refugee from Mozambique, so they both had amazing stories to tell about their lives. The children were inspired by what they had been told and wanted to know how they could help. After Christmas, they've planned some fundraising activities but, equally importantly, they're going to do some work to raise awareness of the refugee situation in the local community.
Thoughts from Year 6
Troy: I actually feel as if I’d rather be the refugee than them so they didn’t have to suffer through things. I feel awful about what has happened.
Gracie: I tried really hard to empathise with them, but even with a vivid imagination like I have, it’s very hard to understand how bad things are.
Romy: When we read all the books about refugees, it made me think a lot about it. When someone says the word refugee it brings up loads of emotions as I didn’t know what they were going through before. Reading all the books helped me understand it.
Gracie: I loved how the books we read transported me to another world, but I hated the world that they transported me to!
Lauren: When you hear the stories about how hard it is, it makes you feel really lucky. I don’t like being separated from people I love for even a day, so just think what it would be like forever.
Romy: I feel upset for the refugees but I’m also angry at the people who are putting them through it. They’re just trying to have a normal life but they’re getting destroyed for no reason at all. Some of them are just little babies.
James: Writing the letters made me realise how many simple things I can do without being scared. I could just get a drink out of the fridge if I wanted to.
Lauren: It must be awful to go on a boat ride and not know what’s at the end of it. I know what’s going to happen every day and that makes me feel safe, but they don’t even know if they will survive to the next day.
Romy: When I wrote the letters, I felt lucky. I’m lucky anyway but I just felt lucky that I had the chance to make someone’s day a bit better. I know that when they get the letters they’ll realise that at least someone is thinking about them.
Gracie: Learning about refugees made me think about books like Once by Morris Gleitzman. The boy in that was a refugee too. All of those books made me understand what it must have been like to be hated in the war.
James: It made me ask my mum if we could send them stuff to help. We have lots of stuff that we don’t really need.
Troy: Some people in Yarmouth should treat the refugees kindly because, at the end of the day, we’re all humans.
James: I can’t imagine leaving everything at home. I’d have to leave my family, my pets, my books and my friends. I’d miss the village we live in. All my memories would be left behind. How could they take their memories with them? They must also miss speaking the language they know. They would just ‘feel’ their own language and to have to speak in another language all the time, well, that’s just like when I went to Holland.
Troy: It was probably some of my favourite work that we’ve ever done. We’re learning about the real world and we’re all part of it. Like, everyone, not just us and the people we know.
We started by talking about what the class already knew about refugees, and then spent time reading and sharing a wide variety of books. Some, the pupils were already aware of (eg Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman, which they had read as a class story in Year 5), although they were looking at many of them for the first time. The books were added to a Pinterest board, which we updated as they discovered more, and put on the Empathy Lab Book Spotters website. Links to many of the books, along with some planning and resources that I've found are available on this Padlet page.
After a couple of weeks of reading and researching, we had a wonderful visit from an Amnesty International speaker, David Huband, who came to talk about human rights. The children discussed which rights they had and which rights they felt that refugee children might be denied. The classes spent a lot of time discussing how and why children and their families travel from Syria to the UK.
As part of our Empathy Lab ‘social action’ work, the children decided to take part in Amnesty’s ‘Write for Rights’ campaign, and write letters to some of the refugees. They wrote about how people could make refugees feel welcome in the United Kingdom and what they enjoyed about living here. Because they were writing for a real audience, and could see that there was a genuine purpose behind their work, they were highly motivated to write and produced some fantastic work.
We also had a visit from a local refugee charity, GYROS, who shared the work they were doing in the Great Yarmouth area. One of the speakers was a refugee from Armenia and the other was a refugee from Mozambique, so they both had amazing stories to tell about their lives. The children were inspired by what they had been told and wanted to know how they could help. After Christmas, they've planned some fundraising activities but, equally importantly, they're going to do some work to raise awareness of the refugee situation in the local community.
Troy: I actually feel as if I’d rather be the refugee than them so they didn’t have to suffer through things. I feel awful about what has happened.
Gracie: I tried really hard to empathise with them, but even with a vivid imagination like I have, it’s very hard to understand how bad things are.
Romy: When we read all the books about refugees, it made me think a lot about it. When someone says the word refugee it brings up loads of emotions as I didn’t know what they were going through before. Reading all the books helped me understand it.
Gracie: I loved how the books we read transported me to another world, but I hated the world that they transported me to!
Lauren: When you hear the stories about how hard it is, it makes you feel really lucky. I don’t like being separated from people I love for even a day, so just think what it would be like forever.
Romy: I feel upset for the refugees but I’m also angry at the people who are putting them through it. They’re just trying to have a normal life but they’re getting destroyed for no reason at all. Some of them are just little babies.
James: Writing the letters made me realise how many simple things I can do without being scared. I could just get a drink out of the fridge if I wanted to.
Lauren: It must be awful to go on a boat ride and not know what’s at the end of it. I know what’s going to happen every day and that makes me feel safe, but they don’t even know if they will survive to the next day.
Romy: When I wrote the letters, I felt lucky. I’m lucky anyway but I just felt lucky that I had the chance to make someone’s day a bit better. I know that when they get the letters they’ll realise that at least someone is thinking about them.
Gracie: Learning about refugees made me think about books like Once by Morris Gleitzman. The boy in that was a refugee too. All of those books made me understand what it must have been like to be hated in the war.
James: It made me ask my mum if we could send them stuff to help. We have lots of stuff that we don’t really need.
Troy: Some people in Yarmouth should treat the refugees kindly because, at the end of the day, we’re all humans.
James: I can’t imagine leaving everything at home. I’d have to leave my family, my pets, my books and my friends. I’d miss the village we live in. All my memories would be left behind. How could they take their memories with them? They must also miss speaking the language they know. They would just ‘feel’ their own language and to have to speak in another language all the time, well, that’s just like when I went to Holland.
Troy: It was probably some of my favourite work that we’ve ever done. We’re learning about the real world and we’re all part of it. Like, everyone, not just us and the people we know.
Wednesday 23 November 2016
Deer Class Mannequin Challenge
Never wanting to miss out on a potential bandwagon-jumping opportunity, last week Deer Class had a go at recording their own Mannequin Challenge during quiet reading. They managed to nail it on the very first take!
Thursday 20 October 2016
Video trailer for The Thornthwaite Betrayal
Deer Class had a lot of fun making this trailer for The Thornthwaite Betrayal by Gareth P. Jones. A special well done to Nico and Gracie for their fantastic acting. We think that there should be lots more trailers for books!
Tuesday 20 September 2016
Library opening and Joffre White visit
On Wednesday 14th September, we had our grand school library opening. We invited several special guests from the local community, and children from each class. The library was opened by the author Joffre White and one of the Freemen of Norwich.
Joffre White and one of the Freemen of Norwich
Hooray! The library is open
Joffre then spent the rest of the day working in Year Six, where he led some really exciting writing workshops. Marley, in Deer Class, said "He was brilliant to listen to. He made me keen to write a story and got me excited about reading."
Mr Dynan, a Year 4/5 teacher, said "I really enjoyed his assembly. He was full of enthusiasm and really passionate about reading. I would love to read one of his books."
Joffre in action with Year 6
As you can see from the pictures below, the library is already getting lots of use. We're really enjoying reading all the new books that are in there.
Tuesday 5 July 2016
Thursday 16 June 2016
Personal reading histories
We had great fun in Deer Class yesterday afternoon creating our own Personal Reading Histories. Lots of parents came in to help us. We really enjoyed talking about books we had read when we were younger, books we are reading now and books we are planning to read in the future. We have turned some of the presentations into videos so that everyone can see them.
Troy's mum said "Even though it wasn't that long ago it's crazy how quickly you forget. I loved looking back at what we used to read."
Jack's mum said " It was great to see everyone's books and see the similarities between the class."
Troy's mum said "Even though it wasn't that long ago it's crazy how quickly you forget. I loved looking back at what we used to read."
Jack's mum said " It was great to see everyone's books and see the similarities between the class."
Thursday 9 June 2016
Wednesday 8 June 2016
Personal reading histories
Deer Class are going to be planning and creating about their own
personal reading histories over the next few weeks. They will all be
thinking about books and stories that have had a special meaning at some
point in their life, and will then produce a PowerPoint presentation to
share with the rest of the class. Mr Biddle created his own reading
history to show them what to do.
Tuesday 26 April 2016
Pippa Goodhart author visit
Today we had a visit from the children's author Pippa Goodhart. Pippa is famous for several books including You Choose, the Winnie the Witch series and Raven Boy. She spent the morning working with children in Reception and Nursery and then the afternoon working in Years 1 and 2.
Children in Nursery loving the stories
Squirrels Class hearing about You Choose
After Pippa had worked with all the classes, our School Reading Council interviewed her. They enjoyed asking her lots of questions about her books and her life as an author. She answered their questions in great detail.
Finally, Pippa went back to Mr Allen's classroom to sell and sign some of her books. Lots of excited children and parents turned up! Everybody had a wonderful day. Thank you Pippa.
Gracie, one of our School Reading Council has reviewed Pippa's book Raven Boy: This is the most amazingly different book I have ever read. It's so interesting and it pulls you right in to the book. I really felt empathy for Nick having to leave his sister behind. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys books set in the past.
Wednesday 13 April 2016
EmpathyLab book spotter
Here's the link to the EmpathyLab book spotter. Whenever you read a book that helps you empathise with others, try and find the time to fill it in.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xNnNjPfmm-4_1XJmWtVv06wSnB-3Qugmw5H4M_aR9k4/viewform
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xNnNjPfmm-4_1XJmWtVv06wSnB-3Qugmw5H4M_aR9k4/viewform
Wednesday 30 March 2016
Books in the library
Exciting news! The first books are now on our new library shelves and it's looking great already. We've also got a 'wish list' for books that we would like to add to the library in the future. It's already been noticed that we need to get some more collections of poetry and that no library could possibly be complete without the Harry Potter series.
Tuesday 22 March 2016
Reading interview with Nico's mum
Why do you like reading? I like reading because I find it relaxing and informative.
Who is your favourite author? Alexander McCall Smith.
What is your favourite book? The Five People You Meet In Heaven.
Who’s your favourite character from any book? Mma Ramotswa from the Number One Ladies Detective Agency series.
Why is she your favourite? She has courage and grace but above all she is kind.
What book are you currently reading? Winter Frost by R.D.Wingfield.
What was your favourite book as a child? The Fabulous Hat. It was 5p from a jumble sale and I still have it.
Sunday 6 March 2016
World Book Day 2016
On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day at Moorlands, and we all had an absolutely wonderful time. Most of the children and staff came to school dressed as one of their favourite book characters. We held an assembly in the morning, where several of the teachers and some of the School Reading Council shared books that were special to them. We also announced the winner of the family book quiz, which was Eden and his family.
All of the classes had lots of fun decorating their classroom doors as a favourite book cover. The winners were Badgers Class, who brilliantly recreated the cover of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. A lot of the staff also worked extremely hard on their doors, so well done everybody!
During the afternoon, the prizes were given out for the best costumes (there was one winner from each class) and then everyone was given their £1 book token to take home. We're already looking forward to next year's event!
At lunchtime we had a successful Book Swap, where over 200 books were exchanged. Members of the Book Council helped set up the tables and we had children swapping books that they had brought in from home. Thank you parents for all your support with this!
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