Places

 
Broadcast: 15 Jan 2002, 11.20 - 11.40 am, BBC Radio Ulster, MW
 

 
The second programme in this series looks at factual writing. It helps children discover the art of good report writing, illustrating how real-life experiences can provide excellent an stimulus for writing.

The children in this play are struggling with their task to write about interesting places. Michael is using a book about Nepal for inspiration, but its encyclopaedic style doesn’t help. Katie can’t concentrate at all – she has smuggled her new mobile phone into class. However, the task gets easier when their unpredictable teacher, Mr Davison, gives Michael a magical thinking stone. Unnoticed by his classmates, Michael is transported to the amazing country of Nepal. Katie receives a mysterious text message and finds herself in the W5 at the Odyssey Centre in Belfast.

On their return, Katie and Michael set about writing their reports for Mr Davison. Suddenly the task, which seemed a mission impossible before, is completed with relative ease. Both children are left with a feeling of achievement as well as amazement – what kind of teacher is Mr Davison?
 

 
Himalayan; Hindu; festivals; multitude; Nepal; Rupee; Kathmandu; keepsake; dhanyabaad (Nepalese: formal ‘thank you’); namaste (Nepalese: ‘I salute the god within you’ common greeting, spoken with palms held together in front of you).
 

• Discuss with the children the main characters in the programme.
• Discuss Mr Davison’s character. Do you think he knew that the children had been to Nepal and to W5? Give reasons for your answers.
• Which destinations did Katie and Michael visit? If the children could visit either destination, which would they choose?

Whole class:

• Ask the children to think of adjectives to describe the teacher, Mr Davison. They could write a character profile on their impressions of him, using descriptive language.
• Get the children to bring in their own thinking stones as a stimulus.
• Get the children to write a report on a country or place they have been to or would like to visit:


• Brainstorm possible destinations.
• Discuss how they could make their reports more realistic. Get them to use subject-specific vocabulary.
• Discuss how they could find out more information.

Pair or individual work:

• Find Nepal on a world map.
• Research the country of Nepal using CD-Rom, internet, library books. Topics could include the language, the currency, the continent, the clothes worn, the climate, and so on (see Worksheet 1).
• Write a report on Nepal in the style of a guide book or a holiday brochure.
• Encourage children to design a poster advertising the destination of their choice.
• Working in pairs, design messages that can be sent to a friend who has a mobile phone. Use the type of codes described in the programme and see if you can decipher each other’s codes (see Worksheet 2).
• Get the children to pretend that they are either Michael or Katie and to recount their strange experiences in a journal/ diary entry.

 
WORKSHEETS

 
Click on the arrows below to download the worksheets for either this programme, or all the worksheets for this series.