English
Reading: We will use the texts 'Zombierella' by Joseph Coelho and 'Annie Lumsden, The Girl from the Sea' by David Almond to develop our reading and comprehension skills. We will discuss our understanding of the text and new vocabulary, retrieve and record information, identify main ideas and summarise these.
Writing: We will use the book 'Tar Beach' by Faith Ringgold to develop our writing skills. Children will explore the theme of ‘freedom’ and do so by creating their own poems. Once they have finished the story, children will receive a letter from the BBC asking them to write a script for the (hypothetical) upcoming movie version. Children will learn the various skills associated with script writing, writing dialogue and stage directions, including writing in present tense, using brackets, contractions and noun phrases. Children will finally publish an act from their script on BBC-headed paper.
Using the text 'Varmints' by Helen Ward, children will go on to plant the seeds and write instructions about the process, collecting subject-specific vocabulary as they go. They will dissect the flowers left behind, identifying and labelling the various parts and explaining their various roles in reproduction and pollination. Children will be given opportunities to describe flowers, write letters and make speeches to a secret society of gardeners who plan to change the world through the power of nature. This series of lessons culminates in children writing an explanation text about the life cycle of a plant with a clear structure.