In Tiny Tigers, we have been focussing on sentence construction. We wrote about our super trip to the Blue Planet Aquarium and about our favourite sea creatures. We have also labelled pictures of all sorts of things from deep blue sea. The Tiny Tigers have been including capital letters to the beginning of sentences, full stops at the end and learning to form our letters correctly and neatly. With our new topic of "Food Glorious Food" we will be writing shopping lists, recipes and sentences about our favourite food.
The Busy Bees have been learning all about dragons in literacy. The children were so lucky that a dragon egg arrived in their classroom. They had to find clues around the school and then used this to write a recount which included time words. The following week, the egg hatched and Zog came out! The children read the story of Zog and then wrote instructions for what you have to teach Zog and how to look after him. The children have also designed their own dragon and used adjectives to describe it. They then made a passport for their dragon. During the last couple of weeks of this half term, Zog went missing! Busy Bees created descriptive posters and wrote instructions for how to trap a dragon and he finally came back.
Last half term, Year 2 enjoyed reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The children did lots of writing linked to this such as descriptions of the characters. They also designed their own chocolate and created an advert for it. They wrote letters persuading Willy Wonka to let the children into his factory and wrote newspaper reports of Augustus Gloop finding the golden ticket.
During the first half of the Spring term Dazzling Dolphins used the classic novel, Around the World in Eighty Days as the launch pad for some fantastic writing.
The children studied the original story by Jules Verne, looking at unfamiliar language then used a more child friendly version to get deeper into the different aspects of the characters, especially Phileas Fogg.
They used the novel to help drive many genres such as: newspaper articles, diary accounts, letters and instruction writing. Year 3 used opportunities for drama to get into the shoes of the rather enigmatic Mr Fogg and his butler Passepartout which in turn led to a better understanding of how to write dialogue, both as direct speech or within a playscript.
In Spring Term 1, Year 4 began our new Antarctic adventure! They learned about Ernest Shackleton and his dangerous expedition to Antarctica in the Year 4 class text, Shackleton’s journey. The children completed lots of different writing and drama activities which helped to improve their writing. They also wrote letters to apply for a job onboard Shackleton’s ship, an Antarctic dilemma story, an information text all about Antarctic animals and also poems focusing on using a rhyme scheme. The children produced some excellent pieces of work and have thoroughly enjoyed their learning!
In Year 5, the children have continued to thoroughly enjoy ‘A Place Called Perfect’ by Helena Duggan and have used this text as inspiration for some fantastic writing! The children became salespeople one week, trying to use persuasive techniques to sell rose-tinted spectacles. They then transformed into tour guides, giving factual reports about the main attractions and places to visit in the mysterious town of Perfect. They also recorded interviews to include direct quotes in their newspaper reports about the strange disappearance of Violet’s father, Eugene Brown.
In Spring 1, Year 6’s class text was 'Holes' and they have based their writing around this. The children wrote in a range of different genres; from non-chronological reports about the yellow-spotted lizard, to letters from Stanley to his parents. In the last week of the half term, they enjoyed writing humorous poetry about their own families in the style of Kenn Nesbitt.