Summer Learning Journey - Week 4 - Day 1

Activity 1: Rags to Riches [4 points]

J. K. Rowling is one of the most well known authors in the world. She wrote the Harry Potter series of books. Over 500 million copies of her books have been sold, making J. K. Rowling the world’s first billionaire author.

While she was writing the first Harry Potter book, she was a single mum with very little money. She used to write while her daughter Jessica was asleep. She used her initials ‘J.K.’ instead of her name (Joanne) because her publisher thought that boys might not want to read a book written by a woman.

J. K. Rowling has done many interviews which have revealed things about her as a writer and as a person. One of these interviews was conducted by a very famous television personality, Oprah Winfrey (you can find more about her on Day 3, Activity 1!).

As well as books needing to be engaging and interesting for the reader, it is important that they are engaging and interesting on the cover too. We sometimes say “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” but we often choose books (if we don’t know much about them) when they have an attractive cover!

Activity 2: Romeo and Juliet [4 points]

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an author, poet and playwright. He is best known for the plays that he wrote while living in England in the 16th Century. Although they were written a long time ago, they are still popular because they talk about things that are familiar to us - love, revenge, confusion, betrayal, jealousy, hurt, etc. You might have heard of some of his plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear. Many of them have also been made into movies.

Shakespeare wrote his plays in English, however, it is not the same version of English that we have now. In fact, many of the words that we use today, in 2019, weren’t used back in 1600 (and vice versa).

As I woke up, I checked the time and I overslept. I went woke up everyone so we could go to school. But luckily it was only me that overslept.

As i did wake up, i did check the timeth and i ov'rslept.  I wenteth did wake up ev'ryone so we couldst wend to school.  But luckily t wast only me yond ov'rslept

Activity 3: The Diary of Anne Frank [6 points]

Anne Frank was a very brave girl. She was born and raised in a Jewish family in Germany in the 1930s. When World War II started, Anne and her family were forced to hide because the German politicians (Nazis) did not like Jewish people. She and her family hid out in a secret room in their house for two full years. During this time, Anne wrote in a diary. When the war ended, Anne’s dad found the diary and made it into a book. He called it The Diary of Anne Frank or The Diary of a Young Girl.

I know lots of people who keep a diary. Often they will record what they did during the day or recount stories about special events that have taken place.

Dear Diary,

As I wake up I hear gunshots. I look around and realize it was just a dream, but when I went outside I saw bombs exploding, people in tears as they lose family member thats when I realized it was the start of WWIII. I then look up to see one of our leaders getting shot. Everyone in shock and just stare and the person that killed one of the leaders. Then suddenly everyone was approaching him then suddenly... One of the leaders stopped everyone and put a end to it.