As part of our Writing lessons, the children have been writing dialogue between characters from our class novel, The Explorer.
Our focus has been on showing fear rather than just telling it. The children worked hard to choose powerful synonyms for “said”, carefully selected adverbs and added actions to bring their characters to life. This has helped their dialogue feel more dramatic, realistic and engaging for the reader.
The effort and creativity on display has been great to see; we just not need to make sure we keep applying our fantastic skills to our independent writing.

Last half term, we finished reading Kensuke’s Kingdom in our guided reading lessons. The children loved following Michael’s incredible journey and exploring the challenges he faced on the deserted island. Now, we have moved on to studying The Explorer and the children are already making thoughtful links between the two stories—spotting similar themes of adventure, survival and discovery.

We have been particularly impressed with how well the children are using the vocabulary they have already learnt in our South America topic lessons to make connections with The Explorer. Words and phrases linked to the rainforest, wildlife and geographical features are being confidently used to discuss the story, showing a great understanding.

In writing lessons, we have been focusing on creating dialogue between two characters. The children have been following key rules for writing dialogue:

• Always start a new line for a different speaker.
• Use inverted commas (speech marks) around the words that the character says.
• Begin the spoken sentence with a capital letter.
• Use punctuation correctly inside the speech marks.
• Include a reporting clause (e.g., he said, she asked) to show who is speaking.
• Use actions or adverbs to show how something is said, if it adds to the meaning.

Our dialogue unit has been based around Kensuke’s Kingdom, where we have been exploring the personalities of Kensuke and Michael. The children have used what they understand about each character’s traits to create engaging dialogue that reflects how the characters might actually speak and respond to each other.

This week, we are taking our learning further with an independent writing task. The children will be writing dialogue between any two characters they have already explored—not just from Year 5 books, but also from Year 4 texts—giving them the chance to showcase their understanding of character and dialogue skills.
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We are really proud of the progress the children are making in both guided reading and writing. They are thinking deeply about characters, making links across texts and applying their vocabulary and writing skills with confidence. We can’t wait to see the final masterpieces on Friday!

This week, our Year 5 playground looked a little different – not with footballs and skipping ropes, but with cameras, storyboards and plenty of creative buzz. The children officially launched the early stages of their film production careers by transforming the outdoor space into a working film set.
As part of their learning, the children explored how filmmakers use different camera techniques to tell a story. They investigated the pros and cons of close-ups, long shots and zooms, discussing how each shot can change the way an audience feels or understands a scene. Armed with this knowledge, the children worked from a pre-prepared storyboard, carefully planning what each shot should show before filming one another in action.
The playground was alive with purposeful teamwork as directors, camera operators and actors collaborated to bring their short sequences to life. There was lots of discussion about framing, movement and making sure the intended shot matched the storyboard – just like real filmmakers!
Once filming was complete, the children stepped into the role of film critics. They evaluated their work using WWW (What Went Well) and WWT (What Was Tricky), thoughtfully reflecting on what they had achieved and where improvements could be made. This analysis is a crucial step and will directly feed into the next phase of learning.
Over the coming weeks, the children will use everything they’ve learned to design their own storyboards and create their very own independent films!