Tag Archives: writing

A Christmas Thunk

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Sometimes it’s a great idea to exercise your brain by doing some extra thinking.  Thunks are a good way of doing this.  A thunk is a thought or an idea that you can discuss with friends.  Those of you who have tried philosophy either in school time or in the after-school club will be familiar with this type of thinking.  Thunks are also great for sharing on a blog – just like this one. Here’s a seasonal one for you.  Read the thunk and then write down your first thoughts.

Would you rather live in a democracy or a dictatorship run by Father Christmas?

P.S. The UK is a democracy – adults have the right to vote for MPs to represent them in Parliament.  Power is shared. Recently, the EU referendum and the vote for the American president were also examples of democracy.  In a dictatorship, one person has absolute power.  They are not elected by the people of the country.  The dictator can make decisions without asking for permission.

Learning Grammar Outdoors

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P1090093Maple 2 said that they wanted to do more learning outdoors, so that is what we have been doing.

Today’s lesson was a grammar treasure hunt!  Every child had a sheet listing 16 grammar terms: noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, preposition, determiner, clause, conjunction, subordinate clause, relative clause, modal verb, noun phrase, passive voice, active voice and subjunctive.  P1090091The challenge was to create sentences which included examples of all 16 terms, with bonus points if the sentences made a paragraph.

P1090092And where did the inspiration for this writing come from? Being outside.  Sometimes, sitting on a chair at a table just isn’t quite enough to give us the ideas we need.

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Watch this space for the results …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Recommendations

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We all know that reading is important but have you ever had the problem that you just don’t know what to read? No matter how hard you try, you just can’t find the right book.  The book that will engage you, inspire you and hook you in, so that time flies when you are reading it.

One of the great benefits of blogging is that ideas can be shared between lots of people.  Think back over books that you have read.  Which ones were your favourite?  What would you recommend?  Try to summarise the atmosphere and content.  Explain why you have made your recommendation.

Matisse

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In Maple 1, we are learning about Henri Matisse.  We have enjoyed looking at some of his paintings and pictures, marvelling at his joyful use of colour, shape and pattern.  These images have inspired our own art work.  In this blog, we are going to use his paintings to inspire writing.  In pairs, we will create first drafts of descriptive paragraphs inspired by some of Matisse’s pictures.

Use these questions to start your thinking:

What colours can you see?  What is happening?  How does it make you feel?  How do you think Matisse was feeling when he created it?  What does it remind you of?  How does this image connect with other pictures you have seen?  How does it connect with the real world?  What story does this inspire?

When you are ready to write:

How will your first sentence hook your reader in?  What do you want your reader to feel?  What do you want your reader to think?