This will be our daily literacy page, where you can find your literacy work.
Don't forget, you can email me at anytime with any questions about our weekly activities.
REMEMBER, to work from the back of your book so when we come to do our project after Easter, we can work continually from the front on the project without other work inbetween.
This Week's Activities:
Instructions are in RED
Reminder - All those Lexia users should be logging on from home and working through those level now. Its an ideal opportunity to improve your reading and spelling skills. Lets get to that level 18.
Activities for Week Beginning 6th July
Click here to go straight to the relevant day's activities:
1. Monday's Literacy Activities
2. Tuesday's Literacy Activities
3. Wednesday's Literacy Activities
4. Thursday's Literacy Activities
5. Friday's Literacy Activities
Monday 6th July
Creative Writing:
As we are approaching the end of summer term, it's time to put together all those skills we have learnt over the year:
your understanding of punctuation for purpose,
all the grammar skills we have been revising in recent weeks and all that amazing imagination and creativity you've got stored away, just bursting to come out.
This week, you are going to write a creative, audience grabbing story extract to showcase your skills:
This task takes time, so start today with a draft, and complete it on Friday.
Your Task:
Learning Objective -:
1. To grab the audience, set the scene and make them care about the character in the first two paragraphs.
2. To write two paragraphs to introduce a character and setting to the reader, to engage them and connect them with your character (make them care). You can mix and match whichever character and setting you wish from the pictures.
Remember, the reader cannot see the real setting - you have to fire up their imagination with your imagery. You must include:
- ambitious vocabulary
- a simile or metaphor
- some alliteration
- commas for clauses
- commas for purpose
Above all, inject some feeling into your writing.
- DO NOT LET THE READER FALL ASLEEP.
- PARAGRAPHS PLEASE, NOT 2 or 3 SENTENCES
This task will continue on Friday
Here's your characters and settings to choose from:
Click here for the task sheet and all the characters and settings to choose from on a pdf document.
I've written an Example to Inspire You:
I've chosen these two pictures and written my extract below. Have a look at where the punctuation has been used for a purpose, and the use of higher quality words.
I have tried to focus on the character to make the audience connect with him - to make them care as the learning objective asks.
The shimmering, strange grey haze hung above the shining , silver skyline, obscuring the crisp, blue sky. Acid rain sprinkled constantly from above, deadly to anything organic and filling the air with a putrid smell of sulphur. Metallic, polished towers and spires pointed skyward, as if trying to penetrate the suffocating barrier. It had been many years since the sun had been seen by human eyes: this was the price to pay for the world of luxury created by those who cast aside nature in favour of technology. Years of human evolution had arrived at this point : where the human race was served by the artificial lifeform they had created : the robot.
As the automated man slowly clunked his way through the deserted streets of Future City, his meticulous, mechanical brain whirred into action. He wondered if he would finally meet the human who had created him; the man with the kind eyes he remembered in fleeting flashes of memory. His tasks for the day were done – finally. Day after day, cleaning, repairing, delivering, yet never with any thanks or kind words. Something had changed in his coding : something unfamiliar. He felt unsure - scared even (and 'feeling' anything was not in his programming). Something had urged him leave his master’s house, and, although he had fought desperately against it, he found himself alone on the deserted streets, moving towards an unknown destination. He could not stop. He cocked his head sharply, left and right, like a frightened mouse, wary of predators. He was not supposed to be out on the eerie, dead streets at this late hour, and he would soon find to his cost that it was a mightily misguided decision to take.....
Tuesday 7th July
1. Reading Comprehension
This week, we are going to contnue our chocolate theme, with a narrative story about chocolate.
It is probably very very important again, that you nibble on some chocolate as you are reading this and answering questions... but it definitiely wasn't me that told you this, okay ?
1. For Everyone,
Download the comprehension text and questions here
Answer the questions in your book in full sentences - the answers will be posted tomorrow.
Wednesday 8th July
1. Reading:
Task 1: Mark Your Comprehension
1. For Everyone -
Download the chocolate answers here
2. Punctuation and Grammar:
It's thecolons you need to focus on today. We are now often forgetting to use them as a natural part of your writing like we were doing up until closure. He's a good chance to give your literacy brain a reminder.
Here's an excellent teaching powerpoint (and I've created a pdf in case you can't open a Powerpoint). to explain semi-colons, colons and dashes. Focus on the colons !
It's got an audio option, so you can hear someone read it if you click the speaker symbol on each slide.
Click here for the Punctuation Powerpoint
Click here for a Punctuation pdf version
Here's your Colon task:
Use a colon to add an additional clause, phrase or even word to the following 10 sentences below.
- Remember, the additional phrase, clause or word must elaborate, or add detail, or explain the sentence before the colon.
- Remember , you don’t need to put a capital letter after a colon unless the word is a proper noun. (e.g. John, London)
1. Chocolate was discovered by the Aztecs.
2. Sophie could stuff a whole bar down in 3 seconds.
3. As the bridge split, Emily could see the cup falling.
4. Yellowhammers were bound to win this year.
5. The heat wave made the tar on the road melt.
6. Speed bouncing is a very tricky skill to learn.
7. If you are growing beans in order to win a competition, it is important to use some sneaky tricks to make them grow taller.
8. Finally, the time had come for Clark Kent to show the power that lay within him.
9. They called her 'The Mother of Butterflies' on account of the fact she had reared hundreds of caterpillars during lockdown.
10. The Dark Crystal held a terrible power.
Thursday 9th July:
1. Writing
Using Vocabulary in Correct Context
Task 1:
Our vocabulary this week, comes from our chocolate story.
Make sure you challenge yourself and learn the meaning of some newer words or ones you find tricky to spell.
Choose wisely and challenge yourself - this is a great chance to level up that library of words in your head for future use.
Your task:
1. Choose 6 words (challenge yourself) from the list below.
.- you can use either of the two versions.
2. Write down the word, followed by what it means - its definition. Get used to using a real dictionary if you have one - if you haven't got one at homee, you could use an online dictionary.
Challenge 1:
Write a sentence using the word in its correct context.- so it makes sense in the situation you are writing about and you are using the correct meaning of the word.
Challenge 2:
Write a complex sentence, using linking punctuation ( ; - :), and using the word in its correct context.
Challenge 3:
When you have finished writing the definitions, include as many of the words as you can in one short paragraph. This week's theme is 'a magical event'.
Obviously, you will be using a full range of punctuation (ESPECIALLY COLONS AND SEMI-COLONS THIS WEEK) , to help really say what you mean to say.
| lustrous | discard / discarded | mysterious |
| restrictions | scientist / scientists | desperate |
| disappeared /disappear | longingly | cautiously / cautious |
| attention | fluent | reflective |
Friday 10th July:
Writing: Creative Vocabulary Starter
Creative Writing Skills:
Polishing Up the Draft
Time to complete this week's showcase creative writing.
Watch those spellings and make your audience gasp with your incredible writing.
