This week’s theme:
Adventurous news – This week in history
This week’s colouring in sheet:
Download and print this week’s colouring sheet here.
Activities for the week…
Fact of the week: The beginning of November was a very busy week in history with lots of important events happening – spooky songs released, energetic sports invented, explorers exploring, pharaohs being discovered, polar expeditions happening, and gunpowder plots being discovered.
Activity 1:
On 2nd November 1983 Michael Jackson’s Thriller was released. The single has since sold over 9 million copies worldwide and is one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The music video is also famous, and was the first music video to inducted into the National Film Registry. Thriller has also become a Halloween anthem, and has a famous zombie dance!
Try learning some of the Thriller dance moves, or just dance like a zombie!
Or come up with actions for the different lyrics, and make instruments to play in time to the beats.
Activity 2:
On 2nd November 1898 the first organised cheerleading happened in the United States. Cheerleading began as an organised group cheering on their sports team, but has since developed to become a form of entertainment in itself and there are now cheerleading competitions.
Try out some of these cheerleading chants, then make up some of your own!
Eagle pride! Eagle pride!
Our team’s the best,
Let’s show our pride!
Give me a B! Give me an E!
Give me an S! Give me a T!
What’s that spell? Best! Best!
Put us to the test!
We’ll beat the Hornets!
We won’t give ’em a rest!
S-P-I-R-I-T, spirit!
Hey, let us hear it!
Gonna high gear it!
‘Cause we’ve got spirit!
Cheerleaders: When we say Lions, you say Go!
Cheerleaders: Lions
Crowd: Go!
Cheerleaders: Lions!
Crowd: Go!
Everyone: Gooo Lions!
Tape together long strips of tissue paper, or crepe paper, or plastic bags into your own DIY cheerleading Pom Poms to shake while trying out some of these Cheerleading shapes.
Activity 3:
On 3rd November 1493 – Christopher Columbus became the first European person to see the island of Dominica. The island was already inhabited by the native Kalinago people.
Here is the path his boat took on the second voyage after sailing from Spain, and here is the routes of all 4 voyages. . See if you can find Dominica on a map. Tip: you might need to zoom in as it is pretty small!
Try making a boat to sail across the seas to new lands!
What jobs and actions might you have to do on board the ship? How will you spot new lands?
Do you know any sailing songs? Try the Makaton signs to ‘Sailing’.
Once you have discovered new land, you can mark it with a flag! You could choose a country’s flag or design your own. Once you have drawn out and coloured in your flag, try attaching it to wooden stick so you can wave your flag around or stick it into the ground.
Activity 4:
On 4th October 1922 Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered by Howard Carter. Tutankhamun was a pharaoh (an Ancient Egyptian ruler) and his tomb was filled with incredibly valuable items to show his wealth as a pharaoh – his ‘death mask’ is particularly famous for being an incredible work of art.
Gold was a very important material and colour to Pharaohs. It was used a lot in their art, tombs, rituals and costumes. Tutankhamun’s mask was of pure solid gold which had been beautifully beaten and polished, and the body was decorated with over one hundred and forty pieces of jewellery.
Try making some metallic art work of your own using tin foil: Draw a design; it could be an Egyptian pattern like The Eye of Horus or another pattern, or your own drawing onto paper; then place a piece of foil under your paper (resting on a soft book, polystyrene plate or soft cardboard would work best), trace over your design with a ball point pen (pressing hard) to transfer the image onto the foil. Flip the foil over so that the raised side is the front! (You could use coloured Sharpies or biros to colour the foil too.)
Alternatively, you could cut out a cardboard shape and glue it to a piece of card, cover this with a glued sheet of foil and gently rub over the shape to create a relief of your shape. This again could be coloured with biros and patterns imprinted with the pressure of the pen.
To get even fancier, you could use PVA glue which when dried creates a relief to cover with foil. See here for instructions.
Tutankhamun had 5,398 different objects buried with him to ensure that he remained strong, wealthy, and well fed in the afterlife. These objects included a leopard-skin cloak, four game boards, six chariots, 30 wine jars, and 46 bows. Draw a picture of your most favourite precious things that you always like to pack with you wherever you go?
Activity 5:
On 4th November 1929 Richard E. Byrd, Laurence McKinley Gould and their polar expedition team began a 2.5 month, 1,500 mile dog-sledge journey into the Queen Maud Mountains. This was the first exploration of the interior of Antarctica.
Imagine being in Antarctica for 2.5 months. What would you need to pack? How would you keep warm? What exercises can you do to warm yourself up?
Learn some sledding commands, and actions to go with them. Have a game of musical statues, except when the song (e.g. Hounds of Love, Dog Days are Over, Who Let the Dogs Out) stops, shout a command, and do that action.
Gee — Command for right turn.
Haw — Command for left turn.
Come gee! Come haw! — Command for 180-degree turns in either direction.
Mush! Let’s go! All right! Hike! — Various commands to get the dog team going.
Whoa! — Command used to halt the team.
Look at Daily Activity 52 for activities about the polar regions and climate change.
Activity 6:
On 5th November 1605 Guy Fawkes’ plot to blow up British Parliament was discovered and he was stopped.
Look at the famous Nursery Rhyme about Guy Fawkes. It’s pretty horrid, so maybe just focus on the first paragraph below! Can you turn the poem into a song, can you play any instruments in time with your new song, or come up with different actions for each line? You could add in some of your own sound effects such as crackling fire, popping firework, and gunpowder bang sound effects.
‘Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!’
Can you come up with a play that acts out the rules for how to stay safe on Bonfire night?
Can you make the shapes with your body that different fireworks make in the sky? Come up with a choreographed routine to show off all the different shapes and have a fireworks display of your own. Can you do your display in time to music (watch this fireworks display in time to The Greatest Showman for inspiration)
Create some firework paintings using a kitchen roll tube with slits cut into it.
Activity 7:
Keeping track of what’s in the news is important so that we feel informed and know more about what’s going on in the world. Take time this week to see if there’s anything in the news that you hear about that you think is interesting, funny, positive, or worth sharing. You could draw the news story.
Why not take a photo of any of the activities you’ve tried this week and share it with us? You can share it on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or send it to melanie@purplepatcharts.org and we’ll put it online for you!