Letter Writing

Objectives

To develop creative writing in a range of different genres of fiction and types of poems.

To understand how pronouns are used in writing.

Resources

Today's Lesson

Spelling

Review spelling words to prepare for your test at the end of the week. Scroll to the bottom of Spelling Frame. Choose Printables and download the Traceable Word List. Your student can trace over the words to help learn this week's spellings.

PRACTISE - Traceable Word List (Spelling Frame)

Main Activity

Look at the following abstract from The Jolly Postman: ‘So the witch read the letter with a cackle of glee, while the postman read the paper, but he left his tea.’

Ask your student: who is telling the story? How do you know?

They should answer that it is the author, not the postman himself because of words like 'he' and 'his' are used. These are called pronouns.

Next look at an abstract from The Gardenerby Sarah Stewart*:* ‘I’m small, but strong and I’ll help you all I can.’

Ask your student: who do you think is telling or narrating this story? How do you know? They should answer, the girl in the story, Lydia Grace, is telling it because she uses the word ‘I’ in it.

Explain that when a story uses words like: I, me, or my - it is told in the first person. When the author is telling the story about the characters, they will use words like: he, she, hers, his. This is called the third person. Be sure your student understands the difference. Display the Singular and Plural Display Posters found in the resources to help support your student.

Explain that you will now play a little game, changing sentences from the first person (I, me, my) to the third person (he, she, hers, etc.). You could cut up and use the1st Person Statement Cards and 3rd Person Statement Cards or you may prefer to make up your own.

Model this activity by looking happy and saying, ‘I am bursting with excitement!’ Ask your student to reply in the third person, so he or she should say - ‘_____ is bursting with excitement!’ Do this a few times to ensure your student understands.

You can also switch roles, so they give a sentence in the first person and you say it back switching it to the third person.

Once you have completed the activity above, explain that tomorrow they will be writing a letter to the author they created a fact file about in Week 1.

Give them about ten minutes at the end of this lesson to look at the Letter Planner Resource and allow them to think of some questions they might ask their chosen author.

📄 PREPARE - Letter Planner

Citations

[1] www.youtube.com [2] spellingframe.co.uk