Writing Autumn 2

In our English sessions in Autumn 2, we will be looking at; 'Leo and the Octopus' by Isabelle Marinov and Chris Nixon; and 'Billy and the Beast' by Nadia Shireen.

We will be looking at:

Leo and the Octopus

The world was too bright for Leo. And too loud.

"I must be living on the wrong planet," Leo thought.

Leo struggles to make sense of the world. He doesn't understand the other children in his class, and they don't seem to understand him. But then one day, Leo meets Maya. Maya is an octopus, and the more Leo learns about her, the more he thinks that perhaps he isn't alone in this world, after all.

Main Outcome: Fact File

Billy and the Beast

While out on a lovely walk in the woods, Billy and her trusty sidekick Fatcat hear a terrible rumble... a terrible rumble coming from a Terrible Beast!

He's making a Terrible Soup out of all of Billy and Fatcat's friends!

Luckily, our brave heroine Billy has a trick or two up her sleeve (or in her hair)... Join quick-thinking Billy on her mission to defeat the Terrible Beast (and save those adorable little bunny rabbits too).

Main Outcome: Own narrative version

As well as covering a number of transcription and reading skills, we will be learning:

Vocabulary, Grammar & Punctuation

• Suffixes that can be added to verbs where no change is needed in the spelling of root words (e.g. helping, helped, helper)

• How words can combine to make sentences

• Joining words and joining clauses using and

• Sequencing sentences to form short narratives

• Separation of words with spaces

• Introduction to capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences

• Expanded noun phrases for description and specification [for example, the blue butterfly, plain flour, the man in the moon]

• Use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences

• Commas to separate items in a list

• Apostrophes to mark where letters are missing in spelling and to mark singular possession in nouns [for example, the girl’s name]

• Capital letters for names and the personal pronoun

Writing (Composition)

• Saying out loud what they are going to write about

• Composing a sentence orally before writing it

• Sequencing sentences to form short narratives

• Re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense

• Discuss what they have written with the teacher or other pupils