In Yr 6 we always love our class readers and the highlight for Rowan Class was We are Wolves by Katrina Nannestad. This story was all about three German children living in East Prussia at the end of World War Two. Fleeing from the invading Russians, they become separated from their family and are forced to take desperate measures to survive.
To say this book left a big impression on the pupils is a massive understatement. They were absolutely gripped! As a class, they came up with some questions for Katrina Nannestad which Mr Stanley emailed out to her in Australia. This is her reply…
What a lovely email. I’m delighted to know that your class have shared We Are Wolves and enjoyed it so much. I am especially happy to know that the story inspired such meaningful discussion.
Here are the answers to your questions.
Why were you so interested to write about the war in Eastern Europe?
I was fascinated by the stories of the Wolfskinder and as they were in East Prussia and Lithuania, that was where the story had to be set. Of course, there were many orphans all over Germany after the war, but the situation in East Prussia was unique which led to the very sad situation of the Wolfskinder having to survive on their own – sometimes for many years after the war.
While doing research for We Are Wolves, I came across a number of stories about child soldiers, including that of Sergey Aleshkov, which inspired my second war story, Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief. So when my publisher wanted a third war story, it seemed like a good idea to find another lesser-known story set in the eastern arena, to round things out. And so I wrote Waiting For the Storks, which is inspired the true stories of Polish children who were stolen from their families and sent to Germany under the Lebensborn Program.
When you were writing the book did you envisage an ending for Karl, Josef, Bruno and Charlotte?
I did! In fact, I have wondered about writing a sequel, so I might keep their futures a secret for now. I always tell my readers that anything left untold can be determined by them. They have the power to decide … until the author writes a sequel!
If you had the chance to rewrite We are Wolves, would you change anything about it?
Yes. When the book was translated into German, my translator pointed out that Hitler was never called Herr Hitler by the German people of his time. He was Hitler, Adolf Hitler or the Fuhrer. To call him Herr Hitler was an insult, to presume he was just like all other men, and he wanted to be recognised as a great leader, a special man. Apparently, when Winston Churchill called him Herr Hitler, that was a knowing insult. This was corrected in the German translation, and in reprints in the Australian text. I don’t think it was changed for the British edition.
As far as the actual story/plot goes, I wouldn’t change anything.
If you could be one character from We are Wolves, who would you be and why?
I think I’d be Otto. Even though he suffers like all the other children, there is a resilience and a naivety about him that keeps him a little less hurt than Liesl, I think. I like his cheekiness and bold Hitler ditties, too.
Which of the books you have written is your favourite?
This is always a tricky question – a bit like asking which of my children I love most. I like all my books for different reasons. I do have a few favourite characters, though. Sasha, the boy soldier from Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, is one of my all-time favourites. He is so sweet and incredibly kind and giving. At the other end of the literary spectrum, Pig McKenzie, the school bully in Olive of Groves, is also a favourite.
Many thanks to Katrina for taking the time out to reply to the children’s questions.
Mr Stanley is looking for opportunities to read Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief and Waiting for the Storks to the class, and is currently trying to track down some international copies as they aren’t currently available in the UK.
In English we have once again been studying Stormbreaker, the brilliant Alex Rider spy novel by Anthony Horowitz and consistently the book that the pupils in Rowan class enjoy the most each year. We asked the Rowan Class pupils to rewrite the car crusher scene from Stormbreaker after watching a clip from the film and without allowing them to read the relevant pages in the novel.
We discussed all the features of Anthony Horowitz’s writing (from different parts of the book) and set the pupils the task of producing writing so convincing that the general public wouldn’t know which was the real scene from Stormbreaker when put alongside some pupil entries. We focused particularly on descriptive language – particularly personification, sentence openings, ambitious vocabulary and varying sentence length to create tension.
There are six samples of writing, but only one is the real scene from Stormbreaker written by Anthony Horowitz. Vote for the writing you think is produced by one of our favourite authors. Will it be the correct choice or will one of our pupils have produced a piece of writing so good that it could be mistaken for Anthony Horowitz himself? Read on below and then please vote. All comments are welcome.
Writing A
Two men slowly approached the car. Alex had to hide! Without thinking, he launched himself into vehicle, hoping to remain undetected. Without warning, sharp, steel claws jerked the battered car and Alex up, spraying glass shards as sharp as diamonds and curtaining him with intense pain.
The next thing Alex knew, the BMW (with him in it) was lifted up towards the sky. For a brief moment time stood still, as if he was flying, but that didn’t last long…
With force greater than gravity, the BMW was released and plummeted into the grasping hand of the crusher. Slowly yet surely, the jagged wings of the hideous monster of a machine engulfed him. Through a tiny gap, in the ruined beyond repair car, he could almost taste the chilling smooth surface of the deadly, man-made beast. He kicked and kicked the door with such force it should have shattered. But nothing happened This was it… The end… He was ready to see his family again.
Writing B
Alex crouched down. He didn’t dare make a sound. Without any warning, a fearless dog sprinted up to Alex, aggressively barking. Alex didn’t know what to do. He looked around frantically, until he realised that he could hide inside of his uncle’s dented, silver BMW which was parked in front of him.
Cautiously, Alex jumped through the window and curled up on the grey, velvet car seat, knowing that the dog was probably going to jump up on to the window. The dog did just that, his dark eyes full of anger and strength, his teeth as sharp looking as knives, ready to bite in to anyone ready to fight him.
Alex stayed as calm as he possibly could. Luckily, a man called the dog’s name and the hound disappeared. Feeling relieved, Alex took a deep breath. He thought he was going to be safe. Then, unexpectedly, eight sharp, rusty claws grabbed the top of the car. Alex panicked as he tried to protect his face from the shattering glass that was sprinkling down on him like multiple hail stones.
The claw lifted the car up in to mid-air. Only for a second, the car suspended. Alex felt oddly relaxed. He breathed in the last bit of fresh air, before he and the car were dropped into the crusher’s hungry mouth. His petrified eyes grew wide. The crusher’s jagged teeth were closing in. Alex thought about the times when he made jokes about being squashed into strawberry jam. Now, it was about to become reality. He kicked the door fiercely. He failed. “Is this real?” he thought.
Writing C
And then something hit the BMW with such force that Alex cried out, his whole body caught in a massive shock wave that tore him away from the steering wheel and threw him helplessly into the back. The roof buckled and three huge metal fingers tore HEAVEN FOR CARS 21through the skin of the car like a fork through an eggshell, trailing dust and sunlight. One of the fingers grazed the side of his head . . . any closer and it would have cracked his skull. Alex yelled as blood trickled over his eye. He tried to move, then was jerked back a second time as the car was yanked off the ground and tilted high up in the air.
He couldn’t see. He couldn’t move. But his stomach lurched as the car swung in an arc, the metal grinding and the light spinning. The BMW had been picked up by the crane. It was going to be put inside the crusher. With him inside.
He tried to raise himself up, to wave through the windows. But the claw of the crane had already flattened the roof, pinning his left leg, perhaps even breaking it. He could feel nothing. He lifted a hand and managed to pound on the back window, but he couldn’t break the glass. Even if the workmen were staring at the BMW, they would never see anything moving inside.
His short flight across the junkyard ended with a bone-shattering crash as the crane deposited the caron the iron shelves of the crusher. Alex tried to fightback his sickness and despair and think of what to do.
Any moment now the operator would send the car tipping into the coffin-shaped trough. The machine was a Lefort Shear, a slow-motion guillotine. At the press of a button, the two wings would close on the car with a joint pressure of five hundred tons. The car, with Alex inside it, would be crushed beyond recognition. And the broken metal—and flesh—would then be chopped into sections. Nobody would ever know what had happened.
He tried with all his strength to free himself. But the roof was too low. His leg was trapped. Then his whole world tilted and he felt himself falling into dark-ness. The shelves had lifted. The BMW slid to one side and fell the few yards into the trough. Alex felt the metalwork collapsing all around him. The back window exploded and glass showered around his head, dust and diesel fumes punching into his nose and eyes.
There was hardly any daylight now, but looking out of the back, he could see the huge steel head of the piston that would push what was left of the car through the exit hole on the other side. The engine tone of the Lefort Shear changed as it prepared for the final act. The metal wings shuddered. In a few seconds’ time the two of them would meet, crumpling the BMW like a paper bag.
Writing D
Without any warning, two live beings headed in Alex’s direction like undetected ninjas. One was a raging, hungry dog – it seemed to be the property of the human workers. Suddenly Alex noticed them. He had no choice but to leap inside the car. Alex thought he was undetected, but the raging dog launched at the battered, car window. The dog barked as if Alex had punched it directly. Suddenly someone called,
‘Chase! Get out of there!’ The dog then went back to its rightful owner.
With no warning. Alex felt a wave of nausea like something bad was going to happen. He was right, immense metal, sharp claws grabbed the front window of the BMW. Alex was petrified with curtains of fear covering his body. It was like he was being stabbed multiple times in his chest. It couldn’t get worse, Alex thought, but the terror was only just beginning. The BMW was launched up the air. Alex was petrified as the wait seemed to last for hours but was actually just ten seconds.
The claw dropped the car with the force of gravity into the awaiting crusher…Alex felt miserable as death awaited him. The crusher then started engulfing the battered, broken BMW, he knew he had no chance of surviving…
Writing E
Out of nowhere, a crazy dog started charging at Alex, who was in his own world, studying the broken BMW that looked like a battered fish from a fish and chip shop. Gunshots were imprinted in the used car. As Alex realised that a dog attack was underway he launched himself into the ruined vehicle. Leaping up at the shattered window, the angry, bulky German Shepherd bared its razor sharp teeth. Luckily, an unknown man shouted at the vicious dog. For a brief moment, there was silence.
Without any warning, a whopping steel claw seemingly as big as the Empire State Building jerked the car upwith Alex in it too. Glass shards flew everywhere, embedding in his skin, smothering him with deep pain.
With the force of gravity, the BMW and poor old Alex were released and plopped into the mighty grasp of the crusher’s petrifying claws.
Slowly, the wings of the crusher started to close in. Time stood still. Then, Alex found an escape, or so he thought! Kicking with all his might, he tried to make a life saving escape! Sweating, he thought of how he could get crushed by this monster. At the thought of this he just kicked harder and harder. But to his dismay it didn’t work. He took one last deep breath … what was he going to do now?
Writer F
Sneakily, Alex crept into the battered, silver BMW, looking for any hidden clues of his uncle’s sudden, mysterious death. His dirty, callused fingers traced over tiny, bullet holes in the car door. Time stood still. Without a warning, three extendable, metal arms clawed through the roof of the BMW. Alex was absolutely terrified.
Metal was crunched. Glass was shattered as if it was a china vase. Alex didn’t make a sound. He was too petrified. Suspended in mid-air, Alex felt as if he were a baby bird learning to fly; frightened to death. The moment seemed to last a life time, before he was finally released. He felt as if he were a stone, sinking fast into water. Malicious car crushing teeth, began strangling the car as an adder would do to its poor, whimpering prey. He had to do something! He began kicking frantically. Nothing happened.
He remembered joking with Jack, that, whenever his uncle came home late, he had been crushed by cars squashing his BMW as the traffic would have been terrible. Now it was real. Goodbye cruel world.
Another full on day at Calshot! There were lots of children still asleep when we knocked on doors at 7.10am and there were still some asleep when we came around for room inspections at 7.25am.
After a cooked breakfast, everyone perked up and it was another busy morning at Calshot. Groups 1 – 3 had on-site orienteering followed by either cycle skills, ski 2 or archery whereas groups 4 – 6 had either ski 2 or archery followed by epic engineering.
Lunch was the usual pasta or jacket potato options, but you could also have a very delicious peri peri chicken wrap or the veggie equivalent.
Groups 3 – 6 were kayaking or sailing during the afternoon. This was a great challenge as the wind was quite gusty, but the children listened carefully to the instructors and were soon whizzing around in the Solent – it was genuinely impressive to watch. Groups 1 and 2 both had archery sessions and then either ski 2 or cycle skills.
Dinner was a full roast followed by a yoghurt – style ice cream. The evening activity was a film night and the children were settling down to watch Despicable Me.
One final note: Mr Stanley has been reading to the pupils Stanley Yelnats guide to digging holes to the pupils each night. Today he achieved a notable first when one boy (who shall remain unnamed) actually fell asleep during the story! There will be some tired children returning home to Liss tomorrow afternoon.
It was a very busy first full day at Calshot for the entire group. Although the weather forecast wasn’t great, we were fortunate that any significant rainfall only occured once the day’s activities were over.
For breakfast the children tucked into sausages, pancakes and cereals (not all at the same time). From there the pupils went off to a range of activities which included kayaking, sailing, skiing and cycle skills. The feedback at the end of the day tended to focus on how much the children had enjoyed the challenge of sailing although it was highly amusing to witness some of their attempts at the technical language of sailing.
For lunch, there were the usual jacket potato and pasta options as well as various meat and veggie slices along with herby potatoes!
During the afternoon, other groups of pupils went kayaking while the morning sailers and kayakers spent the afternoon taking part in epic engineering, skiing, climbing or cycle skills in the velodrome.
Dinner was a choice of a chicken or veggie curry before the groups went off to either egg drop or rushin rockets. By the end of the day there were lots of very tired children and staff. In the vast majority of cases, we didn’t need to ask the children to turn their lights off and some were already asleep. Wednesday promises to be another full and busy day.
It was a very busy first day at Calshot (as always) with lots to take in and a busy afternoon of activities.
We arrived just after 11.00am and moved into our rooms. The children were then given a briefing by Richard, our lead instructor, took a fire drill and were then given a tour of the Calshot site.
After a packed lunch, it was time to start the activities. All the groups were in the main hanger which was actually a relief as it was as windy as any of the staff members could remember. The children were involved in any two of the following: Climbing, skiing, ringo and hanger orienteering. It was the view of the staff that the children did very well especially in the skiing where very few people fell over.
Dinner was just before 6.00pm and the children had a choice of four options which included a chicken pasta bake, a veggie pasta bake, jacket potato with toppings and plain pasta with toppings.
After dinner, the children’s evening activities were either egg drop (only one group managed to avoid breaking their egg) or rushin’ rockets. Even though it was only the first day, there were some pretty tired children and it was completely quiet by 10.00pm.
In English, the Rowan Class pupils have been creating their own spy gadgets ready to present at a spy convention. The pupils were expected to use a range of persuasive devices – see how many different techniques you can spot.
The children came up with some great ideas and are looking forward to filming their speeches on Greenscreen later this term. Here’s a selection of the best.
In English we have once again been studying Stormbreaker, the brilliant Alex Rider spy novel by Anthony Horowitz. We asked the Rowan Class pupils to rewrite the car crusher scene from Stormbreaker after watching a clip from the film and without allowing them to read the relevant pages in the novel.
We discussed all the features of Anthony Horowitz’s writing (from different parts of the book) and set the pupils the task of producing writing so convincing that the general public wouldn’t know which was the real scene from Stormbreaker when put alongside some pupil entries. There are eight samples of writing, but only one is the real scene from Stormbreaker written by Anthony Horowitz. Vote for the writing you think is produced by one of our favourite authors. Will it be the correct choice or will one of our pupils have produced a piece of writing so good that it could be mistaken for Anthony Horowitz himself? Read on below and then please vote. All comments are welcome.
For the opening week of term, Year 6 began by looking at the inspirational figure of Nancy Wake aka The White Mouse. We watched films about her life and her journey from birth in New Zealand to living in Australia, the USA and the UK before settling in France as a journalist and marrying the millionaire industrialist, Henri Fiocca.
After World War Two broke out, Nancy became actively involved in smuggling refugees and allied airmen out of France before joining the SOE (Special Operations Executive) and carrying out dangerous missions to sabotage German infrastructure or to aid the allied advance into Germany.
Among the activities the pupils carried out were writing a diary entry from Nancy after carrying out a mission, considering whether we should always tell the truth (Henri Fiocca refused to give Nancy up under questioning from the Germans and paid with his life) and creating World War Two propaganda posters. Here are some examples of the children’s learning.
A large part of the first week of a new school year in Yr 6 is an examination of wants and needs and how it plays a part in our lives.
Rowan Class started their study by being placed into table groups. Each group was then giventhe outline of a child before being asked to give their child a name. Next the group were allowed 10 minutes to write on post – its as many things that the child would need in order to grow up happy and healthy. At this point they were asked to stop.
Generating ideas for each group’s child
The next task the children were given was to start removing post – its that they felt were the least important. Initially, this was to leave only the twenty most important post – its then removing five at a time until they were left with the five post -its that they felt were most important.
Among the most important considerations the children came up with was education, a family, clean water/sanitation, nutritious food, recuperative sleep and exercise.
Mr Stanley then gave the pupils 20 wants and needs cards and the same type of exercise was repeated. The children worked together to get down to the five most important cards to them by removing 5 cards at a time. As they gained more understanding of some of the statements, the discussions became a bit more heated. What became clear was that the children were making a distinction between wants and needs:
Needs – the things that are absolutely necessary for all children to have or be able to do to live a happy and healthy life
Wants – the things that are nice to have but are not necessary for a full life.
When the groups shared their final 5 post-its there, was some similarities between what they had originally selected for their child, but there was also some differences. Nutritious food, shelter, medical care and sanitation were the most popular, but there were some changes to what the children considered most important. The right to express opinions, the freedom to practice their own culture and religion, and protection from abuse an neglect were all very important. This is quite possibly a recognition of things we value from living in a democracy.
We then compared what our pupils had shared with that of Kafuro pupils the last time they carried out this exercise. There was a good deal of commonality in that Kafuro pupils felt that shelter, nutritious food and clean water were really important. Where there was a difference was that Ugandan children valued clothing and land really highly. In Uganda, particularly where there are rural communities, having land to grow crops on is highly important. When your family’s livelihood is dependent upon harvesting and selling those crops, then everything else pales into insignificance. Likewise, for some children, they might only have a couple of sets of clothes (one of which is their school uniform). Therefore we can see how depending on your circumstances, your needs may change slightly.
In the next post, we will look at how the UN Convention on the rights of the child is centred around needs.
The Upper School Production is now available to view. Please use the link below. Please note that the link will be removed on Monday 25th July: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxbDD4pD0Y4
Liss: Year 6 