Year 1 meet Author and Illustrator Ursula Hurst
Year 1 had an amazing morning meeting author and illustrator Ursula Hurst at Darwen library. They enjoyed looking at lots of the books that Ursula has illustrated over the years such as Roo and Sarge to the rescue, The Angry Giant, Zed Ted, Bea and Monah Lot. Ursula also read us a story called Drawing Hope which she was both the author and illustrator of. It was about a young girl called Hope who loved drawing and painting and had a dream of turning the gloomy town in which she lived into a bright and colourful place and with the help of Mrs Green, she did just that. Year 1 loved seeing how the town and characters turned from grey with lots of worries to bright and worry free throughout the story. Thank you to Darwen Library for such a wonderful opportunity and to Ursula Hurst for inspiring our children.
Year 3- Children's Literature Festival
Today, the Year 3 class walked down to Darwen Library to join in the celebration of the Children's Literature Festival. They had the pleasure of meeting Christina Gambita, an author known for her diverse range of books covering topics such as pollination, healthy eating, plastic pollution, teamwork, mathematical concepts, history, and safeguarding. Ms. Gambita read her book 'Roo and Sarge' to the class which the children thoroughly enjoyed. She also talked about the importance of kindness and how we should be kind to everyone. The children also learnt how to say their names using sign language, which was a wonderful experience.
Year 1- illustration Worksop with Ursula Hurst
After meeting Ursula Hurst and looking at many of her illustrations in various children’s books including her very own book, ‘Drawing Hope,’ Year 1 had a lesson in illustration. Ursula showed the children how to create different characters with expressions such as sad, shocked and happy and various hairstyles and clothing. Thank you to Darwen library for this wonderful opportunity.
Year 4 - Children’s Literature Festival
After a blustery walk to Darwen Library, Year 4 enjoyed a great afternoon meeting Louie Stowell, author of the popular children’s book series, Loki. They had great fun learning about the characters, taking part in the ‘which character are you’ quiz, drawing the main character and asking the author questions.
Year 4 - Information Texts
In Year 4 this week, we started our new English topic: Information Texts. We spent our first lesson recording what we already knew about the Amazon rainforest, and then we researched some facts around a specific category.
Year 2 - Library visit
We had an amazing time during our visit to Darwen Library. We were lucky enough to spend time with Ursula Hurst as she delivered a workshop for us. Ursula is a fabulous illustrator known for her book illustrations and murals of which many can be found in local primary schools. The children loved listening to her stories and seeing how she made words come to life. Then the children had their chance to become illustrators as they learnt how to draw different characters with different emotions. Ursula showed us some simple tricks to really emphasise our characters expressions. It was a brilliant opportunity for the children which they engaged really well with and had a lovely afternoon!
Year 2 - Report Research
Our report writing continued this morning as we researched minibeasts. We used different sources such as non-fiction books and the internet. The children collected lots of interesting facts that they will be able to include in their non-chronological report. Did you know most caterpillars have 12 eyes?
Year 4 Art - Willow plate painting
Our art focus for this week has been on willow plate painting which originates from China. We adapted the design to go with our topic of the Amazon and our class novel The Explorer. The children used different shades and added pictures of planes, trees, characters and animals. The end result was a collection of wonderful examples.
Year 2- English
Our English objective this morning was to identify features of a non-chronological report. We looked at various reports and found similarities and differences between them. They had lots of features in common which we highlighted so we could clearly see them. We created a list of features that a chronological report must include. When we write our own report we will use our list as our own checklist to ensure we have all the features to create a superb report.
Year 1 Phonics
Year 1 are working incredibly hard in their daily phonics lessons. They are recapping several phase 3 sounds before we move on to phase 4&5 and we are starting to see some great progress in their reading and writing, Well done Year 1.
Year 2 - Storyboards
This week in Year 2, we have continued our hard work in English. We have been looking at the short film ‘Caterpillar Shoes’. I’m sure the children will be able to tell you all about the events in the short story. The children became experts at recalling the different events of the story. This allowed us to create our own storyboards retelling the ‘Caterpillar Shoes’ story. The children recalled each event, wrote their sentence describing the event and drew a picture to show what was happening. A key focus of our storyboards, was to ensure we included time conjunctions at the beginning of each sentence. By using a variety of time conjunctions such as ‘Firstly, After that and Finally’ it allowed us to write in chronological order. The end results are superb! The children have produced great examples and should be very proud of their hard work.
Year 6 English
Year 6 have been working extremely hard on their chapter endings this week. They have been writing a chapter, inspired by chapter 2 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, ‘The Vanishing Glass’, and are looking to apply various features in their writing. They are aiming to build a very clear picture of Uncle Vernon and Harry through the use of speech and figurative language and are looking to move the narrative on by using a range of cohesive devices in their work. Well done Year 6!