KS: R & KS1
Year Group: Year 2
Literary Theme: Creation & Conservation
Author(s): Frann Preston-Gannon
This is a Vocabulary Vine for The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon
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.
A Writing Root is available for The Journey Home.
Posters, lists, postcards, wanted posters, information report, short stories
Persuasive letter
15 sessions, 3 weeks
This is a three-week Writing Root for The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon. The text explores issues of conservation and starts to explore whether we can escape the issues that endangered animals face on a day-to-day basis. Children create fact files on endangered animals as well writing short persuasive pieces on why we need to save a particular endangered animal. Children will be able to identify how a sentence is formed by its grammatical structure as a question, a command, a statement or an exclamation. Children will be encouraged to edit work, being aware of tense and word choice. Word classes (nouns/verbs/adjectives) will be referred to throughout.
The ice is melting so Polar Bear sets off in search of a new home. Join him on his adventures across the seas and discover the many friends he meets along the way. This beautifully illustrated story has a powerful message of conservation and is full of things for parents and children to talk about. Frann was the winner of an amazing Sendak Fellowship and spent a month living with the great Maurice Sendak himself at his home in Connecticut, USA. She worked on The Journey Home during her stay there.
This beautifully illustrated book tells the poignant story of a group of animals who set out to look for new habitats. This text is a powerful springboard into discussions about global warming, the environment and conservation with children – it is a call to action. This text can be accompanied by There’s a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom by the same author. Frann Preston-Gannon is a prolific and significant author-illustrator who has won many awards, including the ‘Sendak Fellowship’ and was able to spend a month learning from the great Maurice Sendak.
Environment, environmentalism, conservation, conservationism, extinction, endangered species, activism, geography, science, global warming
Date written: December 2015
View The Journey Home Writing Root
