Year 4 - Report on the eruption of Vesuvius

Linking our natural disasters topic to our written work, this week Year 4 have been writing newspaper reports about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. First, by looking at examples of different news stories, the children identified their key features so that they could try to include these in their own reports. They soon realised that headlines needed to be bold and catchy to get the attention of the reader, often including alliteration and powerful verbs. We also learnt that the orientation or lead sentences in a report, should summarise the whole story concisely and include all of the key facts: what, where, when, who and why. In the main body of the report, the children tried to add interesting details about the eruption and they also included quotes from eyewitnesses who described their experience. This also gave us an opportunity to revise the punctuation needed for direct speech. What a great piece of writing to complete our topic for this term - well done Year 4!