Year 4 English - Creating complex sentences
In English, Year 4 have been extending their sentences by including descriptive features in their writing. This week, the focus has been on including fronted adverbials and subordinate clauses to create complex sentences. Year 4 enjoyed reading and listening to each others creations about a predator hunting its prey. The outcomes were amazing!
Year 5 - English - Hot Seating
Year 5 have been putting themselves in the shoes of a character in our story Greta and the Giants. They asked lots of probing questions.
Reception- Literacy- Tricky Word Challenge
The Reception children have been working incredibly hard on developing their knowledge of tricky words. To make this learning as hands-on as possible, our independent learning turned into an active word-hunting challenge! The children loved searching through the magnetic letters, eagerly hunting out the correct graphemes to build these "tricky" words. Once they successfully assembled a word, they matched it up directly to their personal word logs. It was fantastic to watch their confidence grow and their enthusiasm for matching their magnetic creations to their logs showed just how much ownership they are taking of their reading journey.
Y1 - English - To Write a Prediction
Year 1 started their new English topic this week, The Last Wolf. The children went on the hunt for a wolf after Mrs Murray told us there had been reports of one on the loose! The children gathered clues, including a red cloak, an apple, a bin bag and a log. Using these, the children wrote a prediction of what they thought our story eould be about.
Year 6: English - Creative Writing
This week in English, year 6 have been responding to the Literacy Shed clip 'The Eye of the Storm'. They have written descriptions of the setting and characters, and are working on integrating action, dialogue and description - which have showcased great creativity so far!
Year 6: Communion
This week year 6 have attended communion. Some children read their prayers of thanks, and bible verses in front of the congregation. It was their last communion of their journey at Darwen St James, and we made the most of it!
Year 4 English - Information Texts
Year 4 have been looking at different types of information texts recently and are experts at identifying the features! They used their Computing skills to research information effectively and put their skills to the test, designing and creating their own information texts. The results were amazing! Well done, Year 4!
Reception - Literacy- Fruit Tasting To Develop Vocabulary
We had a brilliant sensory morning diving headfirst into the vibrant world of Handa’s Surprise. To bring the story to life, the children took part in a fruit taste test. From sweet, juicy pineapple to tangy oranges, watching their expressions with every bite was absolutely priceless. This hands-on experience sparked a fantastic carpet discussion, where we explored new vocabulary like delicious and tangy. I was so proud to see the children enthusiastically head back to their tables to use these rich descriptive words in their independent writing.
Year 6: English - Active Learning
This week we have been trying to include aspects of active learning during our usual lessons. We used different coloured cones in English to pair up with people we don't usually work with! It was a great strategy to get the students moving, and working with different people.
Year 3 - English - Using Conjunctions In Complex Sentences
In our latest non-fiction unit, Year 3 students have been exploring the mechanics of grammar to improve the clarity of their reports. The primary focus has been the transition from simple to complex sentences through the use of specific conjunctions.
Year 2 - Colourful Semantics
Year 2 have been making fantastic progress with their writing this term by using Colourful Semantics to build more descriptive sentences. This approach helps the children organise their thoughts by clearly identifying who is in the story, what they are doing, where they are, and when the action is taking place. Mrs Cookson and Miss Mulligan have noticed a huge improvement in the children's work, with their independent writing becoming much more structured, detailed, and confident!
Year 2 - Guided Reading - New Vocabulary
This week, we began exploring a new text all about climate. To prepare for our reading, we went on a vocabulary hunt around the classroom! We spotted new, tricky words and used Widgit images as clues to help us work out what they might mean. The children did a brilliant job acting as "vocabulary detectives," using the picture clues to write predictions on their whiteboards. We focused on understanding specific climate types, including Mediterranean, arid, tropical, and polar. It was fantastic to see the children using their inference skills to tackle these big words before we started our reading. We are now ready to dive deeper into the text!
.png){kind=logo}
