Monthly Archives: January 2018

Have you seen the new game to help you with spelling on welearn? Spell Blast lets you practise your spellings. There are lists created by the game and I have also now loaded 6 lists for the spellings we have been looking at last week and this week. See if this helps you to practise. It might be that you can race each other like you have been with tables. Maybe this will help some people to enjoy practising spellings a bit more…

To find our spellings, click on the ‘Go practise click here’ link. Then choose the ‘shared’ option in the top right corner to take you to our spelling lists. I hope they should have been shared with you and work. Let me know if this isn’t working as I’d hoped.

At the end of the street, a small cottage stood looking almost deserted. A small ray of light shone out of the smashed downstairs window. Inside, a miserable old man named Scrooge sat on a moth-eaten chair. The loud church bells started ringing indicating it was Christmas Eve. Scrooge covered his long, pointed ears trying (and failing) to block out the sound of the jolly bells. All of a sudden, a cold chill filled the room. The fire blew out leaving Scrooge in complete darkness…

From the thin narrow hallway shone a blue glow and a loud clanking noise joined in with the bells. The bells stopped suddenly and there stood a blue ghostly figure…

The chains it carried scraped along the rotting oak floor. As it walked closer, Scrooge cowered under his blanket. Through a hole, he could make out the ghost was Marley.

The ghost’s pale white face glared through the hole at Scrooge. A mist covered the broken windows and the room temperature dropped below zero. Suddenly, a loud booming voice shot out of the long-robed ghost,
“Come out! I am only here to help.”

Slowly, Scrooge removed his blanket to come face to face with the terrifying ghost of Marley. His white silky hair was in the same style Scrooge had seen him in last. With an unforgiving look, his wrinkled face stared into Scrooge’s eyes.
“You still have time!” bellowed the ghost.
“F-for what?” stuttered Scrooge.
“You will see,” said the ghost in a gentle voice as he slowly faded away into the fire… The mist left the windows, the room became warm and the fire re-lit as the last particle of Marley’s ghost disappeared.

Beside the hearthside, Scrooge sat hunched and frowning bitterly in his moth-eaten armchair as the Christmas Eve bells echoed through his corroded home. Pathetically, Scrooge lurked around his compact fire in a hopeless attempt to warm his gnarled body; the thin gown draped over him was more holes than rotten material and his stubby toes already had frostbite.

As the last chimes struck, the candle frequently fluttered, sending chills down Scrooge’s scrawny spine. His thin lips chuntered, as if murmuring a prayer, when he saw a seeping paranormal glow enter under his locked door. Suddenly, an eerie presence circled him and a clanking sound penetrated through him.

The smell of oaty gruel subsided and a musty, dank odour overtook his nasal passages. The sound of the chains exploded down on the ruined landing. Scrooge was petrified: he sat frozen, his leg shaking and his hair stood on end. The dilapidated key turned in the dilapidated lock.

A flying chain shot through the doorway and a groan echoed, shaking the house and, in its raucousness, it sent Scrooge crashing against the crumbling wall. A dark, cobweb-covered figure stepped in, dragging link after link of rotting chain. His face crumbled, showing half of his slime-covered brain that moved and squelched disgustingly. His pale face managed a freaky, yet sweet, smile at the sight of his dear friend Scrooge.

Inside Scrooge’s unloving home, an almost insignificant fire was burning at its brightest as he wrapped his thin blanket around him. In the distance, the rusted old church bells rang for Christmas Eve and Scrooge moaned till they left him in peace and alone again. But, sadly for him, he wasn’t.

As Scrooge settled into his chair once again, he heard giggles and whispers from someone or something. The rusted smells of chains were surrounding his room as it got colder and colder. The noises got louder and louder then everything went out except one dim candle. Then a ghostly figure appeared in the crooked hallway.

“Are y…you M…Marley?” stuttered Scrooge.
“Yes!” replied the figure in a dark voice.

Finally, Scrooge got a good look at the figure. He had blood-red eyes, night-black hair and rusted chains with boxes attached to every link and he wore ripped clothes. As he looked around the room, looking for Scrooge, he growled like an angry dog. Then Scrooge finally realised it was the ghost of Jacob Marley…

Last week we were lucky enough to visit the RSC at Stratford to see A Christmas Carol. We really enjoyed it and especially liked the ghosts and the part where Scrooge put his hand through Marley! The snow was also very impressive. We are all wondering how that was done! The whole production was amazing: we thought the acting was brilliant but also the singing, dancing and the stage lighting and scenery were incredible. We were particularly impressed by the children who acted in it too.

We had been reading some parts of A Christmas Carol and trying to develop our descriptive writing focusing on Scrooge. We wanted to imagine we were like a film camera,  ‘zooming in’ from the street, to Scrooge’s house, to Scrooge. Some of our writing is posted in the following posts.