Enriching Experiences

Enriching Experiences

Alongside high quality texts to inspire our writing, we endeavour to provide opportunities for all pupils to write for a purpose and enjoyment whenever possible. These experiences foster a love for creativity, artistry, word play and publishing. Our goal is for these experiences to inspire our writers of the future; develop our pupils' own authorial voice and most of all, to cherish writing as an art, which can be enjoyable for everyone.

Learning Outside the Classroom: Building Empathy for Characters

 

As part of a recount (diary entry) writing topic, Year 5 explore the completely wordless picture book 'Small Things' by Mel Tregonning. The children make their own inferences about the boy's mental health as he seems to be having a hard time in school.

 

To further build empathy for what the little boy might experience on a regular school day, Year 5 went on a walk around of different areas of our own school. This enabled each pupil to observe school situations as an outsider. They put forward vocabulary for how a pupil who has 'small things' affecting them in school may feel. Towards the end of 'Small Things', things seem to look up for the little boy; therefore, Year 5 also came up with positive vocabulary for how a pupil may feel in school once they feel supported with their 'small things'. 

"When you take time to listen and observe what is going on in school, it is amazing what you notice! It was amazing to watch different pupils in the class to see their expressions and the different activities they were doing. This was useful when I wrote my diary entry as I could use this experience to pretend I was the main character." Michael

'World Book Day' Celebrations: The Power of Words!

 

To continue Year 5's exploration of the completely wordless picture book 'Small Things', pupils were challenged to use poetry to bring the main character's emotions to life.

 

Year 5 started by choosing a suitable emotion (based on their own inferences) and used this to imagine what that emotion might smell, sound, look and feel like etc. Through using such senses and a range of figurative language, Year 5 produced powerful emotion poems from the perspective of the main character. 

"I was really proud of my poem because I used similes in it. I wanted to show my mum it at home and she was really impressed as well." Ryan S

We Are Writers!

 

In the lead up to our World Book Day Celebrations, every child in the school writes their own 100 word (Lower School) or 200 word (Upper School) story about a topic of their choice. The pupils choose their own style of narrative: sci-fi, adventure, mystery, fantasy: the list goes on... and compose their own narrative being mindful of how to tell a full story in a precise way.  After polishing and a few tweaks, these stories are collated and published into a school book, which each child receives on World Book Day.

 

You can find our books in our school library as well as our local one too: Spellow Library.  At Spellow Library, we are the featured authors on display and have performed our stories for the local community to celebrate our fantastic writing.

 

"Writing my story was really fun! It is my favourite topic each year because I know that I can take it home and share it with my family and friends." Ava

Exploring the Relevancy of Shakespeare's Work

 

William Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' has enriched Year 5's persuasive writing abilities through its vocabulary and themes. It enabled the motives of a key character to be analysed from two different perspectives. Was Brutus acting selflessly for the good of Rome or enviously for his own personal gains? 

 

After exploring one of Shakespeare's plays, this encouraged Year 5 to consider whether studying Shakespeare is still relevant in schools today or not. A wide range of proposition and opposition points were devised, and personal opinions were ultimately cast aside as group debates took place. 

 

"I loved learning about Shakespeare! I think it is really important that children continue to learn about him because he was influential throughout the world. He even created phrases and new words that we use in our everyday language." Sean