English

This term we will be focusing on poetry and narrative text. We will explore different forms of poetry to develop the creative language features of writing such as adjectives, similes, and metaphors. We will then launch into narrative writing. Through reading and writing sessions, students will develop their skills in planning and structuring a narrative using paragraphs. They will learn how to develop their characters within the storyline and use language features to hook in and engage the reader. 

This term we will work on secretarial skills and will teach the students to use a proofreading/ editing checklist. We will also review nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and will focus on the correct use quotation marks for direct speech. 

The students will have a weekly list of personalised spelling words to meet their individual needs and will work on a structured spelling program exploring phonics (the phoneme and grapheme connection for blends, trigraphs and digraphs, morphology (parts of words), etymology (word origins and their meaning) and spelling rules. 

The reading program will focus on developing comprehension skills and a deep understanding of narrative text. We will begin the term with Reader’s Theatre allowing the students the opportunity to collaborate with their new peers. They will study the storylines and characters of different scripts. They will then focus on poetry and how figurative language is used to create imagery and meaning. Students will apply their knowledge of the power of language to the comprehension of narrative texts. They will learn to determine the important information such as the key problem in a story, character feelings and reactions. Students will also learn to identify characters and keep track of who is speaking in the text.