You Will Need
Texts
DK Children’s Book of Sport edited by Alexander Cox
Non-fiction
English Year 3 Autumn Reports
Non-chronological Reports: Sports
Spark curiosities with DK Children’s Book of Sport. Explore, read and write about a huge range of sports. Revise word classes and extend sentences with conjunctions.
Start with the core unit to introduce key texts. Then select from comprehension, SPAG and composition units.
Unit 1 Core: Introduction to features of Non-Chronological Reports
(suggested as 4 days)
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Introduce DK Children’s Book of Sport. Look at the title, blurb, contents, introduction and index. Emphasise that this type of non-fiction is a non-chronological report (NCR). Discuss key layout features of NCRs using the features poster.
Activity
Children explore reports on team sports from DK Children’s Book of Sport using discussion prompts to identify key layout and structural features.
Day 2 Teaching
Remind children of the reports from Day 1 and review the features poster. Emphasise that order – apart from the introduction - does not matter and that information can be organised into boxes or paragraphs.
Activity
In pairs, children cut out and arrange the text boxes of a muddled report. They give their report a title, identify the introduction and give this a prominent position, and then give each paragraph a suitable subheading.
Day 3 Teaching
Display the features poster and focus on NCR language, emphasising use of present tense and third person. Explain and explore these terms before editing a sample report about rugby.
Activity
Children edit two further sports reports for tense and person. They read, highlight problem words and edit the reports to improve them, ensuring they reflect the language of a formal NCR in their edits.
Day 4 Teaching
Discuss sports that the class know about and choose one. Discuss and list possible subheadings for an NCR about this sport before modelling writing a brief paragraph for one subheading. Emphasise your use of the present tense and third person.
Activity
Children choose a subheading from the list and discuss ideas with a partner. They write a brief paragraph each on a writing frame, titling with the subheading and using third person, present tense and other features they have been learning about.
Unit 2 SPAG: Revise word classes: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Text
DK Children’s Book of Sport edited by Alexander Cox
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Word classes
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Ask children to remind you of the four main word classes and revise these using the Grammar PowerPoint: Word classes. Emphasise how to identify each word class in a sentence and play the game on slide 10.
Activity
Children play a similar game to that played in the input. They take turns rolling the die and swapping one word for one of the same class each time.
Day 2 Teaching
Revise word classes then share the Tenpin Bowling report. Show children the Tenpin Bowling Word Banks and model selecting some of the words and creating a sentence that provides information about tenpin bowling.
Activity
Children write sentences using the Tenpin Bowling Word Banks. They select four words from the different word classes to form their sentences. They record their sentences using the word class colour coding on the Tenpin Bowling Writing Frame.
Day 3 Teaching
Show children the Sports Cards and challenge them in pairs to come up with a sentence for that sport that includes each of the four word classes.
Activity
In small groups, children take turns to turn over a card from a set of Sports Cards and write a sentence. They use at least one noun, adjective, verb and adverb.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Word classes
Revise how to identify nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs by the way that they function in a sentence. Explore the impact of swapping words for others of the same class.
Unit 3 Comprehension: Research, note-taking and organising information
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
DK Children’s Book of Sport edited by Alexander Cox
Optional Texts
Any children’s reference books about sport
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Share the Skiing report and discuss how Non-Chronological Reports (NCRs) help to present information on a topic and can be used to find out information. Model writing a question which could be answered by reading the skiing text.
Activity
Children read an Ice Skating report. They discuss and record questions which can be answered by reading this text.
Day 2 Teaching
Show children the Slopestyle Snowboarding extract and discuss the key features. Then model eliminating words until left with brief notes and compare to the original version. Explore how to create question headings to organise notes.
Activity
Provide children with a copy of a report. They read it and record a research question which could be answered by reading it, crossing out non-essential words until they are left with just the key points.
Day 3 Teaching
Discuss how having notes can be useful, but that they need organising for readers to understand what the information is about. Group notes from Day 2 into themes and compare to actual book report. Model organising the information as a mind map.
Activity
Children read the notes on Speed Skating and sort the information into topics either by drawing their own mind map or using a Mind Map Template.
Day 4 Teaching
Look at a Sample Mind Map and agree that it presents information in a way that organises the notes into possible topic sections used in a NCR. Model writing one end cluster from the mind map as a cohesive paragraph, making a sentence or two from each branch.
Activity
Children choose 2-3 topics to write a brief paragraphs on using their mind maps from Day 3. They form their paragraphs into an NCR including an overall title and topic headings for each paragraph.
Unit 4 SPAG: Extend sentences with a wider range of conjunctions
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
DK Children’s Book of Sport edited by Alexander Cox
Optional texts
Any children’s reference books about sport
Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: Extending sentences with conjunctions
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Read the introduction to the Extreme Sports and Winter Sports sections of the DK Children’s Book of Sport. Explore Grammar PowerPoint: Extending sentences with conjunctions, ensuring children understand the function and how to recognise them.
Activity
Children complete the Conjunctions: Identify, Select, Use activity as they explore and use conjunctions further.
Day 2 Teaching
Revise conjunctions using slides 1-5 of the PowerPoint. Children then work in pairs to verbally explore further how to extend sentences using conjunctions.
Activity
Children work in pairs to extend given single clause sentences, using a range of conjunctions. They come up with a minimum of three sentence extensions for each sentence.
Day 3 Teaching
Revise conjunctions using the PowerPoint and explore the Conjunctions Poster. Model composing extended sentences on paper strips using conjunctions, and then show how to swap the order, physically cutting up and rearranging the sentences.
Activity
In small groups, children write a short sentence about sport then add a conjunction at the end to invite extension. They swap strips around and extend someone else’s sentence. Then cut the strip to separate the clauses for reordering.
SPaG: Grammar and Punctuation
Extending sentences with conjunctions
Revise how conjunctions can join clauses before exploring a wider range of conjunctions and the type of information that they signal.
Unit 5 Composition: Write a report for an unusual sport
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
DK Children’s Book of Sport edited by Alexander Cox
Optional Texts
Any children’s reference books about sport
Websites
Unusual sports to try from www.bbc.co.uk
List of sports from en.wikipedia.org
List of sports from www.topendsports.com
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Display and read out the list of unusual sports and challenge children to suggest where they might find more information. Model making notes on Pickleball and look at possible information sources.
Activity
In groups, children choose and research an unusual sport. They make notes from their research, recording just the key facts rather than copying chunks of text.
Day 2 Teaching
Recap the structure of Non-Chronological Reports and discuss language. Use the Pickleball notes from Day 1 alongside additional notes to come up with some possible subheadings. Model organising the research into a notes table.
Activity
Children use their set of copied research notes and decide on three or four subheadings for their report. They organise the research notes under each subheading.
Day 3 Teaching
Discuss the language of NCRs (third person, present tense, impersonal language and technical language). Remind children how to extend sentences using conjunctions then model writing a paragraph using the Pickleball research notes table.
Activity
Children use their notes table from Day 2 to write a paragraph for each subheading. They make sure that they incorporate extended sentences using conjunctions.
Day 4 Teaching
Look at example paragraphs from Day 3 and highlight good examples. Emphasise use of present tense, third person, impersonal language, technical language and effective conjunctions. Explore and model further ways to improve the writing.
Activity
Children reread their paragraphs and circle or underline parts they want to improve. They correct their work, then partner up to give and receive constructive feedback. Children then improve their reports and decide on the final order of the paragraphs.