Reedley Primary SchoolEnglish
Spring term topics
Spring 1 - The Mousehole Cat
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.
Click on the link to watch a trailer for the story.
Explore the whole illustrated story by clicking on the link
Spring 2 - The Last Bear
The Last Bears is a beautiful story (I read it last summer in preparation for Year 4 and fell in love with it straight away). It is about the story of the extinction of the brown bear from the point of view of a young girl. April travels to a remote island (Bear Island) with her had as he is sent there to work. While there she explores the island and comes across a starving, lonely bear. Slowly, April gains the bear's trust and the pair form a strong friendship, but as she grows further apart from her father, she resolves to help Bear get back where he belongs - no matter what it takes.
Click on the link to hear from the author Hannah Gold, as she introduces the book and how she got the idea to write the story.
We spent time reading and learning about polar bears and gathering facts to use within this unit of work
We looked at a range of language tools needed when writing our own text and then highlighted these features in a range of material that we read.
Throughout our reading and gathering evidence phase, we explored interesting sentences starters.
Autumn term topics
Autumn 1 - The Firework-Maker's Daughter
The Firework-Makers daughter is a fantasy story. This genre includes elements of magic and the setting is in a fictional universe. Towards the end of the unit, children will be writing their own version following the structure of the original story.
Explore the clips below to familiarise yourself with The Fireworkmakers Daughter.
English KS1 / KS2: The Firework-Maker’s Daughter' by Philip Pullman - BBC Teach
The Rumaysa is a fantasy story, based on a well know fairy tale. Towards the end of the unit, children will be firstly rewriting the story from one of the characters point of view. We will then be innovating the story, changing the characters and part of the setting before writing our own version of the 'twisted fairy tale'.
The Firework-Makers Daughter, chapter 1 https://youtu.be/a5hkaO_iRSw
A PDF of Chapter 1 can be found in the files section.
Suggested Reading List for Year 4
Click on the link to explore a selection of 45 novels, you can find hilarious stories, adventures, mysteries, terrifying tales, imaginative stories, and captivating narrative nonfiction. The books will appeal to children of all reading abilities, featuring modern and classic children’s stories as well as entertaining short-chapter books