Today, a small group of children from Year 2 were joined by pupils from Markyate, Flamstead, Gaddesden Row and Little Gaddesden to take part in a writing workshop delivered by Mrs Lilley.
Children had opportunities to use similes, VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, Punctuation) and 'The power of 3' to make their writing really fantastic.
We are looking forward to seeing the impact this workshop had on the writing Eleanor, Evangeline and Nancy produce over the coming weeks!
As part of our writing week, Nursery and Reception have been busy leaving messages across the school for members of staff. When I returned to my office this morning, I had a lovely post-it note from Hope and a message in a bottle from Lucy.
Excellent, purposeful writing from our youngest children!
Yesterday, Years 5 & 6 visited the woods as inspiration for their descriptive writing. The results are fantastic; evidenced here in Oscar's work:
"When we finally arrived at the woods we split into two teams. The hunt began. One of the first things I saw was a piece of emerald green moss that grew on dilapidated branches. I picked it, with my stone-cold hands, which smelt like fresh soil that had been placed in a plant pot. I was treading through the mud that suddenly became black quick-sand."
Not only was Oscar's work brilliantly descriptive, but his handwriting is looking tremendous too!
On Friday morning, Years 5 & 6 had a BIG Writing session. I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the writing - so much so that I felt I had to share! Below, you will see a sample of this writing from Josh. He has effectively built the tension in his writing as you will see from this excerpt:
A distressed figure dashed through the abandoned house. She scaled the blood-splattered, crumpled wall with her clammy finger-tips. Petrified, she scanned for the phone. Then she saw it. Her pale blue eyes were transfixed on the disconsolate, once shivering, face of Jennifer Mulls lying on top of the marble floor. "Click" went the flashing Sony cameras. Exhausted, Police Officer Charles collected the photographs of the pale, weary body. He peered round the bitter room. He spotted something unfamiliar...
Speak to Josh if you want to know what happened next!
This morning, Years 5 & 6 were (re-)introduced to SAM learning. This is an on-line tool which supports development across the curriculum. Children are able to log on to their account (either at school or at home) and complete challenges in Maths, English and Science.
Children in Years 5 & 6 have a curriculum guide to independently track their progress in these areas as well as their Mental Maths and Spelling scores. There are also opportunities for pupils to work on the Key Stage 3 (Years 7 - 9) curriculum.
This month, we have been concentrating on the value of 'Unity'. We have identified that being able to 'work together' is an important skill to develop.
We watched this video and then answered the question: 'What has this got to do with Unity?'
'It's better when people are working together.'
'It all started from just one person and developed into everyone dancing together.'
We discussed that it was a good metaphor for showing unity within our own lives and looked at the quote that we have on our Values display:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
Miss Groves' Year 1 and 2 Creative Writing and Handwriting Club has got off to a flying start this term. There is some wonderful descriptive writing taking place. Children are choosing a mythical character (fairy, goblin, etc.) to describe. They are thinking carefully about their WOW words (adjectives) as well as working carefully on their handwriting. A special mention to Evangeline for her super presentation!
