Year 4 have been introduced to their new class novel.
Plot summary
A young girl called Lila wants to become a firework-maker, like her father Lalchand. Despite her talents, Lalchand believes this is an unsuitable job for girls. Lila disagrees, and journeys to get Royal Sulphur from Razvani the Fire-Fiend at Mount Merapi, as all aspirant firework-makers must do.
We discussed who’s read the book already, who’s read any other Philip Pullman stories and if anyone has seen The Golden Compass (a film based on one of Philip Pullman books).
Having read the beginning of the story, we examined how Philip Pullman chose to open the adventure. The children went on to think whether they could name any other stories that have similar openings.
Year 4 discussed the writer’s choice of vocabulary for the fireworks and the effective this has on the reader. In English, we looked at some of the names that Philip Pullman gave to the fireworks. Names like `Leaping Monkeys’, `Crackle-Dragons’ and `Tumbling Demons’.
Then, using a verb and a noun, we invented our own firework names and created an ingredients list. This was really exciting -we loved it! Take a look at some of our fireworks.
To add to this learning, the children used coloured chalks to sketch their explosive inventions.
