Writing Texts in the Summer Term

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick 

This is a three-week planning sequence that uses The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. Children begin by exploring the illustrations – left in a mysterious suitcase in the classroom – and creating mystery setting descriptions, using a variety of grammatical and authorial tools, going on to creating action, character and dialogue in their middle-sections and endings. Children will explore many of the illustrations in this text. In the final part of the sequence, children write their own fantasy stories, based upon the illustration Mr. Linden’s Library. They will finally edit and publish their stories in a class collection for others to read. Afterward, children will receive a letter from a mysterious H.B. thanking them for creating stories for these illustrations. 

Flotsam 

This is a three-week Writing Root for Flotsam by David Wiesner in which children discover a range of ‘Flotsam’ items (either after a visit to the seaside, or that have appeared in the classroom). One item is a camera that contains mysterious photographs that the children must investigate. These photos come from the book Flotsam by David Wiesner. Children go on to read and reflect on the book, making predictions and retelling orally and in writing. Later in the sequence of learning, the children have the oppportunity to create their own sequel to the story, called Jetsam, where they write the story of the child who next finds the camera.

The Zebra’s Great Escape

The Writing Root begins with children discovering mysterious hoof prints, chewed plants and CCTV footage from somewhere in the school grounds suggesting an unusual animal is on the loose. Part of a (chewed) missing poster is discovered suggesting something might have escaped from the local wildlife park. Children piece together the evidence into detective notes to make inferences about who or what might have escaped. As they begin to read the story, children go on to create Wanted posters for the criminal stealing the animals from the park and write SOS messages to seek help from other animals to catch the criminal and find the stolen animals. They complete character comparisons for Mink (the protagonist) and Mr Spit (the villain) and practise the use of fronted adverbials by developing additional action scenes for the book as well as through describing settings. Possessive apostrophes are taught through the creation of poetry about Mr Spit’s ‘alphabet of animals’. Finally, children go on use roleplay to plan speech and dialogue before planning and writing their own version of a ‘great escape’ animal mystery.

Writing Texts in the Spring Term

The Pied Piper of Hamelin 

The Writing Root begins with reading a range of myths, legends, fables and traditional tales, where children identify and discuss common themes, for example good over evil, wise over foolish, etc. The class then look at the Pied Piper of Hamelin and sequence the key events using a storyboard and describe the key characters, with reference to the text. Children prepare reports on rats in response to a request from the mayor. Using a familiar story theme, children plan and write own stories in style of myth/legend/fable.

Escape from Pompeii

This is a three-week Writing Root for Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit.  Children begin by exploring a range of artefacts to try to determine the events that have taken place.  They move on to re-enacting an everyday scene from the city of Pompeii before writing a setting description.  Children will explore the main characters, including how their feelings change through the story, and will write letters of advice to help save them from the eruption. Through collecting banks of powerful vocabulary, children will write a vivid description of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  In the final part of the sequence of learning, children will become journalists and write a newspaper article to report on the eruption, including quotes from survivors in the town. 

Cloud Tea Monkeys 

This three-week Writing Root begins with the arrival of a Royal Tea –Taster in class seeking apprentice tea-tasters. The children experience an immersive session where they smell and taste a range of different teas before creating descriptive statements to describe a tea. A basket is then delivered and inside is a magical and moving story about Cloud Tea and how monkeys save a young girl and her mother. As the text is read, the children are exposed to range of language activities to stimulate grammatical development and reading comprehension skills. The children then write letters of thanks to the monkeys. Using the authors’ note as further stimulus, children research, plan and then write a non-chronological report on tea, the tea-trade and traditions relating to tea.

Writing Texts in the Autumn Term 

Leon and the Place Between

Throughout the sequence of learning children will explore the author’s language and use it as the basis for their own descriptive writing.  Your child  will explore the characters’ thoughts and emotions and take part in drama activities, leading to writing in role and the creation of dialogue. Using the structure of the original story, children will plan their own version of the story where their own character enters a magical world.

The First Drawing

During this sequence of learning, your child will explore the text, including exploration of the Stone Age and cave paintings. The children will write diary entries, explore the conventions of speech, create character descriptions and finish by writing their own historical narratives.

The BFG 

Throughout this sequence of learning, your child will have the opportunity to explore a wide range of text types including,  recounts, character descriptions, wanted posters, instructional writing and letters

They will finish by creating diary entries as Sophie and write a new chapter/own version of what might happen. To conclude, your child will write their own giant story.