The Little Bookshop and the Origami Army by Michael Foreman

We read the wonderful picture book ‘The Little Bookshop and the Origami Army’ by Michael Foreman and had a great conversation about the key messages in the book and how people in the story are making good or bad choices.

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What are the bad choices that people are trying to make in the book?

  • AW – The man is sad because they were going to knock over the bookshop.
  • ZS – They want to make a big super store.
  • AW – They might think that the superstore would be better than the book shop?
  • AMcK – They mayor wants to build it. He thinks the superstore would be better.

The mayor owns the superstore so if he builds it what will he get?

  • FS – He will be in charge.
  • CK – He will get more attention.
  • AW – He will get more money.

Who tries to fix the problem?

  • JH – Origami Girl!

How does she try and fix the problem?

  • ZS – By getting all the favourite characters to come so all the children will come and show that they love the book shop.

The first thing she does is go to parliament. What is parliament?

We talked about the parliament in London and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. We talked about the job of a parliament.

We noticed that the writer of the book doesn’t think the Members of Parliament are much use!

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So what do they do to solve the problem?

LMcF -Origami Girl gets the characters and a huge army of children.

CK – They all go to the Little Bookshop. They don’t fight. It is like a team. The mayor likes the kids and the kids like the characters. So the Mayor cares about the children and the books.

AW – All his kids like the books.

FS – They are all fussed about the bookshop.

So what does the book tell us we should do if we care about something? 

AW – The people care about the children so they make them a park.

FS – We should care about the world.

ZS – To make a good choice and don’t do the bad choice that you are thinking about.

AW – Tell the people not to do it! Tell them it will make you sad.

JH – Tell them it is really important to you.

 

 

Escaping ‘The Maze’

We watched the most recent ‘Class Dojo’ films which are about ’empathy’.

https://ideas.classdojo.com/i/empathy-the-maze-2

https://ideas.classdojo.com/i/empathy-the-maze-3

When we were talking about the stories in the films we realised that we were talking about making good choices so we asked if we could add a post to our blog!

What sort of good choices are we talking about today?

FS – Taking a deep breath

ERF – When you feel angry or upset.

JH – Calming down and getting a smile on your face.

FS – Making sure that you don’t lose friends.

What was the problem in the film?

FO – He doesn’t know how to get out of the maze.

LM – He wasn’t being nice to his friends.

CG – He was shouting at them.

CL – Katie forgot her lines.

AS – That made him feel angry and sad.

JS – Because they might not be able to do a good job in the play.

Mrs Jeffries – So his feeling of being angry and sad bubbled up and that is what sent him into the maze?

ZS – If you feel angry you  need to count to 10 or take big breath to calm down.

AW – Don’t shout at people because they will feel sad.

AS – Go into someone elses shoes.

Mrs Jeffries – They don’t actually mean put their shoes on!?!

FS – Think about what they are thinking!

 

What is ‘The Internet’?

Today we talked about our blog.

We learned:

  • A ‘blog’ is a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group.
  • The word ‘blog’ is short for ‘web log’ which is a log (a record of where you are on your journey) which is placed on the web (the internet).
  • We learned that the internet is a huge invisible web of information where people can share what they know and what they think with one another. We have placed our blog on this web so that people can follow our journey and share our ideas.
  • We learned that ‘google’ is a way to search through the web.
  • We learned at lots of other things we have heard about like ‘facebook’ are also parts of the internet.

Turning off the tap…

Today we are thinking about water.

Before the lesson we asked …Why is it important to turn off the tap whist you are brushing your teeth?

KB – So you don’t a flood.

AS – So you don’t use all the water in the house.

JH – It might go through the door and down the stairs and then the telly won’t work.

AS – You might get a fire when the water goes onto the cables?

We watched 2 short video clips to find out more…

Knowledge Base

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIaw5mCjHPI

Then we went into our groups to discuss this problem and try and find some solutions… Here are some of our ideas…

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Do we use too much paper? What can we do?

A short film to start our discussions.

What we know already about PAPER…

We know it is important to use both sides of the paper.

WHY?

FS – We dont want to waste paper.
CK – It comes from trees.
FS – We dont want to cut down the trees.
AS – Trees make air.
JD – If we cut down trees animals wont be able to make a nest.
ZS – We wont be able to get brand new air.
LM – Trees make pencils.
CL – If you cut down trees the birds will not be able to get a nest for winter.

We watched the video. And we thought…

SF – It made me feel upset – because are people are cutting the trees.
EMcR – It made me think the land is in big trouble.
LMcF – It made me feel sad – because we are cutting the trees down and my friend who is an animal wont have a nest any more.
KB – I was sad because the squirrels might be in those trees when we cut them down.
FS – I felt sad because there might be owls living there.

We went into our cooperative groups to discuss what we could do to help solve this problem.

We made notes on our discussions…

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We talked a little about the supply chain and which bits of it we could influence.

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This is the brilliant list of ideas we came up with to help with this problem.

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We have already started using BOTH SIDES of each piece of paper for our drawing.

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Well done everyone!

Welcome to our blog!

We are Class P2/Purple 3. There are 27 of us aged 6 – 7 years old. We live in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK.

This site will chart our journey to learn about ‘Making Good Choices’.

We talk about how to make good choices each day in school. How to have a great time with our friends and how to show our best learning behaviour but we want to take that idea further.

We want to think about how to make good choices for ourselves, for each other, for our environment, our country and our world.

Each month we are going to look at different issues and think about what kind of choices we (and our fellow humans) need to make for a more sustainable future.

A note from Mrs Jeffries…

This blog is designed to record our journey over the next year as we ask questions and find out about the way our actions impact on others locally and globally. I wanted to take the language of ‘making good choices’ which we use all the time with children and young people and help them to explore what that means when we expect it of everyone – children, young people, grown-ups, politicians, business leaders, world leaders and so on. 

Experiences and Outcomes for this project…

Throughout all my learning, I take appropriate action to ensure conservation of materials and resources, considering the impact of my actions on the environment. TCH 1-02a

As I extend and enhance my knowledge of features of various types of software, including those which help find, organise, manage and access information, I can apply what I learn in different situations. TCH 1-03a

I am developing my knowledge and use of safe and acceptable conduct as I use different technologies to interact and share experiences, ideas and information with others. TCH 1-08a

Representing my class, school and/or wider community encourages my self-worth and confidence and allows me to contribute to and participate in society. HWB 1-12a

Through contributing my views, time and talents, I play a part in bringing about positive change in my school and wider community.  HWB 1-13a

I can consider ways of looking after my school or community and can encourage others to care for their environment. SOC 1-08a