KS: Lower KS2
Year Group: Year 4
Literary Theme: Journeys & Discoveries
Author(s): William Grill
This is a Vocabulary Vine for Shackleton's Journey by William Grill
A Vocabulary Vine is designed to be a sister resource to a Writing Root and Spelling Seed. It sits within our wider Teach Through a Text approach by explicitly identifying vocabulary from the book and providing additional opportunities for paired, small group and whole class experimentation with this vocabulary in context. Vocabulary Vines further complement spelling development too through exploration of the morphology (word structure) and etymology (origins) of words. They also provide oracy opportunities through a focus on talk tasks and on oral sentence construction. They are designed for short burst oral and vocabulary development.
Some Vocabulary Vines for longer texts include an additional resource called a Forest of Words. This resource offers extra vocabulary drawn from throughout the text, which has been identified as having strong potential for further language exploration. The words or phrases in the Forest of Words are grouped by chapter. Words that are also featured in the main Vocabulary Vine resource are highlighted within the Forest of Words for easy reference.
A Writing Root is available for Shackleton's Journey.
Packing lists (justifications), letters (formal and informal), setting descriptions, interviews, diaries, dialogue
Newspaper report
15 sessions, 3 weeks
This is a three-week Writing Root for Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill in which children begin by discovering an advert asking for volunteers to join a ‘hazardous journey’. They then apply for one of the many roles on Shackleton’s expedition. Children then go on to use William Grill’s text to find out about the perilous adventure whilst creating interviews in role, writing both formal and informal letters and finally creating their own newspaper report about the events of Shackleton’s famous journey.
Shackleton's Journey is a unique visual re-telling Ernest Shackleton's landmark expedition crossing the Antarctic from one pole to the other. William Grill's impeccably researched and informative illustrations celebrate the 100th anniversary since the historic exploration by Shackleton and his crew on Endurance. Children will love exploring Grill's exploded diagrams and the fascinating details of this landmark voyage.
Shackleton’s Journey is a uniquely visual non-fiction re-telling of Ernest Shackleton’s epic expedition across the Antarctic. The text has a clear factual style as well as sparse but thought-provoking illustrations by William Grill which are highly engaging. This gives children an understanding of the period after the Victorians and the start of WW1 and about what life was like in Britain.
Explorers, adventure, expeditions, famous people, friendship, resilience, determination and exploration
Date written: June 2017, Updated: July 2025
View Shackleton's Journey Writing RootA Home Learning Branch is available for Shackleton's Journey.
This is a Home Learning Branch for Shackleton's Journey. These branches are designed to support home learners to access literature-based learning using a selection of books we love from Writing Roots. They include purposeful writing suggestions, links to the wider curriculum so that texts can be used across other subjects, key questions as well as spelling or phonics investigations.
View Shackleton's Journey Home Learning Branch
