Week Beginning 23rd May 2022

This week in English we will be reading again Chapter 5 from our class text Young Merlin. By the end of the week, we will be writing a recount of this chapter where we will weave setting, characterisation and action together. 

Week Beginning 9th May 2022

This week we are taking a  break from our class text (Young Merlin).

This week we will writing persuasive letters to local garden centre to ask for their help in providing free seeds for our Business Week project. 

Week Beginning 2nd May 2022

This week in English we will be reading again Chapter 4 from our class text Young Merlin. By the end of the week, we will be writing a recount of this chapter where we will weave setting, characterisation and action together. 

Summer Term

Week Beginning 25th April 2022

 This week the children will be starting a new text called Young Merlin. It is a text which is linked to our theme Vikings and Angelo Saxons.

In English this week, the children will be considering how authors develop characters, setting and atmosphere, as well as developing their understanding of using different types of clauses. 

LO - To use expressive and figurative language to create mood and atmosphere.

Using the TOOLKIT we will assess our ideas on our boxing up sheet to see what features we have included.

Having done this, we will list from the boxing up sheet

• The setting - Where they are at the start when the thing appears
• If the setting changes when they run
• What things they see
• What they hear
• What they smell
• What they feel

We will then use these ideas to  generate some figurative language to explain them in more detail

  SEE

  Breath - My breath danced like ghostly spirits in the sky.

  Fox - ran away like as fast as a bullet

To begin to consciously control sentence structures in their writing, sometimes making choices about sentence length, sentence complexity and punctuation for effect

We will begin to write our version of a Mystery and Suspense text, using the figurative language generated in the previous lesson, the TOOLKIT and the boxing sheet.

  TOOKLKIT

• Pronouns
• Relative clauses
• Short sentences
• Conjunctions
• Prepositions and adverbial phrases
• Figurative language
• Long and Short sentences

Setting the scene

  Where are they?

  What is it like?

  Describe briefly the setting

• It was dark
• Streetlights were broken.
• Shattered glass
• It was cold.

  SEE

  Breath - My breath danced like ghostly spirits in the sky.

  Fox - ran away like as fast as a bullet

  SMELL

  Breath - As putrid as rotting flesh

  HEAR

  Footsteps - Slow but heavy like

  Footsteps speeding up like an animal stalking its’ prey

  FEEL

  Panic crawled up my spine

Example

The night was dark for the moon was young and the lights, which ran          along the wall of the abandoned building, were out. It was cold. So cold      that my breath danced like ghostly spirits in the sky below the low                moon,  which luckily shed some light for me to see where I was going.

 We will look at our work and assess it against the TOOLKIT to see which       features we haven't included. Recapping on how to include them in our     writing as we continue to write the next paragraph.

Building the tension

Describe what you are being chased by

- What is smells like

- Sounds like

- What you hear around you

- See around you

What is happening?

Action

• Silence filled the air, which was bitterly cold.
• A fox darted in front of me, stopping to stare until it saw what was behind me – then it ran away like as fast as a bullet.
• Panic rose up my spine.
• Fear bubbled in the pit of my stomach,
• The footsteps behind me sped up.
• I could smell its breath it was so close…

Example

I began to run. I ran further into the empty street, which was like a ghost town and the slapping of my bare feet on the freezing paving stones told this ‘thing’ where I was headed. It followed me, like an animal stalking it’s prey. A fax darted in front of me stopping me my tracks, but it ran as fast as a bullet, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.  Silence filled the air, which was bitterly cold, the only sound my breathing. It was heavy and laboured. Loud. My heart beat like a drum. Panic rose up my spine. Fear bubbled in the pit of my stomach. It was closer than before. I could sense it. It’s breath was pungent. Like rotting flesh….

LO – To propose changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effect and clarify meaning.

We will read over our work and think about how we can up-level it.

It was dark and the lights, which ran along the courtyard wall, were out. It was cold. So cold that my breath danced like ghostly spirits in the sky below the low moon, which luckily shed some light for me to see where I was going.

I began to run across the courtyard, which was a huge open space and the hard paving stones beneath my feet told this ‘thing’ where I was headed.

I could feel it behind me. Following me. Its footsteps were slow but heavy…