English

Summer 1

Novel as a theme

We are focussing on Gulliver's Travels this half term. This story is about a man who sets sail on his ship called the Antelope and finds himself stranded on the most unusual island. 

Spring 2

Information Texts

We have enjoyed learning all about Polar bears, including where they live, what they eat and what is causing them to become a vulnerable species.

Did you know that these beautiful bears have black skin?

This is because their black skin can absorb and trap heat better which they need whilst living in very cold conditions. They have large paws because they need a larger surface area to be able to walk along the ice and snow easily. 

We have also explored why these bears are vulnerable to becomming extinct due to climate change. 

We had a go at writing our own Polar bear fact files and then put these into our own information texts. 

Explanation Texts

We showed curiosity when learning about climate change. 

Did you know that the biggest reason for our climate changing is humans?

We enjoyed writing about the effects of climate change upon the world and Polar bears. 

Poetry

We wrote our own poems based on the Rang-Tan poem by James Sellick but we changed the orangutan to a Polar bear. 

Spring 1

Mowzer the cat lives with his owner, Tom the fisherman, in a beautiful seaside village in Cornwall called Mousehole. One day, a huge storm begins to batter the harbour walls, and no-one can leave to fish anymore. With Christmas around the corner, there is no food to be found in the village. So Mowzer and Tom decide to set out to sea and bravely face the Great Storm-Cat together.

Vocabulary

stoked the range     quayside     moorland

patchwork     harbours     headlands

breakwaters     narrow     sheltering

Autumn 1 - The Firework-Maker's Daughter

Key Learning

The Firework-Makers daughter ins fantasy story. This genre incldes elements of magic and the setting is in a fictional universe.  Towards the end of the unit, children will be writing their own version offolowing the structire of the original story. By then children will be able to:

• Use subordination for time.g. when, before and after
• explore and identify complex sentences using a range of conjunctions. g. when, before, after, while, until.
• use a comma to separate clause in complex sentences where the subordinate clause appears first.
• identify, generate and effectively use noun phrases. g. The blue butterfly with shimmering wings…
• select vocabulary from a vocabulary banks
• use inverted commas to punctuation direct speech (speech marks)

Explore the clips before to familiarise yourself with The Fireworkmakers Daughter.

English KS1 / KS2: The Firework-Maker’s Daughter' by Philip Pullman - BBC Teach

The Firework-Makers Daughter, chapter 1 https://youtu.be/a5hkaO_iRSw 

A PDF of the full story can be found in the files section.

Here are a few examples of the children's amazing work related to the Firework-Maker's Daughter.

All the vocabulary, grammar and planning the children have been doing is to help them when they come to write their own story.

 We've got some amazing fantasy stories being written.

We created our own villain for our stories

Kenning Poems

Today we became 'Grammar Gurus.' We had to read through chapter 4 and spot noun phrases and expaded noun phrases. The children enjoyed using our new finger lights to help spot noun phrases.

K.L. To use drama to help characters come to life

K.L. To use inverted commas for dialogue

The children took turns to act out possible dialogues between Zabina and Rumaysa. The children remembered the characteristics of Zabina and embedded her quick-wit into their role play. 

K.L. To write a letter

K.L. To include events from a story

Some examples of fronted adverbials the children used during their English lesson:

As Rumaysa leaned out of the window,

After her hijab fell,

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Files to Download