Week 7 Titanic 13th - 17th July

Monday 13th July and Tuesday 14th July

We are continuing our newspaper reports on Tuesday. If you completed yours, well done. You were quicker than we were at school.

If you have finished and want to be busy, please use spellingframe and j2e spellblaster to learn out key Years 3-6 words. If you got any of the spellings wrong in the recent spelling challenge activities in week 5 and 6, please practise these.

Today we are going to write our final piece of writing for the year, our newspaper reports which we planned last week. To get warmed up, watch the clips below from the BBC. These are really good clips and will help you get into the correct zone for the genre of writing.

The sinking of the Titanic - news report

Titanic Survivors part 1 BBC short clip

Titanic survivors BBC (3 minutes)

Last week we planned our reports using the template below. You cannot write your report if you did not plan it so if you need the planning template it is attached below.

Remember when we write our reports we are writing as if we were reporters from 1912 not 2021.

Consider:

What would you really have known and understood?

How reliable would what you were told be?

Who is your audience?

Look at this checklist as you write.

All newspapers need their papers to be sold and your article is going to be front page news.

Be dramatic.

Be factual (truth or what you think is truth at that time)

Give opinions

Include a dramatic headline and picture. - Most pictures would be drawings of what they thought happened.

Look at this layout plan to help you. This is just one way. You can be creative with your report.

Take a look at these headlines from 1912 newspapers reporting the event.

Wednesday 15th July

Today we would like you to find out about the final jigsaw piece in the blame game puzzle. Watch the clip and look at the sources to find out as much as you can about the SS Californian.

The Californian Controversy has been talked about for many years.

Do you think there is any blame to be given to the captain of the SS Californian ship?

We have included a detective sheet for you to make notes on.

SS Californian detective sheet.pdf

SS Californian The Ship That DIDN'T SAVE The Titanic | Titánico Facts

Californian Spotted in Cameron's Titanic

Titanic facts

the-ss-californian-the-ship-that-failed-to-rescue-titanic-survivors-despite-being-20-miles-away

Thursday 16th July

Today is our final English lesson for the year. It is time to play the Blame Game!

Take a look at who and where the finger of blame for the Titanic disaster could be laid.

Match up the reasons to the person(s).

Once you have done this it is over to you to decide where the blame lies for yourself.

We have had lots of discussions and debates about this already at school.

Could the blame be given to the Captain?

He was in charge of the ship and asleep at the time of the collision.

Could it be blamed on the radio operators?

They ignored the message from the SS Californian and the captain never received the important information telling him of the ice field ahead.

Could it be blamed on Thomas Andrews?

He designed the ship and led everyone to believe it was unsinkable and this meant many refused to get on the lifeboats.

What about the lack of lifeboats?

What about the ship builders using poor quality rivets?

What about the locked binoculars?

What about the captain of the SS Californian?

Over to you the jury is out.

Let Mrs Kilgore and I know your thoughts on the blame snippet and we will see what the Upper Junior jury decide and let you know the decisions made.

We are excited to know.

Friday 17th July

Today as we break for our holidays we are leaving you with messages and activities from the RNLI to remind you all about keeping yourselves safe when you are out and about and near water.