The Night Zookeeper

The Night Zookeeper- Starts Thursday 26th March

Our class had a great Skype visit from the Night Zookeeper. We created and wrote about our own amazing animals that could be in the zoo. 

Now we have the chance, for 1 week only, to explore the Night Zoo. The children will learn how to unlock challenges and be challenged to write!

It is an excellent, fun way of motivating young writers. Please make the most of this for the short time we have it available. 

I can't wait to read all the great stories that our class will be writing!

Enter The Night Zoo!

In class we have been working on a new kind of word problem.

Here is an example.

Tenni and Jason leave 15 comments on our blog. Tenni left 5 more comments than Jason.How many comments did Tenni leave?How many comments did Jason leave?

The answer is:

                    Tenni left 10 comments and Jason left 5 comments.

Write at least two of these new word problems for the class to solve. Make sure you include the answer!

Write about this kitten. What is he/she looking at? What is the kittens story? Has the kitten had an amazing adventure? Has the kitten done something to make him/her a hero? Does the kitten have superpowers? 

photo credit: Scurred via photopin (license)

Story Extracts

Story extract written in response to a wonderful story prompt from 

Tim Rylands, Pie Corbett and David Mitchell

It is independent work by the children. Please, please comment on our work we love to hear what readers like and how we can improve our work! Thank you.

Esme and Marcus darted behind a bridge. Suddenly they heard a strange sound greet their ears. It sounded like ooohhh. It got closer and closer until a huge shadow towered over them. "Oh no!" gasped Marcus "this monster could squish us." Luckily they managed to run through the monsters legs. They ran and ran until they bumped into the guards guarding the gates. "Oh no!" cried Esme. Just at that second Marcus stood on a trap door that sent him flying down a slide, Esme followed. Suddenly they got launched out on the other side of the gate. "Yay we escaped," cried Esme and Marcus. 

"Lets go on another adventure tomorrow," exclaimed Esme.


Esme and Marcus arrived at a dark forest and they hid under a rock. Suddenly they heard a strange voice and it was coming closer, somehow they quickly escaped. Then they went back where they had stared. 

by Ishaq


Suddenly, Marcus and Esme slid down a gigantic waterfall into a beautiful land. In that land there were huge castles with tall red flags. But then out of the corner Esme's eye she saw a ginormous shadow towering over them! It was a monster! it had hair as long as a castle! At that moment Marcus thought of a plan. The plan was to run away from the monster which they did. It chased the pair but they they hide behind a large rock and the monster ran straight past them! Marcus and Esme had escaped from the beast.

By Grace


Esme and Marcus darted to the rocky mountins. As soon as they got there, it started to thunder, so they ran quickly towards a stripy tent. Suddenly there was a strange sound coming from the direction they were heading.
"It's a drogonbird!" shouted Marcus.
"I don't thinks a real creature." replied Esme.
"Yes it is. Look it's coming towards us!" exclaimed Marcus.
"Arrr!" they both screamed.
The dragonbird flew over there heads and tried to grab them. Luckily they ducked, so they were safe! When they arrived at the tents they ran into a red and black stripy tent. A few minutes later Esme opened the zip and looked to see if the dragonbird had flew away. Luckily it had. Esme told Marcus the dragon bird had flown away.
"Yay were safe!" exclaimed Marcus.
"I wonder want's going to happen tomorrow?" asked Esme. 


Esme and Marcus were terrified at the noises they were hearing, suddenly ginormous wings appeared. The noise was getting louder and louder as the creature was getting closer and closer. It was so scary that the pair felt like screaming as fast as they could they ran away but fell into a hole in the ground.

Finally they arrived home and went to bed after a long long day 

by Grace 

Marcus and Esme ended up in a village. Esme, heard a funny, noise. Marcus, heard it to it was two bodyguards. The pair quickly sprinted to a cave. It was, very dark so they got a lanten but they didn't know there was a huge scorpion in the cave and it tried to bite Esme. Luckily it missed by a second. Esme and Marcus got out of the cave. 

by Jordan 

Esme and Marcus had just arrived at a little cave. Marcus was a scardy cat so Esme went in the cave first. Inside Marcus heard a deep, strang souned and said "Whats that?" 
"proble nothing," said Esme . Then, they both heard it and it got louder and louder. Suddenly out of the corner of their eye they saw a witch. Then, the witch spotted them and they got chased . Quickly they sprinted away and just got away. Marcus said " that was a close one," "yer it was" said Eme. And they went back to their house for more adventures. 

by Lucas 


Esme and Marcus ended up in a village called Edward village. There was a massive castle in the distance and a creepy, dark forest so they went in. There was a massive eagle that snapped trees like sticks and had large wings. Esme and Marcus looked behind them and they saw the eagle . As quick as a flash they called a chopper but the eagle could fly. It snapped the chopper in two but they landed in water so they was safe. They saw a base in the ground and they was safe with supplies.

By Antonee 

Esme and Marcus went down the slippery, sliding waterfall and whoosh they were gone. Suddenly out of the corner of there eyes were some slimy, dishonest monsters! They ran and ran until they fond a big cave but what they didn't notice that was it was a dragon cave. The dragon soon woke up and was gone, he didn't even notice that the pair were in there! The monsters looked for them but couldn't find them. "phew" said Esme. Suddenly they saw a boat far into the distance and they waved for help. The boat took them to a new place and they were safe. Far in the distance  they noticed a village and they said to the driver of the boat "go to the village over there."  "okay" said the driver. "Will it be safe here" said Esme "of course it will" said Marcus "at least we are away from the monsters" said Marcus 

by Luke 

Esme and Marcus came to a new island with a suspicious castle on it. All of a sudden there were guards chasing them but they manage to get away from them. They hid behind a bush for a while and then they started to explore. In the castle were 100 guards! They ran and ran and the guards charged at them but they got away! In fear they found themselves in a workshop, they found weapons, bows and armour. They geared up to protect themselves and then they hurried out of the castle, and got on there boats. 

by Jason 


Suddenly Marcus and Esme arrived at a beautiful castle but there were guards stood at the gate.They couldn't get in but then a strange beast apeard so the guards killed the deadly beast and the beast fell right down to the ground with abig BANG! The guards threw Marcus and Esme in the dungen because they lead the beast to the castle. 

by Thomas 

Marcus and Esme crashed down into a huge city then a dragon spiting fire came at them. Then the dragon chased them. Then Marcus the brave man said stop theres no where to run! Marcus and Esme were taken to prison. The next day a man broke them out of prison. Thank you,  thank you for saving me said Esme. 

 by Ashley


Esmie and Marcus arrived at fish land. A noise went ooooooooooh ooooooooh! Esmie did you hear that? Its probly just nothing oooooooh oooooh, they both looked at each other. Boo said a sea lion. Ha ha ha i knew i'd trick you. Oh know we must go know now said Esmie .Quickly they both ran away.

by Kelsey 


Esme and Marcus they landed in a dark place where the colourful tents are under a spooky bridge. Then Marcus herd a funny sound it was a ghost and it was chasing them so they ran as fast as they could then Esme and Marcus found a cave so they ran in it but they didn't know that was a dragons cave. The dragon woke up they saw Marcus the dragon was breathing fire out of his nose they where scared but they fell down a trapdoor. they where saved and they landed on some grass faraway from that place. 

by Maddie 


Suddenly, as quick as a flash Esme and Marcus turned up in a dark, deep forest. "WOW!" said Esme."Look how dark it is."
Just that second they started to see something out of there big, brown eyes. It came closer and closer. Then a thumping sound greeted there ears. About five minutes later, It appeared they where surrounded by an army of animals. "Quick lets run,"Esme and Marcus shouted. Freitend, terrerfried , afraid Esme and Marcus ran and ran! They made home but only just. The army of animals are still lurking somewhere, ohh no.

By Heather

World Book Day Super Skype!

Wow, here we are talking about some great books with a great class, Mrs. McCrorey’s Class from South Elementary, North Carolina, U.S.A! It was a fantastic experience to meet up with the children from the United States over Skype.

                                     

                   Performing, 'Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type'.




We all thoroughly enjoyed watching them perform a, ‘Readers Theatre’ about the book, ‘One Cool Friend’.  We equally enjoyed performing our book, ‘Click-Clack Moo, Cows that Type’

Performing for each other.

                                                   

Later we had time to ask a few questions to each other. We found out that the children had been on trips, strawberry picking and going around their town. We learned the children have an indoor playtime area where they can play with things like marbles and use lego and other toys. 

One of the favourite meals the pupils liked to eat was a Thanksgiving dinner. (Can anyone find out what this is?)

We discovered that the class has three pets, two turtles and a rabbit called Cookie. Mrs. McCrorey showed us Cookie and he was a huge hit! We all thought he was really cute! We found out what cookie gets up to in the classroom when we saw some paper he had nibbled!

                        Here we are in Mrs. McCrorey's classroom!

We are very excited about continuing to work with Mrs. McCrorey’s Class. We are going to take part in a, ‘Today’s Meet’ with them.

Visit to Manchester Art Gallery

Year 3 had a great time at Manchester Art Gallery. We used the tram to get to and from the gallery. At the gallery we learned about colour in the environment. We compared two different pictures that showed water using very different colours. Year 3 investigated a colour wheel, learning about complimentary colours before looking for them in paintings.

In one picture below you can see the children under a coloured sheet. The children had to say how it made them feel.

In another room we looked at a picture by Valette called, 'Windsor Bridge on the Irwell' and the colours used to create an impression of the water.

Later we started to create our own impressions of the view from the top of the gallery. What do you think? The children used coloured tapes on acetate sheets that were stuck to the windows.

In the afternoon we saw a huge seascape painting by Turner and found he had painted himself on one of the ships in the picture! We also looked at a picture called, 'Jesus Light of the World' and found nearby the lantern that Jesus is painted holding in the picture! Another picture, of flowers, we looked at very carefully and the flowers actually moved!

We did lots of sketching while we were there and everyone really enjoyed the day. Hopefully we will soon be able to post some of our finished pictures created on acetate. Watch this space!

Please comment and say what you thought of the trip? What did you enjoy most? What did you learn?