Class Elm: January 2013

Thursday 31 January 2013

The Lion and the Unicorn

Our class book at the moment is The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes.

Blurb:

When Lenny's father goes off to fight in the

Second World War he gives his son a brass badge of

a lion and a unicorn fighting each other and tells him

to be brave. Soon Lenny is evacuated from the war-torn

streets of London to a big house in the country, but the

only place he feels safe is the secret walled garden.

There he meets Mick, an injured soldier, who helps him

understand the true nature of courage...

In English this week we looked at some of the features of a myth by focusing on the myth of Danae and Perseus. Working with this myth some children worked as a group to identify the features of a myth and create a poem:

The beauty of a young princess.

The fear of a trembling servant.

The nastiness of an evil king.

The crashing of a mighty wave.

The heat of a black-smith's labour.

The joy of a child's laughter.

The power of a king's rage.

The darkness of a great hall.

The echo of a king's voice.

Guided Reading (How the Leopard Got His Spots)

Some children have been reading How the Leopard Got His Spots in a group.

Here is an example of an illustration of a scene from the book:

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Snowflakes (English Homework)

Children from Class Elm were given the task of writing a description of snowflake. An excellent example:

Snowflakes are pale, sparkly and creamy. They are twinkling and floaty. When it is in your hand it is cold. They fall like spinning ballet dancers from the sky. When they are on the ground they twinkle and shine.

Monday 28 January 2013

The Fox and the Raven

In literacy we have begun some narrative work focusing on fables and myths. Using The Fox and the Raven by Aesop as a model we looked at repetitive language.

Sunday 27 January 2013

The story of Zacchaeus

In RE this week we looked at the story of Zacchaeus. Five children worked together as a group to write a play script, which they will perform next lesson:

Information Texts

Information texts

In literacy we have been inventing our own dragons and describing them. We focused on the Elm-Ridge Back and the Thunder Dragon.

The Elm Ridge-back a rare form of dragon, which is seen across the town of Accrington.

When we were planning our dragon we had different categories such as:

Definition, what is it called

Description, what it looks like

Location/habitat where it is found

What it is best known for

A final point or amazing fact/issue.

After we finished our plan we extended it using interesting vocabulary to describe the dragon very well. Words that we liked to describe the Elm-Ridge Back included:

Rare

Tinge

Tamed

Mysterious

Beautiful

Other words in the information text included:

Identify

Enables

Concerned

Disastrous

Words that we liked to describe The Thunder Dragon

Lucky