The Adventures of Odysseus

Year 6 are really enjoying their text this half term, The Adventures of Odysseus. On Monday, the Year 6 children and staff dressed up as characters from ancient Greece. Zeus, Athene, Medusa, and many brave soldiers roamed the classrooms, transporting the school back in time to ancient Greece and beyond, when myths and legends were an important part of everyday life in the ancient world.

Through the text, Year 6 are exploring the genres of persuasive writing, quest story writing and letter writing and they are also sharing their love of the story with younger pupils.

Year 6 have visited Year 4 and spent time looking at The Adventures of Odysseus, firstly making inferences about the eye catching cover in small groups:

Y4 “I think that there is a storm really building up in the picture.”
Y6 “Why do you think that?”
Y4 “The waves look angry and the white dots are sea salt, spraying everywhere.”

Next, the pupils explored some powerful language which is used in the short prologue of Odysseus. Y4 identified exciting new words such as inscrutable, elegant and  vengeful. Their older peers encouraged them to work out the meanings by looking at the context.

The cooperation and engagement of our KS2 children has been a wonderful peer to peer learning opportunity, with a story book at the heart of the experience. We are sure the ancient Greeks would be proud of our tradition in CtS of reading and exploring stories with peers. Having fun sharing those ancient myths brings the characters to life and brings the ancient stories right into the present day.