Year 5

Last term, Year 5's project was surrounding space. This project always produces some absolutely incredible pieces of writing.  It captures a lot of children's attention due to the new, fascinating facts they learn. 

The children began their unit by learning all about the incredible Katherine Johnson. She was an inspirational American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. 

The children recapped their knowledge of report writing and got to work researching this admirable woman. 

Here are a few of the final pieces that the children displayed outside their classroom.

 

After writing their reports on Katherine Johnson, the children turned their attention to writing generally about what they had learnt in science about space. Their teachers were blown away by what they came up with and made a beautiful display to show them off. 

 

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Year 3

This term our Year 3 children completed an Opening Doors unit focussing on the poem 'Green Candles' by Humbert Wolfe. Humbert Wolfe was an Italian-born British poet who was popular in the 1920s. His poem ‘Green Candles’ is a brilliant poem for teaching direct speech. 

'There's someone at the door,' said gold candlestick:

'Let her in quick, let her in quick!'
'There is a small hand groping at the handle.
Why don't you turn it?' asked green candle.
'Don't go, don't go,' said the Hepplewhite chair,
'Lest you find a strange lady there.'
'Yes, stay where you are,' whispered the white wall:
'There is nobody there at all.'
'I know her little foot,' grey carpet said:
'Who but I should know her light tread?'
'She shall come in,' answered the open door,
'And not,' said the room, 'go out any more.'. 

The children wrote taster drafts, where they took a section from the original poem and continued it on using the author's style and voice. 

Here are a selection of children who completed some fantastic taster drafts:

The children read the poem again and analysed it using a radial layout. A radial layout focusses on one main question. In this case, 'How has Wolfe made his poem 'Green Candles' dramatic?' The children then answer small questions that build up to answering the main question. They are expected to write in full sentences and use the word 'because' to explain why they think something. 

In their final lesson of the unit, the children came into school to a BIG surprise! The classroom furniture had gone on strike!

This stimulus allowed the children to imagine what the furniture and stationary we have in the classroom might say about us. For example, how would our glue sticks feel about constantly having their lids left off?

The children decided that they would make amends by writing a poem in the style of Humbert Wolfe about how the furniture feels when all the children come into school in the morning. 

They were so imaginative and creative with their poems. We were so impressed!

 

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Year 1 

Last term, Year 1 went on a seasonal walk through Kings Park where they observed how the seasons change the environment. To make use of this exciting outing, the teachers in Year 1 tied in the lovely book 'Meerkat Mail' by Emily Gravett. This book follows a meerkat called Sunny who goes on lots of new adventures and writes postcards to let his family know where he has travelled to. 

Year 1 decided to write their own postcard to Mr Brown about what they had seen on their trip to Kings Park. The children worked so hard in lessons to produce their postcards and their teachers were so proud of the writing they created. 

After this, the children decided to write their own postcards to anyone of their choosing. Here is what they came up with ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are so proud of how the children developed their ability to use capital letters and full stops as well as the brilliant adjectives they were able to include. 

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Year 6

Last term, Year 6 were learning about the Galápagos Islands. 

They learnt all about how the Galápagos is a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and how it's considered one of the world's foremost destinations for wildlife viewing.

Our Year 6's decided to create leaflets about the islands and what you can do there and display them outside their classrooms for other children in the school to learn about this special place. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 6 also completed some incredibly moving poems after one of their 'Difference' lessons where they learnt what equality means to us and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Year 2

Last term, the Year 2 children engaged in a project called 'Magic Melting Moments' which focusses on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. 

Within this unit, the children had a clear focus on learning how to use expanded noun phrases effectively. In the imitation stage, the children were immersed in this skill by using a model text which was based on the chocolate room in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. They orally rehearsed this model and created a story map to help them remember the phrases. 

In the innovation stage, the children worked on creating their own sentences that included expanded noun phrases. Here are a few fabulous examples: 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this stage, the children moved onto independence where they wrote their own story about their own magical chocolate factory. 

Towards the end of the term, Year 2 moved onto instruction writing where they used their knowledge from reading 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl and how the main character bakes cakes. Here are some fantastic examples: 

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Year 4

For their topic 'Climate Matters', the children in Year 4 were learning all about the issues surrounding our environment and how it's being treated. They wrote newspaper reports about the climate change crisis, encouraging people to change their habits to make our world a better place. They made sure to research the matter carefully so they could include factual evidence to support their viewpoints. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EYFS

Our smallest writers continue to amaze us each day. They are progressing at a rapid speed in terms of their letter formation and sentence structure. 

Here are a few example that their teachers were super impressed by. 

 

We are so proud of all our extraordinary writers at St James'