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: This week in history saw the first flight around the world, a rocket launch, the release of an Oscar-winning adventure film, the birthday of a newsreader and Hollywood star, and some musical firsts.
Activity 1:
On Sept. 28, 1924, two United States Army Air Service planes completed the first ever circumnavigation of the world by air, landing in Seattle 175 days after their mission began.
Have a listen ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’ and come up for some actions for flying, for ‘up’, ‘down’, and ‘loop-the-loop’.
If you flew around the world over the course of 175 days what different sights do you think you’d see? Draw some of the sights you’d see from the sky – maybe the Pyramids in Egypt, Mickey Mouse in Florida, a colourful Indian festival, tulips in Holland, polar bears in the Arctic, etc.
Activity 2:
On September 28, 1889 it was first defined what the official length of a meter was. Grab a tape measure and see if you can measure a meter.
Try making a paper plane for your own ‘around the world’ flight attempt. What’s the furthest you can make your plane travel? Grab the tape measure and work out the distance!
Try making gliders – how far can you make a drinking straw glider travel?
Take measurements and create a scoreboard of your best measurements.
Activity 3:
On 28th September 2008 Space X launched the ‘Falcon 1’ rocket into orbit (on the 4th attempt!)
Create your own dramatic blast offs – have a countdown, turn your engines on, start low and gather your momentum for a powerful blast off up high, before passing the clouds and gliding through space. Try acting it our in time to Rocket Man or Space Oddity.
Activity 4:
John Snow‘s birthday is the 28th of September 1947. John is a journalist and news reader for Channel 4 news. He’s also known for his love of colourful accessories.
Put on, or draw yourself a jazzy tie, or make yourself an origami one. Pop on some colourful socks like John, and have a go at sitting behind a desk and reading some of your own imaginative made-up news headlines. News just in: The queen has been spending lockdown in a dog kennel with her corgis; Boris Johnson’s hair is actually a pet guinea pig; the Thames river is made of gravy; and Bronia used to be in ABBA.
Activity 5:
On September 29th 1947 Dizzy Gillespie presented his 1st Carnegie Hall concert in New York.
Dizzy was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who was one of the key figures of the bebop movement.
Look at the most common jazz instruments: saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, drums, and guitar. Act out playing or holding them.
Now watch Dizzy’s unique performance style – blow out your cheeks to blow your trumpet and imagine joining in with the band.
Activity 6:
On sept 29th 1957 Buddy Holly & Crickets their released 2nd single “Oh Boy!” Across the world there are Buddy Holly dance contests – create your own rock and roll dance moves to do along in time to the 50s hit! Or play along with your own homemade instruments (pen drumming, hand claps, and rice shakers would work really well).
Activity 7:
October 1st is Julie Andrews’ 84th birthday.
Take an adventure to the Austrian mountains to celebrate Julie in The Sound of Music – recreate the opening scene by spinning on a vast mountain top, visiting trees and rivers, can you hit Julie’s high notes?!
Practice your best yodelling! You could even make your own string puppets like in the film! If you attach wool of string handles to a toilet tube body, with an attached cardboard face, with wool or string legs attached to milk bottle top feet you should get a puppet of your own!
Re-write the lyrics to ‘These are a few of my favourite things’ to sing about your favourite things.
Activity 8:
On October 2nd 1957 the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai” was released. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The film is an adventure epic war film based on a novel written by Pierre Boulle. The film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943.
Imagine crossing a bridge – is it wobbly, do you have to carefully place your feet, what would help with your balance? How to you feel if you peer over the edge – are you a long way up? Is there a river under you – how long do you think it would take a dropped pebble to make a splash into the water below you? Can you spot any crocodiles in the river? Can you make the sounds of trains crossing the bridge? Can you help with the construction of the bridge – put your back into it! Imagine escaping and running away from the unkind people making you work long hours making repairs to the bridge.
Come up with actions for all of the above. Try a game of musical statues to the theme some from the film – pause the song to do the actions you came up with.
Homework:
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. Draw the news story and bring it to next week’s session to present to your group as if you were a newsreader!
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!