This year 3/4 Environment themed unit of work is based on Amazing Rivers by Julie Vosburgh Agnone. Amazing Rivers is a fact-filled, colourful celebration of Earth’s waterways. Discover religious celebrations, stunning waterfalls and weird wildlife, including hungry bears and giant salamanders.

Our mixed age planning was written to support a variety of school settings.  From one mixed age class to a school with several mixed age classes, the planning can be flexibly adapted using a range of cycles to suit. Cycles of mixed age planning are available for years 1/2, 3 /4, 4/5 and 5/6. They have been carefully thought out to ensure progression and coverage of skills for each of the year groups whilst retaining high quality texts suitable for the age range. We are always happy to advise on different configurations of classes and how Pathways to Write can be adapted to suit any circumstance.

The unit comprises 15 sessions of English planning and focuses on mastering key writing skills (grammar, vocabulary and punctuation) from the national curriculum. Opportunities to develop reading comprehension, writing composition and spoken language skills are also woven throughout the unit.

Mastery skills:

Year 3:

• Use a or an according to whether the next word begins with a vowel or consonant
• Use prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs to express time, place and cause
• Group related ideas into paragraphs
• Use the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense

Year 4:

• Build a rich and varied vocabulary
• Use present and past tenses correctly and consistently including the progressive form and the present perfect form
• Indicate possession by using the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns.

Short writing opportunities:

• Diary
• Explanation of water cycle
• Letter
• Leaflet
• Setting description
• Instructions

Resources: PowerPoints, lesson planning and abridged methodology.

This unit can be used individually or as part of a whole-school themed project with our other units on this theme.

The supporting texts for the units of work can be purchased at Peters Ltd at 30% off the RRP price of the books*:
Please contact Oonagh Towse oonagh.towse@peters.co.uk 07815 557646
Or, place your order online using discount code ‘LITCO30’ Click here for details
*You will receive 30% discount off the RRP on the vast majority of books ordered for the Pathways to Read and Pathways to Write programmes. Items excluded from this offer: book packs, plus short discount items (a small number of academic titles, big books, and audio titles). This offer may not be used in conjunction with any other promotion.

If you are an existing Pathways to Write school and wish to order any additional units, please download and complete the order form above to access your Pathways Literacy discounted prices.