Effective talk is a fantastic tool for learning and in Amazon Class we certainly love to talk. We have been continuing to explore what 'good' (effective) talk if and using our voices in different ways. 

We have enjoyed some fantastic book talk in our Reading Garden which has been transformed into a Secret Garden Reading Garden. The children love to talk about the books they have enjoyed and recommend books to their friends.

At the start of this week we were delighted to share the poems that we have been learning, with the rest of the class. We used our voices to perform our poetry; using expression, intonation and a steady pace. It was wonderful to see the children so confident to perform poetry by different well known authors. Down Behind the Dustbin by Michael Rosen and Cats Sleep Anywhere by Eleanor Farjeon were certainly firm favourites! Those going through to our Stanton 'Off By Heart' Poetry Final shall be announced next week. 

This week we have also been learning lots about our new topic 'Protect Our Planet', exploring all the different factors that affect our future planet and the actions we can take to protect our planet for the future generation.

The children were challenged to discuss and debate the question; Do you think the actions of just one person can save our planet?

We used talk roles to ensure that all children had a part to play in the discussion; Conversation starter, builder (builds on others ideas), challenger, questioner and summariser. 

All children were deep in discussion, providing reasons for their thoughts and challenging other's ideas.

The following day, the children were challenged to discuss; 'Which is the most harmful to our planet?' putting seven cards in order of the most harmful to the least harmful. The children challenged each other's ideas once more and had to come to an agreement of their final order. Lots of valid reasons were given, such as;

"Deforestation is the most harmful to our planet because trees help us to breathe and clean the air."

"I think using too much energy is the most harmful to our planet because we wouldn't have any electricity left and wouldn't be able to see in the dark."

We are very much looking forward to improving our talk during the rest of the year.