Today in P.S.E. we discussed how arguments develop and how our responses to situations can cause conflict to escalate.

We were given some situations to enact, and, in pairs, we explored how arguments can escalate.

We were given some things we might say to provoke an argument and had to discuss what our responses might be.


THINGS WE MIGHT SAY:You are always late and letting me down - you are totally unreliable!

OUR RESPONSES WERE:
You are usually ridiculously late too, aren't you!

You can't say much - have you looked at your watch lately!

You were late yesterday - so you can't talk!

THINGS WE MIGHT SAY:How stupid can you be - smoking - that's for losers!

OUR RESPONSES WERE:

Once you start you can't stop. I need help - fast!

Shut up! You'll probably do it when you're older.

At least I've got the guts to do something bad, you goody two shoes!

THINGS WE MIGHT SAY: Look what you've done...you've ruined my new top...you just don't care, do you?

OUR RESPONSES WERE: You spoilt my top, so you can't say anything.

You should have put it somewhere safe if you cared that much!

THINGS WE MIGHT SAY: You never do your homework, you lazy good-for-nothing.

OUR RESPONSES WERE: You cant say much, you've only done one question!

I'd rather play on my P.S.P.

THINGS WE MIGHT SAY: You've lost my felt-tip pens - I'm never lending you anything again.

OUR RESPONSES WERE: I never borrowed them in the first place!

Oh thanks, you're nice! That pen was rubbish anyway.

Fine, be like that! I've got my own anyway and they are better than yours!

We wrote our responses and then performed them in front of the class. You can see the anger in the body language in some of these pictures.

We discussed how some responses made us more angry and an argument more likely! Which responses do you think are more likely to cause an argument?

Today we were asked to develop a recipe for our Super Salads and Smoothies.

We had to show an awareness of safety and hygiene and a knowledge of healthy eating. We also had to decide who in our group would provide the ingredients and utensils.

Here are the ideas of one group.
SAFETY AND HYGIENE

• Wash your hands before you start
• Wash the fruit
• When blending, don't put your hands inside the blender
• Wear an apron
  INGREDIENTS FOR OUR SMOOTHIE (PER PERSON)
• 4 strawberries (hulled)
• 4 blackberries
• 4 raspberries
• 2 ice cubes
• 4 blueberries
• 1 strawberry yogurt
• 1 teaspoon of honey
  

UTENSILS
Blender
Glasses
Spoon

METHOD

Place the strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries into the blender
Spoon the mixture into a glass (one per person) with ice cubes
Enjoy

FANCY FRUIT SALAD

• SAFETY AND HYGIENE
• Wash hands
• Keep surface clean
• When chopping fruit, keep hands away

Wear an apron

Cover up cups

Tie long hair back

Wash all fruit

INGREDIENTS
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 slice of mango

4 strawberries

1 pot of strawberry yogurt

1 small glass of tropical juice
UTENSILS
Chopping board

Fruit knife

Plate

METHOD

• Peel the mango and slice into small chunks
  Hull the strawberries
• Juice he lemon
• Place the ingredients into a bowl

Pour the juices onto the fruit

Top with yogurt

Enjoy your salad

Practising the Blues

Listen to our Story Starters

In Music this afternoon we had to create lyrics for a blues song.

We listened to Hard Times Blues to copy its STRUCTURE.

We recognised that it contained:
A first sung phrase.
A second sung phrase (a repeat of the first sung phrase).
A third sung phrase.


In our groups we then had to write blues lyrics about experiences during WW2.

We had to make sure that our lyrics could fit RHYTHMICALLY into eight beats and expressed the typical feelings of a blues song.

Each group was given time to practice their verse, accompanied by untuned percussion and selected notes from the blues scale on which to IMPROVISE the instrumental breaks.

We played our verses back to the class, who gave constructive evaluation of each group's progress.

Finally we put the five verses together and played them for the whole class. We videoed the original performance (listen to it here later). Next week we will evaluate our original performance and work together to perfect a final version of our CLASS BLUES.

Read our lyrics here:

Puff puff. Puff puff. I'm goin' away on the train.
Puff puff. Puff puff. I'm goin' away on the train.
Goodbye the world I used to know, I hope I see you again.

Rough times. Rough times. People fighting on the front lines.
Rough times. Rough times. People fighting on the front lines.
My children have been sent away, I might see them again one day.

My house has been bombed, ev'ry one is goin' away.
My house has been bombed, ev'ry one is goin' away.
We're the only ones left. Can't the world go back to its old way?

Hard times. Hard times. Rationing ain't goin' away.
Hard times. Hard times. Rationing ain't goin' away.
Growing your own seems to be the new way.

'Switch off those lights!' I hear the warden say.
'Switch off those lights!' I hear the warden say.
The Black Out is so dark, I can't wait till the next day.

In maths today we continued with our investigation into measures.


Mrs Davies's class measured body parts in cm and converted them to mm by multiplying by 10.

As an extention activity we then converted our measurements to m by dividing our original findings by 100.

Mr Williams's class had already measured their body parts, so spent today measuring the class and converting their measures to different units. They also had to think about perimeter and area.

Today we were set the challenge to write an interesting story starter.





These story starters were based on the role plays we wrote and performed last week about children's experiences during WW2.

First of all we discussed the elements of a good story starter.


We all agreed that the start of a story should make the reader want to find out more.


It should show emotion, empathy, be


atmospheric and use interesting vocabulary.

We worked in our Talking Partners.

Firstly we discussed our own SUCCESS CRITERIA.

Then we spent 15 minutes writing and re-drafting our story starter, to make sure we achieved our SUCCESS CRITERIA.

We use the TICKLED PINK and GREEN FOR GROWTH assessment strategy.

We read out our SUCCESS CRITERIA to the class, followed by our story starters. The other groups then had to decide whether we had met our success criteria, and celebrate the good parts of our story starters and offer constructive ideas for improvement.

Here is a story starter written by Charlie and Mercedes.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: To plan a detailed story starter that grabs

the readers attention.

THE DAY I FACED RAW FEAR

'Numbers 1602 and 1603,' called the man in the unfamiliar school hall.

I held Annie close.

'It will be O.K.' I comforted her.

I could feel the fear clawing away at me like a cat at a scratching post. There, stood in front of us, was the most terrifying, humongous giant of a man I had ever set eyes on. Next to him stood a hound so blood curling, my heart skipped a beat. This was the man we were now going to be sharing a home with!