The Bear and the Rabbit by Nicholas

Nicholas assures me that no animals were harmed in the making of this fable!…..

The Bear and the Rabbit

The Parrot and the Wise Owl – a Fable written and illustrated by Alfie G

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The Ape and the Lizard by Luca

Once Ape and Lizard were playing in the swimming pool, when suddenly, they heard a noise.

It was coming from Professor Minotaur the Greats office nearby.  The invention he was working on was a machine to make his voice sound much louder, the first ever proto-type of its kind.

Then two minutes later they heard the loudest voice ever, “Ladies and gentlemen, I challenge Bob Ape and Lizard Man to race me for the most valuable prize in the world”  “yes ladies and gentlemen, I mean, the amazing Fish Sword”

After all, Professor Minotaur was extremely fast moving, much faster than the Lizard. Who was ridiculously, quite unusually, slow, like a tortoise and Ape who was just prepared to give it a go anyway.

Minotaur said “you have 24 hours to prepare and be ready for your challenge”

“We will meet at the old wiggly tree at noon tomorrow”.

Before they knew it, noon the next day had arrived. The challenge was on.

Nesquika the chocolate crazed rabbit announced the start of the race.  “Are you ready, get, set, go” and so the race began. Amazingly enough Professor Minotaur was soon far out of view. Lizard and Ape had just about left the starting line.

The race went on.

The finish line was getting closer and suddenly Professor Minotaur tripped over a twig and bumped his head – Crash!

He fell to the floor with a bang. Sometime after Ape and Lizard had finally caught up and offered to help. “Are you OK Professor?” they both said together.

“No” he shouted. With that they both bent down to help him up.  He got up said “thanks losers” and pushed them both to the ground and ran on.

They were both shocked and both agreed that Professor Minotaur did it to cheat them both. Ape said “never mind, what goes around, comes around and his mean deed will come back to him”

Lizard said “we’re never going to win now” Ape replied, “it doesn’t matter if we don’t win, as long as we know we tried our hardest and if we hurry up, maybe we can”

With that they were off once again, back in the race.

As Professor Minotaur had bumped his head when he tricked them with his fall, he was now feeling quite sick and dizzy and needed to lie down.

Soon Ape and Lizard caught up with him, this time he called for help but they both decided to ignore his plea this time.  They ran right past.

Ape could see the finish line ahead in the distance and shouted to Lizard, “we can make it, there’s the finish line” and pointed ahead. Little did they know, Professor Minotaur had one more trick up his sleeve.

“Stop” shouted Ape. “No” said Lizard “We can’t stop now, we’re not at the finish line yet” he took no notice and ran on. “Look out, river” shouted Ape, but it was too late, splash! Lizard was in the water. Ape said “look there’s the actual finish line over there, we need to cross the rocky bridge first” so jumped in to join Lizard.

Soon they were across the bridge to the other side and ahead they could see Nesquika and the crazed chocolate rabbits. More chocolate rabbits than you could dream of. The music and chocolate looked and sounded so nice. Ape and Lizard danced across the finish line and won the prize, The Fish Sword.

Ape held up the sword and the sun shone down on them. It was by far the sunniest day of the year so far. Ape said “I wonder what would have happened if Professor Minotaur had won the sword?”

“don’t worry about that” said Lizard, “we need to get the chocolate rabbits out of the sun before they melt and make a chocolate river”

Everybody laughed loudly and cheered.

The moral of the story is not to be mean and trick and cheat people and by cheating Professor Minotaur was not the winner. A cheat will never prosper.

Sammy’s Comic Book Fable

Here’s Sammy’s story. What you can’t easily see in the scan is that Bob the Beetle has googly eyes! He also thoughtfully provided fifteen copies to share round the class.

Angus’s Diary of a Tudor Sailor

It is 1578 aboard the Golden Hind. Today is the 17th October. It is night and we’re still sailing. It is strange, we don’t usually sail at night. I have noticed that Captain Drake seems slightly bothered lately. Maybe it’s because he suspects we’re being chased by the Spanish (spit spit spit).

Life aboard ship is hard. I have no idea where we are although rumours say we just sailed round the tip of a place called Emerica.

Earlier today I was firmly told by Captain Drake to go up to the crows nest. Then he told me in a hoarse whisper to watch out for the Spanish ships. I can’t believe how much you get rocked about up there. I felt quite sick after 10 minutes I came down the rigging and was bled arrgh that hurt.

Later I was asked to help with an amputation. I do not like helping out with amputations. I was asked to hold down the unlucky person about to become an amputee!

Callum’s Diary of a Tudor Sailor

I’ve wanted to display something by Callum for ages. Here is his diary of a Tudor sailor. He even tried to make his handwriting look like old-fashioned handwriting:

 

Alfie’s Diary of a Tudor Sailor

Dear Diary,

My first day at sea today did I like it – no. The Golden Hind is massive and beautiful. When I first got on the ship the captain showed me to my room – OK not a room a hammock. I was next to a man named Phil about 30 I liked him and we had a chat. My sailors chest is almost full with chess, food and all my possessions. later on I heard screaming I quickly dashed up from the main gun deck (where I work) to see what was going on. I realised Phil was being whipped I hated having to watch  this but many men just kept laughing and drinking beer. When Phil came back from being whipped I asked he’d done but he just turned away then he came back and pounded me, I was bleeding. Then I puched him back but soon stopped after I heard footsteps. I was asked to empty the dirty toilet buckets on my first day.The perfect thing to do before tea. Tea was ships biscuits many ate theirs in the dark I wondered why until I took a bite. Maggots!!! I almost puked but composed myself till night.

 

The Ape and the Lost Dream by Angus

Another story from Angus:

The Ape and the Lost Dream

The Sheep Dog and the Goose by Alice

We listened to more stories today. Here is Alice’s fable:

Alice’s Powerpoint Presentation – The Sheep Dog and the Goose – February 2012

The Elephant and the Gorilla by Molly

Molly has set her fable deep in the jungle:

The Elephant and the Gorilla by Molly

The Cheetah and the Meercat by Phoebe

Onwards towards our 200th post and here is a story by Phoebe on PowerPoint.

Phoebesfable

The Panda and the Frog by Bea

Our 100th post!!

Bea has created something really special for you. Are you sitting comfortably for a story? …..

Christopher in Marlin – Tudor Food Factfile

I couldn’t resist putting this guest contribution on the site from Christopher in Marlin. Not only did he make the fabulous Masterchef video (if it’s on YouTube Chris, we would love to link to it!), but he also authored this highly detailed survey of Tudor Food.

http://snack.to/fu9qd02f

Not only that, but he even thought to provide a sample of Tudor spices from the kitchens at Hampton Court Palace. It smells wonderful, but unfortunately there isn’t a way to upload aromas yet.

Thor and Tropica – a fable by Louis

Louis wrote a full text version of this story too, but here are the slides he produced to accompany his story, ‘Thor and Tropica’:

Thor and Tropica

The Early Penguin gets the Fish

Jamie has been busy over half term:

Spanish Armada

Half way through the year now. Time for some reflection:

Thinking back to our recent history lesson before half term: just why did the Armada fail? Anyone got any theories?

Do post your ideas on the new bulletin board: http://linoit.com/users/mountsbridgewater/canvases/Spanish%20Armada

The login name is “mountsbridgewater”; the password is the name of our house in lower case letters (hint r_______y). You can write your idea on a post-it note and stick it on the noticeboard.

Sierra Leone Day: the dance workshop….

“Mirror, Mirror, Mirror…. Don’t I look so good?”  

Can you still remember the dance steps?  Here is Usifu working with us as part of his dance workshop earlier this month. A big thank you to Usifu for inspiring us and teaching us so well. Can you believe this was after only thirty minutes practice?

Sierra Leone Day 1 February 2012

On the 1st February we hosted an International Day in Year 5 learning about Sierra Leone, where we have a partner school in the city of Makeni. Usifu Jalloh visited Bridgewater Middle School and worked with each class to teach us a dance routine and he told us a story from his country. Here are some thank you letters Mounts wrote afterwards.

Read more thank you letters at : http://snack.to/fz9qzay8 (additional letters were added 13/2/12)

To view this flipping book you need to have Flash Player 9 or newer installed and JavaScript enabled. Flipsnack is a flash video player that allows you to create stylish flipping books out of your PDF document.

Some key features of a Fable

Some hints for writing your Fable:

Remember to use these when you write your story next week:

Key features of fables are:

• A moral: a good lesson for us to learn from;
• Benefits of following the moral;
• Consequences of not following the moral;
• A good, wise character, who follows the moral;
• A lazy, or foolish character who does not follow the moral;
• Animals as main characters;
• An outdoor, countryside setting.

Here are a selection of morals that you might use with your story:

• Practice makes perfect;
• If you see someone in need of help, help them out;
• Don’t always follow the crowd;
• Treat others how you would like to be treated;
• Nobody likes a show-off.

 

English Enrichment

Due date:  Monday 20^th February (straight after half term)

Background:  We have been studying myths, legends, traditional stories and fables at school.  In class you have had a chance to read and write a good selection of these.  You now know all about these types of stories and their features.

 Task:  You have to write your own traditional fable, applying what you have learned at school.   You will have to come and tell your story to the class after half term and your work will be peer-assessed by your class.

You can present your story in any way and we encourage you to be creative and to really show us what you can do.  Below is a list of possible ways in which you can present your story to the class:

1. Handwrite your story and draw your own illustrations
2. Type your story in Word and use clipart pictures to illustrate it
3. Make a PowerPoint presentation of your story and use some of the features of the program such as text and sound effects
4. Storyboard – a template is on Moodle, but you may use your own https://moodle.bridgewater.herts.sch.uk/
5. Story flow chart – a template and example can be found on Moodle, but you may use your own
6. Cartoon – there are two templates on Moodle, but you may use your own design
7. Story cube – a template net can be found on Moodle, but you may make your own
8. Audio recording of you reading your story
9. Video of you telling your story

There are a variety of sheets and resources available on Moodle that might help you plan your story.  We encourage you to have a look at these.  Remember to ask your teacher if you are unsure about what to do, but most importantly HAVE FUN WITH IT!!