English Theme Round-up
The theme for the second half of the Spring term 2023 was English. Our English theme block concluded with lots of activities taking place over these last 6 weeks.
The teaching of English covers many skills; listening, speaking, reading, writing and spelling-all of which contribute and support our learning of other subject areas such as History, Science, Geography, Mathematics, P.E, Modern foreign languages and Music. Each week the children were presented with a ‘Word of the Week’ and ‘Idiom of the Week’- where the children were encouraged to use these powerful words and phrases to enhance their discussions and creative writing.
International Week
We kicked off with International week- parents visited classrooms or recorded themselves reading stories from their different cultures and the children dressed up to share their different countries.
“You’re never too old, too whacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child”
Dr. Seuss
Book Week/World Book Day
During the second week, children were able to choose and buy books from the Book Fair, and we had a story walk for students, to enjoy reading while spending time outdoors. There was a ‘guess the character’ activity, using the shadows of famous book characters, and we enjoyed the book maze, where they had to guess the titles of different book pages to get out of the maze. Teachers took five minutes out of each day to encourage the children to ‘Stop, Drop and Read!’ from a book of their choice. There was a reading bank challenge for year 3, where students collected book coins for every book that they finished, and not forgetting the reading corner in the back garden.
The fun didn’t stop there as we continued our library sessions during the week enjoying all the storytelling and learning about the parts of books, making a book, and reading out loud for Dr. Seuss’s day. For World Book day, children dressed up as their favourite characters.
Listening
The 3rd week focused on listening skills. Children completed games in the classroom that involved listening. They had visits from their buddy classes, who read stories to them.
Speaking
Week 4 consisted of developing speaking skills- which involved a visit from the poem fairy. Children kept a poem in their pocket and had to be ready to recite it when the poem fairy visited with special rewards.
Writing
The fifth week was writing week. The children created their own short stories from picture prompts and discussed powerful opening sentences and structuring using Who, what, where, why. Expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials.
Spelling
The sixth week culminated with exploring spelling outdoors. Children were encouraged to practise or test their friends on different spellings, using words and strategies on the boards in the playground.
‘Let us remember; One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.’
Malala Yousafzai
