Reading
Our Class Text and Comprehension
In term 1 and 2, our reading comprehension lessons will be based upon our class text, “Bronze and Sunflower” by Cao Wenxuan. In this story, Sunflower has moved to the countryside in China with her father. As her father works all day, Sunflower feels lonely. She watches the river and the people across it who live in a village called Damaidi. She meets a boy called Bronze from Damaidi and the two become friends. When a tragic event brings Sunflower into Bronze’s home, the two children must work together to survive the hardships of village life. To find out more about this text, view our Bronze and Sunflower Knowledge Organiser.
We will also focus on poetry during term 1. We will broaden children’s exposure to texts from other cultures. Children will develop their summarising skills and discuss how language and structure contribute to meaning and effect. In addition, the children will perform their poems with appropriate intonation and movement.
For further information about the reading skills we will focus upon this term, please view “Holmes’ Sequential Reading Curriculum”
Independent Reading
In class, we will continue to use the Accelerated Reader program. For further information about this, please view a Parent’s Guide to Accelerated Reader. (https://help.renlearn.co.uk/AR/ARParentGuide) If you need your child’s AR password, please contact me (Miss Wood).
Writing
Over the course of the autumn term, we will be writing and creating a narrative poem, based upon a Chinese folktale; writing a biography, about Cheng Tang ; and writing a short narrative, based upon stories from other cultures.
Firstly, we will use our historical knowledge of Chinese folktales to write a narrative poem. Throughout this project we will develop summarising skills, discuss how language and structure contribute to meaning and we will work to enhance the effect of their poems by using figurative language and expanded noun phrases.
Having learnt about Fu Hao and studied his biography, we will then write biographies about Cheng Tang. Writing a biography gives children the opportunity to select appropriate sentence structures and relevant details from their research. They will include relative clauses to provide additional detail.
To conclude our writing in the autumn term, we will write a short story based upon stories from other cultures (for example, Shang Surprise). Writing a story from another culture allows children to create characters, settings and plots that are rooted in the customs and traditions of another country. Children should also include a science fiction element encompassing time travel. They could use cohesive devices to link the plot and a variety of verb forms for clarity.
For further information about the writing skills, we will focus upon this term, please view “Holmes’ Sequential Writing Curriculum”
Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
Punctuation
This term, we will use a colon to introduce a list; discuss and use commas, semi-colons and colons to separate clauses effectively; discuss idea of ambiguity, when meaning is not clear; model and practise punctuating parenthesis, using pairs of commas, dashes or brackets; identify ellipsis in texts, edit deliberate punctuation errors revise word class, including pronouns, prepositions and determiners; strengthen and improve verbs in writing; write formal and informal sentences, selecting conjunctions and cohesive devices to suit level of formality; and compare sentences in simple past with perfect past verb form.
Grammar
This term, we will learn about types of nouns; relative clauses; modal verbs; revise four types of sentences; identify synonyms and antonyms and possessive pronouns.
Spellings
During our spelling lessons in term 1 and 2, we will complete the following Read Write Inc units:
- Words with a silent b
- Words that end in the letter string –ough
- Words ending in –ible
- Homophones and other easily confused words
- Words ending in –able
- Words with a silent t
- Words ending in –ible and –able
- Words ending in –ent
- Words ending in –ence
As well as beginning to look at the year 5 and 6 statutory spelling words.
For an overview of our weekly breakdown of our spellings, please view our Term 1 and Term 2 Homework Grid.
In addition to these weekly spelling rules, we will continue to learn and spell words from the Year 5 and 6 statutory spelling list. For an overview of these spellings, please view the Spelling word list for Year 5 and Year 6