English
Writing Cold Tasks
Before we begin each new writing genre, we complete a cold task. The purpose of the cold task is to show our teacher the amount of progress we have made by the end of the topic by comparing the cold task alongside the hot task. Our teachers assess all cold tasks and provide us with targets to help us develop as writers.
Here is a cold task and hot task sample by Junaid. The progress from September is clear for all to see!
Enjoying Poetry by Ted Hughes
We have been looking at the poem “Leaves” by Ted Hughes. We analysed the poem for figurative language (similes and metaphors) before writing our own poems about trees.
Click on the link to read more poems.
Hot Tasks
This week, Year 6 wrote their Hot Tasks. This happens at the end of each unit and allows the children to show progress from the cold task which was completed the first week back in September. Planning time and teacher models were provided to enable the children to show their best effort. Being a good writer takes so many skills: clear planning, the use of figurative language such as similes, a range of sentence types, punctuation, spelling with accuracy and the ability to join! Finally, the writing must then engage the reader.........we will add some extracts from their writing here once the writing has been assessed.
Effective Starters
Prisha -
" As the lustrous ball of fire rose above the amber, parched desert, there stood a dromedary, with fur as auburn as sand - his name was Saucepans.
This Dromedary was a dreamer, dreaming in every place he went. His long lashes stopped the golden grains getting into his eyes. He wished to be with his family.........but life was not like that...."
Lily-Rose -
"It was a parched blazing day in the desert with scorpions and centipedes crawling around on the chrome mahogany sand. As the topaz, amber sun rose over the sand dunes, silence took over the desert. You could smell the sun burning the sand grains, and in the clearing there was a silhouette.
A dromedary - called Saucepans- stood in the distance dreaming away........"
Tom -
" As the lava-tipped sun rose up from the sandy dunes of the Sahara desert, there sat a figure of a dromedary, owned by a trader - Saucepans. It was a dromedary unlike any other, his fur as beige as the sandy plains.
His eyes as glistening as the bright lustrous sun. This dromedary was unusual. A dreamer. But with a dreamer also comes separation and an owner, bought by traders...........but this was wasn't just it........."
A Letter to Mankind
This week we have been looking at the human impact on the environment as our story tells us about deforestation and the destruction of habitats. As a result of this, the children have written letters to mankind to persuade them to look after our world. We will also be writing to Sir David Attenborough too!
Impressive Letter Writing
Demonstrating Empathy in a Diary
Reading Reward Winners
The Eye of the Wolf
We will soon be coming to the end of this wonderful story - a story that has taken the children on a journey across the world but also a journey into human actions and emotions. To complete this story, the children will write an unaided story using all of the SPAG skills, empathy and figurative language they have been working on for the past half term. We will place examples of these onto the web page when complete. The story is allocated to each child on their Abacus account. We hope they will want to read this story again for pleasure.
Success and Improvement - Peer Editing
Alaskan Role Play
We looked at the Alaskan environment and considered how the hunters must have felt in those conditions. We role played the hunters in preparation for our first person writing.
Role Play
Sharing Work
In English, we are reading "Eye of the Wolf". This story is about a wolf who has lost nearly everything on his journey to the zoo, including an eye and his beloved pack. The boy too has lost much and seen many terrible things. They stand eye to eye on either side of the wolf's enclosure and, slowly, each makes his own extraordinary story known to the other..........
Master storyteller Daniel Pennac weaves a tale that is magical, mysterious and utterly unforgettable.
We will allocate the text to your child to read via their activelearn account. This is the same account they accessed during lockdown.