Continuing our Journey with the #StopDirtyPalmOil campaign

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a project my Year 4 class had started, inspired by the recent Greenpeace advert - There's a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom. To read that blog post, which includes original questions linked to the advert, please click the picture:


The response we received from the video the class created where they wrote in role as a helpless Orangutan, seeing their home destroyed was so positive and empowering.  Again you can read more about this by clicking the picture above. If you haven't yet seen the video, here it is:


From the reaction to the video, my class were inspired to go further and investigate the issue more. We discovered this from Greenpeace, which identifies companies with links to Dirty Palm Oil:


According to Greenpeace, these companies made a promise to be clean of dirty palm oil by 2020. My pupils decided to write to these companies to provide a polite reminder and ensure they are on target to keep their promise. 

After drafting their letters, I gave quality oral feedback through our iPads, this is something I cover on all my CPD sessions and will also be demonstrating on my subscription page on facebook.


The pupils were then given the opportunity to transform their writing into a video using Adobe Spark Video. This is another example of the READWRITEPERFORM approach in action. These videos were then tweeted and emailed to all the companies identified in the above image. Here is an example from our pupils:


Please let my class know what you think by leaving a comment on this video on facebook.

So far, we've received a lot of replies from the companies. I can't wait to share them with my class as they'll see how their writing is making a difference:







We will keep you updated with this project as we continue to learn about it in class. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Lovely Poem for Your Leavers Assembly

Image
I am always asked to put a little video together for our Year 6 show and end of year assembly. Each year, I always include a special poem that I finish the end of year video with. It is called Leaving School by Jade Hughes and it is beautiful: We've now left school, It's how the story ends, Tears of happiness is what we recommend,   It's what we say, But there's always a little pain, Because once you've left, It's not the same,   You could walk through school and you would see, Your friends who have grown up incredibly, But now you've gone, It's not the same, As you may never see them again,   Your friends who have grown up right beside you, Who have helped you through your daily strife, Will go ahead and leave behind them, You who wants the same old life,   But you can not live your life in the past, Hoping that the same memories will last, You have to move on and just be glad, That leaving has made you so sad, As this just shows that
Keep reading

Using Disney Films for Geography!

Image
Last week I came across a tweet sharing this picture: I thought it would be a brilliant way for children to learn about the location of different countries around the world.  Before we looked at the map, I asked the class to list as many animated Disney films (excluding Pixar) as they could think of. We shared some of our ideas and discussed the origins of some of these stories. Some were books, others fairy tales, legends or folk tales.  This gave us a link with Literacy to discuss different types of stories, how most films are derived from written texts and also looking at some famous authors. We also talked about whether they could remember where in the world the film was set.  I then shared the map with the children and gave them time to look and see whether they knew any of the countries themselves. They had to make estimated guesses as to where they thought each film was set. After they had had a go at trying the name all the countries, they then were able
Keep reading

Teaching Direct Speech Punctuation using the iPhone text messaging!

Image
Teaching direct speech is always a tricky aspect, there is so much to remember and very few useful visual pictures that clearly help children know what and how to use speech punctuation properly. Lets look at some of the tips to remember: The words that are spoken have to go within the speech marks. Any punctuation needs to also go inside the speech marks. A reporting clause, who and how they said it can go before, middle or end. A comma follows the reporting clause at the beginning. You need to start a new line when a new character speaks.  I think that is most of them?? I have heard of endless different ways to try and get children to remember these tips - keeping the sheeps in the pen  or speech mark sandwich  which are a couple of examples however they do not have any visual help for tips such as starting on a new line, which is something some of my children find hardest to remember.  I decided to use a different approach, to help cover the aspects of correct
Keep reading