Literacy 1

We are going to pick up our literacy topic on Harry Potter again, so listen to the story on the internet to remind you of the first chapter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8jwdXXooMs. I want you to be particularly aware of the part when Harry is delivered to the Dursley’s house by the giant, Hagrid.

This is a really great piece of description because it makes it easy to imagine what Hagrid looks like. Answer the following questions so I know that you have really taken in all of the description:

1. What sort of sound breaks the silence first?

2. How does the sound change as they look up and down the street?

3. How does the sound change when they look up at the sky?

4. Where did the motorbike land?

5. What size was the motorbike?

6. How tall was Hagrid?

7. How wide was Hagrid?

8. Why does Hagrid look wild?

9. What hid most of Hagrid’s face?

10.How big were Hagrid’s hands?

11.What was Hagrid wearing on his feet?

12.How big were Hagrid’s feet?

13.Find 2 adjectives to describe Hagrid’s arms.

14.What was Hagrid holding?

Hopefully, you now have a clear image of Hagrid in your mind. Your task is to write a short piece of description like this, but about the picture below. You can include sound as well if you want to.

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Literacy 2

Read Chapter 2 of Harry Potter, entitled The Vanishing Glass. If this is difficult for you, you may ask a family member to read some of it to you, or you can listen to the chapter on the internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLELQffU9q . As you read (or listen) think about the things that Harry goes through which are unpleasant and unkind. You might like to highlight the words in the printed story so they are easier to find later on.

Think carefully about how it must feel to be Harry – he has a lot to be unhappy about. When we are treated badly, we might complain to people about it, and that is going to be your task today. In your pack is a formal letter of complaint, and a checklist which will help you to remember what you need to include. Look carefully at the letter about the car and see if the writer has included everything on the checklist – this will help you to understand what you need to do.

Your letter is from Harry Potter to one of the Dursleys, complaining about his treatment, so you will need to include his address:

The Cupboard Under the Stairs,

4 Privet Drive,

Little Whinging,

Surrey.

I am looking for:

correct spellings of words which are in the text; correct layout of a formal letter; inclusion of things that have happened in the text; capital letters for names and places.

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Literacy 3

I want you to imagine that you are a magical person (you can be Harry or Hermione if you want) living in a non-magical world. Think about how hard it might be to keep your magical powers sectret from everybody. Harry accidentally communicates with snakes at the start of the book, and this makes people suspicious of him. Is it fair that he should have to keep such an important aspect of his life secret? He is treated really badly by the Dursleys and forced to live in a small cupboard under the stairs. His life really is rubbish!

There has been a lot of news about the Black Lives Matter campaign, encouraging people to realise that racism is still very much alive in the western world. There are Facebook groups, leaflets, TV programmes and posters all promoting fairness and equality.

Your task today is to create a poster with the slogan Magic Lives Matter. You can change this slogan if you want to, but make sure you are very creative if you do. Include pictures showing how witches and wizards are being treated unfairly, brief facts and a really eye-catching title. Use colour and different fonts for your writing so that your poster can be understood from far away.

I am looking for:

o the way you lay out your poster;o correct spellings;o neat and tidy work;o facts from the film / book.

Literacy 4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zr6bxyc/articles/zhntng8 This link takes you to video about using semi-colons in a simple list.

You are going to practise writing similar lists using characters from Harry Potter. Think about the skills and personalities that each person has before you choose their role in your band.

Mr Dursley big, beefy, mean, worried, ordinaryMrs Dursley thin, blonde, anxious, spoils Dudley, ordinaryDudley Dursley overweight, mean, a cry-baby, spoiltHarry Potter lonely, talented, bullied, small, braveHagrid huge, wild, caring, loyalMrs Figg elderly, loves cats, kind, a bit musty-smellingHermione clever, can be annoying, a bit of a show-offRon Weasley a bit clumsy, loyal, quite good at Quidditch

Write out a sentence about who plays what instrument in your band, using semi-colons to separate each person. Watch the video again if you have forgotten what to do, or use the step-by-step guide on the website. Check spellings of instruments carefully.

Challenge yourself – You might like to write an extra paragraph about why you chose each instrument for your characters. Focus on using conjunctions like because, in order to, as a result, consequently etc.

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If you have any time left, you could draw your band, concentrating on what you know about the characters’ appearances and the instrument you have given them.

Literacy 5

Read or listen to Chapter 3 of the book, entitled The Letters from No One. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awMoTbhv9HU

Even though Harry now has a proper bedroom, he still doesn’t have the nice things that Dudley has. In the paragraph below, we read about all the broken and old possessions Harry finds in his new room. Go through this paragraph and circle the semi-colons.

These are often used to separate things in a long list because sometimes we use a lot of words for each item:

The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour’s dog;

in the corner was Dudley’s first-ever television set, which he’d put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled.

I’m sure you can see why commas would not be enough to separate these items – there are already commas in the description of the item and they would get a bit confusing.

Your task today is to write a small paragraph about finding some broken toys. You need to create a really descriptive clause about each item, then list them using semi-colons in between. Keep looking at the example above to help you.

Challenge yourself – if you want to include some relative clauses in your descriptions, I will be really impressed. Highlight them so I spot them easily when you upload your work to me.

Turn over to find the toys I want you to describe. You must use all three of the pictures, but may like to add an idea of your own as well.

Useful words

broken stuffing tractor wheel tyre

I am looking for:

a single paragraph with capital letters and full stops for each sentence; semicolons to separate each item in your list of toys. a descriptive clause about each toy (not just a single adjective).

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Literacy 6

We can also use semi-colons to replace full stops or conjunctions, especially the ones that lots of you forget to put in and I nag you about! If you really concentrate in this lesson, you will learn an easy way to make your sentences grammatically correct.

Look at the Power Point on the website about using Semi-colons. Some of you might like to remember which words are conjunctional adverbs, so make a note of some them on this sheet. We don’t use them a lot, but they do make writing seem very mature and clever!

Conjunctional adverbs

Now complete the worksheets in your pack on using semi-colons before trying the task on the other side of this page.

Rewrite the sentences below, replacing conjunctions or full stops with a semi-colon. Use your neatest handwriting and make sure that every word is copied accurately.

Dudley and Harry were both trying to listen at the keyhole, but Dudley won, so Harry

ended up peering through the gap between the door and the floor.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mr Dursley stayed up all night waiting for letters to arrive, so Harry couldn’t sneak down early.

______________________________________________________________________________________________Mr Dursley can’t stop Harry from finding out that he is a wizard. Nevertheless, he tries his hardest.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________The letters kept arriving at Privet Drive. Consequently, Mr Dursley made everybody get into the car and leave.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Dudley was really fed up with the long car journey and he complained bitterly.

______________________________________________________________________________________________A packet of crisps and a squashed banana weren’t really enough for a meal, and Harry was

starving as he lay on his bed. _______________________________________________

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Literacy 7 and 8Today you are going to be starting an extended writing task, which will last 2 days. You might like to re-read Chapter 3, or listen to it again to remind yourself of the story.

I want you to imagine that you are Mr Dursley. Think about how his greatest fear is that people will find out about his magical secret, and how it seems like his life is coming apart. He can’t talk to anyone about his problems except for his wife, so he is bottling it all up. He is extremely stressed.

Signs of stress include not being able to sleep well; going off your food, or maybe not being able to stop eating; your hair falling out or going thin; your hands trembling; your heart pounding and fluttering; feeling dizzy or jittery.

I want you to write a diary from the point of view of Mr Dursley. You might want to split it up into different days, including all of the different events that have happened in the first 3 chapters, or you could write it all as a single entry.

I am looking for:

the events that have happened; how he is feeling; use of the past tense; full stops and capitals letters (including for names and places); sentences which make sense – use conjunctions to join clauses if needed; some use of a semi-colon.

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Literacy 9

This week we are going to start looking at what happens to Harry once he knows he is a wizard. To warm your brain up, read the paragraph below and answer the 2 questions. This is all about summarising, which is saying briefly, and in your own words, what the writing is about.

What is the main theme in this paragraph? (What is the single subject of the paragraph?)

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Why do you think this paragraph might be important?

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Now I want you to read (or listen to) the whole chapter 4, called The Keeper of the Keys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIL_Xw-8VPA

Using less than 20 words, could you say what has happened in this chapter?

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What sticks most in your mind about Hagrid?

What moments do you remember most from this chapter?

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To finish off the lesson, I would like you to think about how Harry is feeling as he is lying in bed waiting for his birthday. It’s 11 o’clock at night, and he can’t sleep. He is in a hut on a rock, in the middle of the sea, and there is a storm outside. Weird things have been happening for the last few days, and Mr Dursley seems to have gone mad. Suddenly there is a crash, as someone starts to knock on the door….loudly.

I want you to write a single paragraph about what Harry can see, hear, feel, smell and maybe even taste. Don’t forget to write about what is going through his mind too.

I am looking for:

descriptive and powerful language; spellings checked and corrected; full stops and capital letters used correctly.

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Literacy 10For the rest of this week we are going to be looking at writing in paragraphs. When we are faced with a lot of reading, it can be very daunting, and splitting it up into paragraphs (each one sticking to a main theme or subject) makes it easier for the reader to navigate the whole text.

When we create a story mountain, we break our whole story into at least 5 parts, and you are encouraged to use at least 5 paragraphs. However, each part of the story mountain could actually be written in lots of different paragraphs, especially if it is quite a long story.

The first thing I want you to do is to look at the list of the subjects in Chapter 4 of Harry Potter. You might need to read it again if you have forgotten what happens.

Hagrid arrives at the hut. The Dursleys are terrified. Harry finds out he is a wizard. Harry finds out that Voldemort kllled his parents. Harry hears that he is going to go to school at Hogwarts.

J.K.Rowling has used lots of paragraphs for each of these parts, but you are only going to write 1, so you won’t be able to include all of the detail that she did.

Your paragraph needs to stick to the point (don’t drift into other parts of the story) and it needs to be cohesive. This means that it will flow from one sentence to the next smoothly. Younger children who are just learning to write tend to use simple sentences which don’t join together. You are already writing more cohesively, joining your sentences together using conjunctions and pronouns.

conjunctions – words like and, but, so, if, because, even though….

pronouns – he, she, it, they, we. These are used to replace names to avoid repetition.

Below are 2 examples of the first paragraph. One uses conjunctions and pronouns, but the other one doesn’t.

A giant man stood in the doorway, his wild hair flying around his face in the dreadful storm. His twinkling eyes peered out from under his bushy eyebrows, and his mouth was hidden in the forest of a bushy beard and moustache. His name was Hagrid, and he had to double over to fit his vast body through the door of the hut because he was at least twice as tall as a normal man.

A giant man stood in the doorway, the man’s wild hair flying around the man’s face in the dreadful storm. The man’s twinkling eyes peered out from under the man’s bushy eyebrows. The man’s mouth was hidden in the forest of a bushy beard and moustache. The man’s name was Hagrid. Hagrid had to double over to fit his vast body through the door of the hut. Hagrid was at least twice as tall as a normal man.

I hope you can tell how much better the first paragraph is than the second, which is really repetitive and doesn’t flow properly.

I would like you to write paragraphs for the other points in the chapter, focusing on using pronouns and conjunctions to help with cohesion. To check, read you writing back to yourself and see if it sounds natural because when you speak you automatically use pronouns and conjunctions.

I am looking for:

cohesive paragraphs using pronouns and conjunctions; correct use of full stops and capital letters, including for names; sentences that make sense; a new paragraph for each part of the story; spellings checked using the text of Harry Potter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQBcWXO_oVQ This is a useful clip.

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