Literacy Home Learning

Year 4This literacy power point will be a sequence of lessons that will help the children complete tasks set. It will be broken down into different lessons, covering 2 weeks worth of content. Please don’t feel like it all needs to be completed in one go, it is a working power point which all follows on from each other with some spelling, punctuation and grammar lessons in-between.

Lesson One Warning Tale- Narrative

What is a warning tale?A warning is a tale to warn a character of a danger. ... Then, the narrative (story) itself is told, someone disregarded (ignored) the warning and performed the forbidden act. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is usually quite grisly or unpleasant.

WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like)

Read the WAGOLL (lesson 1 WAGOLL worksheet)

Can you identify any features that have been used?Underline them (if printed) or highlight if reading online…

Features: • Fronted adverbials• Clauses as starters• Complex sentences• Inverted commas for speech• Expanded noun phrases • Commas for parenthesis • Ellipses for tension

Look at worksheet lesson 1 WAGOLL edited with features to see if you could identify the same features as me!

Lesson TwoCreating a character

Create some character or characters which you are going to use in your story.• For each character you choose to make, include some adjectives to describe what they look like and what their personality is like. This will help you create some expanded noun phrases in tomorrows lesson. • Design your main characters who are in the narrative, then design someone or something that comes to warn the characters of something.

Example: Mario content

cherry red

blue dungarees

determinedcircular buttons

courageous

Here are some adjectives to help you start describing your characters.

Lesson 2: character creation

Lesson ThreeWriting character description

Recap:

•Yesterday you created a character and used adjectives to describe the characters. •Today you are going to create a character description by using expanded noun phrases.

What is an expanded noun phrase?An expanded noun phrase is a phrase made up of a noun and at least one adjective. If one or more adjectives are listed to describe the noun, a comma should be added to separate the sentence.Example: The shops had lots of yummy, white chocolate Easter eggs.

This is a great video that will help explain-https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwwp8mn/articles/z3nfw6f

Character description example:

Mario was a brave, competitive man who liked to wear long, blue dungarees with yellow, circular buttons keeping them up. He is a very courageous, content man who likes to help defeat evil, scary monsters.

Your turn:Using the characters you created yesterday, create 3 or 4 sentences which include expanded noun phrases. Think about the character, what they look like and how they act.

Lesson 3- Expanded noun phrases worksheet

Lesson Four-Feature lesson

In today’s lesson you will be practising using some different features into your writing, such as fronted adverbials and prepositional features.

We have done these lots in class, so this is a chance to have a recap and to explain to your grown up what they are.

What is a fronted adverbial?

• A fronted adverbial is an adverbial phrase or a word that’s moved to the beginning of the sentence, before the verb. They are usually separated from the rest of a sentence with a comma.

• So an adverbial phrase is an adverb, followed by a comma, followed by the main clause.

Examples of fronted adverbials:

This sheet is also a document – fronted adverbials examples.

Example:

The deal was negotiated behind closed doors.

To place the adverb at the front, I would change this sentence to…

Behind closed doors, the deal was negotiated.

Making sure I add the comma after the fronted adverbial.

Improve these simple sentences, by editing and adding a fronted adverbial.

• She ran to the school.• Ben ate ice cream.• Tom finished his homework.

Possible answers include:• Running to school, she felt excited. • In a panic, she ran to school. •Nervously, she sprinted into the school gates. •Without hesitation, Ben ate his ice cream. • Excitedly, Ben quickly ate his ice cream. • Finally, Tom finished his homework. • In a rush, Tom finished his homework.

Worksheet- Lesson 4•Work through the worksheet, completing the sentences and identifying where the commas should be placed. •Create some sentences -which include a fronted adverbial- of your own which could be used in your warning tale (this will help you when writing your narrative).

Lesson Five-Sentence types

Two types of sentence types we will be looking at:

Compound and Complex

Compound SentencesA sentence that expresses two complete thoughts is a compound sentence. In a compound sentence, two independent clauses can be joined by a comma and a conjunction. Each clause has a subject and a verb. When you are writing, it would be strange to only use short, simple sentences. Instead, try making some compound sentences. ‘I do not like eating meat.’ is a simple sentence. ‘I love vegetables.’ is also a simple sentence. By putting the two sentences together and joining them with a coordinating conjunction, we can make a much more interesting compound sentence. ‘I do not like eating meat’ + but + ‘I love vegetables.’ ‘I do not like eating meat, but I love vegetables.’ Remember, commas are not conjunctions and they should never be used to join two sentences together. (Commas are not sticky, so you can’t use them to stick information together!)

Coordinating conjunctions

Examples of compound sentences:Both of these main/independent clauses make sense on their own.

Samira likes football.

Ben loves basketball.

and

When we link them together with a co-ordinating

conjunction, they form a compound sentence.

Ben loves basketball.

Sally practised her spellings.

She got full marks in the test.?

Which co-ordinating conjunctions could be used to link these two main/independent clauses to

create a compound sentence?

for and nor but or yet so

Is there one that fits best?

Are some co-ordinating conjunctions easier to use than others?

Complex sentences:A complex sentence is made up of a main clause and then one or more dependent clauses.Subordinating conjunctions are the first words within a subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses do not make sense on their own (they are dependent) but when they are used with a main clause, they create a complex (multi-clause) sentence.

Subordinating conjunctions are the first words within a subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses do not make sense on their own (they are dependent) but when they are used with a main clause, they create a complex (multi-clause) sentence.

Can you spot the subordinate clause in this sentence?

Hakim could win the talent contest if he improved his juggling skills..

Answer:

Hakim could win the talent contest if he improved his juggling skills..

Can you spot the subordinate clause in this sentence?

The boy scouts sang around the campfire until it was time for bed.

Answer:

The boy scouts sang around the campfire until it was time for bed.

Using clauses as starters:Using clauses as starters means we start the sentence with the subordinate clause instead of starting with the main/independent clause.

E.g – complex sentence- Miss Jowsey watched television inside the house, while the rain poured down. main or independent clausesubordinate clauseTo turn this into a ‘clause as a starter’ we would move the subordinate clause to the start of the sentence and punctuate it with a comma before adding the main or independent clause. While the rain poured down, Miss Jowsey watched television inside the house.

Complete the tasks set on the worksheet entitled, Lesson 5-sentence types.

Lesson Six-Sentence starters

To make our sentences more interesting me can vary the sentence openers we use. Here are some examples.

Using the examples shown below, write some sentences of your own (lesson six worksheet). This will help you when writing your own story and help you change the structure of your sentences.

Lesson Seven-Planning your narrative

Time to plan…• This task is all about you getting together some ideas about what you want your story to be about.

• Use the planning template -”Lesson 7” to complete this,.

• Be as creative as possible!, create characters and settings of your choice! Try to impress your grown ups with your ideas!

Lesson Eight/Nine-Writing your narrative

Top tips:

Start to write your warning tale. Don't forget to read through your work as you are writing it , its very easy to miss out words. Check your punctuation is correct.Use different sentence starters so your story is using different features.Be as creative as possible,.Use a dictionary (online if you need to) or write a spelling down on a piece of paper and try different spellings, then ask an adult to check.

Impress your grown ups and show off! You’re a brilliant writer! J

Lesson Ten-Editing and completing your narrative

Editing and ImprovingOnce you have finished writing your narrative, see if you can improve any of the sentences or phrases you have created.

You can do this by adding adjectives, extending sentences, or changing the vocabulary you have already used.

E.g. Old sentenceThe big trees were blowing in the wind.

Edited and improved… Graciously, green, leafy trees were blowing in the distance.

• Ask a grown up for help if you are stuck, see if they can help you find other words which make your story sound more exciting. You could use a dictionary or thesaurus to help you.

• Also check your spellings, use the top tips from lesson 8/9 to help you with this.

Share your story with us!

Once you have finished your narrative, if you would like to, please share it with your teacher on class dojo! We would love to see your work! J