Reading
Our Class Text and Comprehension
In term 3, our reading comprehension lessons will be based upon our class text, “You Wouldn’t Want to be on Shackleton’s Polar Expedition” by Jen Green. Throughout this non-fiction text, we will join Shackleton in what will prove to be one of the most gruelling adventures of all time as we brave our way across the bitterly cold continent of Antarctica. As we encounter extreme cold, strong icy winds and a worrying lack of food and water, we’ll soon see why you really wouldn’t want to join Shackleton’s polar expedition!
In term 4, our reading comprehension will be based upon a fiction text, “The Wolf Wilder”, which is an award-winning novel written by Katherine Rundell. The story centres around Feo, who lives in the Russian woods and teaches tamed wolves how to survive in the wild. It is set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. The novel’s key themes include family, friendship, war, bravery, resilience and nature versus humanity.
To find out more about this text, view our Wolf Wilder Novel Knowledge Organiser.
For further information about the reading skills we will focus upon this term, please view “Churchill’s 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 (Mrs Saunders).
Writing
Over the course of the spring term, we will be writing a non-chronological report, a haiku poem, a newspaper report and an adventure narrative.
Firstly, we will write a non-chronological report about the Antarctic. Writing non-chronological reports enables children to use a range of layout devices, such as subheadings, bullet points and tables. Children will use their knowledge, learnt in our topic lessons and from further research, to plan and write their non-chronological reports.
We will also write haiku poems about polar animals. Haiku teaches children to be economical with language and to explore precise, sensory descriptions. Using pictures and videos for inspiration, we will collect vocabulary and experiment with writing several haiku. In addition, we will also use thesauri to find appropriate synonyms.
In addition, we will write newspaper reports about Ernest Shackleton, the great explorer. Writing newspaper reports helps children refine their formal writing and allows them the opportunity to use an increasing range of cohesive devices to make links between and across paragraphs.
Furthermore, we will write an adventure narrative about a polar expedition using a range of well-chosen, descriptive vocabulary. Narrative writing skills allows children to evoke settings, characters and atmosphere using vivid descriptions. We will explore descriptive language by describing the polar setting and then plan and write an exciting adventure narrative inspired by our work on polar exploration.
Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
Punctuation
This term, we will learn to identify and model the use of the hyphen; revise the use of possessive apostrophe for singular plural nouns; use a comma for all its purposes; and use a single dash.
Grammar
This term, we will learn to accurately identify and use determiners; use and identify prepositional phrases in sentences, including prepositions of place and time; and revise the use of fronted adverbials, ensuring correct placement of commas. We will also learn about a range of verb forms: active; passive; and subjunctive. In addition to this, we will read and enjoy poetry, comparing its use of sentence structure and punctuation with that of prose; and write different types of poems.
Spellings
During our spelling lessons this term, we will investigate prefixes and their meanings; revise the suffix “ly”; revise the suffix “ous”; revise words with the “k” sound spelt “ch”; revise words with the “sh” sound spelt “ch” ;revise endings spelt “cial” and “tial”; words containing the letter-string “ough”; words with ‘silent’ letters; investigate prefixes and their meanings; revise the suffix “ation”; endings spelt “tion,” “sion,” “ssion,” and “cian”; words with the “i” sound spelt “ei” after c (and other ie/ei words); and revise all previously learned homophones. For an overview of our weekly breakdown of our spellings, please view our Term 3 and Term 4 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.