UEL Primary PGCE 2013-14

Sixth review

The Zoo

This is a book which is extremely useful in the classroom. It can be used across the age range because of its simplicity and the depth of its illustrations. It tells the story of a family’s trip to the zoo and we see characters descriptions which is also a useful tool in literacy. We see how the children in the text think about the life of animals in the zoo. The illustrations in this book are brilliant as they can lead for a lot of discussion in the classroom. We can see through the illustrations the feelings of the animals as they are locked in cages. The book follows an adventure most children have of going to the zoo for the first time.

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message 118: by Kellie (new)

May 05, 2014 04:34AM

Seventh review

Blodin the Beast
Blodin the Beast is a frightening character who everyone in the land is frightened of. He tries to take over the land but it is only the Old Shanga who is brave enough to stay as Blodin ‘stalks the land’. This is a book full of mystery and tension and is a great book in the classroom. The illustrations are colourful and can lead on to further discussion. This book would be suitable for most age ranges but in particular Year 3 and 4. It has a good range of vocabulary which is important for that age group. There are interesting characters in the text such as the Old Shanga who is an old wise man, there is the monstrosity of Blodin and there is the innocence of the narrator.

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message 119: by Kellie (new)

May 05, 2014 04:34AM

Eighth review

‘Zoo of the winds’ in Taking out the Tigers – Poems by Brian Moses
A beautiful poem to use in the classroom as it is packed full of metaphors. There is a strong metaphor running through the poem between the storm and the zoo. The poet personalises the storm to sound like animals in a zoo. ‘‘Wild winds have escaped tonight, and like animals suddenly loose from a zoo they are doing damage’’. There is a lot of imagery of animals running from captivity into the jungle they don’t know how to behave now that they have freedom. We see a deep tone of fear and the fear people would experience ‘‘fearsome creatures’’. The metaphor is powerful but could be open to discussion in the classroom for example ‘‘angry breath of bears’’ could symbolise the wind. This describes the storm as an unwelcome visitor. This would be a good poem from Year 2 to Year 4.

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message 120: by Kellie (new)

May 05, 2014 04:36AM

Ninth review

King Lear – A Shakespeare Story. Andrew Mathews and Tony Ross.
An excellent introduction to Shakespeare for children. It tells the story of King Lear in child friendly language. It also gives a background to Shakespeare and his formation of the Globe Theatre, this educates the children on this wide range of work. The themes in the text and are explained which is useful as terms such as chaos can be quite difficult for some children to understand. In this text we follow the bad-tempered King called Lear as we see his descent after dividing his wealth between his two devious daughters Goneril and Regan. He stupidly left his most beautiful and natural daughter Cordelia with nothing. He disowns her and he even banished his own friends. As the kingdom falls apart and Lear becomes crazy and humiliated, we watch and see him finally realise what he has done. This text would be useful for Year 4 as a way to introduce the kind of literature Shakespeare is famous for.

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message 121: by Kellie (new)

May 05, 2014 04:36AM

Ninth review

King Lear – A Shakespeare Story. Andrew Mathews and Tony Ross.
An excellent introduction to Shakespeare for children. It tells the story of King Lear in child friendly language. It also gives a background to Shakespeare and his formation of the Globe Theatre, this educates the children on this wide range of work. The themes in the text and are explained which is useful as terms such as chaos can be quite difficult for some children to understand. In this text we follow the bad-tempered King called Lear as we see his descent after dividing his wealth between his two devious daughters Goneril and Regan. He stupidly left his most beautiful and natural daughter Cordelia with nothing. He disowns her and he even banished his own friends. As the kingdom falls apart and Lear becomes crazy and humiliated, we watch and see him finally realise what he has done. This text would be useful for Year 4 as a way to introduce the kind of literature Shakespeare is famous for.

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message 122: by Kellie (new)

May 13, 2014 01:24PM

12th review

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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message 123: by Shini (new)

May 25, 2014 12:32AM