English Corner!

Thursday 25^th October - Poetry Day/ James Carter visit

Wow! What a day!

The whole of Backwell Juniors were immersed in poetry for the day today and we had a special visitor to inspire our writing!

James Carter, a crtitically- acclaimed poet, joined us for the day and a lot of fun was had by all! The day started with a whole school assembly where James introduced us to Steve his melodica and his trusty guitar too! We then heard many of James’ poems which was accompanied by these brilliant instruments!

Each class then worked with James to write different styles of poetry from Haikus to list poems. We thought carefully about our word choices and the final poems were absolutely fantastic!

Read more of James' poetry here: http://www.jamescarterpoet.co.uk/index.html 

Sharing a Story Day - A World of Stories!

We have had a lovely day of sharing books, listening to Stories from our mystery readers and learning a story off by heart to perform in an assembly!! We spent the day in with our buddies and had lots of fun a giggles learning some wonderful and strange stories from around the world. 

Thank you to all the parents who came in to read stories to the children they absolutely loved it! 

Our theme for Poetry day this year is RHYMECRAFT based on the popular computer game MINECRAFT! 

Pupils will be exploring the world of Minecraft in their lessons and creating poems to share with the school in a Poetry Slam, at the end of the day! 

Feeling Inspired?

We will also be launching a competition at the end of the day where pupils can write their own Minecraft poem at home! Deadline is February 9th (At school) or February 16th if you send off the form from home! See the website for more details! 

https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/competitions/rhymecraft/ 

Alternatively, if you don't fancy writing about Minecraft, there are also competition form entries for writing poems for Mothers day. Deadline is February 9th (At school) or February 16th if you send off the form from home. 

See Mrs Jones or Mrs Barnard for a Poetry Competition form!

English Evening!

Thank you to all who came to the English Evening! It was great to see so many of you so enthusiastic about SPaG, Reading and Writing! For those of you who were unable to make it, please find the documents shared in the meeting below. 

Thanks!

English Team!

***100 Reads Update***

September 2017

• Year 5/6: The challenge will be changing in the sense that we would still like the children to choose from the 100 reads list, but we are moving the goalposts from 100 to 50, with the 'ultimate goal' being to read 50 books.
• As well as continuing to make a note of the 100 reads books in the back of their reading records (with Year 6 recording them centrally in class), we have also introduced a 100 reads sticker chart within each class. The children will independently add a sticker to the chart every time they read a 100 reads book.

• Certificates will continue to be given to anyone who reaches the next multiple of 5 (Year 5/6) or multiple of 10 (Year 3/4) milestones at the end of each term.

• àYear 3 / 4: 25, 50 and 75 books read… 'end of challenge' prize at 100.
• àYear 5 / 6: 15 and 35 books read…'end of challenge' prize at 50.
•  

* 100 READS UPDATE* - May 2016

Please find below an updated version of the Year 3 and 4 100 reads list. With a few of the titles taken off at the start of the challenge, due to them being used in class, we have now added 3 new titles to make the full 100. Please note, we have also swapped 'The Little Blue Slipper' for 'The Highway Rat' as a result of the former being difficult to obtain. If you have managed to read it though, this will still count as part of your 100!

Keep up the fantastic reading!

'Space Jackers' Writing Competition Winners 

Suspense filled the hall in last Friday's celebration assembly when the winner and runners-up of the 'SpaceJackers' writing competition were announced!

Miss Yardley and Mrs Barnard were seriously impressed by all the writing entries, but were blown away by the story written by James Sharpe in 5B. Well done James!

Congratulations to the following runners up too...

Year 3: Kitty Stuart-Hunt

Year 4: Jasmine Coupe

Year 5: Isabelle Buxton-Smith

Year 6: Jake Macdonald

Thank you to everyone who entered and look out for upcoming competitions in the future.

Mrs Barnard

Huw Powell- Author Visit- Friday 13th January

The pupils at BJS were treated to an hour of inspiration this morning, in the form of an author visit from Huw Powell!

Huw came to speak to us about writing his 'Space Jackers' series and there was a real buzz in the school hall from start to finish. 

The Space Jackers books are based on an army of Space Pirates and Huw asked for our ideas about what one might look like. 'Captain Barbara Pig Man' was created, wearing some very interesting items of clothing!

We had a fantastic morning, with the chance for pupils to buy and have one of his books signed. The creativity carried on into the classroom, with space pirate stories being written in many classes.

Thank you for a fantastic morning Huw!

Mrs Barnard

100 Reads Challenge!

Welcome to the 100 Reads Challenge page! Here you will find the book lists for your phase. 
Make a note of all the '100 reads' books that you read, in the log which will be stuck into the back of your reading record (Year 6- your teacher will have a copy)

Remember to note down the 100 reads books that you read as part of your literacy lessons, as these will count too- check with your teacher to make sure.

Happy reading!

Mrs Barnard