Identify Information in Recounts and Fictional Stories

Fiction texts describe imaginary settings, characters and events whereas non-fiction texts contain facts and are about real events.

Non-fiction writing includes instructions, recounts, biographies, reports and explanations. We are going to be looking at recounts in more detail.

Recounts

Recounts tell us about events that have already happened.

If I visited the biggest water park in England, I’d want to tell my friends and family all about it.

Here are the features of recounts that I would need to use:

- Use first person pronouns ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘me’ because I was there for the event

- Write in the past tense as it has already happened

- Write in chronological (time) order

- Use adverbs of time such as firstly, next and finally

- Use adjectives to add description such as bright and shiny

Here is my recount:

Best day ever!

Yesterday was the best day of my life. My awesome dad treated me to a trip to the largest water park in the country.

Annoyingly, dad woke me up early to beat the traffic so I was a bit grumpy on the drive there. When we arrived, I saw the giant, colourful slides and forgot about the early start. Firstly, I went on the rushing rapids. They were incredibly fun and the powerful water threw my body all over the place. I kept bashing and bouncing into other people. It was so funny. After that, I went on the dramatic drop slide. I was a little bit nervous at the top but I went for it and it was thrilling. Finally, we went in the wave pool and I loved jumping up and down with the movement of the waves. I can’t wait to visit again next year.

Can you spot the first person pronouns I, my and me in this recount?

This recount uses past tense verbs like arrived and were. How many other past tense verbs can you spot?

It is written in chronological (time) order and uses adverbs like firstly and finally.

The slides are described as being giant and colourful. These are adjectives.

Can you find any other adjectives describing the water park?

In this activity, we will read a fiction text and a non-fiction recount. We can then answer questions about what we've have read.

Make sure you read each text carefully.