Stormbreaker

One of the features of Stormbreaker, Anthony Horrowitz's first Alex Rider book is that it has a "super-villain", Herod Sayle.  He's one of a number of super-villains in this series:

There's a pattern to super-villains - and not just in the Alex Rider books. Here's a mind map that shows lots of our ideas:

                         ↖ Click

 on the mindmeister  logo to go to the mind map.

More on this later...

Mythological Creatures

After meeting various mythological creatures in the book Odysseus, we created some of them ourselves. Have a look through our book (click on the image to expand the book, and then on the arrows to turn the pages. Click Escape to minimise it again):

The Hobbit

We're having a look at The Hobbit at the moment, especially as the film comes out in France on 12th December. Quite a few of us have bought the book.

The book is one of the classic fantasy books, written seventy-five years ago and still amazing.

It concerns a hobbit called Bilbo and his dangerous and difficult journey with a group of dwarves and a wizard called Gandalf.

In Year 5 we started out by looking at the description of hobbits and at Bilbo's meeting with Gollum and their contest of riddles.

The film's website is worth a visit: thehobbit.com

There, among the Special Features, you'll find a collection of riddles that you can try to solve, and then rate. You can even add your own riddles:

Riddles in the Dark

Here's the trailer for the film. It's the first of three films that tell the story of The Hobbit:

You can hear the first chapter of the book here.

You can see our riddles here. (Add more if you like!)

Year 5, how much do you like The Hobbit so far?
Rate it out of five stars:

No Breathing in Class

Thanks to Jack for bringing this book in today. It's a book of fantastic poems by Michael Rosen. The illustrations, by Korky Paul, are great too.

Here's the poem Strict in the way Michael Rosen tells it:

STRICT

We had a teacher who was so strict,
you weren't allowed to breathe in her lessons.
She used to stand at the front going, "NO BREATHING!"
And you had the whole morning to get through. 
*aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh* *pah* 
The weak ones just used to keel over and die. 
You'd hear them going down behind you. *ker-poom* *ker-poom* *ker-poom*
And there was always a whiny kid going, "Miss! Can I go out and do some breathing?"
And she'd say, "No! You've got all playtime to do it in!"
"Oh, go on Miss, oh, go on!" 

Do you know at the beginning of the week there were forty-eight kids in my class.
At the end of the week there were only five of them left.
Yeah.
Do you know at the end of the day you'd be stepping over kids just to get out the room.
Oh no! There's Melanie. That's a shame, she was really nice.
There's Dave. Eheheh. Hard luck, Dave! Always knew you were a bit weak.

Do you know, people say to me, if that's true, how come you're here to tell the tale?
Fair enough, and I'll tell you.
It's because, when I was at school, we used to sit at desks.
We didn't sit 'round tables like you do now.
We used to sit at desks, with lids.
And some of us figured out, what you had to do was snatch a quick breath under the desk lid when she wasn't looking.

So once more, from the beginning.
"NO BREATHING!"
*aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh* *pah*
The weak ones: *ker-poom* *ker-poom* *ker-poom*
The whiny ones: "Miss! Can I go out and do some breathing?
"No! You've got all playtime to do it in!"
"Oh, go on Miss, oh, go on!"
Us lot: *PAH* *gasp gasp gasp* *ptoom*
Ah! That was the mistake! Slamming the desk lid down!
If you made a noise with the desk lid, it was OUT!
School PRISON!
There was a school prison underneath the school hall where they used to string you up from the wallbars.
*sqfluut*
"Miss! I've been up here for three weeks... and there's rats!
And they're nibbling my toenails!"

So I figured it out.
What you had to do was put your thumb 'round the edge of the desk lid so when it went down it didn't make any noise at all.

Once more, from the beginning.
"NO BREATHING!"
*aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh* *pah*
The weak ones: *ker-poom* *ker-poom* *ker-poom*
The whiny ones: "Miss! Can I go out and do some breathing?"
"No! You've got all playtime to do it in!"
"Oh, go on Miss, oh, go on!"
These other kids: *PAH* *gasp gasp* *ptoom*
OUT! School PRISON! *sqfluut*
"Miss! I've been up here for three weeks and there's... rats!
And they're nibbling... my toenails! Miss!"
Me: Thumb 'round the edge of the desk.
*PAH* *gasp gasp gasp*
No noise at all.
SURVIVAL!

Here's Michael Rosen telling it: