Year 5 were very lucky to have Matt Oldfield come to visit Toftwood Junior School today. He is an author of a series of football books. He found that some of our children had already read some of them.
He explained that it was his passion and knowledge that inspired him to write about football as well as his desire to learn more. He also acknowledged that maybe not all the children were inspired by football so he asked them what their passions might be; the children suggested gymnastics, music, motocross, gaming etc. Matt told them, “If we are writing about what we love, it is going to be fun.”
Matt also showed famous male and female footballers with their favourite books of the football-themed genre, thereby encouraging wider reading around the topic. Max in SJ5 impressed Matt with his quiz knowledge.
He made reference to “Reading is Cool. Books are cool” an inspirational quote by Marcus Rashford.
Matt reflected on his supportive family in Southampton and Brother Tom (who now lives in Canada) with whom he has written some of his books.
Matt discussed how we can make non-fiction books more fun so they are not just an overload of facts; you need to consider design, content and style.
We looked at old-fashioned book covers, Sam in SJ5 reflected that the characters seemed to lack emotion and others said they looked old fashioned and lacked bright colours. We looked at the new series by Matt Oldfield and the children could appreciate the importance of illustrations and covers, which were more exciting, realistic, detailed and in action poses. The title also is short and snappy.
“Do we judge a book by its cover? No. Matt explained that the content is important and requires research and planning. Research is not boring if it is a topic that we are interested in. Matt prompted the children to think about the kinds of facts that the children might need to research, which will be very useful as Year 5 are about to write biographies in their current writing unit.
He showed us two versions of some facts and asked the children to reflect on which one they preferred and why. They unanimously chose the second version because it was more descriptive and exciting to read.
Each class had an individual workshop led by Matt and he recommended in order to succeed in non-fiction writing, the children need to tell it in an interesting way. The children focused on two main components; setting and emotion. This makes good reference to our Alma writing before Christmas. After a class discussion, they planned a non-fiction story. Matt heard some being read aloud and commented on the enthusiasm that the children displayed.
Everybody in Year 5 had an enjoyable experience and produced some exceptional stories.
