When Jessie Came Across the Sea - Rising Stars

When Jessie Came Across the SeaYear 4, Unit 1, Week 5Focus and objective links Resources needed Warm upWhen Jessie Came Across the SeaYear 4, Unit 1, Week 5Whole class activity Group/individual work Cool downMusicQCA: 8, 12Lit: Listening 2.1Group discussion 3.1, 3.2Creating and shaping texts 9.1CD track 7PCM 1, 18Tuned and untunedpercussion instruments• Look again at PCM 1 (Shalom) together.• Point out the time signature at the beginning of the music ~ 4/4. The top number tellsyou the metre of the song (4 beats in a bar).• Observe the way the notes go up and down on the stave and how you read music fromleft to write, just like reading a book.• Can the children see that some notes are black and others are white, and how some arejoined together at the top?white = 2 beatsblack = 1 beatblack with a tail (joined like a bridge) = 1/2 beat• Now sing the song again.Our Jessie Came Across the Sea song• The object of this session is for the class to write a songand accompaniment of their own, using tuned anduntuned percussion instruments.• In groups, using text from the story invite the childrento use either:1. Rhyming couplets, e.g.I have a special friend, his name is Lou.He uses strong leather to make shoes.2. Rhythmic phrases. e.g.The streets are not gold in this land called Americada da da de da da da da de dedadada• Now ask some children to create a pentatonictune for their phrases.• The others add untuned percussionaccompaniment, e.g. pulse beat and ostinatopattern (repeating).• Put the piece together with singing, pentatonictune and accompaniment.• The children record their music in the form of dotnotation with the letters written underneath.• Untuned percussion parts could be recorded on agraphic score.• They could use PCM 18 (Score For Our Song) forthis activity.• Invite players to play their ideas one at atime to the class, who sing each phraseback.• Ask for comments.• Put 2 or 3 phrases together to make anextended composition.• Which phrases would make a good startand finish?ArtQCA: 4aLit: Group discussion 3.1Drama 4.1Pictures of travellers,settlers and homelesspeopleDigital camera• Talk about how it must have felt to leave your home and travel thousands of miles to starta new life in a strange place.• Can the children think of any modern-day examples of this?• Why do people emigrate away from everything they know to start new lives?Journeys• Have prepared a selection of pictures from the Internet,magazines and newspapers showing homelesspeople or immigrants.• Ask the children to plan a story involving a journey insequence, using a story board.• They could use the pictures you have supplied as astimulus, or collect/download their own.• One child, or a small group of children, pose assome of the people in the illustration of Jessie andher traveling companions on the boat.• Take some photographs of the poses on a digitalcamera.• Download the photos and give copies to thechildren to use as a stimulus when painting theirown picture of the journey.• Let everyone have a chance to see each others’work.• Children could compose sound tracks toenhance the atmosphere of their workand to give an additional perspective andinterpretation.DanceQCA: 4Lit: Listening 2.2Drama 4.1PCM 17CD track 12DVD of professionaldancers in character, e.g.wedding scene in SleepingBeauty• Introduce the idea of how dance is often used to celebrate special occasions and that theguests at Jessie and Lou’s wedding would have danced a special dance.• Ask children to form a standing circle.• Using the step patterns on PCM 17 (Wedding Dance Hora) teach the children each of theindividual steps.• Practise the steps as a whole class.• Encourage the children to dance with energy and fluency of movement.• You could add some solos or duets to be performed in the centre of the circle, while theothers perform their step patterns in the circle.• Play CD Track 12 (Wedding Dance), and try fitting the steps in with the music.Lou and Jessie’s wedding day• Look together at some pictures of weddings.• Talk with the class about wedding receptions they havebeen to.• The children work on dance movements basedaround Lou and Jessie’s wedding day:• Part 1: They create a simple movement/mimesequence, where the ‘guests’ arrive in groups,greet Jessie and Lou, the bride and groom.• Part 2: In pairs or small groups, they decide on thecharacters they will be (bridesmaids, emotionalfamily, old people, family with young children etc)and create a short routine.• Part 3: Jessie and Lou dance the first dance,followed by the wedding dance learned in thewarm-up activity.• Look together at a DVD of professionaldance where the dancers are movingin character, e.g. the wedding scene inSleeping Beauty.• Talk about the ways the dancers createcharacterisations without using words, butby using gestures, body language andfacial expressions.DramaLit: Speaking 1.3Group discussion 3.1Drama 4.1• Sit the children in a circle.• Explain to them that you have a very special box, which contains a gift sent fromGrandmother to Jessie, or from Jessie to Grandmother.• Pass the box round the circle. As each child receives the imaginary box they open it up,as if opening a gift.• The box can change shape and size; this can be shown by the way each child pretendsto hold it.• They mime taking out a special imaginary gift. Ask them to think about what the object isand to mime using it.• Encourage reality of emotions and actions.Letters from America• Jessie wrote regularly to her Grandmother, telling herabout her new life. To Grandmother, the life Jessie wasliving was like a dream world.• In pairs, the children search the text for examples ofletters about the things Jessie did in her new life.• Ask for volunteers to read the letters out loud as if theyare Jessie.In pairs or 3s, develop a drama sequence where:1. Grandmother is reading one of Jessie’s letters. Sheis sitting in her favourite chair. Gradually, she nodsoff to sleep and the letter drops from her hand.2. She dreams about Jessie (one child dances thepart of Jessie). In the dream Jessie is having awonderful time, e.g. dancing/walking in the parkwearing her Sunday best clothes/visiting new andexciting buildings, etc.3. Suddenly something goes wrong. Jessie is indanger. Granny tosses and turns, and eventuallywakes. It was only a dream.• Ask the children to freeze in a pose aseither Granny or Jessie, e.g. Grannysweeping the path, Jessie studying herbooks in the library.• Take a photograph of each pose, inreadiness for writing activity 1.Writing 1Lit: Creating and shaping texts9.1, 9.2PCM 19Introduction to ‘Talking letters’ ~ links with drama• Remind the class about the drama activity where Jessie and her Grandmother write toeach other.• Divide the class into the same pairs as the drama activity if possible.• Give them copies of the photographs taken at the end of the drama session.Main activity• The pairs discuss and write 2 letters, one from Jessie sending money to Grandmother for her fare to America for Jessie’s wedding, and the other a reply fromGrandmother.• Give them copies of PCM 19 (Talking Letters) to help them plan their letters.Writing 2Lit: Group discussion 3.1Creating and shaping texts 9.2,9.5PCM 20Introduction to ‘Front page news’ ~ links with the dance activity• Show them some examples of newspaper front pages.• Remind the class about the dance work they undertook, where they developed awedding day celebratory dance for Lou and Jessie.• Tell them they are going to be reporters from the ‘New Yorker’ gathering togetherinformation about Lou and Jessie’s wedding day.Main activity• The children brainstorm some ideas and images they have about Lou and Jessie’s wedding day.• Scribe their ideas and encourage them to use them to help them to develop the front page of the ‘New Yorker’ PCM 20 (Front Page News).• Give them a copy of the PCM and ask them to develop their own front page, featuring Lou and Jessie’s wedding.1819

When Jessie Came Across the Sea – THE PROMISED LANDYear 4 • Unit 1 • Photocopiable 9THE PROMISED LANDTuned percussion/recordersPART1ChorusG • G •VersePentatonic notes G A B D EG • G • C • C • G • G • G • G • G • G • D • D • G • G •C • C G • G • C • C • G • G • C • C • G • G • D • D • D • D • D • D •PART2ChorusG • G •VerseE • • •C • • •E D D • G • E • G • G • G • G • E D D • E • G • G • G •D • • •B • • •E • • •C • • •D • • •B • • •E • • •C • • •D • • •B • • •A • • •D • • •A • • •D • • •A • • •D • • •Untuned percussionPART1tambourstambourinesChorus• •• • • • • • • • • • • •PART2trianglesindian bellsVerse• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •© Rising Stars UK Ltd. 2007You may photocopy this pageWhen Jessie Came Across the Sea – STORYBOARD GRIDYear 4 • Unit 1 • Photocopiable 10STORYBOARD GRIDNameFrame 1Frame2Class TeacherFrame3Frame 4Sound effectsSound effects Sound effects Sound effectsStage directions Stage directions Stage directions Stage directions© Rising Stars UK Ltd. 2007You may photocopy this page