Spring 1

Following our “Tudors “ inspired topic, we are studying the plays of William Shakespeare. We will be focusing on the language and plots of “Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet”. Pupils will be acting out the famous balcony scene and challenging each other using Shakespeare’s wonderfully witty insults!! (They have all been vetted, I assure you!). Written tasks include writing their own modern version of “Romeo and Juliet” set in Alfreton, scene description and writing an alternative ending to the story. 

For our class reader we are continuing reading “Marianne Dreams” by Catherine Storr.

Autumn 1

This half term, we are basing all of our Writing and Reading lessons based around a book. Reading and Writing will be linked together and used as a cycle. 

We have introduced the book and read the opening and Chapter 1. The children are very enthusiastic and are really hooked so far. So far, the children have predicted what they think the book is about and are slowly changing their predictions now we have read the opening. We are focusing on the skill of skimming and scanning this half term. Both of these skills are fast-reading skills than mean the children have an idea of the text without reading every word. 

Skimming involves gathering an idea of the topic for each paragraph. Scanning involves finding key vocabulary and specific words in a text. Both of these are really important reading skills for the children to grasp and will be encouraged throughout the year.