This term, we have been creating our own imaginative novels on Book Creator. Today in our literacy lesson, we planned, researched and wrote our own blurbs for our stories.

We learnt that blurbs:

• Are short in length
• Introduce a main character, the story and the theme
• Use attention-grabbing words and phrases
• Use an ellipsis at the end to leave the reader asking questions…
• Often have book reviews/star ratings on them

Now, we are able to transfer our blurbs onto our digital book creator app. We can’t wait to share them soon!

Today in 6.22, we finished our first class novel – the Girl of Ink and Stars. We all agreed that it was a beautifully written and lyrical story of friendship, discovery, myths and magic, with lots of twists, turns and adventure.

We then spent time writing a book review, summarising our thoughts, highlights and the plot of the novel. We even gave it a star rating out of 5!

We enjoyed the story which followed Isabella, a young girl who was forbidden from leaving her island and who dreamt of the faraway lands her father once mapped. When her closest friend disappears into the island’s Forgotten Territories, she volunteers to guide the search. As a cartographer’s daughter, she’s equipped with elaborate ink maps and knowledge of the stars, and is eager to navigate the island’s forgotten heart.

The class have all contributed daily to reading the novel aloud and completing comprehension questions, there has been great progress in these areas throughout our weeks at school.

On Remembrance Day this week our class took a closer look at some famous poetry, namely the well known ‘Flanders Field’ poem by John McCrae, who was an army doctor, in 1915 during the First World War.

Flanders Fields is a name given to several First World War battlegrounds which were situated near the border of France and Belgium. The battles which created Flanders Fields began in August 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium.

Through our analysis of the poem, we learnt when the land began to recover after the war and the grass and flowers returned, poppies became a symbol of remembrance!