CfE Es and Os  Writing LIT 1-25a and 2-25a

In June we made notebooks to record our progress through the annual 30 Days Wild challenge.  30 Days Wild is an annual event which encourages everyone to go out and take part in a ‘random act of wildness’ each day in the month of June.

You can, of course, create your own notebook at any time of the year!  The Wildlife Trusts have brought together ideas from current and previous 30 Days on their pages.  Feel free to use them as you make your own notebook. Wildlife Trusts – Ideas and Inspiration for 30 Days Wild

Here you will find links to and some extensions to the activities suggested in the video about the 30 Days Wild notebook.

 

If you want to find out how to make the mini notebook we made, watch the video below.

 

Note Taking

EAC colleagues will find more information about notetaking behind the SAC Literacy Tile on Glow.

If you are going to use your notebook for note taking you are practising an important writing skill.

At Second Level you use notes

to help (you) understand information and ideas, explore problems, make decisions, generate and develop ideas or create new text    LIT 2.25a

Writing notes often  tests our understanding of what have read, heard or seen.  We might use our notes to help us with a more extended piece of writing but often the notes are all we need.

Notes consist of short sentences or phrases or even single words.  Notes contain the most important information only. If  I wrote a note about a long walk, I would include only information about the most memorable parts of the walk .  For example,

• walk crossed Rannoch Moor
• walked for 8 hours
• the weather was dry but cold
• met 4 people walking in the opposite direction
• my feet got wet – need new boots!

 

Using Similes to make your writing more interesting for your readers

At Second Level you should be beginning to use similes in your writing to  create stories, poems and plays with an interesting and appropriate structure, interesting characters and/or settings which come to life. ENG 2-31a

A simile is a figure of speech  you use when you describe something by comparing it with something else.  Similes can make your writing more vivid.

Examples include  as brave as a lion, as big as a house, as tiny as a mouse.

In the video,  Carolyn said,  ‘Mint smells like toothpaste.’

When you see the word ‘as’ or the word ‘like’ in a description it is likely that the writer is using a simile.

Sound Mapping

Sound mapping is an activity you can do anywhere.  For 30 Days Wild, we chose a spot to sit in a back garden but you can sound map in the park, playground, the woods or or any other outdoor space.

Make a Sound Map tells you how.

Just Drawing

We used 30 Days Wild as an opportunity to spend a few minutes drawing each day. Drawing is something we can all do but in order to develop your drawing skills you need to do a lot of drawing.  Set aside some time so that you can draw each day..

BBC Bitesize – Drawing Class Clips   provides ideas for lots of drawing and picture making techniques to try out for yourself.  Why not take your notebook and pencil on your daily walks, draw what you see and try out some new techniques?