Blackhen's Top Ten Books for Christmas

Christmas is a lovely time to give books and receive them. It is a great way of encouraging children to read and to feed their imagination. This year there are dozens to choose from, whether you buy them online or from a bookshop. Whether you want a pop-up book, noisy book, book without pictures or sticker book.

I still think some of the best are those I loved as a child or as a mother, reading to my two children. They are imprinted on my mind and still hold a special place for me.

We have had a good perusal of books on offer for children this Christmas and have come up with our list of ten books. Some of them are classics and a few are not so well known.

                               

                                                                    

‘The First Christmas’ – Jan Pienkowski

I love this very traditional book about the Nativity story, because of the wonderful silhouette illustrations.

‘Father Christmas’ – Raymond Biggs

This book still makes me smile and we use the film version of the story in our English course for 6-7 year olds. The book tells the story of a grumpy, miserable Father Xmas, who is fed up with his job.

‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ – Allan and Janet Ahlberg

This is a wonderful book for young readers. The book includes real letters that children can take out of the envelopes to read. A delightful book for Christmas.

       

                       

                                                                                                                                                 

'Jacqueline Wilson Christmas Cracker' - Jacqueline Wilson

Jam - packed with Jacqueline Wilson goodies! There are festive puzzles, tasty Christmas recipes, perfect present tips and fun Christmas facts. 

'The Best Christmas Present in the World' - Michael Morpurgo

A haunting story from one of our best loved children's writers. A very appropriate story for 2014, the year of the Centenary of WW1.

'Odd Socks Learns All About Christmas' - Melinda

Odd is hoping for a present from Santa. But does Santa ever give presents to cuddly toys?

The Most Beautiful Christmas Story Ever ' - Adina Pasa

Adina is not having good Christmas. A boy at school keeps telling her that Santa doesn't exist.

                                                           

                         

'Dear Santa' - Rod Campbell

A wonderful book for very young children. Lift the flap on every page and find the present!

‘The Night Before Christmas’ – Clement C. Moore     

The much loved classic Christmas poem is brought to life in this gorgeous picture book. A beautiful present for any child.

'Father Christmas Needs a Wee' - Nicholas Allan

Father Christmas has been drinking drinks since half past three.... Find out what happens in this brilliant and funny counting book.

Key Stage 3 - Gothic Literature

                                                             

One of the units for our 12-13 year old students is 'Gothic'.

Most of our older students have heard of 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein, but have not studied the texts or genre of Gothic literature in their French schools. They only know of the characters from films and comics.

In the unit of four lessons, they look at:

1) The Gothic genre
2) Research Dracula or Frankenstein
3) Design a book cover for a Gothic novel
4) Write an interview with a character from a Gothic novel

We believe it is important to have a mixture of written and creative tasks in the units for all of our students. Here are some of the wonderful book cover designs we received this year.

I am always impressed with the imaginative and creative designs they come up with!

 I love the 'foggy' atmosphere that this student has been able to achieve with her front cover for Dracula. I also like the choice of font for the description for the book.

This poster is brilliant! It was all hand drawn by Dan and is really quite creepy when you see it in the flesh!

Christmas Cards for India

Our students have been very busy making home made Christmas cards for our sponsor children at: www.supportingdalitchildren.com

We asked all of our students and their families if they would like to design and make their own card, that could then be sent to Annapoona and Durugesh in Manvi, India.

The response has been wonderful! Lots of beautiful cards have been sent to us at Blackhen Education, from our youngest student to the oldest and from students who live all over France. We even received one from a student who lives in Mauritius.

They have all now been posted an are on their way to India!

Harry Potter

KS2 ( 9-10yr olds) Harry Potter

This month we have been working on a 'Harry Potter' unit. First of all, we looked at describing words or 'adjectives' to describe Hagrid, Hermione and Ron.

For part of the lesson, we had to produce a factfile about our favourite character.

 by Lucie Sims

 by Alex Okula

 

by Nell Bienvegnu

Then we wrote some descriptions of one of the shops in Diagon Alley. We had to think about the senses 'sight,sound,touch,smell and taste' and how we could use these in our writing.

We also wrote some 'Magic Potions' of our own.

by Alex Okula

Details of all our courses can be found on our website: www.blackheneducation.com

Christmas Bags for charity

Bags for India

Each year we choose a charity to support. Our parents and students are asked to select one form a list of 5. They are usually all connected by the theme of education in some way.

This year our chosen charity is www.supportingdalitchildren.com . Each month we donate a certain amount to the charity and this goes towards sponsoring two children:

Annapoorna and Durugesh:

It is nearly Christmas and the charity has asked us if we can make some cotton bags to send out to India. These will then be used to put Christmas presents in for the Dalit children..


Here are some photographs of the bags that our parents & students made.


         

                                          
 

You can learn more about the charity and the children we sponsor on our website:

www.blackheneducation.com

Welcome to our blog!

We are aged between 6 and 16 years. Most of us live in France, but some of us live in Holland, Mauritius and Morocco. We are all English - speakers and want to maintain our English skills whilst living abroad.

We like to study lessons similar to those in the UK and some of us are studying for our IGCSE English Language and English Literature qualifications.

We would love to hear what you think of our work and we hope that you will enjoy our posts on the blog.

                                    

                                    

These are just some examples of what we do.

You can find our website at:     www.blackheneducation.com
And we have a facebook page: www.facebook.com/BlackhenEducation

World War One Poetry

My Favourite WW1 Poem

Most people will have studied some poetry from the First World War during their time at school. Many of these poems are read or printed each year in the run up to November 11^th. Amongst the most ‘popular’ are the haunting and bitter ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, the poignant ‘In Flanders Fields’ and the idealistic but tragic ‘The Soldier’. All poems from this genre reveal some aspect of the horror from the trenches of France and Belgium.

My favourite poem from this period is one that doesn’t crop up too often. I learnt this whilst at school and it conveyed to me everything that I needed to know about the war. ‘The General’ by Siegfried Sassoon is one of the shortest poems about World War One. At 7 lines it is remarkably short to communicate the futility of the war. But it does just that.

It starts off in a terribly breezy, very British way with an old General wishing the passing troops ‘good morning’. Initially he comes across as a friendly guy, just one of the men. However, the darker side of the poem comes in when we learn that most of the troops he says hello to are dead. The poem then goes on to comment about the inadequacy of the army leadership. We then get to meet (briefly) two British Tommies, Harry and Jack; we have a personal insight of this meeting. They seem to epitomize the decency of the ordinary British soldier and his unquestioning nature. Harry’s response is simply that the old major is a happy soul. The poem then ends with the abrupt news that both of the soldiers have died due to the detached and ultimately useless general. 

Unlike the graphic nature of Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ with a detailed account of watching a soldier die from a gas attack or the almost dreamy nature of Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ mulling over how his death will some how be glorious in turning foreign soil English, ‘The General’ shows in a short regimented way the poorly thought out tactics of many commanders in the First World War and their terrible consequences. The contrast between the General’s pleasant demeanour and the outcome of the Battle of Arras, which resulted in the deaths of thousands pinpointed for me the gaping chasm in those that did the fighting and those that didn’t. Whilst the General comes across as a nice old buffer, his apparent detachment or complete incompetence with military tactics and what is actually happening at the front, is clearly conveyed. In 7 lines the reader can really believe the  rumours of Commanders sitting in grand country houses miles behind the front line sipping claret, whilst ordinary soldiers were perishing in the mud and bullets of the Western Front. All in all it is a deceptively simple yet terribly powerful poem.

The reason why I like this poem is exactly because it’s simple. The length makes it very accessible and as a child I actually memorised it. I like the image of the apparently good natured old General cheering his weary troops up with a sprightly ‘hello’. It makes us feel that all of the top brass aren’t so bad. I also liked the two Tommies, Harry and Jack. One could almost see them marching along through the French countryside to be met by this old military man. The way Harry ‘grunts’ to his mate that ‘E’s a cheery old card’ made me like the seemingly good natured soldiers. And then we learn in the last line that both of these men are to become victims of this General’s ‘plan of attack’. So the seemingly benign old boy has actually got them killed. A clear, simple snapshot of the brutal and often short life for a front-line soldier on the Western Front.

The General

BY SIEGFRIED SASSOON

“Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said

When we met him last week on our way to the line.

Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,

And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

“He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack

As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did them both by his plan of attack.

This post was written by Andy Mackay, KS3 & IGCSE Co-Ordinator at Blackhen Education.

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