Night at the Museum (Wii) Part 3

Night watchman hats – check, map of museum – check, controller – check, let’s explore further!

Once again, the children donned the night watchman hats to play the Wii game.  They think it adds to the atmosphere if they wear the hats whilst playing – and who am I to argue?  The game, as the children are discovering is getting progressively harder in that time limits, challenges, baddies to avoid and places to get to are now the aim of the game. The environment that is being provided is still a stimulating one as the children find out that there is much more to being a night watchman than they first imagined.  These feelings and thoughts have come in very useful when devising job adverts for an additional night watchman to work alongside Larry!  The children were careful not to ‘give the game away’ by revealing the ‘magic’ that happens in their adverts.  They simply made statements such as “must like history”, “enjoy learning about the exhibits” and “must ensure that all the windows and doors remain locked”.

It has become the usual routine to watch/play the game and then write.  By doing this, the excitement of both can be maximised.  The homework this week was based around researching a historical character from the game (which can be viewed in detail on the children’s blog http://bowoodclass.wordpress.com). This will form the basis of our infommercials planned for the forthcoming week or so (greenscreen technology permitting!!)

In the meanwhile, my hope is that the children continue to enjoy the work and the learning that is happening in Bowood Class.  My Y5s (if their comments are anything to go by)  are raring to continue this exciting journey.  Below is the current display of this topic including the non-chronological reports (tour guides) and Akmenrah’s Tablet complete with ingots as in the game and film.  The children used modroc and gold paint to create the centrepiece.

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Night at the Museum (Wii) Part 2

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Having researched and snowballed information regarding the eight audiotours in the Natural History Museum, New York, the children now have all the information they need to begin writing a Tour Guide (non-chronolgical report).  A selection of photographs and hand drawn illustrations will accompany the writing to make an attractive guide to provide additional information for those that visit.  I will post photographs once they have been completed.

As part of our persuasive unit, the children have compared and contrasted a variety of museum posters advertising exhibitions in order to identify persuasive devices with the hope of replicating them for their own posters.  This was very successful and the children were also able to identify who the intended audience was for each of them which was great!  Once the conventions of persuasive writing were understood, the next task of our unit was to design a poster to attract visitors.  Some very ingenious designs were undertaken, ranging from dinosaur, torch, key and Gum Gum head shaped posters.  Most had eye catching colours, slogans, imaginative lettering and important information.  I decided that a little experiment would be called for.  Instead of me providing the children with a marking ladder setting out success criteria, I wanted to challenge the children to write their own and critically evaluate against it.  Having marked their efforts I was very surprised at the quality of their evaluations.  Memo to self – I need to do more of this!!!

 

Art this week has involved (among other things) making Akmenrah’s Tablet complete with ingots as featured in the game.  As well as being fun, it will form an interesting centrepiece to my display!  There was a slot this morning to play the game, complete with ‘night watchman’ hats to help the children become ‘Larry’!  This met with some hilarity but no refusals, they really do love this topic!!!  I have the photographs to prove it and will post them  too!

So much completed already and it’s only Monday!  Part 3 coming soon…

(Images courtesy of  gamrreview.vgchartz.com)