26 Oct, 2020
Wow! It's nearly November guys! The leaves have turned golden (or blown away entirely) and a whole half term has passed us by! I'm guessing it's been as hectic for you all as it has for me.... I've barely had time to think outside of work, even less so than normal. With the kiddos having missed a chunk of schooling, everything we'd normally be doing this half term has been changed or adapted to suit their needs, which means more planning and prepping time than normal. It's been worth it though! I've loved having them all back, and they're a super class! One thing we have been doing lately is some English work linked to Black History Month. We began with Nathan Bryon's story "Clean Up", with the main character Rocket who you may or may not be familiar with from "Look Up" (another fab book). I'm really keen to make sure that the fiction I read and have in class is representative of all children, and Rocket makes a great addition to the class library of books. In "Clean Up", she visits her Grammy and Grampy who live on a tropical island and, whilst there, learns all about plastic pollution and the power of ordinary people to make a change. We were inspired, also, to look at Imani Wilmot who is a famous female surfer from Jamaica (she gets an honorary mention in the story), and at the life of MaVynee Betsch, an African American opera singer turned conservationist. The class loved it, and I have created an even larger unit of work around it to study next year, too! Even more excitingly...by then, a new book called "Saving American Beach" is due out, all about MaVynee Betsch. You can find a link to the entire bundle of resources (Clean Up + Imani Wilmot + MaVynee) on TPT here or on TES here . I hope you love them and find them useful!