Makeover Madness
Activities for small groups
Note to teachers: you are most welcome to download these activities and use them with your class. I hope they help to ease your workload!
School Improvement
Imagine that you are Evergreen in Chapter 10, page 48. Using a camera, video camera or tape recorder, look around school and film areas which need improvement. Work with three or four other children.
Dear Sir or Madam...
Imagine that you are a pupil at Venus Crescent Primary School. Working with two or three other children, write a letter to your local paper telling them all about the makeover of your school. Invite photographers and reporters into the school for the Special Assembly on Monday. (See Chapter 12 page 64.)
Read All About It!
You are a group of journalists on a local paper. Compile a report on the first day of filming at Venus Crescent Primary School. (From pages 64 to 78.) Illustrate your report with pictures of the assembly on pages 66 and 67; McCartney Stephens on page 71 and the children helping with the painting on page 76.
Food, Glorious Food.
Are your school dinners healthy? Would you like them to be different? Find out about healthy food and balanced diets. Write menus for two weeks of school dinners. Try not to have the same dishes every day and vary the drinks accompanying each meal.
The Perfect Classroom
Make plans to dramatically transform your classroom. Look around you with a critical eye and see what can be thrown out, what can be kept and what new furniture you need. Change your classroom into a Perfect Classroom. Draw plans and pictures to illustrate your work.
Victoriana
Venus Crescent Primary School was built in Victorian times. On page 9 Leanne describes the Victorian children who used to play in her playground. “They all looked very well behaved in their frilly dresses with white aprons and their hair tied back in silky ribbons.” Find out about life in a Victorian school. Here are some questions to get you started:
What did a Victorian classroom look like?
How did Victorian children dress?
How did Victorian teachers treat their pupils?
What playground games did children play in Victorian times?
What did children eat at lunch time?
What time did school start and finish?
Write a report, with pictures, of daily life in a Victorian school.
Foundation Stone
Walk around the outside of your school and see if you can find the foundation stone. (It should have a date on it.) Take a photograph of it or make a sketch of it. When was your school built? Now, research what was happening in your family, your city, your country and internationally in the year that your school was built. See if you can find old maps of the local area to discover what used to be in the place where your school is now built.
Time Capsule
Imagine that there’s a big extension being built at your school. Maybe it’s a new computer building or a stunning new dining room. The builders have said that children in the school can put material into a time capsule which could be buried in the foundations.
Make a list of all the everyday items you would put into a time capsule which will show children of the future what our daily life is like nowadays. Perhaps we could start with a daily paper, or a computer mouse, as most people use the computer every day. What about this week’s menu from the dining room? What else can you think of to put into your time capsule?
Aztec Mad
Your headteacher is mad about Aztec design. She would like the school hall to be transformed using Aztec patterns. Make some plans, with illustrations of how you can make your headteacher’s dream a reality.