Look at what we found out about Vincent Van Gogh

Did you know…
Are you aware…
Not many people know…
As strange as it may seem…
Have you ever heard…

These are all ‘hooks’ that help to capture the reader’s interest by making our writing more exciting. We learnt about the life of the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh and have used some hooks to retell facts we learnt.

This is what Kylie found out:

• Not many people know that Vincent Van Gogh had two brothers and three sisters.

• Are you aware Vincent Van Gogh was 15 when he left school.

• Did you know Vincent Van Gogh only signed his paintings as Vincent because he thought people would find it hard to say his last name.


This is what Cisco found out:

• Are you aware that Vincent Van Gogh painted 879 paintings in 10 years.

• As strange as it may seem Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe.

• Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh’s first famous painting was the “Potato Eaters’.


This is what Codey found out:

• Not many people know that Vincent Van Gogh didn’t wake up for 3 days after he cut his earlobe.

• Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh died after he shot himself.

• Are you aware that Vincent Van Gogh’s favourite painting was called ‘Starry Night’.


This is what Amir found out:

• Are you aware that Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Holland on March 30.

• As strange as it may seem Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe.

• Not many people know that Vincent Van Gogh grew up in a village.

The Great Fire of London by Jayde

On September 2nd 1666 there was a great big fire in London. It started after a little spark from the oven in a bakery in Pudding Lane landed on some straw and the firewood near by went up in flames. London was ‘tinder dry’ as it had been a long hot summer.

The fire was huge and very, very hot. It travelled though Pudding Lane and grew higher and higher until it spread to all of London. Did you know there where no fire engines in 1666. The trained bands who were like firemen had to use leather buckets, fire hooks, squirts to try to stop the fire.

King Charles ii gave the people of London hope. He helped fight the fire for 30 hours with no sleep and gave gold coins [guineas] to the people who he saw helping.

Four days later when the city had burnt down, the new homeless people set up tents like a camping ground at Moorfields. Are you aware that 100,000 homes and 87 churches were destroyed. Families, who before slept in beds in houses, now slept in the tents while they helped rebuild their city.