Year 4 Model Text Resource Pack 20: ‘Dear Gran’ (Informal letter; Geography - Europe)

Real Writing Year 4 - Unit 20
Model text: Dear Gran, by Jo Franklin
Curriculum links: Geography (Europe - human and physical features of countries)

Writing unit overview

This writing unit for Year 4 is built around an original model text by Jo Franklin; an entertaining informal recount of an around the world trip told through a series of emails to a relative. The example text is available as a PDF in three versions (plain, illustrated and annotated); annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations are also included.

In this two-week unit, pupils will explore words with ei, eigh and ey used to spell the sound /ai/. They will also investigate how fronted adverbials are used to modify verbs, sequencing events and showing where they took place. In their final writing task, pupils are asked to write their own email recount of a real or imagined holiday. This unit could be used within a geography topic about Europe or within any topic that explores the physical and human features of countries around the world.

Key curriculum skills

Two fully-resourced lessons are included for the following LKS2 English objectives, which can form part of the unit or be taught discretely:

1. Vocabulary: To spell words that are often misspelt (ei, eigh and ey)

Pupils will: practise spellings of word taught; choose the correct spelling pattern to complete words; rearrange letters to spell words with taught spelling patterns; and write sentences dictated by the teacher.

2. Grammar: To use fronted adverbials in KS2

Pupils will: identify adverbials and adverbial phrases in sentences and rewrite these so that the adverbials are fronted; write a postcard about a recent holiday or trip, using fronted adverbials.

Revisited skills

• Using commas to separate items within a list
• Use apostrophes for contracted words

Additional Year 4 curriculum objectives to teach or revisit

• Modifying nouns to create expanded noun phrases
• Punctuating direct speech
• Organising paragraphs around a theme
• non-Standard English

Year 4 vocabulary

Year 3/4 statutory spelling words: address, calendar, different, eighth, favourite, February, interest, island
Tier 2 words: feature, meditate
Tier 3 words: climate, country, vegetation

What is a fronted adverbial?

Adverbials are used like adverbs. They are words or phrases that add more information to a verb, and explain how, when or where something happened.

Fronted adverbials are therefore are adverbials that have been moved to the front of the sentence, before the verb. They describe the rest of the sentence to come.

Fronted adverbial examples

• Meanwhile, we did some drawing.
• Somewhere around here, Jamie left her pencil case.
• Just then, we heard a noise.
• Somewhat understandably, the teacher was furious.
• In September, it’ll be my birthday.
• Occasionally, I like to walk through the forest.