Egyptian British International SchoolYear 4 English Department

Writing revision pack

End of Term 1

Name: _________________________________________Class: _______________________________________

Information reports (Pupil book unit 7)Students must be able to use given information and present as a report using the appropriate format as specified.Features of information reports

Title Subheadings Paragraphs Graphs and charts Tables Labelled diagrams Pictures and captions Bullet and numbered points Glossary

Remember, an information report only contains facts and not your own opinion.

Poetry (Pupil book unit 4)Students must be able to identify and form the different figures of speech and how they are used in poems. Checklist:

5 figures of speech as follows:o Rhyme e.g. The wise, old owl sat in an oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke.

Students should be able to identify the rhyming verses, and the rhyming words in them, from a poem.

o Alliteration e.g. The crazy cat ate a crunchy carrot.o Simile e.g. Ahmed is as tall as a giraffe.o Metaphor e.g. Jane is a calculatoro Onomatopoeia e.g. Bang

Stories from the Past (Unit 1)

Follow this guide to successfully write a 6-paragraph historical story (a story set in the past).

Plan: Use the story mountain to plan the different stages of your story.

Introduction Paragraph 1 Describe main characters of your story. Describe their looks and personality. Use powerful adjectives.

Paragraph 2 Describe the setting (when and where). What can your main character see, smell, hear and touch?

Build - Up Paragraph 3 What leads up to the climax (main problem). What triggered the main problem to happen. Ex: if the main problem is that a jewel is stolen, then the build-up can be that a dangerous thief just moved to town.

Climax Paragraph 4 The main problem of the story.Resolution Paragraph 5 The solution to the main problem.Conclusion Paragraph 6 The ending of the story.

NOTE: Follow the order of the paragraphs. Do NOT write “the characters of this story are…” or “the setting is…” Make sure you give every main character a name. Indent paragraphs and leave an empty line between each paragraph. Include clues to show it is in the past e.g. He took out his feather and ink bottle and

wrote a letter to his friend.

Below is an example of a story, words written in italics help explain certain things…

The Stolen Jewel

Paragraph 1: Describe main characters of your story. Describe their looks and personality. Use powerful adjectives.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful and wealthy queen called Queen Victoria. She reigned England during the Victorian Era. Queen Victoria had long brown hair and wide blue eyes. She always wore fancy gowns (synonym for dresses) and unique (synonym for special, different) jewelry decorated with precious stones and diamonds. She was a clever and kind queen who was loved by everyone in England. She was generous and donated to poor and sent the evil men to jail to keep the country safe.

Paragraph 2: Describe the setting (when and where). What can your main character see, smell, hear and touch?

Queen Victoria lived in an enormous (synonym for huge) castle that had one of the most beautiful gardens in the world. Every morning, the queen opened her window and saw a green field filled with an array (synonym for many, a lot, a variety) of wild plants. She smelled ripe mangoes that were growing on the mango trees and heard the birds singing relaxing melodies. Queen Victoria enjoyed eating her breakfast in the terrace as she cuddled her soft as clouds (simile) white kitten, Coco.

Paragraph 3: Event(s) that lead or trigger the main problem to happen.

One day, a dangerous and evil thief called Jacques moved to London from Paris. He was running away from the French police because he had stolen the French king’s expensive diamond pocket watch (a type of watch with a chain placed in the pocket used in the past). Jacques had always been an untrustworthy man who stole from his friends and family. Once he felt safe in London, he decided to steal one of the queen’s most famous necklace with a special red stone.

Paragraph 4: The main problem.

On new year’s eve, Jacques sneaked in the shadows of the castle and waited for the queen to leave to attend royal celebrations. Unfortunately, as the queen scurried out of her room, she forgot her precious necklace. Jacques ran swiftly from the guards to break into the majesty’s room. He discovered the famous necklace, grabbed it and jumped out of the window.

Paragraph 5: The solution to the main problem (paragraph 4)

At the end of the night, the queen came back to her room but she couldn’t find her beloved necklace. She screamed and cried until all her guards came rushing to her. She ordered them to find the culprit immediately! The guards spread out across the city of London searching for the thief until they finally found clues that lead them to Jacques. They caught Jacques and brought him back to the royal castle.

Paragraph 6: The ending of the story. Describe how the main characters feel towards the end of the story after their problem has been resolved.

At the castle, guilty Jacques returned the necklace to the furious queen. She ordered him to go back to Paris where he was sent to prison for the next 10 years. Jacques lived a miserable, lonely and gloomy (use of comma – list) life but he finally learned his lesson. Queen Victoria decided to never take off her necklace again!

1. Imagine it is during the time of the Victorians and there is a boy called John,

who is an orphan, and works in a workhouse. One day, John was cutting wood

and cut off the tip of his finger. The master of the workhouse was very angry

because the blood ruined the wood. Write a story of at least 220 words to

include the following:

Description of setting (What you can hear, feel, see and smell).

Description of characters.

What life is like at the workhouse.

How John cut his finger and what happened after that.

Make sure you have plenty of adjectives, adverbs and powerful verbs.

Think about the kind of objects they used during that time.

6 paragraphs______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Giant PandasBlack and white giant pandas are much loved in their native China and around the rest of the

world. Sadly, they’re also a very endangered animal. Much of their forest habitat has been

cleared for farms, roads, railroads, and other development.

The 1,500 giant pandas still in the wild are restricted to cool, damp mountain heights containing

bamboo and old growth forest. These forests have the hollow logs and stumps pandas need for

dens and shelter.

At one time, scientists thought giant pandas’ closest relatives might be raccoons. However, DNA

tests show pandas are a species of bear.

When giant pandas aren’t sleeping, they’re searching for food and eating. In fact, they

spend 12 hours a day eating! What do they eat? The bamboo in the forests, and a lot of it –

25 to 40 pounds (11 to 18 kg) every day! Giant pandas must eat more than one kind of

bamboo because the plants are low in nutrients. They will eat other plants, and even meat

occasionally, but bamboo makes up 99% of their diet.

Giant pandas eat by gripping bamboo stems in their front paws and sitting upright, kind

of like a person. Each paw’s grip is aided by an extra long flesh-covered wrist bone that acts

like a thumb.

Most of the time giant pandas are loners. However, when they come together, they’re the most

vocal of all bears. They bleat, bark, huff, and growl during their very short breeding season.

Cubs squeal and croak when they’re with their mothers.

Pandas also communicate by leaving scent markings from glands under their tails. Males find

breeding females by scent. Males also sometimes do “hand stands” so they can leave their

scent higher up a tree. Giant panda mothers give birth to one, or sometimes two, tiny cubs. If

two cubs are born, only the stronger cub usually survives. Males do not help with the care. The

cubs are mostly hairless and only weigh ¼ of a pound (.11 kg). That’s 800 times smaller than its

200 pound (90 kg) mother!

Giant panda cubs don’t fully open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks old. They

don’t begin to crawl until ten weeks. They remain with their mothers for 1 ½ to 3 years.

An important thing to know about pandas is that they are not closely related to the

bamboo-eating, raccoon-sized red panda. They are quite a unique species! In fact, each panda's

markings are slightly different from all other pandas.

In the box below, circle the words that describe a giant panda's natural habitat. tropical high altitude sand dunes mountainousforested extremely dry arctic grasslands

2. Why do giant pandas spend so much time eating? ______________________________________________________________________________

3. Which of the following animals is the giant panda most closely related to?a. red panda b. raccoonc. grizzly bear d. badger

4. Put a tick next to each of the ways a male giant panda might attract a female mate.______Male pandas rub against trees to leave their scent.______Male pandas fight other males in front of the females to impress them.______Male pandas walk in circles around female pandas.______Male pandas do “hand stands” to leave their mark higher in the trees.

5. If a mother giant panda gives birth to two cubs, will they both be with her a year later? Explain why or why not.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fill in the missing letters to create a vocabulary word from the article. Thenwrite the full word on the line. Be sure you spell each word correctly.1. ____ e ____ ____ r i ____ t e ____ hint: limited or confined to a certain area

2. ____ a ____ b ____ ____ hint: a very tall, wood-like grass that pandas eat

3. ____ r i ____ ____ i n ghint: holding tightly

4. ____ a ____ ____ o o ____ hint: an American mammal with a mask-like face

5. ____ a ____ i ____ a ____ hint: the natural environment an animal lives in

6. ____ a ____ ____ i n ____ s hint: patterns on an animal's fur or skin that distinguish it from other animals

7. ____ o ____ a ____ hint: loud; expressive

8. ____ o ____ ____ o ____ Empty on the inside

Complete the fact file below about Pandas.

Behaviour

Diet

Habitat

Reproduction

Offspring

Stanza 11. Find an example of alliteration.

2. Write an example of a simile in this stanza.

3. What effect does the verb ‘burst’ have?

Stanza 24. Write an example of a simile in this stanza.

5. Which word best describes the movement of the Catherine wheel?

The whole poem6. The whole poem makes a comparison between fireworks and what

else? What term is used to describe this sort of comparison?

7. Write down the words that rhyme.