This term Year 4 have been working really hard on their writing and have shown that they can apply their skills to different text types. We are so proud of all that they have achieved and so excited to show you their work below.
We are poets
Our poetry journey started by looking at âOverheard on a Saltmarshâ by Harold Munroâ.
We performed the poem as the two characters, the nymph and the goblin. To do this successfully, we had to be clear in the difference between the characters.
What makes a good performance?
- Clear, loud voices
- Expression in our lines
- Actions to show which character we are acting as
Next, we looked at the two characters and how we would describe them. We chose pictures of what we thought the nymph and the goblin looked like and chose powerful adjectives and descriptive phrases.
We then looked at âA Small Dragonâ by Brian Patten. This poem is different to Overheard on a Saltmarsh and we spent time looking and discussing how it is different.
We then storymapped the poem to get a firm understanding of the structure and the poem itself.
Grammar Focus:
We continued exploring the poem today by writing as the dragon finder from the poem. In order to be successful in our diary entries, we used prepositions to add detail to our sentences.
Continuing our exploration of âA Small Dragonâ, we embodied both the dragon finder and the dragon to create dialogue between the two. This will help us with our final poems as it will give us inspiration for what we might say to our creatures.
Planning
Today, we started planning our poems. We chose homes that our creatures had come from and described why our creatures had lived there and what they were like. To be successful, we had to choose different adjectives and explain our choices.
We then planned what the creature might eat and how it might respond based on the structure of âA Small Dragonâ. We also took ideas from the next verse by planning what the creature would make and how it would react.
Writing
We then drafted and edited our poems using our plans. It is important to check our work and make any changes before publishing.
‘I’ve learned to use ‘A Small dragon’ to help me write a poem in the same style’- Isabella R
The Day BoxÂ
‘At the start of The Day Box, we read ‘The Night Box’ and decided what we liked about it and what words we found interesting.’-Bethany 
‘When we started Day Box, we had to explain why you would choose this book and what vocabulary appealed to us.’- Avneet
We then looked at the figurative language in the book. We looked for personification, similes, metaphors, alliteration and onomatopoeia. We also shared examples on the board together.
Next, we needed to start gathering inspiration for our end point, âThe Day Boxâ, a story that is opposite to The Night Box. We went out into the school grounds to gather examples of an Autumn day using our senses. We found lots of different examples of what we could see, hear and even smell!
‘We went outside and searched for different Autumn ideas to use in our stories. We used our senses and figurative language.’- Isabella
Next, we took our Autumn ideas and turned them into different types of figurative language. These were then used in our stories.
‘In English I learned how to use figurative language to describe my setting. I learned how to use similes, metaphors and personification.’- Matas
After that, we looked at character empathy to established how our character might feel. We looked at Max and how he felt at different parts of the story.
Now, it was time to plan. We used a story mountain to plan five clear sections of the story: starting the day, opening the day box, the Autumn day, coming home and closing the box.
We then began our writing process. The class wrote a paragraph a day and worked hard on including all of our learning. They used figurative language, character empathy and had clear sections to their stories.
After writing, we then created our books as our end point. The children designed their books with Key Stage 1 children in mind. I hope you enjoy reading them!
ReportsÂ
We started our reports by looking at different examples of reports to gather a Success Criteria as a class.
We looked at different non chronological reports and comparative reports and identified different features and language.
‘When we were learning about reports, we underlined key features of a report such as headings, subheadings, pictures, formal language, captions and technical vocabulary.’ -Lily L
We then looked at how to use formal language. We took a report on Letchworth and tried to uplevel the text to make a more formal tone.
We then spent time researching our chosen topic for our end point, reports about Diwali. We worked in pairs to research Diwali.
‘I learnt about Diwali and when I was researching I learnt that Diwali means the festival of light.’-Â Milly.
We researched the following:
What is Diwali?
Why is it celebrated?
How is it celebrated?
Importance of light.
Over a week, we wrote our reports focusing on our success criteria to ensure we were creating an accurate report.
We made sure that each section was formal and included our research from the previous lessons.
‘We learned how to use formal language and other key features of a report. I enjoyed learning about Diwali and the process of writing the report. This was my favourite unit so far in Year 4!’- Denny 
Benjamin ZephaniahÂ
We spent a week focusing on Benjamin Zephaniah and his poem, The British. The poem creates a powerful message about equality and unity between all the different nationalities that make up the British public.
First, we read and performed the poem to each other. This allowed us to pick apart the poem and understand it.
‘In our Benjamin Zephaniah unit, we learned how to perform a poem successfully. We learned not to rush, talk clearly and add expression.’- Isabella P
Then, we used the poem to identify key language features. We looked for examples of nationalities, imperatives and words related to unity or equality.
We learned about imperatives (bossy verbs) and how we could use them in our own poems.
After that, we planned our own versions of the poem. We thought about the qualities that make us, us and listed them first. Then, we thought about the cooking words we might want to use as our imperatives. Finally, we planned a message to include.
We then wrote and performed our own poems about what made us, us. The children had to include:
- Ingredients (qualities)
- Imperatives
- An important message
in order to be successful.
‘At the end of this unit, we got to perform our versions of ‘The British. I really enjoyed this unit.’- Amy
‘I enjoyed writing out the recipe with the recipe words and the words that describe us as a class.’- Orlagh
