Home Learning

Extension and Challenge Activities

To be completed by children at home in the event of a school closure

Daily Skills

With the website www.topmarks.co.uk

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Daily Skills in English and Maths

With the website www.uk.ixl.com

Visit this website for an interactive and enjoyable way to maintain and

enhance your key skills in Maths and English.

You can search for activities by age and year group, or by topic.

The questions are interactive and you get an immediate answer.

Suitable for Key Stage 1 and 2

Interractive

Immediate Feedback

Fun

Huge range of activities

Can be played with friends

and family

Read the following story, then answer the comprehension questions

https://www.shortkidstories.com/story/the-ocean-princess/

1) Find three words each day which you don’t know the meaning of. Underline them. Then find out the meaning, and write the meaning down.

2) Where does the Ocean Princess live? 3) What is the Ocean Princess? 4) Where does her mother live? 5) “He was afraid that his only daughter was doomed to a life of danger since her mother’s blood

ran through her veins as well” What does this sentence tell us about;

i) The Ocean Princess ii) The father iii) The mother

6) How does the author describe humans? 7) Find a few sentences which explain the reaction of 1) adults and 2) children, when the Ocean

Princess was discovered. 8) What happens to the Ocean Princess when she is captured? 9) What does Shoshana initially want to do with her daughter? 10) What does Shoshana eventually do with her daughter, and why? 11) What is the moral of this story?

Other stories suitable for children of all ages can be found on the same website:

https://www.shortkidstories.com/story/

“The Ocean Princess” by Ana Vidosavljevic

The Ocean Princess is curious and eager to

find out more about the world above the ocean.

Her curiosity for this other world is heightened

even further since her mother’s blood runs

through her veins as well.

And her mother is a human, a woman from the

world above the ocean.

Task 1

Watch the following Youtube clips of famous people reading the poem.

Clip 1 features Sir Michael Caine reading the poem against a backdrop of action scenes from the career of the footballer Lionel Messi, accompanied by some inspirational music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9c7Seqx38 Clip 2 features tennis stars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal reading the poem against a backdrop of action scenes from each players’ career, again accompanied by some inspirational music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is-JCJCUy18

Clip 3 features broadcaster Des Lynam reading the poem while animated words and lines from the poem fly in. The accompanying music is a choral version of Gabriel Faure’s “Pavane”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tTeZNfwesg

Clips 4 and 5 feature the poem read with interesting animations of the text of the poem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBCaRFY3iyA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJZ8D4UT6q0

Task 1

Read the poem

Verse 1 If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

Verse 3 If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

Verse 2 If you can dream, and not make dreams your master; If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same:. If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

Verse 4 If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Clips 4 and 5 are

particularly suitable

for younger children

Discovering Great Poems

“If”

By Rudyard Kipling

(1895)

Task 3

Talk about the title

The title suggests that if a person follows a certain course of action, there will be consequences. These consequences do not have to be bad; they can be wonderful. The author is suggesting that there is great reward to be found in the personal characteristics spoken about to in the poem. As such, there is great power in the simple word “if”

Task 4

How does the poem “If” talk about the Sudbury Learning Powers?

Task 5

Follow this link to read about “If”, and you see many great ideas for how the poem can be studied http://www.shmoop.com/if-by-rudyard-kipling/numbers-true-false.html

Task 6

Re-write the poem as a letter from Rudyard Kipling to his son Jack, giving him advice on how to be a

good man, a good leader, and how to be succesful in life. You could write a paragraph for each stanza of

the poem.

Task 7

Imagin ethat you are Kipling’s son Jack, and you have received this poem as gift. Write a diary entry

responding to the advice you have been given

Task 8

Write a similar poem, giving advice or instruction on how to be successful. In the same way that Kipling

uses “If” as a repeated word, try to think of your own word (e.g. ‘always’, ‘forever’)

• Imagine • Push Yourself • Don’t Give Up • Work Hard

• Concentrate • Improve • Understand Others • Try New Things

Task 1

Watch this Youtube clip This clip features an extract from the film “Invictus” with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Morgan Freeman is reading the

poem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FozhZHuAcCs

Task 2

Find out what the word invictus means. The answer is printed below (+), but have had a go first.

Task 3

Comprehension Questions

The theme of the poem is the will to survive in the face of a severe test. Henley himself faced such a test. After contracting

tuberculosis of the bone in his youth, he suffered a tubercular infection when he was in his early twenties that resulted in

amputation of a leg below the knee. When physicians informed him that he must undergo a similar operation on the other

leg, he enlisted the services of Dr. Joseph Lister (1827-1912), the developer of antiseptic medicine. He saved the leg.

1) What are the chief qualities of the person speaking the poem?

2) What are the first two lines describing?

3) What is the full significance of the last two lines?

Answers

+ “Invictus” is Latin for unconquerable, invincible, undefeated. Henley dedicated the poem to Robert Thomas Hamilton Bruce

(1846-1899), a Scottish flour merchant

1) What are the chief qualities of the person speaking the poem? This person has a strong and brave spirit. He is optimistic and seeks to find things and apply the happenings in his life in helping him grow as a courageous person. The speaker is regarded as someone who values every moment of life, and faces each struggle with bravery. For him, life must go on.

2) What are the first two lines describing? The poem starts with a person who has great problems, but who faces them bravely, and does not let the difficulties of life dampen his spirit.

3) What is the full significance of the last two lines? You are the one living your life. You are the only one who knows what is going on, and you are the only one who can fix it and determine its path. You are the one in control of your destiny.

Discovering Great Poems

“Invictus”

By William Ernest Henley

(1888)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

and twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not be but gay,

in such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

“I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud”

By William Wordsworth

Task 1

Read the poem aloud to a friend or family member

Watch this Youtube clip describing the background to the

how and why Wordsworth wrote the poem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5-KMRUxyug

Task 2

Comprehension Questions

What is this poem about?

Discuss William Wordsworth’s use of imagery in this poem.

Explain three poetic techniques used and explain e.g. metaphors, similes, personification

Analyse how Wordsworth uses nature to communicate a message to his readers

Discovering Great Poems

“I Wandered Lonely

as a Cloud”

By William Wordsworth

(1802)

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Task 1

Watch this youtube clip of the poem read by Sean Bean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRj4DR5JTdY

Watch this youtube clip which gives an 11- minute

analysis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBavsGe9lpM

Task 2

Read the poem aloud to a friend or family member

Task 3

Imaging that you are in a trench during the first world

war. Research what life was like for the soldiers, and

then write a diary entry, or a letter home describing

what it was like

Task 4

Comprehension Questions

1. Is this an anti-war poem? Which do you think is more upsetting for our speaker: the fact that the soldiers are dying, or the ways in which the holy rituals of mourning civilians understand those deaths?

2. Why do you think this poem is a sonnet? Do the rhymes and rhythm affect the meaning of the poem in any way? Does the music of the poem have anything to do with the music of war—those bells and choirs of shells?

3. Where's our speaker? And who is he? Why do you think our speaker has chosen to essentially leave himself out of the poem?

4. What do you make of the question-and-response format of this poem? Is it effective?

5. And what do you make of that last image? Are these people drawing down their blinds to shut out the world's phony rituals and mourn and suffer in their own private way? Or are they foolishly blocking out the horrors of war?

6. What do you make of the title? Is this poem itself an anthem? Does the poem approve of anthems for doomed youths in the first place?

“Anthem for Doomed Youth”

by Wilfred Owen (1917)

Discovering Great Poems

“Anthem for Doomed Youth”

By Wilfred Owen

(1917)

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn and he names the sky his own But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Metaphors in Poetry: The meaning behind the poem

“Caged Bird”

By Maya Angelou (1983)

Task 1: Comprehension Questions

1) In your own words, explain what the free bird can do in

verse 1

2) What is the only thing the caged bird can do?

3) The bird sings ‘of the things unknown but longed for

still’. What does this mean?

4) In verse 4, how does the free bird feel?

5) In verse 5 what is the ‘grave of dreams’?

6) The birds in this poem are a metaphor for something

else. Explain, in your own words, what this poem is

really about and what the free and caged birds

represent.

7) The final stanza is a repetition of verse 3. Why has the

poet chosen to do this, and what effect does it have?

8) Although this was written with racial inequality in mind,

could it be related to any other types of discrimination?

Use examples from the text to support your ideas.

Task 2: Reading Activity

1) The poet chose to use a bird as part of her metaphor for

freedom. Find three examples of this in the text that

show her choice of a bird is effective.

2) Discuss the rhyming pattern of this poem with a friend.

What effect does it have?

Task 3: Writing

1) Write a story based around the idea of being

metaphorically ‘caged’ or trapped

2) Write a poem about freedom. You can choose the style

but the poem must convey a message about what

freedom is, or the importance of freedom.

3) Write a speech conveying the same message that Maya

Angelou espouses in this poem. Make your message

clear and persuasive. You may choose to relate to a

particular situation or be more general in your ideas.

Task 1

Read the speech

“In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself.

For the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war. Over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies. But it has been in vain. We have been forced into a conflict. For we are called, with our allies, to meet the challenge of a principle which, if it were to prevail, would be fatal to any civilised order in the world.

It is the principle which permits a state, in the selfish pursuit of power, to disregard its treaties and its solemn pledges; which sanctions the use of force, or threat of force, against the sovereignty and independence of other states.

Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that might is right; and if this principle were established throughout the world, the freedom of our own country and of the whole British Commonwealth of Nations would be in danger. But far more than this – the peoples of the world would be kept in the bondage of fear, and all hopes of settled peace and of the security of justice and liberty among nations would be ended.

This is the ultimate issue which confronts us. For the sake of all that we ourselves hold dear, and of the world’s order and peace, it is unthinkable that we should refuse to meet the challenge.

It is to this high purpose that I now call my people at home and my peoples across the seas, who will make our cause their own. I ask them to stand calm, firm, and united in this time of trial. The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead, and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield. But we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God.

If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, then, with God’s help, we shall prevail.

May He bless and keep us all.”

The King’s Speech

This speech was given as a radio broadcast to the British nation by

King George VI following the announcemenbt that England had

declared war on Germany in 1939. The king had suffered a speech

impediment (a stammer) and had received considerable instruction

on how to overcome it, principally from Lionel Logue, in advance of

making the speech. In the speech he emphasises the fact that the

nation is entering a fight for justice and peace. The speech is short

and to the point, and demonstrates a range of rhetorical devices,

including the use of superlatives and the first person.

The speech forms the centre-point of the film “The King’s Speech”

starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush

Task 2

Watch these Youtube clps of the speech

1) King George VI giving the original speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opkMyKGx7TQ

2) Colin Firth giving the speech, playing the part of King George VI in the film “The King’s Speech”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxew7HJS_Zo

Task 3

Comprehension Questions

1) How does the king want the people to hear this message?

2) Why are they at war “for the secon time in the lives of most of us”?

3) What do you think the king means when he says the enemy believes that “might is right”?

4) What are the most important reasons the king gives for declaring war?

5) “It is unthinkable that we should refuse to meet the challenge”> Why is this such a powerful statement?

6) How does the king wish his people to respond to the declaration of war?

7) What warnings does he give?

8) The speech uses the first person (I, we) repeatedly. What effect does this have?

9) What similarities and differences can you see in between the outbreak of war in 1939, and the outbreak

of the coronavirus in 2020?

Task 4

Reading activities

1) In this speech, the king tries to explain and justify to the nation why the war must happen. Choose some

phrases or sentences that you find particularly effective in doing this.

2) Find three examples of references to extremes in this speech e.g. “every household”. Why is this so

effective?

Task 5

Writing tasks

1) Imagine you heard th eking’s broadcast on the radio in 1939. Write your diary entry for that evening.

Think about your feelings going into the war; how it will affect you and your family; how you feel about

the decision; how you feel about the king’s speech.

2) Put yourself in the king’s shoes. Write his diary either before or after the speech. Think about his

concerns, worries and priorities at the time.

3) If you were the king (or queen), what would you do on your first day on the throne?

The King’s Speech

Take a look at this picture. Discuss what is in it, and what you think has happened. Ask students to give reasons

and to justify their answers. Here are some pointers:

What time of day is it? How can you tell?

Where is this place?

What has happened to the animal?

What is behind the rock?

What is the meaning of the tyre tracks?

Why does the tree in the foreground not have any leaves?

Is the water clean?

What can you see in the distance and in the sky?

“The Detective”

An activity where you decide what happened.

You will have to use your imagination!

Research Activity

Using the internet or an atlas, research the counties of England. You can use the template

below and write each of the names of the counties in the correct place