This week we have another English news post but with a twist!
We’ve really been enjoying our class text, Beowulf, and have been learning about lots of different grammatical features such as figurative language and prepositions. As part of our learning about figurative learning, we used “noun phrases of horror” in our writing. This was where we created a range of interesting noun phrases using concrete and abstract nouns. We learned that a concrete noun was something that you can touch or feel (a material object) whereas an abstract noun is a quality, state or action. We used these to describe Beowulf as a ‘guest of honour’ and ‘warrior of pain’. In contrast we described the hideous monster Grendel as a ‘beast of destruction’.
Our writing task this week was to write a setting description of the banquet laid out for Beowulf’s triumphant return to Sweden. To help us with this writing, we laid out our very own banquet (of sorts)! We obviously had to look the part so dressed up in lots of different attire which may not have been totally accurate for the period but that’s what drama’s all about! We raised our bottles (mead) to Beowulf and took turns in groups to describe our perilous journey to Denmark to take on Grendel and the Sea-hag. We heard roaring and cheering from the crowds as we told our tale. After role-playing in our groups, a few of us took the stage as Beowulf within the classroom… sorry, Mead-hall. We re-enacted the battles and the crowd went wild!
Later in the week, we reminded ourselves about what a setting description is and what is requires to be great. We knew that we needed to consider our senses, what the weather might have been like and to describe the building itself (we had worked on this earlier in the week). To ensure our writing was high quality, we planned out our ideas using a boxed-up plan. On Wednesday and Thursday, we used our plans to write and proof-read and edit our setting descriptions. We used lots of brilliant language and made our Anglo-Saxon banquet truly come to life!
Can you remember a part of your setting description that you were particularly proud of? Why?
wow! This looks amazing.
It was a very fun English lesson and I got to wear a cool, stylish outfit.(I used an expanded noun phrase).
It was really fun doing this, I hope we can do it again.