Hello Year 4!

We really want to finish your Fantastic Mr Fox play so I need your videos.
You will need a family member to help you with this task.

So remember to...:

• Film in landscape
• Securly mount your camera
• Have as blank a background as possible
• Follow stage directions on script (face left, face right, to camera etc...)

• Get someone else to read the other lines (this audio will not be in the finished film)

If you would like to make yourself a costume that would be amazing!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes,

Amy

Dear parents/carers,

We would like to finish off the Fantastic Mr Fox play we started with  year 4! We will be editing footage of the children acting out their play and need your help.

Firstly please could you fill in this form so that we know you agree to our safeguarding procedures.

Please send finished films to my email address: amy@artburst.co.uk.  If your finished films are too large to be sent by email, then please send them via We Transfer or Google Drive or any other online applications suitable for large files.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes,

Amy

He beamed and gave another of his smart bows. There was a pause. Then Mrs Blaizely glanced at me enquiringly. “Boris?”

I took a deep breath. “I am delighted to be here,” I pretended to translate for Ivan. “I think this school looks very nice. And everyone looks very kind and friendly. I really hope I’ll settle in soon and make a whole load of new friends.”

“That’s lovely,” said Mrs Blaizely. She turned to Ivan. “And I’m sure everyone in this hall wants to join me in wishing you well and hoping you feel at home as soon as possible.”

Ivan turned to me. “What did she say?”

I wasn’t going to risk him coming out with another barrage of insults. So I looked Ivan in the eye and told him, “She said, “Watch your fat tongue, New Boy, or I’ll break off your arm and bash you with the soggy end.””

 I really hoped he’d look at Mrs Blaizely with a new respect. But he just grinned and walked down the steps from the stage.

Feeling a bit of a wally, I followed him.

End of Assembly.
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And thank heaven for that.

I was still staring when Mrs Blaizely beckoned. She wanted me up the steps and standing next to Ivan. I didn’t have a choice.

“Now,” she said. “Boris is going to tell us, in English, exactly what Ivan just said to us in Russian.”

She turned to me. “Well, go on.”

I tell you frankly, this was my big mistake. If I’d just done it, just gone ahead and told her straight off: “He said, “Greetings to all you lowly shivering worms”,” I could have saved myself a heap of trouble.

But I couldn’t do it. Look at it this way. There he was, on his first day in a new school. For all I knew, it could have been his very first week in a new country, his first day in his new house, almost his first words in his brand-new life (apart from arguing with his mother about whether or not to come through the school gates in the first place).

And he’d been called up to stand on stage with everyone staring. I thought he must have panicked, and said something silly as a sort of joke, not realising that in our civilized school where everyone’s supposed to have good manners and a positive attitude, it wasn’t going to work, and everyone was going to end up staring at him even more.

Lowly shivering worms? It’s pretty rude. I couldn’t let him get himself into everyone’s bad books so quickly.

So I just told them: “Ivan said, “Good morning, everyone”.”

I thought we’d get away then. I thought Mrs Blaizely would nod at us, and we’d troop off the stage. I’d tick him off (in Russian) and we’d start the day again.

But no such luck, because Ivan hadn’t finished. He stepped forward again.
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“No doubt you’ll all be half-witted enough to welcome me amongst you,” he said (in Russian). “Your tiny, dim-bulb brains are simply not capable of seeing that I have secret powers which I intend to use to turn the whole pack of you into my slaves.”

Here’s a quick reminder of what show not tell is:
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Instead of telling your readers everything about a character, try to show them instead.
For example:
Telling - The woman walked into the room looking intimidating and angry.
Showing - The woman stormed into the room, her black coat flying behind her. Her scowl was fierce as she scanned the room. 

Mrs Blaizely’s got a thing about running what she calls ‘a civilized school’. She says she wants everyone at St Edmund’s to have good manners and a positive attitude. So we began Assembly by singing that wimpy little song about remembering to be grateful for everything round us. (Lulu once wrote a joke version of it about not being grateful for empty beer cans, or sick on the pavements, or homework or dog poo. Mrs Shah said it was ‘a brilliant spoof’ and pinned it on the display board. She kept it up right through till Parents’ Evening. Then she lost her nerve and suddenly it vanished.)

After we’d finished singing ‘In Our Wonderful World’, some of the children in the nursery put on a little show about being kind to animals and taking care of your pets. It wasn’t up to much, but we all clapped to show our good manners and positive attitude. Then Mrs Blaizely begged us all to make less noise in the corridors and not drop so much litter. (We hear that so often it’s practically our morning prayer.)

And then we came to our bit. Mrs Blaizely changed to her really bright and enthusiastic voice. “I have someone to introduce to you,” she said to everyone. “His name is Boris and he comes from a huge country called Russia. Russia’s so big that some snowy parts in the north are way up in the Arctic Circle while some parts in the south are so dry that they’re desert.”

She beckoned to Ivan. “Don’t be shy. Come up here on stage so everyone can see you and know that they’ve got to be especially thoughtful and considerate until you’ve settled in.”

I gave Ivan a little push and he walked up the steps. I thought he’d just blush and stay at the side of the stage, shuffling his feet in an embarrassed fashion like everyone else who’s ever been new to the school.

But no. He swept forward right to the middle, almost next to Mrs Blaizely, turned to face us all and did a sort of smart military bow from the waist.
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Then he straightened up, threw his arms out wide, and said in the loudest, clearest Russian: “Greetings to all you lowly shivering worms.”