The Long Journey

We used this fantastic advert from John Lewis to inspire some creative writing.

The Long Journey by Eliza

At the stroke of midnight I left my lady love as the brightly lit Christmas reminded me I needed a present for her.

The next morning, a load of wooly sheep came charging at me like a huge cloud travelling at 1oo miles per hour. 

Eventually, I found myself in a forest. Inch by inch, I weaved around the trees that were standing like soldiers on parade.

Almost instantly, I was faced with an intimidating mountan. Trembing with fear, I climbed carefully. 

Hours later,  I arrived in the city centre with people and their overloaded bags swarming in and out of the shops like bees. Happily, I stood there smiling. 

Desperately tired, I trudged home to give my gift to my glamorous love. Before long, she was in a new red hat and a polka dot scarf. I knew my long journey had been worth it to see her smile.

Friendship Toolbox

In assembly Mr Watson discussed the importance of balance and give and take in friendships. We created Friendship Toolboxes to help us maintain balance in our friendships.

Friendship Toolbox by Jamie

Friendship Toolbox by Rory

Friendship Toolbox by Maisy and Eve

Aidan's Homelearning

Inspired by our Christmas Poetry Week Aidan wrote his own Christmas Acrostic.

Kevin the Carrot and the Wicked Parsnip

Inspired by this advert we wrote narratives featuring fronted adverbials and interesting vocabulary. 

Kevin the Carrot and the Wicked Parsnip by Abi

On a dark Christmas night, stood a snow capped mountain with a turreted spooky castle. Conspiring, the grotesque, mouldy white parsnip hated all carrots. Bravely, opening the doors came Kevin the carrot coming to save his family. He was the most heroic side dish and everyone knew his name. “Daddy!” said his daughter squeakily from inside the cage. Fearlessly, Kevin overcame obstacles such as the sprout cannon, the flaming hot turkey and the champagne bottle. In a flash, the evil parsnip was defeated and knocked off his perch. Kevin laughed “Right in the nuts”. Then with a sleigh ride from Santa Christmas was saved.

Winter Wonderland Interactive Scene

This week we have been analysing the lyrics to 'Winter Wonderland' explore the scene below.

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland by Gabriel

In the front garden there was a pathway covered in a blanket of snow and a snowman with charcoal eyes and buttons. The snowman was as white as the clouds, but his nose had the orange stripes of a tiger. Covered in snow was a glamorous Christmas tree, it had beautiful lights with an amber glow. I gazed at the snowman's torn ragged hat and homemade woolen scarf that had red and green stripes on it. On the gate was a wonderful wreath that was tied neatly. Carefully the snowman held some birds with his wooden arm. I started to approach the old wooden cottage and I heard joyful laughs every few minutes. While I trudged through the gate I could hear my own crunching feet. Longingly gazing at the cottage was the snowman, wishing to be nice and cozy. Strolling along I thought this truly is a winter wonderland.

Winter Wonderland by Sarah

In the night, I saw the stars slowly gazing upon me. The cloud white snowman wore a red and lime knitted scarf and glistened like a diamond. I could smell the scent of smoke rising through the chimney. The trees without their green finery were creaking noisily like they were about to fall down. Beautifully, the majestic fairy lights glowed from the house, whilst the moon shone on the glistening snow. It really was a winter wonderland.  

Winter Wonderland by Niko

Under my feet the bone-chilling snow crunched. The only light was either from the houses or the amber street lights. The aroma of roasted turkey filled the air as I got closer to the houses. Out of nowhere, I saw a big gritter truck gritting and clearing away the snow. The snow melted like candle wax. Every now and again I would hear laughing and shouts of joy. There was also a snowman standing sadly on the white blanket of snow. He was longingly gazing into the nice, warm toasty house. It was the most joyful night filled with laughter and joy.

Christmas Cinquain

We wrote Christmas inspired cinquains. A cinquain is a 5 line poem that has a set number of syllables in each line (2,4,6,8,2). Enjoy our Christmas creations.

Christmas Kennings

As part of our Christmas Poetry Week we wrote Kennings Poems. The word kenning comes from a Viking phrase which means: "to express a thing in terms of another“. It is like a ‘mini riddle’ used to describe something. Can you guess what these Kennings are describing?

Christmas Fair

The elves in J4 have been busy making Reindeer Food to sell at our Christmas Fair. Remember to come along on Friday and buy a bag.

Nobody Ever Loved A Sprout!

Inspired by this BBC advert we wrote our own rhyming poems about everyones favourite Christmas vegetable.

Christmas Haiku

This week we are immersed in poetry about Christmas. Here are some fantastic festive haikus to kick things off.

Shackleton Movie DVD Case

After the resounding success of our Shackleton Movies we created DVD covers. The covers feature our artwork and a description of the story that leaves the audience with questions they would want answered.

Shackleton's Adventure by Eddie

Shackleton's Journey by Eliza

The Long Journey by Jake

Shackleton's Journey by Will

Antarctic Menu

When the Endurance went down, the crew were left with only a few basic provisions such as tinned bacon, tea, porridge and whisky. To add to the food stocks the crew were sent out daily in search of penguins and seals. We collaborated on a menu that would have made the best of the available foods and provide a boost to the crew's morale.

Leadership Poetry

What does it take to lead an expedition? We used poetry to describe the leadership characteristics Shackleton displayed during his time in the Antarctic.

Shackleton Movie Posters

We created these movie posters for William Grill's Shackleton's Journey.

Leopard Seal Attack

One of Shackleton's crew was attacked by a ferocious leopard seal. We described this event using fronted adverbials. 

Isaac

Out of nowhere, a ferocious sea leopard ambushed me. The fierce nemesis swiped at me with its gun metal grey fin. It was a 13-foot-long monster. Suddenly, it let out a savage scream. I looked around to see Frank Wild with a rifle in his hand. It was dead a moment later.

Vincent

Out of the freezing water, a sea leopard catapulted itself at me. It grabbed my foot and pulled me off balance. I kicked out with my free leg, but it only tightened its grip. Wild appeared with his rifle. The beast saw Wild and sped towards him. Ferociously, the beast leapt at Wild. When he shot it in the eye blood trickled out and stained the ice red.

Libby

Suspiciously, I felt something or someone creeping up on me. Carefully I looked around and out of nowhere a savage beast ambushed me. He had dark black eyes, razor sharp canines and a smooth grey body. He was as almost as big as me. Luckily, Wild was prepared for anything and he shot him as soon as he could.

Eve

Ferociously, out of nowhere a blood thirsty leopard seal ambushed me. I tried to get free but that vicious, hungry carnivore held on. It was like a tiger leaping in action. It was too difficult to run away. I could see all the blood running down my own tired legs. I thought that I was going to die. I was screaming in horror. Luckily, Wild had a gun and shot the beast just in time.

Shackleton Film Trailers

We created movie trailers for William Grill's Shackleton's Journey.  A movie trailer is a type of persuasive writing. The purpose of a movie trailer is to persuade people to watch the film by giving them a taste of the action and leaving them with questions they want answered.

Shackleton by Georgina, Vincent and Hana

The Long Journey by Jake, Isaac and Sarah

Shackleton's Journey by Aidan, Malachi, Haaris, Safi, Tom and Evie

Shackleton's Journey by Maisy, Dan and Eve

The Endurance by Zikra, Luka and Eddie

Shackleton's Adventure by Niko, Dylan and Libby

Shackleton's Journey by Eve, Ameera and Gabriel

Shackleton's Journey by Rory, Abi and Will

Shackleton's Journey by Eliza, Jamie and Ramana

Endurance Lost

"On 27 October 1914, the brave ship Endurance was crushed by the ice beyond hope of repair" William Grill used personification in this sentence when he described the ship as brave. Inspired by this writing technique we created poems about the loss of the Endurance featuring personification.

Multiplying by 6

We have now moved onto Multiplication and Division in Maths. Today we practised multiplying by six. We used various methods to solve our In Focus problem. 

Remember to be practising your times tables zappers at home. 
To help you learn your 6 x table you could even try singing it!

Shackleton's Anthem

Despite the pressures of leadership, Shackleton knew it was vital to keep the crew's morale high. On Midwinter's Day, the crew celebrated with speeches, songs, toasts and a rousing rendition of the National Anthem. We sang our own rousing rendition of the National Anthem before creating our own 'Shackleton's Anthem'. Listen below.

Shackleton's Anthem by J4

God save our frozen toes,

Long live our hungry dogs,

God save the ship!

Stuck in Antarctica,

Lonely and desperate,

Pack ice went under us,

God save the crew.

The Winter Months

What was life like for the men of the Endurance during their expedition of Antarctica? Here are some of our descriptions of life on the floe

Endurance Stuck!

In writing we wrote newspaper articles reporting on the Endurance becoming stranded in pack ice. Read the J4 Journal to find out all about the challenges faced by Shackleton and his crew.

Icy Endurance Stuck by Niko

Endurance Stuck by Aidan

Anti Bullying Week

As part of Anti-Bullying Week 2018 we held an 'Odd Socks Day'. Wearing Odd Socks is an opportunity for us to express ourselves and to celebrate our individuality and what makes us all unique! We also created our own 'Odd Socks' artwork and Rory and Eliza collaborated on some 'Odd Sock' poetry. Enjoy and remember to Choose Respect,

Igloo Building

As part of design and technology we were tasked to create an igloo. Our igloos are similar to those built by Shackleton and his team after the Endurance became stuck in ice.

Igloo Building from Peter Bainbridge on Vimeo.

Shackleton Diary October 1916

Diary Entries by Eve and Jake

Shackleton Diary July 1914

Inspired by William Grill's 'Shackleton's Journey' we wrote diary entries from the perspective of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Our first entry July 1914.

Diary Entry by Maisy, Dylan and Evie.

Remembrance Day Poetry

Poppies are worn on Remembrance Day because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after World War I ended. Inspired by this we wrote poetry from the perspective of the first poppies that grew.

Remembrance Day Poppies

On 11 November 2018, the United Kingdom will mark the centenary of the day when the first world war ended. To commemorate this we created poppies featuring the names of soldiers who served during the war.

Shackleton's Journey - Continents

As part of his journey Ernest Shackleton sailed from Plymouth in the UK to Buenos Aires in Argentina, and then onto Antarctica. Shackleton and his crew sailed past many continents. Watch the video below to help you learn the name of the continents and their location in the world.

Subtraction

In Maths this week we have been 'finding differences'. To find the difference is actually subtraction! As usual we have been exploring problems and pushing ourselves to solve these in 3 different ways.

What does it take to lead an expedition?

What does it take to lead an expedition? After reading the first chapters of William Grill's 'Shackleton's Journey' we collaborated on a thinking map to identify some of Shackleton's leadership characteristics.