Inspired by: Flotsam - Week 2

In a captivating lesson inspired by the book "Flotsam", students explore the art of using fronted adverbials to enhance their descriptive writing. The focus is on the character Jack, who stumbles upon a crab with a distinctive 'piecrust appearance' that he suspects to be a common edible crab. The children gather a rich vocabulary to describe the crab's movement, words like 'scuttling', 'crawling', 'running', 'scurrying', and 'scampering'. They are then tasked with crafting sentences using these words, placing the adverbial phrases at the beginning for dramatic effect, such as "Scuttling quickly across the beach, the crab..." or "Scampering away from Jack, the crab...". This activity not only enriches their vocabulary but also sharpens their understanding of sentence structure.

Moving from prose to poetry, the class delves into "The Sea Poem" by James Reeves. Here, the learning objective is to discuss words and phrases that captivate the reader's imagination. Students examine how Reeves uses metaphor to liken the sea to a 'hungry dog' and how he employs contrasting vocabulary and sentence lengths to enhance the image. The children prepare to perform this poem, focusing on intonation, tone, volume, and action to convey understanding. Additionally, they watch film extracts to observe the sea's varying moods and compare its attributes to different animals, such as a lion, considering sounds, movements, appearance, and behaviour. They are encouraged to compose and rehearse sentences, developing a varied and rich vocabulary, and to create their own sea poems, reflecting on which lines they might want to edit or rearrange for greater impact.