The Titanic Detective Agency

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This week I will be 'Live' on our blog during the times below - please come and say hello! I will be uploading another emoji quiz to challenge you - you can all join in and we can see whoever has the most correct answers! Our topic and science work are carrying on with the topics we have been studying since Easter, investigating the claim that the Titanic was unsinkable, and building an understanding of solids, liquids and gases in our science work. Can they help Johan find the hidden treasure and unmask the identity of the enigmatic Mr Hoffman before time runs out on the ‘unsinkable’ ship? Focusing on my characters’ own eye-witness accounts enabled me to write what they remembered seeing, and on their feelings during the sinking. A wonderful middle-grade historical novel which gives a fresh take on a well-worn story, well-paced with great characters.

Lindsay Littleson is a Primary School teacher in Glasgow and a children’s author. Her books are historical fiction but well researched and rooted firmly on factual knowledge. As a teacher, Lindsay is very aware of the ways in which historical fiction can be utilised in a classroom. Her Titanic Detective Agency children’s story is supported by a range of resources for classroom use. Lindsay’s earlier works have been nominated for awards by the Dundee Great War Society. Your stories are aimed at Primary School children. Why did you choose this audience? There are some shorter challenges included here, and some longer challenges too! I will upload the video for you to mark your arithmetic work towards the end of next week. As always, you can send over things that you have finished for us to look at and enjoy!A hook letter about the real-life inspirations behind the novel is available here: Rewilders Letter Having said that, the main reason I choose to write for primary school children is that the books which still mean the most to me are the ones I read as a child. When anyone asks me to name my favourite books, I mention The Secret Island, The Borrowers, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and The Family from One End Street before any novels I’ve read as an adult. As a child, I was an avid reader, and those books kept me company, built empathy and helped me to determine the sort of person I wanted to be. I loved my childhood favourites deeply and hope very much that my own stories are ones which children will remember fondly years from now. Our Maths this week has some calculation based activities, and then a longer investigation. The instructions for this are there to help you through each ‘stage’ of the activity – most importantly DON’T PANIC!

Characters and events in the novel provide so many opportunities for pupil writing: diary entries, persuasive letters, annotated maps, fact-files, advertising brochures and posters, newspaper reports and magazine articles, descriptions and poetry, but again, that’s the teachers’ choice. I just write the stories and provide resources for teachers to use if they wish. I noted that you have done author visits to schools. What sort of thing do you do on these visits and how do pupils respond to them?Here are the uploads for this week. We are continuing with our exploration of St. Lucia, and this will be developed in our topic and English work this week.Our maths work on Fractions will also be continuing, and you will have another arithmetic challenge which you can mark with the video answers later in the week.I have developed another video explaining the tasks for the week ahead, and you will be able to find this on the Video Resource Centre. August highlights were attending the Edinburgh Book Festival’s opening party, meeting Elmer the elephant, doing an author event ‘Scottish Rewilding Adventures’ at the festival and finding out that my son Matt has got a part in the tv adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies. So excited about the prospect of seeing my boy on the telly! We also have a new Kahoot quiz, based on questions sent in last week. There are some amazing questions! If you want a challenge, follow the link below to the Kahoot Quiz, or use the PIN 03046741 in the Kahoot App. I’ve been a primary teacher for a long time, so it made perfect sense to write for an audience I know really well. My novels are all aimed at pupils aged 9-12 and being a primary teacher helps me to ensure that my characters are relatable, their dialogue is realistic and the vocabulary is pitched at the correct level.