Flotsam is…

Something that floats.

If it floats in the ocean, it may wash up on the beach,

Where someone may find it and be astonished, and share the discovery with someone else.

 

In this week’s book, author and illustrator David Weisner takes us out of our houses and off to the beach for a visual feast of images and discoveries to get your imaginations pumping and inspire your writing.

The full book can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MTKWnxzqvM

Watch it carefully and see how many interesting details you can spot.

You will see the boy discover a very unusual machine, washed up on the beach – this is an old fashioned camera (you might like to talk to mum or dad about how cameras used to contain a film that had to be taken to a special shop to be developed into pictures.)

Pause the film at 1min 15 seconds and see if you can predict what will be on the photos.

 

Dialogue task:

Think about how the boy feels when he finds the camera.  What does it look like? (remember, it’s been in the sea for a long time.) What might he think it is? What questions would he have about it? Use the speech bubbles sheet below to write the dialogue for the boy during this part of the story.  Challenge – Can you correctly use inverted commas and dialogue tags to punctuate the speech? Refer to the grammar mat below to remind you of the rules of speech.

 

Observation and inference task:

Below is a document showing four images from the book.  Chose one (or more) and look at it really carefully. Using your best descriptive language, complete the sheet to tell us what you can see (observe), what questions you have about what you can see (wonder) and what you think you know about what is going on beyond the picture you can see (infer).  Have a look at the completed example below to help you if you get stuck.

 

SUPER EXCITING Sentence stacking task (Piper):

We have a very special writing challenge this week and one that we are all very excited about.  We would like you to write a story together: by each doing a small part that we can then weave together and share.  You need to write nine sentences about one (and only one!) plot point from the short film, Piper.  Your sentences should be the very best that you can do must address three key challenges:

• The first should start be a complex sentence, starting with an –ing phrase.
• Your text should vibrantly convey the sounds inherent in your plot point.
• You will include a hyphenated word in your description.

Don’t panic! Although we cannot be with you to demonstrate everything as we usually would, we have found the next best thing - a special YouTube lesson that explains and supports these ideas to help you and your parents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9fAyFGpO14

Listen very carefully to the lesson as it will really help you to produce your best work; do what you are asked – no more, no less.

The short Disney Pixar film that you will need to watch can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPuRBiBCxyk

 

Notes for parents:

The lesson is a recording of a previously live session and the presenter will ask you to send work to her; DON’T, send it to us at schooloffice@bgpschool.kent.sch.uk Remember to include your child’s name, class and the plot point they have chosen to write about.

The sound in the lesson cuts out briefly at 6:45 but the presenter and her team quickly realise this and she recaps all points made, so you don’t miss anything.

As this is on YouTube, there are advertising pop-ups (unless you have opted out of these) but they are very brief and are all child-friendly.

 

Spellings

Make sure you check Spelling Frame each week and complete the set tests (there have been 5 so far) as well as using the games to improve your spelling generally.  This week’s test is on hyphenated words, to support your sentence stacking task.

 

Science

The ocean is an incredible and hugely varied place which we are still exploring. The ocean takes up about 71 percent of the Earth's surface area, yet a whopping 95 percent of that ocean is virtually unexplored. Journey into the deep with David Attenborough and see some of the amazing, weird and wonderful creatures that live at the very edge of our understanding. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09f8vtb

There is also a great marine habitats fact file here https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/marine-habitats

Now, see if you can use your new knowledge to complete the ocean layers worksheets below.

 

Art

Can you draw your own underwater scene? Can you use different materials or techniques to create a sense of being beneath the waves? Is your water calm or rough, warm and tropical or cold and dark?

Can you create a seaside inspired collage? Think about the bottle top mural that we have planned for when we get back to school – could you create a picture using unusual items or recycling?

Learn to draw The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai using this online tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0BgKCm_R9k