Reading Riddle provides ideas, resources, information and experiences related to reading and the Great Fire of London. The aim is to share materials that encourage children to read and bring interactive experiences into the classroom. I am a qualified teacher with 10 years of working in London schools. I recently published my first picture book (Vlad and the Great Fire of London) and I go into schools and libraries running activities around the Great Fire of London.
Reading Riddle provides ideas, resources, information and experiences related to reading and the Great Fire of London. The aim is to share materials that encourage children to read and bring interactive experiences into the classroom. I am a qualified teacher with 10 years of working in London schools. I recently published my first picture book (Vlad and the Great Fire of London) and I go into schools and libraries running activities around the Great Fire of London.
Linked to Vlad and the First World War this is an activity to make a version of Crsip VC the carrier pigeon, that can then zoom down his own zip wire!
Lot’s of possibilities to carry out an investigation such as:
how fast does he travel? (and how do we measure this accurately?)
does the length of the string affect his speed?
does the difference in height, from start to finish, affect his speed?
does the size/weight of Crisp VC affect his speed?
does the type of string affect his speed?
The video has step-by-step instructions on creating the mechanism.
For more activities and ideas for this and the other books go to the Reading Riddle website.
Vlad and the First World War introduces many of the real people caught up in the conflict, such as 2nd Lieutenant Walter Tull, Dr Phoebe Chapple, Captain Thomas Crisp, the Red Baron, the Chinese Workers Corps and the Indian Cavalry. From this children can research, write and dig deeper into a wider range of international experience.
Also in the series: Vlad and the Great Fire of London, Vlad and Tutankhamun’s Tomb, Vlad and the Space Race, Vlad and the Florence Nightingale Adventure.
This is a set of 6 lesson space plans with objectives and links. They are in a word document so fully editable so you can alter or reformat them.
All supporting resources marked in the planning are available to download from the Reading Riddle website (including a space timeline activity, powerpoint about satellites and space wordmat).
The lessons cover:
What is space?
A timeline of space achievement.
What does it take to be an astronaut/cosmonaut?
Designing a spacesuit and how design has changed over time.
Our Solar System - what have we discovered and what will happen in the future?
The lessons link to Vlad and the Space Race, which is part of the Vlad flea history picture books. You can use them without this book but the reason I wrote it was to bring history into the classroom through historically accurate stories as I believe that engages the children.
For further information about the books, school visits and resources visit the website.
Thank you ,
Kate Cunningham
