My newest challenge today has been inspired by the amazing artwork of Saija Lehtonen above.  It is called ‘By the Light of the Moon’. Stunning. And by a message from an old student of mine – Ash.

I have never taught a Wild West topic before so wasn’t sure where to begin.  The dramatic scenery is awe inspiring,,,and perfect for stimulating descriptive language which I would collect together and produce a word-wall for the topic.

After a lengthy, but enjoyable search on Pinterest I discovered some fascinating images…

The storytelling possibilities are endless and the stories that go with these images are just as interesting.  They totally break the stereotype of cowboys!

I also stumbled across some brilliant cowboy information books, some of them light-hearted and fun, that would be great for a Talk 4 Writing style ‘How to become a cowboy’ instructional writing unit.

Some of my favourite books were Native American myths and legends with stunning illustrations.  There are also lots of videos on Youtube with beautiful retellings of these tales.

These stories would be good for the children to learn through use of story maps and then retell, perhaps for an audience or recorded on an IPad.  They could then use the story structures and language to write their own legends.

I would love to transform my classroom into a wild west town…

It would not be complete without lots of ‘Wanted’ posters for various villains that could be characters made up by the children based on some of the famous outlaws of the past…

Really wish I was teaching this topic now!