UKS2: Topic: Ancient Greece Block I: Aesop

Research the historical background of Aesop, his fables and the illustrations. Discuss your learning, create your own fables, and round off the block by explaining Aesop to younger children and reading your own story to them!

Block A: Ancient Greece
Aesop
[5 Sessions] / Main outcome: History
Other outcomes: English and Art
By the end of this block children will achieve the following outcomes: / ·  Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world.
·  Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
·  Discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
·  Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ inc. 'slavery'.
·  Create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
·  Construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
·  Increase familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions.
·  Check that the book makes sense, discussing understanding and exploring the meaning of words in context.
·  Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence.
·  Try to predict what might happen from details stated and implied.
·  Identify the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own.
·  Note and develop initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary.
·  In narratives, describe settings, characters and atmosphere and integrate dialogue to convey character and advance the action.
·  Confidence, enjoyment and mastery of language should be extended through public speaking, performance and debate.
·  Create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas.
·  Learn about great artists, architects and designers in history.
·  Improve mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials.
Session 1 History, English and Art
Introduction to Aesop
Research the history of Aesop and his fables; discover the history of the illustrations of Aesop's Fables. / ·  Explain the history of Aesop.
·  Explain the history of the fables.
·  Explain the history of the illustrations of Aesop's Fables.
Session 2 History and English
The Fables
Discuss your understanding of a story; understand the importance of oral story telling; retell from memory a fable they have become familiar with and finally assess what the stories tell us about life in Ancient Greece. / ·  Discuss their understanding of a story.
·  Retell from memory a story they have become familiar with.
·  Assess what the stories tell us about life in Ancient Greece.
Session 3 History, English and Art
Plan a storyboard
Make sketches in a sketchbook based on other artists' work; Plan a story using a storyboard using your knowledge of Aesop and his fables. / ·  Make sketches in a sketchbook based on other artists' work.
·  Plan a story using a storyboard.
·  Apply their knowledge of Aesop and the fables to aspects of the story.
Session 4 History, English and Art
Write a picture book
Rewrite a story in your own words based on previous drafts;
Illustrate your story based on previous drafts and sketches. / ·  Arrange historical information into a narrative.
·  Rewrite a story in their own words based on previous drafts.
·  Illustrate a story based on previous drafts and sketches.
Session 5 History and English
Reading to others
Give a structured account of Aesop and read your own story to younger children. / ·  Give a structured account of Aesop and one of his fables to younger children.
·  Read aloud to an audience.

Resources

Session 1

Provided: PowerPoint presentation with questions about Aesop; Information sheet About Aesop: his life, the fables, the illustrations; Information sheet on How to use a sketchbook.

You will need: Access to the Internet; Notebooks or sketchbooks.

Session 2

Provided: Information sheets covering: Analysing the fables & Compare and contrast four different versions of the same fable.

You will need: Access to the Internet; The Orchard Book of Aesop's Fables by Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark; Web-enabled devices to be used in groups; Sketchbooks.

Session 3

Provided: PowerPoint presentation on Examples of drawing styles used to illustrate Aesop's Fables; Information sheet with Storyboard template.

You will need: Access to the Internet; Sketchbooks.

Session 4

Provided: PowerPoint presentation on Writing and illustrating a picture book; Information sheet with Template for creating a picture book.

You will need: Storyboards; Notebooks; Pencils, crayons, felt tips, paint and collage materials.

Session 5

Provided: PowerPoint presentation on reading to young children.

You will need: Access to the Internet.

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