This term Year 3 have been exploring a range of different text types. We are excited to show you what we have been up to – the outcome of the learning, but the process behind it all too!
Oi! Caveboy!
Early on in the term, linking with our History topic, we read ‘Oi, Caveboy!’ as a class. This was a story about a young boy who lived in the Stone Age era who went on an adventure.
‘There’s a boy called Iggy and his Dad ignores him sometimes. Iggy has to go on an adventure to find a Purple Stankwort to cure the chief. There had been a tournament with snakes and it had bitten the chief which had made him really ill. They then led the Nonecks to their valley who wanted to take over their valley. Iggy decided that they could stop them!’
Using this story to generate ideas and inspiration for writing, we practised lots of different writing skills.
The first skill we looked at was how to use conjunctions whilst describing a character. We discussed the vocabulary used to describe the character ‘Snark’ in our story and noticed how the author used adjectives, conjunctions to add detail and also similes. We then created our own character description of Snark.
Next, continuing to read the story, we began to explore setting description. We created a word bank as a class where we used our 5 senses to imagine what it was like in a part of our story. The story was rich with similes and metaphors which meant we could also ‘magpie’ the author’s use of this skill too.
The next lesson our focus was on information texts. We explored what features this type of text had. Still using ‘Oi, Caveboy!’ as a stimulus, we created our own information text for ‘the purple stankwort’ (a magical plant Iggy had to retrieve on his travels). We ensured that these information texts had subheadings and technical vocabulary.
Another skill that we learn in Year 3 is direct speech. We introduced this through getting the children to recreate a scene from ‘Oi, Caveboy!’, considering how different characters may be feeling at that time. We then practised putting what the characters might say into our own ‘speech sandwich’, using appropriate speech punctuation.
Finally, we explored the skill of using prepositions and adverbs of time to help add detail to our sentences. In order to do this, we created our own set of instructions that would aid Iggy to get to the Farlands.
The main point of this topic is to delve in, enjoy and explore the story, character and setting whilst practising a range of writing and reading skills. Year 3 did just that!
Mountains
Another genre we have explored this term is non-chronological reports. This linked to our Geography learning about mountains.
First we explored what a non-chronological report is, discussing the similarities and differences between fiction and non-fiction texts.
We then were posed with the challenge of creating our own report about Samuel Lucas. This was done with very little help so that we could see what the children remembered from prior learning so that they could build on this knowledge and develop as writers.
Over the next few lessons we looked at a range of skills needed to write an effective non-chronological report. We explored how to use subordinating conjunctions, comparative language, impersonal language and adverbs of cause.
Next we began to plan our non-chronological report, we did this by sorting our geography facts on mountains into a variety of subheadings.
We then were able to draft our reports, turning our facts into sentences, using the skills we had practiced over the weeks.
Finally we purple polished our learning to edit out our mistakes and checked all success criteria had been included.
‘I loved doing the research in Geography on the computers. I loved looking in the atlases too to find our facts.’
‘I liked writing the little booklets!’
Magic Box
The Magic Box by Kit Wright was our inspiration for our poetry genre. Similar to past topics we began with exploring what a poem is and how there can be different types of poems. We identified the different language features that a free verse poem uses.
To explore the features further, we attempted to create word play and comparative language of our own.
Now that we had practised these skills and had an understanding of when, how and why we use them, we began to create our own ‘Magic Box’ poem.
Similes, onomatopoeia and alliteration were all used to create our poems.
To finish the topic off, we performed our poem to the class ensuring we used intonation, volume and expression. We took inspiration for this performance from Michael Rosen’s Chocolate Cake video which we all had lots of fun watching!
‘I liked how…
The poem repeated itself ‘ I put in the box’.
We got to choose what went inside!
When we got to make our own box!
We learnt how to use alliteration and onomatopoeia!’
