This week in writing the children were looking at features of a newspaper and how to write newspaper reports.  Thank you to everyone for helping with your child’s Big Talk homework, it made a huge difference to the children’s understanding and readiness to write.

I was very impressed by the boys and girls’ ability to discuss their findings with each other, such as the content of a newspaper and the fact that the ‘really big/important stories’ are on the front page. In class we were identifying and labelling:

• Headlines
• Introduction (First paragraph)
• Photographs
• Captions
• Quotes

We have been looking closely at headlines and have been discussing the use of alliteration and wordplay to make them more interesting, funny etc.  We noticed that articles reporting on more serious issues often had a catchy, hard-hitting headline.

We looked at what alliteration meant and will have a chance, in class next week, to create our own catchy headlines.  We will be continuing with newspaper report writing for the next couple of weeks and are looking forward to being roving reporters (around the school!)

The children are welcome to bring in cuttings, from newspapers, of articles they have found interesting and we can add them to our big book planning sheets.

We have also been learning about the difference between fact and opinion and have been playing sorting games and creating our own statements to help develop our understanding of this.  Sometimes we have found it quite tricky to write in the third person and not to write about our own experiences, thoughts and opinions but this is an area we will keep working on.

Look out for next week’s Big Talk homework.

Mrs Waugh