HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER

In the first term of year 6 we have been reading an adapted version of a classic book in English literature: Dracula, by Bram Stoker. The reading of this book has been the starting point of our Halloween and literature project, where we have connected different subjects to develop diverse skills. 

To start, I would like to stress the importance of using authentic material in class, such as classic English literature. This will not only help our students to develop their literacy skills and reading habits but also to foster their cultural competence. This competence is one of the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. 

Moreover, some of the objectives of this project were to learn vocabulary about the topic, read and understand the book, write a diary entry related to the book (focusing on using the Present Tense correctly), practice public speaking, developing debating and drama skills and learning about European Geography.

All these activities helped us to create the different characters for the Murder Mystery Party, the connections between them, the motives to kill the victim, the setting and so on. Therefore, the final product of the project was a script for a Murder Mystery Party to throw on Halloween day. Each class used the script the other class had created so they had to study the characters that they had to play (brief background, likes and dislikes, how do they talk and move, etc). 

Finally, nobody got away with murder! Both classes figured out who was the murderer and we had a great time reading, writing, creating, acting, discussing and playing!

Clara de Blas
Primary Teacher