In English this year, we have written in a range of genres e.g. adventure stories, play scripts, recounts etc. using the three-phrase approach. Each lesson starts with a starter activity based on the core grammar and punctuation objectives that we are learning for the genre of writing and the lesson ends with a short editing session based on the writing that we have produced during the lesson.

Quality texts are chosen to accompany English lessons and children have many opportunities to develop their reading fluency and comprehension skills. 

Across the week, children take part in daily spelling sessions, guided reading sessions and handwriting practice.  All children have regular opportunities to develop their speaking and listening skills.  

You can find greater information on what phonics, reading, writing and spellings look like at Therfield First School on the English homepage.  Below gives some examples of the English units covered within some of our class topics.  

Cave Folk

For our topic Cave folk, we looked at the book “The Stone Age Boy” and wrote recounts pretending to be living in the Stone Age. We also looked at writing instructions based on the book “How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth.”  The children wrote their own instructions based on a prehistoric animal.

Robots

For our topic Robots, we looked at the story “The Iron Man” and wrote setting and character descriptions based on our interpretations of the book.  We then wrote our own version of the Iron Man using our own characters. They were amazing!

Active Planet

For our Topic Active Planet, we looked at the core features of explanation texts.  We then researched different types of volcanoes, how and why volcanoes erupt and famous eruptions. We created our own explanations based on Volcanoes and shared facts that we had found interesting.

Fairtrade

For our topic Fairtrade, we focussed on poems written by Michael Rosen and the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” written by Roald Dahl.  We had fun performance reading and acting out the poems “Don’t” and “Chocolate Cake.”  After reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, we wrote our own play scripts based on an event that happened in the factory. We definitely have budding Actors and Actresses in Rooks Nest Class and some future comedians judging by their performances!

Need for Speed

For our topic Need for Speed, we looked at the story “The Tunnel” by Anthony Browne.  We loved reading this story and hosted many discussions and debates about the characters in the story.  We also found many references to Little Red Riding Hood in the pictures.  At the end of the learning sequence, we wrote our own setting descriptions based on the amazing illustrations.  

Ancient Greece

For our topic Ancient Greece, we looked at a different myth each week and then wrote our own myth based on “Hercules and the 12^th Labor.”  We ensured that we included all the core features of myth stories and enjoyed reading this to an audience.  We loved learning about the different mythical creatures and created our own creature for our story.