Making Your Writing Better

Here's something you can all use to help with your descriptive writing. It's quite fun and includes a game so don't ignore it!

Poetry Please!

If you're wondering about how to read a poem aloud to the class, here's a website with lots of videos of a famous poet reading his poems. Some of them are short, some of them rhyme, some of them are funny. All of them are really well presented. Have a look! Michael Rosen - The Hypnotiser

The Weekly Debate!

Part of our work this term will involve argument. Oh no it won't, oh yes it will etc etc. What I mean is, we'll be working on how to make an effective argument, how to fix the facts around our opinions, how to state our case in a way that will convince other people. As part of our work we'll be having a debate every week or so. The first one this week is on the subject of homework. You can see the question up in the top right of the blog and we'll find out what people think on Tuesday!

Guess again!

Here's another amusing game I found. Apparently, in the Oxford English Dictionary are more than 2 billion words! That's 2 000 000 000, or 2 000 000 000 000 if you use a British billion. Whatever it is, it's a very large number. We don't use 2 billion words in our speaking and writing, we only use a few thousand. This website asks you to guess the 100 most common words that we use from day to day. How many can you get? Here's our class scores:

Naufal 13% (he went first)
Tariq 24%
Faisal 28%
Mr Ward 51%
Aly 20%
Ula 20%

http://quizicon.com/100-Most-Common-English-Words-Quiz.html

Verbs

Irregular Verbs
Verbs that do not change according to a pattern. Choose the correct word for the sentence. You can win prizes!
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 5, just kidding, it's 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6

English Links

BBC Reading
There are 4 sections: Deduction, Dictionaries, Non-fiction and Poetry. Each section has a game, an explanation of the meanings and a quiz. Make sure you try them all!

BBC Writing
There are 6 sections about different kinds of writing. Some are about fiction and some are about non-fiction. Again, there is an activity, an explanation and a game.

BBC Spelling and Grammar
There are 5 sections to help with different aspects of spelling and grammar. There is an activity, an explanation and, you've guessed it, a game.

Digger and the Gang
Click on English and you'll be watching a little cartoon in which you can help the kids escape the haunted house through the power of your reading!

Spelling With The Spellits
Watch a cartoon, listen to the clues and help the kids escape from the maze, catch a horse and catch the thief.

Story Sequencing
Arrange the pictures, write a caption beneath each picture, print. Hey presto! Your own story!