Reading for Pleasure

Our class novel this term is...

This is the story about how one ordinary nine-year-old child and three classmates are full of empathy for Ahmet, a boy that comes to their school as a refugee from Syria (he is the boy at the back of the class). Through their sensitivity, curiosity, ingenuity, bravery and innocent niceness, they make a massive impact on Ahmet’s life, friends, class, school, community and wider world. There’s a lovely lack of stereotyping on gender and backstory for the narrator, which adds to the message of not judging people before you know them.

This is a beautiful, open-hearted debut from Onjali Q Raúf that should help children be the best they can be and realise the power of kindness.

Reading at Home

Each Thursday our class enjoys time in the school library with our dedicated librarians. All children are encouraged to spend quality time exploring the books and choosing one they would like to take home to enjoy!  We expect parents and children to spend time enjoying their chosen book before changing it the next week!

Writing

This term's fiction unit, begins with the children reading a story told in rhyming narrative verse. They then use drama and discussion to tease out some of the serious issues behind the humour in Kaye Umansky's engaging tale of The Bogey Men and the Trolls Next Door. Strands of the story are then picked out to form the basis of the children's own writing. 

Writing Challenge:

To write a new story using some of the characters from The Bogey Men and the Trolls Next Door

My story:

• is written from the point of view of one of the band members

• gives extra information by including powerful adverbs and adjectives

• uses at least one of the features of Kaye Umansky's style, e.g. comical images, extra information in brackets, made-up adjectives such as 'trollish'.

• includes the first person past tense, because I am writing in role as a character.

Our non-fiction unit, looks at explanation texts. The children revise their previous knowledge of the language and organisational features of explanation texts and explore examples of visual, verbal and written explanations.  They then create their own explanations in a variety of forms, culminating in the delivery of an explanatory lesson on how to get the 'pop star look'.

Writing Challenge:

To write about a pupil’s life at stage school based on a radio interview.

My explanation:

• gives clear information about life at stage school

• has a title and subheadings to organise the information

• uses quotations (direct speech) and/or reported speech to explain about life at stage school.

• includes reported speech and/or direct speech, which is set out and punctuated correctly.