Blues chords 2

Blues Chords 1

This week we had to take ourselves back to the war years. We had to write a letter from a child who stayed in London, rather than being evacuated, to a friend in the country. We have researched what it was like to stay in a big city during the Blitz, using books and the Internet, and had to include our findings in our letter. Our SUCCESS CRITERIA was to use the information we had researched to make our letter authentic, to use punctuation correctly and to organise our letter into paragraphs.

Did Maria meet her SUCCESS CRITERIA?

16th November 1940


Maria Rowley
53 Derwen Road
London
CE82 9GE

Dear Sophie,
I am writing this letter to tell you and your new family about my scary life in London. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t have to evacuate and leave my family like you and your sisters had to. But you live far away from London. Where I live it’s like a target for the Germans. Any way, there are a lot more things that are making my life a misery, and these are just some.
A few weeks ago my friend Sarah passed away in the night, but the really sad part was that she wasn’t bombed or anything to do with another country, she fell off a bridge in the black-out. I don’t know many details but I do know that she was walking home from Bethan’s (my friend) house, it was pitch black and she walked over a bridge, fell off it and drowned. It was horrible to see her name written on the black board. You know that feeling you have when you get home from school and just want to jump into the bath? Well here in London you need to dream on because me and my sisters (Christine and Ella) have to share a tin bath once a fortnight. That’s right, all three of us squeezed into a tiny tin bath by the fire place. We had to sell our bathroom (knock it down for bricks to sell) so we could afford a blanket each to bring down to the nearby station. Our toilet? A shovel and a nearby field.
It was my birthday on the 12th of November and guess what I did? Look after my sisters! I turned 12 and I was forced to look after my baby sisters although we did get to collect shrapnel (the remains of weapons from the last bombing). My dad (John) left last year to help out in the war and I really wish he hadn’t because then he could have looked after my sisters while I went out with my friends or what’s left of them. I haven’t heard from my dad since he left and the only word that pops into my head when I think about him is DEATH. He loved us all and promised he would contact us. My mum says he is probably busy but we all know. Ella has to wear this glass thing on her head it’s like a gas mask but for babies and my mum has to pump gas into it when the alarm goes off. I only have half a day of school and I can hardly read, luckily my mother taught me how to write when I was four years old. Please don’t write me a long letter because I can’t read much. I have carrot and other cooked vegetables for my tea but on a Sunday we all have a big stew with all the neighbours. My sister Ella has mushed up vegetables for her tea. The other day I found an elastic band on my street and my mum can now do a braid in my hair. For my birthday my mum bought me a skipping rope from a charity shop down the road. I need to keep it for a long time because it cost half of my mother’s week allowance! My sisters and I always skip now and we are pretty good. I can’t wait until you and your sisters move back and we can all skip together!
Anyway, my mother says I need to finish off now because there will be an alarm in half an hour and in twenty minutes we need to put on our gas masks and start walking to the under ground station. Please write back soon, so we can stay in touch, soon we will be the only ones. I hope people come to their senses and stop wars for good, so you can move back and we can skip together and go to school for a whole day. We keep praying things will change over night but it will take a few years for that to happen. Well, there goes the alarm, speak to you soon.

Yours Faithfully,

Maria Rowley.

Here is a letter written by Ebony Nottage

16th November 1939 Ebony Nottage
10 Plum tree Walk
East London
CF64 WW2


Dear Poppy,
I’m writing this letter to you to say how terrifying World War two is. Every night when I lie on the cold hard floor of the underground station I think what it would be like to be evacuated to the countryside like you. The only people I have left are my older brother and younger sister. We can’t afford anything but we have to keep on going. Anything we do find to eat we give to our younger sister as she doesn’t have much to survive on.

But apart from that it is an extraordinary experience, finding all different pieces of shrapnel and having fun playing in the rubble, but it isn’t as much fun without you being around. It gets really emotional sometimes when you hear a bomb go off and then the sound of people shouting and screaming. We are lucky we are still alive. But the scariest part of the war is the blackout. When the sky goes black all the lights go off including lamp-posts, you can’t see a thing. The other night I got up and felt my way towards my brother and I walked straight into the wall it really hurt. The weird thing is they have started to paint the pavements white and even the cows! I couldn’t believe it all because of the black out.

You might be wondering why its only me, my brother and sister - its because they died (my parents). My mum died because she breathed in poisonous gases and it and it….. I’d rather not talk about how they died if that’s ok?

I wish you were here I miss playing hide and seek with you there are loads of good hiding places around the town now!

I have to go now
From Ebony
Hope to see you again one
day.


P.S
I will always wish you were here.

We were given an extra, unexpected treat today.
Following our HISTORICAL ENQUIRY yesterday, Louie brought in some more artifacts for us to look at.

These included a certificate for looking after soldiers during WW2.
Click on this picture to see it more closely.




Louie also brought in a petrol ration book, seen here.









Two driving licences from the 1930s and 1940s.








Most excitingly, he showed us one of the first Air Mail postcards ever sent. The class were all allowed to handle these precious items. Thank you very much Louie for bringing them in, you are always SO enthusiastic about everything we do.

Today in Science we had to construct a healthy menu for our Talking Partner

Our first task was to find out what our Talking Partner ate yesterday. We then had to look at the food groups we had eaten and discuss how our diets could improve.

Next, we had to construct a healthy menu for our partner.

Click here to see the menu recommended for Ebony.

As an extension activity we then had to colour code the menu, to represent carbs, protein and fats.

Using our NUMBER skills we then had to estimate the % of carbs, fats and proteins in our menu.

We found out that during one day our meals should consist of 60% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 10% fats. You should also make sure that you eat your 5 a day!

Today we continued with our Music topic, EXPLORING LYRICS AND MELODY.
We listened again to Hard Times Blues and talked about the characteristic feelings of blues songs.

We then tried clapping the PULSE (the steady beat of the piece). There were 8 BEATS per bar and we had to keep the TEMPO (the speed at which the music is performed) steady.
This was harder than we imagined.
We then learnt a simple blues CHORD (three or more notes played at the same time) sequence.
Each group was given three different chords and each member of the group had a part to play. We had to follow the music, playing the correct chords at the correct time.

Corey was our quality checker and was in control of the digital camera.
We played our chords while Mrs Davies counted the beat. We had to really concentrate to make sure we came in at the correct time.

We played back our performance and APPRAISED it:

'We all kept the same beat,' said Chelsea.
'We performed it sensibly,' said Charlie.
'To improve we could try playing without Mrs Davies counting the beat for us.' said Jessica.
'We could try to be more accurate with our beaters,' said Ioan.

Next we played our chord sequence with the backing track of Hard Times Blues.
We listened to the music to feel where the chord would change.

Again Corey was our quality checker. Once again we played back our performance for appraisal.
'I thought the beat was generally steady,' said Mahrooshay.
'We could hear when the chords were changing,' said Mercedes.
'It was better because Miss wasn't counting,' said Daniel. (Thanks!!!!)
'We could improve by playing all the notes of the chords together,' said Ewan.

Next week we will be IMPROVISING some blues rhythms.

Look on the Blog later for the videos Corey made of both of our performances.

Today we continued with our HISTORICAL ENQUIRY.
It was a bit of relief after a morning of assessments!

For our enquiry we used a range of historical sources, including Mr and Mrs Williams.

Yesterday we generated some questions to ask to help with our enquiry and this afternoon we quizzed Mr and Mrs Williams about their experiences before and during the war

We discovered that before the war, food fresh food was quite plentiful, but once the war began things changed. Fresh meat was substituted by tinned meat such as Spam and Corned Beef. Fresh milk and eggs were rare and families used dried dairy products. Mrs Williams described how in 1942 a boy in her class brought in a banana. It was the first time anyone in her school had seen one, and the headmaster called a special assembly to show it off!

Before the war Mr Williams had toys made of tin and other metals. Once the war started, metals were used for making ammunition etc, so most toys were made of wood.

Mr Williams also described the effects on families when fathers went to war and mothers went out to work for the first time.

Mrs Williams talked about having evacuees in her home. Before the war she had a bedroom to herself, but when her family gave shelter to two evacuees from London, she had to share a room with her elder brother.

Mr Williams described how before the war there were many Italians living in the Rhondda running cafes and ice-cream parlours. When the war began many Italian men were interned (put in prison) and deported (sent out of the country). He told us how his godfather, an Italian, was deported and died when his boat was torpedoed.

Both talked about air-raid shelters, hiding in the cellars of their schools or under tables when the sirens went off.

Mrs Williams said it was a terrifying time in which to live, especially when some German prisoners escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Bridgend.

Mr Williams said it was quite exciting watching planes 'dogfight.'

They brought in some artifacts for us to look at from before and during the war.

These are sets of coins from the 1930s and the1940s.

One of these records dates from 1933, while the other was made in 1942. The earlier record is much thicker and heavier. As plastic was needed for the war effort, records became flimsier in the 1940s

These are all newspapers from before the war.

They contain cartoons, advertisements and celebrity gossip.

We looked at one wartime paper (which Mrs Davies forgot to photograph!) and of course it was concerned with more serious issues.