Classroom Gallery 

Kindergarten's First Week At School!

News From Years 1-2

Hello everyone.  It is Year 1/2 here.  Mrs Flanagan says we have settled in extremely well to our 2024 class. In English time, we have been doing an author study this week.  Our author is Julia Donaldson.  Julie is well known for writing the following books:

• The Gruffalo 
• The Gruffalo’s Child
• Zog
• The Snail and the Whale
• Room on the Broom
• The Highway Rat
• Stickman

Here is what Julia says about her childhood:

I grew up in London, in a tall Victorian terraced house. My granny lived at the top and my uncle and aunt were on the middle floor. My parents, younger sister Mary and I shared the ground floor with our cat Geoffrey. (He was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him.)

This week we have been listening to and reading some of Julia’s books.  We discovered that many of them rhyme.  We also discovered that Julia uses humour and great descriptive words for her characters so that you can really imagine what they are like (appearance and behaviour).  

We have talked about the process of writing if you are an author.  Authors often do lots of draft pieces of writing before they are really happy with the finished product.  Then they have to give their work to a publisher (in our class it is Mrs. Flanagan!!) before the work gets published and illustrated. Axel Scheffler is Julia’s preferred illustrator. 

Here are some examples of the descriptive writing we have done about the Witch from “Room on a Broom.’ 

The witch has a green pointy nose.  She has a belt as brown as the land. Her dress is yellow.  She steals little people out of their homes. Her broomstick is very pointy.  She drinks out of her hat.  Her stockings are purple and stripey. Her shoes are very sharp. 

Fergus Davey.

The witch has a tall, pointy nose.  She cackles very meanly and is so loud! She has a very big dress and she puts her broom in her belt. She has tall witch socks with witches on them. She has long ginger, smelly hair.  She also has an ugly nose with witch boogers!  She uses green toothpaste and paper to clean her teeth. 

Archie King.

The witch has a tall, pointy hat and she is as mean as can be! The witch’s hair is gold and wavy.  The purple and brown broom is very silly.  Her teeth are as yellow as a daffodil/  The witch has a brown fluffy cat that lives with her.  The witch has a mansion that is a big broom. 

Ella Waters.

The witch has a tall, pointy hat.  She has long, frilly, ginger hair that she ties in a plait.  The yellow bow that she ties in her hair gleans in the moonlight.  She has a purple cape that sways in the wind.  The tall witch has a ginger cat named ‘Gingey.’ She also has glistening, ruby-red buckles on her little shoes. Her emerald green dress is the most beautiful dress you’ve ever seen.  She is a kind witch who always has a soft voice.  

Bella Norton.

Here is a page from Julia’s notebook when she was writing The Gruffalo. As you can see, it looks very messy but it is full of great ideas! It is also not the way the finished copy ended up. 

This year Mrs Flanagan (and Ms Wilson) are working from the new K-2 English syllabus.  Our focus areas support students’ growing knowledge and understanding in the areas of:

• Oral language and communication
• Vocabulary
• Phonological awareness
• Print conventions
• Phonic knowledge
• Reading fluency
• Reading comprehension
• Creating written texts
• Spelling
• Handwriting
• Understanding and responding to literature

Our activities in English this week covered all the underlined areas.  English is exciting in our room!