Literacy Notes
“You can’t support an elephant on a step ladder.”
So says Ruth Culham in her book 6 + 1 Traits of Writing when discussing Word Choice and Sentence Fluency. A great analogy to use when teaching children that good writing certainly doesn’t sit on a framework of poorly written sentences and uninspired vocabulary.
This term Year 1, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 5 are focusing on Writing (Prep, Year 3 and Year 6 will work on this in Term 4). Year level teams have considered the writing needs of their children and established specific areas to target in weekly small group work. The main focus has been identified as teaching the children authorial skills to add detail to their writing and how to create, and work from, a solid, sequential plan. This is often referred to as having a 'Bold Beginning', a 'Mighty Middle' and an 'Excellent Ending' (from the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing approach). Adding an additional staff member (Jo Taylor) to each of the teams for 2 hours each week has allowed the children to be placed into smaller groups where their individual needs can be addressed more readily.
This week both the Year 4's and Year 5's began their session by writing about Artefacts that teachers had brought along. This is a great way to warm up their ‘writing brain’ and often produces some excellent material for future narratives.
The children were encouraged to view and hold a variety of objects and then choose one to write about. They could choose any form of writing they liked and were given no other direction.
Here are some examples for you to enjoy!
Artefact: A Bookmark
“It’s a dream, it’s a dream!” I yelled. I was running around the room screaming. There was a walking and talking bookmark walking towards me! “Please don’t hurt me,” I muttered. “I won’t hurt you. I will eat you!” growled the bookmark. He had the Famous Five pictures all over him. Now I was really scared. He walked towards me and started trying to bite my shoulder off. I shuddered and backed away. I knew it was the end. I closed my eyes preparing for the pain but nothing happened. Bang! A loud thump hit my head and I fell to the ground. The last word I heard from the bookmark was “Humans! Such innocent creatures..,” he said sarcastically. Zoe B (4B) - 10 minutes writing time.
Artefact: A Music Box
In a house far away a maiden had a baby and the father was there. After five years the little baby grew up. On the 24th July 1795 the little family got a letter. It said that the father had to go to war. The whole family was sad about this. The father gave his daughter a very special music box that sounded beautiful. Arlia P (4C) - 5 minutes writing time.
Artefact: Old Brass Binoculars – Circa WW1
The old, brass binoculars are about from the time of WW1. They are made of brass and have some crystals on the lens. They are still in good condition and are the colour of hazel. They are adjustable so you can see far away and close up. Amelie C (4C) - 5 minutes writing time.
I was looking at all my lost and old treasures I had stored in a box a long time ago. There was only one thing that caught my eye today, it was my old binoculars Grandad gave me. He says that they’re from World War 1 but I’m just stumped on where he found them! If I were to give a description on what they looked like, it would be old gold, heavy (a bit), they also have some interesting patterns on the glass. It looks like delicate snowflakes to me. Grandad says that It’s just how it was made. I think they have been damaged while they were fighting on the sands of Gallipoli. Katherine G (5A) - 10 minutes writing time.
10a.m, cold and windy. I was eating beans in a can. My job was in the army scouting what the enemy was doing trying not to get sniped. The binoculars were getting heavy. The binoculars were very blurry but were still very useful. Oliver O (5A) - 5 minutes writing time.
Yours in Literacy
Tania Purton & Jo Taylor
Literacy Coordinators
