On Monday, we shared the beginning of the story 'Lost and Found' and wrote a short diary entry as if we were the boy finding the penguin at our doorstep. 

Today, I would like you to listen to the next part of the story and answer the questions below. This task is focussing on your understanding of the vocabulary.

8th January

1. Watch the video explaining how to use speech marks in your writing. 

2. Listen to the next part of the story.

3. Answer the questions and complete the summary task.

Happy Monday!

Today I would like to make a start on 'similes'. Go through the PowerPoint (with voiceovers) and then have a go at the activity. 

Have a think back to the story (listen to it again if you need to). I would like you to understand characters at the beginning of the story, middle and at the end. I would like you to use your knowledge of similes to write one for each character at each stage of the book e.g. At the beginning, the penguin is as lonely as a single cloud on the sky.

13th January/14th January

Today, we are going to explore how changing the penguin character for a different animal would change the setting of the story.

You might want to think about other animals that we have looked at that live in polar regions. Or, you might want to think about animals that live in other areas of the world, e.g. a lion, a snake etc. I would like you to draft a story where you are replacing the penguin in Lost and Found with another animal. How might this change where they end up? Would the boy take the lion back to the South Pole? 

This is a rough copy. Try and include similes and perhaps you could include dialogue - a feautre that Lost and Found does not include.

.I'm looking forward to see what you come up with!

14th January - please spend today finishing & proof reading your story and make any corrections/improvements. Use the thesaurus link to make improvements to your vocabulary.

15th January

It is really important that you are able to read your work back to yourself and improve it.

Read through your story. in a coloured pencil, underline any similes you have used, in one colour, and underline any dialogue you have used in another. If you go through your work and think you can think of a word that is better e.g. than 'sad', use the thesaurus linked to find a better vocabulary choice. 

After you have done that, I would like to critique your work. What have you done well? What could you do better?

I'm looking forward to reading through your annotated pieces of writing, with your own evaluation of your piece!

18th January - 'The Rainbow Bear' & Alliteration

Listen to the story "The Rainbow Bear" (up to page 5)

Next, watch the video explain 'alliteration'.

Highlight/underline the alliteration in the sentences attached (sentences from the book)

Have a look at a polar bears diet. Then they think of words to describe that prey that begin with the same sound (alliteration) e.g. whistling walrus, bubble blowing beluga etc. Then write these alliterative adjectives on the corresponding side of the table. If you want a challenge, put these into a full sentence.

I have attached an extract from our book. The extract is from the first couple of pages. I would like you to put your understanding of alliteration into place by highlighting/underlining the alliteration in the extract. 

Extension

Choose another animal that polar bears prey on. Can you write 3 sentences with alliteration, following a similar structure to the animals in the extract.

22nd January - Visualising parts of the story

Children to picture or visualise a place from the story 'The Rainbow Bear' (full story linked below). This is a powerful way of encouraging them to move into a fictional world. Picture the scene in their mind's eye or walk round it in their imaginations. Finally they can bring it to life by describing it in words or recreating it in drawing or painting. After creating their images, write labels and captions to go with their drawings. 

25th/26th January - Exploring non-fiction and broadening subject knowledge

1. Watch the following nature documentary clip; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00m510c  - ATTACHED UNDERNEATH

2. Ask the children to listen to the language used and reflect on the technical/subject specific language.

3. Watch the video clip again and ask the children to consider the purpose and audience and then discuss what they noticed. Such as: tone, voice, pauses, scientific or descriptive language.  

4. Using the same style of language structure, ask the children to take their own research notes to create their own narration for a short clip on polar bears. You can narrate the same clip and have the video playing in the background (sound off) while they present. Or they can choose another clip to narrate.

You have 2 days to do this. On Monday, you could watch the clip and write a paragraph about what features you have noticed, who the audience is and the purpose for the clip. The second lesson should be used to compile your research notes and present them into a video.  

Tomorrow (27th), we will be writing this into an information text. 

Listen to the PowerPoint about information texts and what to include. You are going to have a go at writing your own information text about polar bears using the research you have already gathered. You have two days to complete this, so take your time. I would like you to use the checklist (attached) to make sure you have included the main features of an information text.

To make sure that you are including all of the features, you might like to make it a booklet so you can include contents/glossary etc and still have room to write/draw your information. 

2nd February - Composition and Grammar.

LO: Composition Discuss and record ideas; Compose/rehearse sentences orally, building a varied and rich vocabulary Grammar Write sentences with more than one clause by using a wide range of conjunctions, including when and because; 

Task: Start to plan the words and sentences for their shape poem. Children focus on creating new and imaginative descriptions by linking words in unusual ways. They record these ideas as they go (this is just a rough plan). Remind children to use a rconjunctions to expand meaning, alliteration, and similes.

3rd February - Writing our shape poem...

You should have now decided what your shape poem is going to be about (in the Frozen topic). I would like you today to write your plan up in neat, making sure that your poem is in the shape of what you are writing about. 

You need to make sure you are writing in full sentences, using finger spaces, capital letter, full stops, alliteration and similes. Don't worry about making your poem rhyme. It is more important to make sure your writing is all about the object you are writing about. 

I have attached some shapes that you may like to use or you can make your own! 

Have fun with this! I'm looking forward to reading your shape poems. 

It is important you can evaluate on your own work and understand where you might need to improve. This might be with your finger spaces, capital letter, features such as alliteration and similes. So today, I would like you to reflect on your writing (shape poem). What did you do well? What could you have done better? What features did you include? What could you have included? Did I make adventurous word choices? Could I have chosen a better word for that? 

Use the writing frame and questions (attached) to complete your evaluation. Tomorrow we will be using our evaluations to improve our writing. 

5th February - Improving my work...

You might think 'but Miss Lindley, we've just written our poem up in neat!', but now is the time to WOW me!!!

You did your evaluation yesterday so you should now understand where you can improve your writing. Read through your shape poem and add anything you may have missed or just think you could do better. This might be a word choice, or you might add an alliteration or you could add a conjuction. Remember, these are the things I am looking for:

• Capital letters
• Full stops
• Finger spaces
• YOUR BEST HANDWRITING
• Alliteration
• Similes 
• FULL SENTENCES 
• Conjunctions 
• WOW words e.g. instead of 'cold', use 'freezing' 'ice cold' 'bitter' baltic'

8th February 

We are moving away from our shape poems today to look at some very important explorers of our polar regions. By the end of the week you are going to have written a 'character profile' on one of the explorers we are going to look at. First of all, we are going to have a look at what a character profile is and then we will research the explorers that we are going to write about.

Your task for today:

1. Listen to the PowerPoint which explains what a character profile is

2. Listen to the PowerPoint of Antarctica Explorers and watch the BBC clip and take notes on Robert Scott (this is the explorer you are creating your character profile on) 

In today's lesson, you are going to become researchers. By the end of the week, you are going to be writing a character profile about Robert Scott, but you are going to have to research him first. Use the internet to find as much information about him and his life. Use the document attached to collate your information. There are some questions there to guide you. 

When you think you have gained lots of information, put this information into headings. This will help when you come to write your character profile as you know what sections you are going to include and how to lay your character profile out.