Writing across the curriculum
There is an expectation that the high level of writing continues across the curriculum. The children have similar starting points to the English lesson but these can also include a debate, conscience alley and evaluations of products designed. The children understand the importance of writing for different purposes and by ensuring that the high standards of writing covers all of the curriculum, the children are able to use their writing 'top tips' to edit their work in these other areas.
Year 1 Summer
During year 1’s Step Back in Time topic, they learnt all about Victorians. They visited Holkham Hall and had a Victorian themed wash and school day where they were immersed into life as a Victorian. They wrote a diary entry from the perspective of a Victorian child, some from the perspective of a child who had to work, others from the perspective of a child who was lucky enough to go to school!
Year 1 - Spring Term 2024
During year one’s ‘Our Planet and Beyond topic’, they learnt about the race in space and focused on learning about different astronauts who went into space. The children were able to choose to learn about either Albert the Monkey, Laika the Dog, Valentina Tereskova or Neil Armstrong. The children went to different classrooms to learn about these significant space animals or people and recorded facts about their journey to space. At the end of the week the children then used their facts to write a 2 page spread about their chosen astronauts. This was some of their best cross-curricular work and they were all very proud of their writing!
The children then used this process of researching facts and recording these on a two page spread in their English lessons based on the astronaut Chris Hadfield, following their work of The Darkest Dark text.
Year 1 – Autumn 2
The children made melting snowman biscuits in their DT lessons this half term. They really enjoyed following the instructions to make the biscuit and decorate this to look like the snowman was thawing.
The children’s learning this half term has built on prior learning of instructions, linked to our English work for Lily and the Snowman and also develops the use of the vocabulary dozen words for Winter. The children were really good at retrieving the features of instructions including time adverbials, imperative verbs and numbers to support ordering.
Year 1 Cross –Curricular
During year 1’s Step Back in Time topic, they learnt all about Victorians. They visited Holkham Hall and had a Victorian themed wash and school day where they were immersed into life as a Victorian. They wrote a diary entry from the perspective of a Victorian child, some from the perspective of a child who had to work, others from the perspective of a child who was lucky enough to go to school!
Spring Term 2023
During year one’s ‘Our Planet and Beyond topic, they learnt about the race in space and focused on learning about 4 different astronauts who went into space first that included, Albert the Monkey, Laika the Dog, Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereskova. The children picked their favourite astronaut and wrote down what they remembered about that astronaut and their mission. The children also learned about Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. In another lesson, they enjoyed thinking of questions that they would ask him and researched the answers using laptops to research.
Year 2 summer 2 – cross curricular writing
During our computing lessons, the children were using laptops to practise their tying skills. The children wrote about their favourite art pieces; explaining why they enjoyed creating it, what it was inspired by or how it was made. Their writing was on display alongside their artwork as part of our “Toftwood Tate” exhibition!
Year 2 – Spring term 2024
As part of our Air, land and sea topic the children have been learning about a significant individual in History- Admiral Nelson! The children researched about his life and created a chronological sequence of the events and wrote their favourite facts.
In Geography, we were learning more about the continent of Antarctica. The children were learning about the different animals that live there and how they are able to survive in the cold conditions. We then thought about what a human would need to survive if they were to visit Antarctica.
Year 2 – Autumn 2 Cross-curricular writing
As part of our Autumn topic “Night time” year 2 have been researching and exploring the art of Vincent Van Gogh, in particular the painting “Starry night.” The children have described and shared their interpretations of the painting, before taking inspiration to create their own artwork.
Year 2 Cross –Curricular
During year 2’s Habitats and Environment topic, they learnt to apply the same skills that a zoologist to be able to recognise and discuss patterns in nature.
Spring Term 2023
As part of their RE learning, year 2 wrote their own prayers about what Christians might like to thank God for.
Summer 2024
In Year 3, we have finished our wonderful year by writing our very own non-chronological reports about a fantastic beast. The children had a great time choosing two very different animals, such as a shark and a tiger, to mix together and create an entirely new beast such as the ‘shiger’! The teachers have hugely enjoyed reading the detailed descriptions the children have written of their beast’s appearance, habitat, diet and any additional fun facts. We have also recapped our learning on Haikus by writing a cross-curricular Japanese poem about a bee as part of our SAW (Science, Art and Writing) activities. Please find details of this under our Year 3 tab.
Autumn 2023
Summer Term 2024
This half term, Year 4 enjoyed using their creative writing skills to write a paragraph explaining how food moves through our digestive system. They pretended that they were the food that was being digested and they were able to use some fantastic adjectives to describe what they thought it might feel like or look like e.g. slimy, spiky, gloomy.
Autumn Term 2023
In RE, Year 5 wrote a poem to go alongside their religious icon that they painted.
Summer Term 2023
During summer 1, Year 5 explored kenning poems, non-chronological reports and descriptive writing.
Within their non-chronological reports, the children researched the topic of the Titanic and after their research, they were able to plan their report. They carefully considered all of the features such as subheadings, facts, opinions, relative clauses, parenthesis and technical vocabulary. The children enjoyed publishing their reports!
An illustration from The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield inspired the children’s creativity for a piece of descriptive writing. The children explored the five senses, making sure they were using expanded noun phrases and thesauruses to describe a setting.
Spring Term 2023
The children in Year 5 have written a diary entry as if they were a Charchi Indian, who lived in the rainforest. They were using their knowledge of the Amazon Rainforest and were carefully considering how they would feel if they were at risk of losing their home.
Summer Term 2024
This term in year 6 we have been learning about the ancient Greeks in our history lessons. We have learnt about religion, Alexander the Great, the Olympics and daily life. We have created double page spreads to show what we have learnt using our non-chronological writing skills. We also used our persuasive writing skills to produce an advert to recruit soldiers to join the Greeks in the Trojan War.
