Year 6 English - “Goodnight Mister Tom”
Year 6 have begun their new English topic this week, based on “Goodnight Mister Tom”. The children watched the beginning of the film adaptation as a “hook” into their learning, which they really enjoyed. They then looked at vocabulary linked to the book and the topic, which they then placed onto a Zone of Relevance. This was all then linked to their grammar work on expanded noun phrases and how they make writing more effective for the reader. The children are also going to be linking their English work with their History unit on WWII. In a few weeks they will be visiting the Imperial War Museum in London too to learn more.
Reception- Supertato independent writing
This week in class we are learning about the topic ‘superheroes’ and our book this week is ‘Supertato’. One of our challenges this week was to draw a character from the story and independently write one, two or three sentences about that character. Our reception children did a super job at using the sound mat and phonics knowledge to do this.
Year 4 - English: Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs
Our new English unit started with a bang on Monday. We watched a clip from the London New Year’s Eve firework display and noted down a variety of verbs, adjectives and adverbs to create our own word banks. Once we had these we used the words to create a fast poem to describe how fireworks move and create patterns in the sky. Some of the children were also chosen to read out their fabulous poetry to the class.
Year 2 - English
In English this week we have started to read our new book. It is called ‘THE KING OF SPACE!!!’ It is a very exciting book about a boy called Rex who has big plans to conquer the universe. Today we read the first half of our book and explored any new vocabulary we came across. One word we chose to focus on was conquer. We defined it, founds words with the same meaning, found words with the opposite meaning and wrote our own sentence using the word conquer. After that, it was the children’s turn to practice their reading. Now because The king of space is rather exciting, we tried hard to put lots of expression into our reading and sound like an evil child genius about to take over the universe. We have loved reading our book and are looking forward to create our own story about taking over the universe!!!
Year 1 English- Nursery Rhymes
Over the last few days, Year 1 have been exploring nursery rhymes. They understand that nursery rhymes tell a story, include repetition to make them easy to learn and often contain rhyming words to make them enjoyable and fun to join in with. They recited and performed various poems such as ‘Little Bo-Peep’ and ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’. They will now look at the nursery rhyme ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’ and create their own version of this poem.
Reception Super Phonics
Reception have been wowing us with their super phonics. They are recognising lots more sounds and can use these to write simple words independently. They have also been practising tricky words in the writing area.
Year 2 - Poetry
Today, we began to explore a poem called ‘The fight of the year’. This poem is about a boxing match between winter and spring. It fits perfectly with our book ‘Winter’s Child’. Our first task was to identify if there were any rhyming words in this poem. We discussed that some poems have rhyming words and others do not. When year 2 become poets themselves and write their own version, we will included rhyming in our poems. In order to achieve this, we created a bank of appropriate rhyming words we will be able to use to compose our poems.
Year 3- English-Sparking Ideas for The Iron Man
Before starting our writing unit on The Iron Man in English, Year 3 carried out a practical activity to spark creativity. Each group was given a selection of objects and asked to carefully examine them, thinking about where they might have come from and what they had in common. Working together, they sorted the objects into three categories using adjectives such as shiny, flexible, or symmetrical. The adjectives were recorded on a flipchart to build a shared word bank. Next, the children were challenged to use their objects to construct a standing structure or a flat design allowing them to be imaginative, even if their creation wasn’t functional. Some of the creations included: A Victorian Castle in the schoolyard, a Tower Made of Lego Bricks or a Mysterious Robot Afterwards, we discussed key questions before setting the main task: writing an opening paragraph for a story inspired by their creation. This activity helped them generate ideas and descriptive language before diving into The Iron Man.
Reception: Wonderful Writing
Our children have really enjoyed our under the sea topic. It is wonderful to see how much progress they are making with their writing. The children have been writing sentences independently in continuous provision- well done!
Year 1 English- Following Instructions
To kickstart their new English unit on instructional texts, Year One had to listen to a series of instructions and carry them out in order to create and complete an obstacle course. They thoroughly enjoyed this and were very good at it. Year One spotted that instructions contain both time conjunctions and verbs. They will also learn that adverbs can be a useful part of instructional writing too. What a fantastic start to our unit and even better that it was during mental health week as we know how important exercise is to keep us happy and healthy.
Year 6 English - Explanation Texts
This week, Year 6 have begun their new English topic on explanation texts. They have been learning all about the key features of this text type. In particular, they have been identifying and writing sentences that contain adverbials, causal conjunctions and relative clauses. The children have learned that these devices help to create cohesion or add extra information.
Year 4 - English: Debates
We love a good discussion in Year 4, and with our new English topic being “Debates”, we certainly have a chance to shine! After a little research into deforestation, we recorded some of the reasons mass tree felling occurs, followed by a look at the positive and negative effects. We then went on to sorting the effects into two piles - for and against. It became evident to the children that there were more reasons not to fell so many trees than to continue, we will see what their finished balanced arguments look like.