Y4: Shackleton's Incredible Journey!

Year 4 have been on an incredible adventure over the past couple of weeks as we've been learning all about the famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton and his extraordinary expedition aboard the Endurance!

We started by reading the beautifully illustrated book Shackleton's Journey by William Grill, discovering how Shackleton and his crew set off in 1914 on an ambitious mission to cross Antarctica. Of course, things didn't quite go to plan! The children were fascinated to learn how the Endurance became trapped in the ice, was eventually crushed and sank, leaving the crew facing an extraordinary battle for survival.

Our first writing challenge was to imagine we were applying for a job aboard the Endurance. The children wrote letters to Shackleton explaining why they would make excellent crew members, using persuasive language to convince him that they had the skills and qualities needed for such a dangerous expedition!

Next, we imagined that our applications had been successful and we'd been offered a place aboard the Endurance! The children wrote diary entries from the point of view of their crew members, describing how they felt about the exciting news and the adventure that lay ahead. This gave us a brilliant opportunity to explore writing in the first person and expressing a mixture of emotions, from excitement and pride to nervousness about the challenges ahead.

Finally, our challenge was to become newspaper reporters and tell this remarkable story! We began by researching the expedition and organising the most important information into bullet points. We then looked at how newspaper reports are structured, learning how to write an opening paragraph that answers the five Ws: who, what, where, when and why.

As the unit progressed, we worked on turning our research into clear, informative paragraphs, putting events into chronological order and using formal language to sound like real journalists. We also explored how to include quotations from survivors, using inverted commas and reporting clauses to bring our reports to life.

Year 4 then brought everything together to write their own newspaper reports about Shackleton's incredible journey, from the sinking of the Endurance to the daring rescue mission and the eventual survival of every single crew member.

I've been really impressed by how well the children have engaged with this fascinating true story, and particularly by the range of writing skills they've developed along the way. From persuasive letters to personal diaries and factual newspaper reports, they've shown a growing understanding of how to adapt their writing for different purposes and audiences.

Well done, Year 4!