Wednesday 8th January

English

Maths

Art

Be inspired - let’s create.

Foreground, middle ground and background.

Creatively painting a space landscape.

Further development of skills, colour mixing and application.

Reading

RIC

Main

LC: Make inferences from the text and justify with evidence.

From ‘A Boy called M.O.U.S.E’ by Penny Dolan

The fourth-floor window was wide open, and there, on the sill, stood a very young boy. Little Mouse laughed and reached his arms out towards the birds in the treetops and the clouds blowing across the sky, as if he longed to be flying with them.

Hanny, the nursery maid, saw all this. She also saw Uncle Scrope with one hand raised behind the small boy’s back, waiting. One strong hand, one quick push, and what then?

Hanny rushed forward. With a quick sweep of her arm, she gathered the child back into her apron and lifted him down to the floor.

Scrope blinked. The strange light in his pale eyes died away, as if some wild urge had been halted. He slipped his hand, the one that had been poised behind Mouse’s back, casually back into his own pocket.

“Oh,” Scrope drawled, “It’s you. The nursery maid.” He stared at the gravel path far below. “Long way down, isn’t it?”

“Yes sir, it is.” Hanny replied, trying to calm the fear in her heart. “I’ll take Mouse safely back to the nursery now, sir. I was surprised to find him gone.”

“Good girl. Children do wander so, I hear.” Scrope did not even look at Hanny. “And get someone to close this window properly. It seems to have become unlatched.”

By thee time Hanny reached the nursery, she was shaking all over. She pointed towards the supper tray,

“Eat, please, Mouse.”

The boy peeped up at Hanny out of the corner of his eye. He studied her round, pleasant face and her rosy cheeks. Then, smiling mischievously, he carefully picked up a triangle of buttered bread in his fingers and popped it into his mouth. Then he opened wide to show he was doing what she had asked.

“Oh, Mouse!” Hanny said sadly, while she smiled at the boy, at his soft tufty hair, his bright brown eyes, and his slightly sticking-out ears. “Mouse, what am I going to do about you?”

Only when Mouse was safe in his cot did Hanny dare to think about what she had witnessed. A child like Mouse could fall down a flight of steep marble stairs, or topple from a balcony, or drop from a window so, so quickly. A child like Mouse could slip and trip and crash to his doom so, so easily. A man like Scrope would find it very, very useful if such an accident happened to happen.

Do you think the text is set in the past or nowadays? How do you know?

Why do you think Hanny said nothing about what she saw to Uncle Scrope?

Why might Uncle Scrope want to harm Mouse?

What was the weather like?

What age do you think Mouse is? Why?

How does Uncle Scrope make Hanny feel?