I thought this would be a topical piece of Creative Writing for pupils in years 5/6 to tackle when they return to school after the Christmas holidays . The original story, based on the four pictures, is about a lad going with his mother to buy a special game with his birthday money. I created a phrase and vocabulary list plus an example answer a number of years ago. The Poetry Aid is a new extra.

The first four sheets are all to do with FIRSTS. First into Space -Yuri Gagarin. First Man on the Moon - Neil Armstrong and First Re-usable Spaceship - Columbia. The next sheet is a general vocabulary about space travel followed by thoughts about meeting an alien. There is a crossword/word search/answers and two A5 ‘blank’ sheets for ‘best’ copy. Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman to travel in space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

Over the years I have encouraged children to write about fires with a different emphasis at times. The first two sheets were created following a strike by the fireman and the army were using their green goddess fire engines - current event. The short story was written by me. Six of the sheets have a strong history connection - the Fire of London and the Gun Powder plot during the reign of the Stuarts. The two sheets on fire in the countryside deal with the every day problem of fires which can occur on very hot days in the summer. Three poem aids are included. The first two deal with fires the third deals with fireworks. Over the years I had a number of interesting poems to read.