Key Stage 2 Literacy
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Escape from Pompeii- Descriptive Settings

We began the unit of work on Natural Disasters in Literacy with a text focus on Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit. It is a very short book but it is beautifully illustrated and gave us just enough to begin delving into the world of Pompeii! We began our writing with descriptive settings of the city of Pompeii and discussed what life would have been like for people living there at the time. This gave some historical context as well adding extra dimensions to our Literacy work!
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A couple of useful videos to give some background on Pompeii! 
A video about what houses may have looked like in Pompeii before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETd7pszxhnc 

Before the Eruption of Vesuvius

Having read the opening couple of pages of Escape from Pompeii, the children were able to start imagining life in Pompeii before Vesuvius erupted. They were given time to draw what the author had written about. Here are just three examples below. The class was then encouraged to start building word banks ahead of our drafting sessions. The result of all of this were the pieces below. Click on each image to enlarge them.
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After the Eruption of Vesuvius 

I wanted the children to have some time to reflect on the contrast between life in Pompeii before the eruption and very shortly after. We had spent some time in Grammar sessions looking at Subordinate/Embedded Clauses so I thought this was an ideal opportunity for the children to utilise these in a piece of their own. They had enough experience of writing setting descriptions from before but would need some support developing their ideas once again, so I took a different strategy and introduced the 4 S's! Scroll down for two examples: these are their first and only drafts! 
Subordinates
Revised earlier in the week- lots of discussion about how things had changed in Pompeii.
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SPAMO (usually MAPOS)
Tried and tested: similes, personification, alliteration, metaphors, onomatopoeia
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Synonyms
Time to encourage the children to use their thesaurus to develop their vocabulary
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Senses
Smell, feeling, hearing and seeing. The class found this the hardest table on their rotation
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I would like to remind all visitors to this website that all pages on this site are copyright protected, unless stated. Where content has been used from other sources (namely the DSCF, DFES or DFE), I take no credit whatsoever. Most importantly, this site is for the use and enjoyment of all children, parents, guardians, carers and teachers who are involved in Key Stage 2 Literacy. Please use the resources/ideas as you need without replicating them for your own gains.
Chris Birch 2011-2020
  • Home
  • Distance Learning
    • DL- English
    • DL- Maths
    • DL- Science
    • DL- History
    • DL- Art and Music
    • DL- Health
  • Early Morning Activities
  • Indoor Break Times
  • SPAG Zone!
  • Must-Have Websites
  • Blog
  • *AREAS OF STUDY*
    • Features of Texts: What Makes Good
    • Narrative/Stories >
      • Myths, Legends and Fables >
        • Beowulf
        • Robin Hood
        • Greek Myths
        • Myths To Use
        • Pandora's Box/Jar
      • Film Narrative >
        • Piano Writing
        • Frankenweenie
      • Stories from Other Cultures >
        • Egyptian Cinderella
        • Egyptian Traditional Tale
        • Egypt: One Off Lessons
        • Africa
      • Rainbow Fish
      • More Story Openers
    • Instructions >
      • Instructions - Vikings
      • Recipe For Friendship
      • Bossy 'Imperative' Verbs
    • Descriptive Writing >
      • Description Using Art
      • Description Using Art 2
      • Twenty-One Tunnels
      • Oi Caveboy Farlands!
      • Escape from Pompeii
    • Persuasion >
      • School Uniform Debate
      • Graffiti Debate
      • Deforestation Debate
      • Advertisements
      • Finding Your Voice- Environment
      • Holiday Resort Persuasion >
        • Holiday Videos- Egypt
        • Holiday Videos- Pompeii
      • Product Advertising
    • Explanation Texts
    • Recounts & Reports >
      • Newspapers
      • TV News Reports
      • Chronological Reports
      • Non Chronological
    • Authors >
      • Michael Morpurgo >
        • Meeting Morpurgo...
        • Friend or Foe
        • Kensuke's Kingdom
      • Mary Shelley
      • Jill Murphy
      • John Burningham
    • Diaries >
      • Studying Diaries
    • Poetry >
      • World War Poetry >
        • WW Poem Videos
      • Our Favourite Poems
      • Inspirational Poems
      • Poetry Bank
      • The Highwayman
      • Back To School Poetry
    • Biographies
    • Older Literature >
      • Frankenstein
      • Macbeth
  • What is...?
  • Power of Music
  • Testimonials