#Colby coombs survival story full

The trees were pure white, and rose high above her head, disappearing into a blue-black darkness. But on the other side of the barbed wire? Well that was another place altogether, from what he had heard it was worse than hell, a mud filled hell…’įaith walked through a midnight forest. The animals went about their daily business, birds were in the trees feeding worms to their chicks, fox cubs frolicked in the long grass of the clearing and a few of us managed to take off our boots and clean ourselves in the babbling brook. ‘The North side of the barbed wire was safe. The soldier is in the forest and using Elphinstone’s technique, they could say something like: Think back to the scenario of world war 2. I like in this extract how Elphinstone paints a positive picture of the forest in the North but then lets the reader imagine what the forest to the South is like.

#Colby coombs survival story full

The Deepwood was rumoured to be full of shady trees and rotting undergrowth and, when it ended, the heathland, with it sinking bogs and soggy marshes, began.Įlphinstone, Abi. Well, south was another place altogether.

The Ancientwood in the north of the forest was safe: there was the glade of brilliant spring bluebells and yews beyond Oak’s camp, then a grove of crab-apple trees, and beyond that, after the forest, the farm itself and Tipplebury village. But there were places you went and places you didn’t.

Tanglefern Forest was vast, with some trees so old and tangled that few had passed beneath their branches. In this description the teacher can discuss how Cowell has directly addressed the reader, used rhetorical devices and repeated the word darker and how this effects the audience. The Wizards of Once: Book 1 (Kindle Locations 32-35). They were what is now known as wildwoods, and they stretched as far in every direction as you can possibly imagine, only stopping when they reached a sea.Ĭowell, Cressida. These were forests darker than you would believe possible, darker than inkspots, darker than midnight, darker than space itself, and as twisted and as tangled as a Witch’s heart. Well, I can tell you right now that you don’t. Perhaps you feel that you know what a dark forest looks like. With some slight adjustments they can be adapted to work for any narrative which needs a description of a forest. None of the books below are about World War 2 or are from battle scenes though. However, much of the language used in the extracts below would be useful, as would some of the sentence structures and techniques such as building atmosphere or using similes. If the class teacher wants to show them a model, they generally have two options – try and find a book where the exact same scenario is occurring (this may not even exist) or write their own model. In a hypothetical classroom, somewhere around Year 5 or Year 6, a child is writing about ‘waiting in a forest ready to go into battle during WW2’ based on a picture, film or other stimulus that the teacher has provided. It doesn’t really matter what genre the children are writing a good description can be utilised across a range of writing episodes. Take the examples below, each of them is from a different text but each of them describes a forest. For this to happen, a wide range of texts need to have been read by the teacher or teachers so that they can recall features, concepts and even sentences which they can use with their students as model texts.

It is imperative though, that teachers have a good working knowledge of the texts, the language used and the structures in order to weave them skilfully into English lessons. Ask though, which of these books describes the setting of a bomb crater the best and less books may be suggested. Tom’ (Heart-warming one), ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ (shocking one) and ‘Once’ (graphic one). ‘The Silver Sword’ (classic one), ‘Good Night Mr. Ask a teacher to name a book about WW2 and they can usually throw around the names of quite a few.