Morning spelling - complete sentences

Morning maths - bond bubbles.

Log on to PurpleMash and you'll have a new 2Do. Can you practice your number facts and earn a high score? Make sure you click on Challenge B - A will be too easy!

Literacy - I am learning to plan a story using storyboarding.

Time to read a bit more of The Iron Man so we can plan our own story around it;

 

When the farmers realized that the Iron Man had freed himself they groaned.

What could they do now? They decided to call the Army, who could pound him to

bits with anti-tank guns. But Hogarth had another idea. At first, the farmers would not

hear of it, least of all his own father. But at last they agreed. Yes, they would give

Hogarth’s idea a trial. And if it failed, they would call in the Army.

After spending a night and a day eating all the barbed wire for miles around,

as well as hinges he tore off gates and the tin cans he found in ditches, and three new

tractors and two cars and a lorry, the Iron Man was resting in a clump of elm trees.

There he stood, leaning among the huge branches, almost hidden by the dense leaves,

his eyes glowing a soft blue.

The farmers came near, along a lane, in cars so that they could make a quick

getaway in things went wrong. They stopped fifty yards from the clump of elm trees.

He really was a monster. This was the first time most of them had had a good look at

him. His chest was as big as a cattle truck. His arms were like cranes, and he was

getting rusty, probably from eating all the old barbed wire.

Now Hogarth walked up towards the Iron Man.

“Hello,” he shouted, and stopped. “Hello, Mr Iron Man.”

The Iron Man made no move. His eyes did not change.

Then Hogarth picked up a rusty old horseshoe, and knocked it against a stone:

Clonk, Clonk, Clonk!

At once, the Iron Man’s eyes turned darker blue. Then purple. Then red. And

finally, white, like a car headlamps. It was the only sign he gave of having heard.

“Mr Iron Man,” shouted Hogarth. “We’ve got all the iron you want, all the

food you want, and you can have it for nothing, if only you’ll stop eating up the

farms.”

The Iron Man stood up strait. Slowly he turned, till he was looking directly at

Hogarth.

“We’re sorry we trapped you and buried you,” shouted the little boy. “We

promise we’ll not deceive you again. Follow us and you can have all the metal you

want. Brass too. Aluminium too. And lots of old chrome. Follow us.”

The Iron Man pushed aside the boughs and came into the lane. Hogarth joined

the farmers. Slowly they drove back down the lane, and slowly, with all his cogs

humming, the Iron Man stepped after them.

They led through the villages. Half the people came out to stare, half ran to

shut themselves inside bedrooms and kitchens. Nobody could believe their eyes when

they saw the Iron Man marching behind the farmers.

At last they came to the town, and there was a great scrap-metal yard.

Everything was there, old cars by the hundred, old trucks, old railway engines, old

stoves, old refrigirators, old springs, bedsteads, bicycles, girders, gates, pans – all the

scrap iron of the region was piled up there, rusting away.

“There,” cried Hogarth. “Eat all you can.”

The Iron Man gazed, and his eyes turned red. He kneeled down in the yard, he

stretched out on one elbow. He picked up a greasy black stove and chewed it like a

toffee. There were delicious crumbs of chrome on it. He followed that with a doubledecker bedstead and the brass knobs made his eyes crackle with joy. Never before had

the Iron Man eaten such delicacies. As he lay there, a big truck turned into the yard

and unloaded a pile of rusty chain. The Iron Man lifted a handful and let it dangle into

his mouth – better than any spaghetti.

So there they left him. It was an Iron Man’s heaven. The farmers went back to

their farms. Hogarth visited the Iron Man every few days. Now the Iron Man’s eyes

were constantly a happy blue. He was no longer rusty. His body gleamed blue, like e

new gun barrel. And he ate, ate, ate, ate – endlessly.

 

4

The Space-Being and the Iron Man

One day there came strange news. Everybody was talking about it. Round

eyes, bushy mouths, frightened voices – everybody was talking about it.

One of the stars of the night sky had begun to change. This star had always

been a very tiny star, of no importance at all. It had shone up there for billions and

trillions and sillions of years in the Constellation of Orion, that great shape of the

giant hunter that strides across space on autumn and winter nights. In all its time this

tiny star had never changed in any way.

Now, suddenly, it began to get bigger.

Astronomers, peering through their telescopes, noticed it first. They watched it

with worried frowns.

That tiny star was definitely getting bigger. And not just bigger. But bigger

and Bigger and BIGger. Each night it was BIGGER.

Bigger than the Dog-star, the large, coloured twinkler at the heel of the Hunter

Orion.

Bigger than Jupiter, the great blazing planet.

Everybody could see it clearly, night after night, as it grew and Grew and

GREW. They stared up with frightened faces.

Till at last it hung there in the sky over the world, blazing down, the size of the

moon, a deep, gloomy red. And now there could be only one explanation. That star

was getting bigger because it was getting nearer. And nearer and NEARer and

NEARER.

It was rushing towards the world.

Faster than a bullet.

Faster than any rocket.

Faster even than a meteorite.

And if it hit the world at that speed, why, the whole world would simply be

blasted to bits in the twinkling of an eye. It would be like an Express train hitting a

bowl of goldfish.

No wonder the people stared up with frightened faces. No wonder the

astronomers watched it through their telescopes with worried frowns.

But all of a sudden – a strange thing!

The star seemed to have stopped.

There it hung, a deep and gloomy red, just the size of the moon. It got no

smaller. It got no bigger. It wasn’t coming any nearer. But it wasn’t going away

either.

Now everybody tried to explain why and how this was. What had happened?

What was happening? What was going to happen?

And now it was that the next strange thing occurred – the astronomers noticed

it first.

In the middle of the giant star, a tiny black speck appeared. On the second

night this speck was seen to be wriggling, and much bigger. On the third night, you

could see it without a telescope. A struggling black speck in the center of that giant,

red, gloomy star.

On the fifth night, the astronomers saw that it seemed to be either a bat, or a

black angel, or a flying lizard – a dreadful silhouette, flying out of the center of that

giant star, strait towards the earth. What was coming out of the giant star?

Each night, when the astronomers returned to their telescopes to peer up, this

black flying horror was bigger. With slow, gigantic wingbeats, with long, slow

writhings of its body, it was coming down through space, outlined black against its

red star.

Within a few more nights, its shape had completely blotted out the red star.

The nameless, immense bat-angel was flying down at the earth, like a great black

swan. It was definitely coming straight at the earth.

It took several days to cover the distance.

Then, for one awful night, its wings seemed to be filling most of the sky. The

moon peered fearfully from low on the skyline and all the people of earth stayed up,

gazing in fear at the huge black movement of wings that filled the night.

Next morning it landed – on Australia.

Barrrump!

The shock of its landing rolled round the earth like an earthquake, spilling

teacups in London, jolting pictures off walls in California, cracking statues off their

pedestals in Russia.

The thing had actually landed – and it was a terrific dragon.

Terribly black, terribly scaly, terribly knobbly, terribly horned, terribly hairy,

terribly clawed, terribly fanged, with vast indescribably terrible eyes, each one as big

as Switzerland. There it sat, covering the whole of Australia, its tail trailing away over

Tasmania into the sea, its foreclaws on the headlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Luckily, the mountains and hills propped its belly up clear of the valleys, and the

Australians could still move about in the pitch darkness, under this new sky, this low

queer covering, of scales. They crowded towards the light that came in along its sides.

Of course, whoever had been on a mountain-top when the dragon landed had been

squashed flat. Nothing could be done about them. And there the horror sat, glaring out

over the countries of the world.

What had it come for? What was going to happen to the world now this

monstrosity had arrived?

Everybody waited. The newspapers spoke about nothing else. Aircraft flew

near this space-bat-angel-dragon, taking photographs. It lay over Australia higher than

any mountains, higher than the Hindu Kush in Asia, and its head alone was the size of

Italy.

For a whole day, while the people of the earth trembled and wept and prayed

to God to save them, the space-bat-angel-dragon lay resting its chin sunk in the Indian

Ocean, the sea coming not quite up to its bottom lip.

But the next morning, early, its giant voice came rumbling round the world.

The space-bat-angel-dragon was speaking. It wanted to be fed. And what it wanted to

eat was – living things. People, animals, forests, it didn’t care which, so long as the

food was alive. But it had better be fed quickly, otherwise it would roll out its tongue

longer than the Trans-Siberian railway, and lick huge swathes of life off the surface of

the earth – cities, forests, farmlands, whatever there was. It would leave the world

looking like a charred pebble – unless it were fed and fed quickly.

Its voice shook and rumbled around the earth for a whole hour as it delivered

its message. Finally, it ended, and lay waiting.

The peoples of the world got together. If they fed it, how could they ever

satisfy it? It would never be full, and every new day it would be as hungry as ever.

How can you feed a beast the size of Australia? Australia is a vast land, all the

countries of Europe will fit easily into Australia. The monster’s stomach alone must

be the size of Germany.

No, they wouldn’t feed it. The people of the world decided they would not

feed this space-bat-angel-dragon or whatever it was – they would fight it. They would

declare war on it, and all get together to blast it off the face of the earth. And so it was

that all the peoples of earth declared war on the monster, and sent out their armed

forces in a grand combined operation.

What a terrific attack!

Rockets, projectiles of all sorts, missiles and bombs, shells and flame-throwers

– everything was tried. The smoke of the explosions drifted out over the Pacific like a

black, crawling continent. The noise of the battle shook the world almost as much as

the landing of the dragon had done, and for much longer.

Then the noise died down and the smoke cleared. And the peoples of the

world cried in dismay. The dragon was actually smiling. Smiling! Aircraft flying

daringly near photographed the vast face smiling, and the picture was in all the

papers.

It was smiling as if it had been well tickled.

Now the peoples of the world were worried. They were all great fighters. All

spent their spare money on preparing for wars, always making bigger and better

weapons, and now they had all tried their utmost to blast this thing off the earth, and

what was the result?

The dragon merely smiled, and not a scratch could be seen anywhere on its

body.

Human weapons had no effect on it.

But that wasn’t surprising. This creature had come from the depths of space,

out of the heart of a star. Nobody knew what it was made of. Perhaps it could not be

destroyed by any means whatsoever.

And now the space-bat-angel-dragon spoke again.

It gave the peoples of the world one week in which to prepare its first meal.

They could prepare what they liked, said the dragon. But if the meal was not ready in

a week, then he would start on the cities and towns.

The peoples of the earth, the kings, the Presidents and Ministers, the farmers

and the factory workers and the office workers began to lament. Now what would

happen to them? They would like to say the monster didn’t exist, but how could they?

There it was, covering Australia, staring out over all the countries of the world.

Now the little boy Hogarth heard all about this. Everybody in the world was

talking about it, worrying about it.

He was sure the Iron Man could do something. Compared to the space-batangel-dragon the Iron Man wasn’t very big, of course. The Iron Man was only the size

of a tall tree. Nevertheless, Hogarth had faith in the Iron Man.

He visited the Iron Man in his scrap-yard, and talked to him about his great

monster that was threatening the earth.

“Please,” he asked, “please can’t you thin of some way of getting rid of it? If

you can’t, then it’s the end of us all.”

The Iron Man chewed thoughtfully at his favourite tidbit, a juicy, spicy old

gas-stove. He shook his head slowly.

“Please think of something,” cried Hogarth. “If this space-bat-angel-dragon

licks all life off the earth, that’ll be the end of your scrap iron – there’ll be no people

left to make it.”

The Iron Man became still. He seemed to be thinking. Suddenly his headlamps

blazed red, green, blue and white all at once. And he stood up. In a great grinding

voice, he gave his commands. Hogarth danced for joy. The Iron Man had had the

most stupendous idea. The Iron Man would go out, as the champion of the earth,

against this monster from space.

 

 

Wow! Quite a lot happened in that chapter. We need to carry on the plan that we started yesterday, using the same robot character. 

 

Let's carry on thinking about the plot we're going to adapt;

 

- The people in your setting trap your robot character.

- After a while, the robot breaks free.

- Your main character comes up with a different plan to keep your robot character happy.

- Another threat appears!

- What problem does this new villain character cause?

- Your main character asks the robot for help against the villain.

 

For this, we're using a storyboard to plan out our tale. Log on to PurpleMash where you'll find a new 2Do. We need to draw each of these 6 scenes and add just a sentence or 2 of description about what's going on.

 

We're just planning our story! Don't worry about writing your entire story - we just need to think about these 6 key points in the story for our version. 

Maths - I am learning to read scales of volume.

Today we're going to move on to measurement of volume, using millilitres and litres. But what is volume and what do these units of measurement mean? Let's have a look;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zmn6wnb

 

Here we have some containers with different amounts in. How can we work out what the scale says? We need to think about how many bits the 100 is divided into - for A, B, C and D it's split into 4 bits. What do you think each notch shows? In other words, what's 100/4? If you've been listening in our division topic, you'll have lots of ways to work this out!

 

DT: I am learning to create a pop-up flap.

We're going to design and make a pop-up structure that will work for our display - a design where you pull a tab and have a piece of paper lift up to reveal what's underneath.

 

On the top of the flap, we want to keep in mind our eco-schools display. We want a question to do with either endangered animals or pollution and rubbish.

 

For example, your question on the top might be, "How many tigers live in the wild?" and the answer on the inside, "3,900."

Or "How many tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year?" and the answer is "8 million tonnes."

 

But how do we make this pop-up flap? Let's have a look at the video below from the 3:41 time.

The first thing we need is the pull strip, with 2 little tabs;

 

Here's another look at the business end with the little flaps which make the whole thing work -

 

Next, we've got the base which the pull flap goes into. As you can see, one of the gaps cut into the paper is a little bit wider than the other;

 

Next step, we fold the little flaps down and push it through the bigger gap. Once it's at the other side, you unfold those little flaps.

 

Poke the other end through the smaller slot;

 

Fold the flappy bit over on the other side and you're done! You just need to add the question and answer about eco issues;

 

Don't worry if you need a few goes to get it spot on - you might need to double up on your flap material so it's strong enough as you might find one piece of paper isn't strong enough, or use card if you have it. This is what we were looking at last week - making prototypes and learning from mistakes, it doesn't have to be perfect the first time. You will probably need a few goes to get it right, that's absolutely fine, just don't give up! 

 

You also should finish your flap before you put your eco question and answer on, to save you time if you need to do another.